their  return.28 29  Further  north,  along  the  Shropshire  border,  two  families  were  prominent
  as  agents  of  royal  business  in  Wales  from  the  reign  of  Henry  II  onwards.  By
1160  Iorwerth  Goch,  younger  brother  of  Madog  ap  Maredudd,  the  king  of  Powys
who  died  in  that  year,  held  the  fief  of  Sutton  in  Shropshire  from  Henry  II  ‘by  the
service  of  being  interpreter  (latimarius)  between  the  English  and  the  Welsh’,  a
serjeanty  inherited  by  Iorwerth’s  sons  and  grandsons.  After  the  manor  was  alienated
to  John  Le  Strange  in  the  1260s,  however,  the  service  changed  to  that  of  conducting
the  king  in  Wales  in  time  of  war.2g  Likewise  the  Welshman  Roger  of  Powys  held
Overton  Castle  in  Flintshire  and  Whittington  Castle,  Shropshire,  from  Henry  II  by
the  serjeanty  of  ‘bearing  the  king’s  mandates  throughout  Wales’,  a  tenure  inherited
by  Roger’s  son,  Meurig—who  was  also  required  to  lead  the  men  of  Powys  to  the
royal  court—and  then  by  Roger’s  grandson,  Goronwy;  that  this  service  included
acting  as  an  interpreter  is  made  explicit  in  a  source  of  c.  1211,30
Giraldus,  it  is  true,  was  no  interpreter  —  a  role  ruled  out  by  his  very  limited
knowledge  of  Welsh  —  nor  did  he  owe  diplomatic  services  to  the  English  crown  by
virtue  of  serjeanty  tenure.31  What  makes  him  unique,  however,  is  the  extent  to  which
his  career  depended  on  crossing  borders  between  Wales  and  England  as  well  as  the
degree  to  which  that  career  is  illuminated  by  his  own  voluminous  writings.  Admittedly,
  as  we  have  seen,  he  also  spent  time  in  France,  Ireland  and  Italy,  but  these
visits  all  stemmed  essentially  from  either  family  connections  or  career  interests  in
Wales  or  England.  It  is  true,  too,  that  the  fact  that  almost  all  we  know  about  Giraldus
stems  from  his  own  words  poses  serious  problems  of  interpretation,  compelling  us  to
read  him  critically,  bearing  in  mind  the  rhetorical  objectives  of  his  autobiographical
writings  in  particular.32  Nevertheless,  the  prominence  he  gives  to  the  tensions  arising
from  his  mixed  ancestry  and  connections  is  revealing  and  his  writings  take  us  closer
to  the  experience  of  negotiating  the  boundaries  between  Wales  and  England  than  any
other  medieval  source.  For  even  when  allowance  is  made  for  a  heavy  dose  of  selfjustification,
  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  its  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  its  political

28  [Abraham  Farley  (ed.)],  Domesday  Book,  2  vols.,  London  1783,  1  fo.  179b.
29  R.  W.  Eyton,  Antiquities  of  Shropshire,  12  vols.,  London  1854-60,  2  pp.  108-20;  Constance
  Bullock-Davies,  Professional  Interpreters  and  the  Matter  of  Britain,  Cardiff  1966,
pp.  15-17;  Hall,  Red  Book  (as  n.  22)  2  pp.  454,  511.
30  Bullock-Davies  (as  n.  29)  pp.  16-17;  Eyton  (as  n.  29)  3  pp.  105-6;  11  pp.  31-5;  Hall,  Red
Book  (as  n.  22)  2  pp.  453,  454,  511.  See  also  Frederick  C.  Suppe,  Military  Institutions  on
the  Welsh  Marches:  Shropshire  1066-1300,  Woodbridge  1994,  p.  96;  Frederick  C.  Suppe,
Who  was  Rhys  Sais?  Some  Comments  on  Anglo-Welsh  Relations  before  1066,  in:  Haskins
Society  Journal  7  (1996)  pp.  63-73.
31  Cf.  n.  84  below.  In  the  journey  round  Wales  in  1188  Alexander,  archdeacon  of  Bangor
interpreted  the  sermons  preaching  the  Third  Crusade  into  Welsh:  Giraldus,  Opera  6,  pp.  55,
126.
32  Cf.  Bartlett,  Gerald  (as  n.  6),  p.  1;  David  Walker,  Gerald  of  Wales,  in:  Brycheiniog  24
(1978-9)  pp.  62-3.  The  fullest  discussion  of  Gerald’s  autobiographical  writings  is  Georg
Misch,  Geschichte  der  Autobiographic,  2:  2,  Frankfurt  a.M.  1962,  pp.  1297-1479.

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