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 principality of North Wales and
was deprived of his rightful inheritance, which was seized by his
brother David, who occupied it for the space 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 passed 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 Essex, 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 assertion 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 Album
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 passed, 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 multitudo
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.
