Robert  of  Shrewsbury  (1197-1212/1213),  was  ‘a  wandering  exile  .  .  .  who  runs  to
and  fro,  begging  at  every  abbey  in  England’.22  Admittedly  exile  from  north  Wales
might  not  be  voluntary:  following  the  collapse  of  Norman  power  in  Gwynedd  the
Breton  Hervé  had  been  driven  from  the  see  of  Bangor  towards  the  end  of  the  eleventh
  century  and  was  translated  to  the  new  see  of  Ely  in  1109;23  Godfrey,  bishop  of
St  Asaph,  was  forced  to  flee  to  England  after  the  failure  of  Henry  II’s  last  campaign
against  the  Welsh  in  1165  and  was  made  the  administrator  of  St  Albans  Abbey  by  the
king;24  while,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  Bishop  Richard  of  Bangor  (1237-67)  spent
much  of  his  episcopate  at  St  Albans  owing  to  conflicts  with  the  native  prince  of
Gwynedd.25  Nevertheless,  the  fundamental  reason  why  bishops  in  Wales  sought
monastic  hospitality  in  England  was  that  the  Welsh  bishoprics  were  poorly  endowed
and  could  only  with  difficulty  support  an  episcopal  household.  Indeed  Giraldus
claimed  that  his  own  benefices  in  England  in  the  early  thirteenth  century  were  worth
100  marks  a  year,  whereas  if  he  had  been  appointed  bishop  of  St  David’s  he  would
have  had  to  make  do  with  an  income  of  only  20  marks  a  year.26
It  is  also  possible  to  find  examples  of  other  men  of  Welsh  origin  or  background  who
carried  out  diplomatic  functions  in  Wales  on  behalf  of  the  English  crown.  Thus  both
the  dean  of  Swansea  and  Bishop  Reiner  of  St  Asaph  (1186-1224)  were  employed,  in
addition  to  Giraldus,  to  try  and  keep  the  peace  early  in  the  reign  of  Richard  I.27
Furthermore,  some  men  living  along  the  Anglo-Welsh  border  served  English  kings
by  undertaking  military  and  diplomatic  duties  in  Wales.  The  earliest  clear  evidence
for  the  employment  of  such  individuals  appears  in  Domesday  Book  (1086),  which
states  that  in  the  time  of  Edward  the  Confessor  (1042-66)  it  was  the  duty  of  the
priests  of  the  king’s  three  churches  in  Archenfield,  the  Welsh-speaking  region  of
western  Herefordshire,  to  take  royal  messages  into  Wales.  In  addition,  the  men  of  the
district  served  as  the  vanguard  on  royal  expeditions  into  Wales  and  the  rearguard  on

22  W.  S.  Davies  (ed.),  Giraldus  Cambrensis:  De  Invectionibus,  in:  Y  Cymmrodor  30  (1920)
pp.  95,  96;  translation  from  H.  E.  Butler  (ed.  and  trans.),  The  Autobiography  of  Giraldus
Cambrensis,  London  1937,  p.  213.  Bishop  Robert  held  land  in  Kingsland,  Shropshire  c.
1210-12:  Hubert  Hall  (ed.),  The  Red  Book  of  the  Exchequer,  3  vols.  (Rolls  Series),  London
  1896,  2  p.  511.
23  A.  W.  Haddan  and  W.  Stubbs  (eds.),  Councils  and  Ecclesiastical  Documents  Relating  to
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  3  vols.,  Oxford  1869-78,  1  pp.  299,  303-5;  N.  E.  S.  A.  Hamilton
(ed.),  Willelmi  Malmesbiriensis  Gesta  Pontificum  (Rolls  Series),  London  1870,  pp.  325-6.
24  Lloyd  (as  n.  3)2pp.  520  n.  127,  558.
25  Henry  Richards  Luard  (ed.),  Matthaei  Parisiensis,  Monachi  Sancti  Albani,  Chronica  Majora
(Rolls  Series),  7  vols.,  London  1872-84,  5  pp.  602,  608-9;  cf.  David  Stephenson,  The
Governance  of  Gwynedd,  Cardiff  1984,  pp.  169-73.
26  Giraldus,  Opera  3  p.  131.
27  Doris  M.  Stenton  (ed.),  The  Great  Rolls  of  the  Pipe  for  the  Third  and  Fourth  Years  of  King
Richard  the  First,  Pipe  Roll  Society  40,  n.  s.  2  (1926),  p.  xx;  Doris  M.  Stenton  (ed.),  The
Great  Roll  of  the  Pipe  for  the  Fifth  Year  of  King  Richard  the  First,  Pipe  Roll  Society  41,  n.
s.  3  (1927),  pp.  xiii-xiv.

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