The itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales Part 12

{165} Hugh, earl of Chester. The first earl of Chester after the Norman conquest, was Gherbod, a Fleming, who, having obtained leave from king William to go into Flanders for the purpose of arranging some family concerns, was taken and detained a prisoner by his enemies; upon which the conqueror bestowed the earldom of Chester on Hugh de Abrincis or of Avranches, "to hold as freely by the sword, as the king himself did England by the crown."

{166} This church is at Llandyfrydog, a small village in Twrkelin hundred, not far distant from Llanelian, and about three miles from the Bay of Dulas. St. Tyvrydog, to whom it was dedicated, was one of the sons of Arwystyl Glof, a saint who lived in the latter part of the sixth century.

{167} Ynys Lenach, now known by the name of Priestholme Island, bore also the t.i.tle of Ynys Seiriol, from a saint who resided upon it in the sixth century. It is also mentioned by Dugdale and Pennant under the appellation of Insula Glannauch.

{168} Alberic de Veer, or Vere, came into England with William the Conqueror, and as a reward for his military services, received very extensive possessions and lands, particularly in the county of Ess.e.x. Alberic, his eldest son, was great chamberlain of England in the reign of king Henry I., and was killed A.D. 1140, in a popular tumult at London. Henry de Ess.e.x married one of his daughters named Adeliza. He enjoyed, by inheritance, the office of standard-bearer, and behaved himself so unworthily in the military expedition which king Henry undertook against Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, in the year 1157, by throwing down his ensign, and betaking himself to flight, that he was challenged for this misdemeanor by Robert de Mountford, and by him vanquished in single combat; whereby, according to the laws of his country, his life was justly forfeited.

But the king interposing his royal mercy, spared it, but confiscated his estates, ordering him to be shorn a monk, and placed in the abbey of Reading. There appears to be some biographical error in the words of Giraldus - "Filia scilicet Henrici de Ess.e.xia," for by the genealogical accounts of the Vere and Ess.e.x families, we find that Henry de Ess.e.x married the daughter of the second Alberic de Vere; whereas our author seems to imply, that the mother of Alberic the second was daughter to Henry de Ess.e.x.

{169} "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel, and of the chesnut tree, and peeled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods, which he had peeled, before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle speckled and spotted." - Gen. x.x.x.

{170} Owen Gwynedd, the son of Gruffydd ap Conan, died in 1169, and was buried at Bangor. When Baldwin, during his progress, visited Bangor and saw his tomb, he charged the bishop (Guy Ruffus) to remove the body out of the cathedral, when he had a fit opportunity so to do, in regard that archbishop Becket had excommunicated him heretofore, because he had married his first cousin, the daughter of Grono ap Edwyn, and that notwithstanding he had continued to live with her till she died. The bishop, in obedience to the charge, made a pa.s.sage from the vault through the south wall of the church underground, and thus secretly shoved the body into the churchyard.

- Hengwrt. MSS. Cadwalader brother of Owen Gwynedd, died in 1172.

{171} The Merlin here mentioned was called Ambrosius, and according to the Cambrian Biography flourished about the middle of the fifth century. Other authors say, that this reputed prophet and magician was the son of a Welsh nun, daughter of a king of Demetia, and born at Caermarthen, and that he was made king of West Wales by Vortigern, who then reigned in Britain.

{172} Owen Gwynedd "left behind him manie children gotten by diverse women, which were not esteemed by their mothers and birth, but by their prowes and valiantnesse." By his first wife, Gladus, the daughter of Llywarch ap Trahaern ap Caradoc, he had Orwerth Drwyndwn, that is, Edward with the broken nose; for which defect he was deemed unfit to preside over the princ.i.p.ality of North Wales and was deprived of his rightful inheritance, which was seized by his brother David, who occupied it for the s.p.a.ce of twenty-four years.

{173} The travellers pursuing their journey along the sea coast, crossed the aestuary of the river Conway under Deganwy, a fortress of very remote antiquity.

{174} At this period the Cistercian monastery of Conway was in its infancy, for its foundation has been attributed to Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, in the year 1185, (only three years previous to Baldwin's visitation,) who endowed it with very extensive possessions and singular privileges. Like Stratflur, this abbey was the repository of the national records, and the mausoleum of many of its princes.

{175} [David was the illegitimate son of Owen Gwynedd, and had dispossessed his brother, Iorwerth Drwyndwn.]

{176} This ebbing spring in the province of Tegeingl, or Flintshire, has been placed by the old annotator on Giraldus at Kilken, which Humphrey Llwyd, in his Breviary, also mentions.

{177} See before, the Topography of Ireland, Distinc. ii. c. 7.

{178} Saint Asaph, in size, though not in revenues, may deserve the epithet of "paupercula" attached to it by Giraldus. From its situation near the banks of the river Elwy, it derived the name of Llanelwy, or the church upon the Elwy.

{179} Leaving Llanelwy, or St. Asaph, the archbishop proceeded to the little cell of Basinwerk, where he and his attendants pa.s.sed the night. It is situated at a short distance from Holywell, on a gentle eminence above a valley, watered by the copious springs that issue from St. Winefred's well, and on the borders of a marsh, which extends towards the coast of Cheshire.

{180} Coleshill is a township in Holywell parish, Flintshire, which gives name to a hundred, and was so called from its abundance of fossil fuel. Pennant, vol. i. p. 42.

{181} The three military expeditions of king Henry into Wales, here mentioned, were A.D. 1157, the first expedition into North Wales; A.D. 1162, the second expedition into South Wales; A.D. 1165, the third expedition into North Wales. In the first, the king was obliged to retreat with considerable loss, and the king's standard- bearer, Henry de Ess.e.x, was accused of having in a cowardly manner abandoned the royal standard and led to a serious disaster.

{182} The lake of Penmelesmere, or Pymplwy meer, or the meer of the five parishes adjoining the lake, is, in modern days, better known by the name of Bala Pool. The a.s.sertion made by Giraldus, of salmon never being found in the lake of Bala, is not founded on truth.

{183} Giraldus seems to have been mistaken respecting the burial- place of the emperor Henry V., for he died May 23, A.D. 1125, at Utrecht, and his body was conveyed to Spire for interment.

{184} This legend, which represents king Harold as having escaped from the battle of Hastings, and as having lived years after as a hermit on the borders of Wales, is mentioned by other old writers, and has been adopted as true by some modern writers.

{185} Some difficulty occurs in fixing the situation of the Alb.u.m Monasterium, mentioned in the text, as three churches in the county of Shropshire bore that appellation; the first at Whitchurch, the second at Oswestry, the third at Alberbury. The narrative of our author is so simple, and corresponds so well with the topography of the country through which they pa.s.sed, that I think no doubt ought to be entertained about the course of their route. From Chester they directed their way to the White Monastery, or Whitchurch, and from thence towards Oswestry, where they slept, and were entertained by William Fitz-Alan, after the English mode of hospitality.

{186} By the Latin context it would appear that Reiner was bishop of Oswestree: "Ab episcopo namque loci illius Reinerio mult.i.tudo fuerat ante signata." Reiner succeeded Adam in the bishopric of St.

Asaph in the year 1186, and died in 1220. He had a residence near Oswestry, at which place, previous to the arrival of Baldwin, he had signed many of the people with the cross.

{187} In the time of William the Conqueror, Alan, the son of Flathald, or Flaald, obtained, by the gift of that king, the castle of Oswaldestre, with the territory adjoining, which belonged to Meredith ap Blethyn, a Briton. This Alan, having married the daughter and heir to Warine, sheriff of Shropshire, had in her right the barony of the same Warine. To him succeeded William, his son and heir. He married Isabel de Say, daughter and heir to Helias de Say, niece to Robert earl of Gloucester, lady of Clun, and left issue by her, William, his son and successor, who, in the 19th Henry II., or before, departed this life, leaving William Fitz-Alan his son and heir, who is mentioned in the text.

{188} Robert de Belesme, earl of Shrewsbury, was son of Roger de Montgomery, who led the centre division of the army in that memorable battle which secured to William the conquest of England, and for his services was advanced to the earldoms of Arundel and Shrewsbury.

{189} This expedition into Wales took place A.D. 1165, and has been already spoken of.

{190} The princes mentioned by Giraldus as most distinguished in North and South Wales, and most celebrated in his time, were, 1.

Owen, son of Gruffydd, in North Wales; 2. Meredyth, son of Gruffydd, in South Wales; 3. Owen de Cyfeilioc, in Powys; 4. Cadwalader, son of Gruffydd, in North Wales; 5. Gruffydd of Maelor in Powys; 6.

Rhys, son of Gruffydd, in South Wales; 7. David, son of Owen, in North Wales; 8. Howel, son of Iorwerth, in South Wales.

1. Owen Gwynedd, son of Gruffydd ap Conan, died in 1169, having governed his country well and worthily for the s.p.a.ce of thirty-two years. He was fortunate and victorious in all his affairs, and never took any enterprise in hand but he achieved it. 2. Meredyth ap Gruffydd ap Rhys, lord of Caerdigan and Stratywy, died in 1153, at the early age of twenty-five; a worthy knight, fortunate in battle, just and liberal to all men. 3. Owen Cyfeilioc was the son of Gruffydd Meredyth ap Meredyth ap Blethyn, who was created lord of Powys by Henry I., and died about the year 1197, leaving his princ.i.p.ality to his son Gwenwynwyn, from whom that part of Powys was called Powys Gwenwynwyn, to distinguish it from Powys Vadoc, the possession of the lords of Bromfield. The poems ascribed to him possess great spirit, and prove that he was, as Giraldus terms him, "linguae dicacis," in its best sense. 4. Cadwalader, son of Gruffydd ap Conan, prince of North Wales, died in 1175. Gruffydd of Maelor was son of Madoc ap Meredyth ap Blethyn, prince of Powys, who died at Winchester in 1160. "This man was ever the king of England's friend, and was one that feared G.o.d, and relieved the poor: his body was conveyed honourably to Powys, and buried at Myvod." His son Gruffydd succeeded him in the lordship of Bromfield, and died about the year 1190. 6. Rhys ap Gruffydd, or the lord Rhys, was son of Gruffydd ap Rhys ap Tewdwr, who died in 1137. The ancient writers have been very profuse in their praises of this celebrated Prince. 7. David, son of Owen Gwynedd, who, on the death if his father, forcibly seized the princ.i.p.ality of North Wales, slaying his brother Howel in battle, and setting aside the claims of the lawful inheritor of the throne, Iorwerth Trwyndwn, whose son, Llewelyn ap Iorwerth, in 1194, recovered his inheritance.

8. Howel, son of Iorwerth of Caerleon, appears to have been distinguished chiefly by his ferocity.

{191} Malpas in Cheshire.

{192} It appears that a small college of prebendaries, or secular canons, resided at Bromfield in the reign of king Henry I.; Osbert, the prior, being recorded as a witness to a deed made before the year 1148. In 1155, they became Benedictines, and surrendered church and lands to the abbey of St. Peter's at Gloucester, whereupon a prior and monks were placed there, and continued till the dissolution. An ancient gateway and some remains of the priory still testify the existence of this religious house, the local situation of which, near the confluence of the rivers Oney and Teme, has been accurately described by Leland.

{193} Baldwin was born at Exeter, in Devonshire, of a low family, but being endowed by nature with good abilities, applied them to an early cultivation of sacred and profane literature. His good conduct procured him the friendship of Bartholomew bishop of Exeter, who promoted him to the archdeaconry of that see; resigning this preferment, he a.s.sumed the cowl, and in a few years became abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Ford. In the year 1180, he was advanced to the bishopric of Worcester, and in 1184, translated to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury. In the year 1188, he made his progress through Wales, preaching with fervour the service of the Cross; to which holy cause he fell a sacrifice in the year 1190, having religiously, honourably, and charitably ended his days in the Holy Land.

{194} Giraldus here alludes to the dignity of archdeacon, which Baldwin had obtained in the church of Exeter.