archdeacon  to  officials,  and  was  himself  absent  from  the  archdeaconry  for  most  of
the  three  decades  he  held  the  office.55  The  preaching  tour  round  Wales  in  1188
resulted  in  the  first  book  ever  written  about  Wales,  the  Itinerarium  Kambriae,  an
invaluable  portrait  of  the  country  which  complements  the  more  analytical  and  ethnographical
  Descriptio  Kambriae  completed  in  1  194.56  To  judge  by  the  number  of
surviving  manuscript  copies,  these,  together  with  his  Irish  works,  were  the  most
popular  of  Giraldus’s  writings  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  those  on  Wales  are  the  best
known  today.57  However,  it  is  important  to  remember  that  in  1188  Giraldus  was  not
only  a  royal  clerk  sent  to  accompany  Archbishop  Baldwin  by  the  chief  justiciar,
Rannulf  de  Glanvill,  but  also  thereby  an  implicit  supporter  of  Canterbury’s  authority
over  the  Welsh  Church,  an  authority  unequivocally  asserted  during  the  journey  by
Baldwin’s  celebrating  mass  at  each  of  the  four  Welsh  cathedrals.58 *  Furthermore,  the
literary  representation  of  the  journey  was  probably  in  part  intended  as  a  memorial  to
Baldwin,  who  died  on  crusade  in  1190,  and  its  first  edition  was  dedicated  to  William
Longchamp,  bishop  of  Ely  and  chief  justiciar;  the  first  edition  of  the  Descriptio
Kambriae  was  dedicated  to  Hubert  Walter,  archbishop  of  Canterbury.54  Just  as  the
Irish  works  had  been  dedicated  to  Henry  II  and  Richard,60  so  those  on  Wales  were
clearly  intended  by  Giraldus  to  win  the  favour  of  the  Angevin  establishment.  He
wrote  for  an  audience  in  England,  not  Wales.  What  is  unclear,  however,  is  in  which
of  those  two  countries  he  sought  his  reward.61
If  this  evidence  is  ambiguous  regarding  Giraldus’s  ultimate  ambition,  it  does  underline
  how’  far  he  sought  to  forge  and  benefit  from  connections  with  the  authorities  of
Angevin  England.  His  writings  suggest,  in  addition,  that  Giraldus  felt  at  ease  in
certain  ecclesiastical  circles  in  England,  much  more  so,  indeed,  than  with  what  he
considered  to  be  the  immoral  and  corrupt  Church  in  Wales.  It  was  in  Oxford  that  he
chose  to  deliver  a  public  reading,  over  three  days,  of  his  Topographia  Hibernica  in
1187  or  early  1  188.62  He  also  knew  Walter  Map,  archdeacon  of  Oxford—whom  he

55  Walker,  Gerald  (as  n.  32)  pp.  67-8.
56  Both  are  printed  in  Giraldus,  Opera  vol.  6.  For  comment,  see  Thomas  Jones,  Gerald  the
Welshman’s  ‘Itinerary  through  Wales’  and  ‘Description  of  Wales’:  An  Appreciation  and
Analysis,  in:  National  Library  of  Wales  Journal  6  (1949-50),  pp.  117-48,  197-222;  Bartlett,
Gerald  (as  n.  6)  pp.  178-210,
The  manuscripts  containing  Giraldus’s  writings  are  listed  ibid.  pp.  213-21.
58  Giraldus,  Opera  6  p.  105.
>9  Huw  Pryce,  Gerald’s  Journey  through  Wales,  in:  Journal  of  Welsh  Ecclesiastical  History
6  (1989)  pp.  33-4;  Giraldus,  Opera  6  pp.  xxxv,  xxxix,
60  J.  J.  O’Meara,  Giraldus  Carnbrensis  in  Topographia  Hibernica:  Text  of  the  First  Recension,
in:  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  52  C  (1948-50)  p.  119;  A.  B.  Scott  and  F.  X.
Martin  (eds.),  Expugnatio  Hibernica,  The  Conquest  of  Ireland,  by  Giraldus  Carnbrensis,
Dublin  1978,  pp.  20-1.
61  Cf.  Walker,  Gerald  (as  n.  32)  pp.  63-4;  above,  pp.  52.
Giraldus,  Opera  1  pp.  72-3;  cf.  R.  W.  Southern,  From  Schools  to  University,  in:  J.  I,  Catto
(ed.),  The  History  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  Vol.  1:  The  Early  Oxford  Schools,  Oxford
1984,  pp.  13-14.

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