In the year 1188 from the incarnation of our Lord, Urban the Third
{11} being the head of the apostolic see; Frederick, emperor of
Germany and king of the Romans; Isaac, emperor of Constantinople;
Philip, the son of Louis, reigning in France; Henry the Second in
England; William in Sicily; Bela in Hungary; and Guy in Palestine:
in that very year, when Saladin, prince of the Egyptians and
Damascenes, by a signal victory gained possession of the kingdom of
Jerusalem; Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, a venerable man,
distinguished for his learning and sanctity, journeying from England
for the service of the holy cross, entered Wales near the borders of
Herefordshire.
The archbishop proceeded to Radnor, {12} on Ash Wednesday (Caput
Jejunii), accompanied by Ranulph de Glanville, privy counsellor and
justiciary of the whole kingdom, and there met Rhys, {13} son of
Gruffydd, prince of South Wales, and many other noble personages of
those parts; where a sermon being preached by the archbishop, upon
the subject of the Crusades, and explained to the Welsh by an
interpreter, the author of this Itinerary, impelled by the urgent
importunity and promises of the king, and the persuasions of the
archbishop and the justiciary, arose the first, and falling down at
the feet of the holy man, devoutly took the sign of the cross. His
example was instantly followed by Peter, bishop of St. David's, {14}
a monk of the abbey of Cluny, and then by Eineon, son of Eineon
Clyd, {15} prince of Elvenia, and many other persons. Eineon rising
up, said to Rhys, whose daughter he had married, "My father and
lord! with your permission I hasten to revenge the injury offered to
the great father of all." Rhys himself was so fully determined upon
the holy peregrination, as soon as the archbishop should enter his
territories on his return, that for nearly fifteen days he was
employed with great solicitude in making the necessary preparations
for so distant a journey; till his wife, and, according to the
common vicious licence of the country, his relation in the fourth
degree, Guendolena, (Gwenllian), daughter of Madoc, prince of Powys,
by female artifices diverted him wholly from his noble purpose;
since, as Solomon says, "A man's heart deviseth his way, but the
Lord directeth his steps." As Rhys before his departure was
conversing with his friends concerning the things he had heard, a
distinguished young man of his family, by name Gruffydd, and who
afterwards took the cross, is said thus to have answered: "What man
of spirit can refuse to undertake this journey, since, amongst all
imaginable inconveniences, nothing worse can happen to any one than
to return."
On the arrival of Rhys in his own territory, certain canons of Saint
David's, through a zeal for their church, having previously secured
the interest of some of the prince's courtiers, waited on Rhys, and
endeavoured by every possible suggestion to induce him not to permit
the archbishop to proceed into the interior parts of Wales, and
particularly to the metropolitan see of Saint David's (a thing
hitherto unheard of), at the same time asserting that if he should
continue his intended journey, the church would in future experience
great prejudice, and with difficulty would recover its ancient
dignity and honour.
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