CHAPTER I
Journey through Hereford and Radnor In the year 1188from 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.Although these pleas were most strenuously urged,the natural kindness and civility of the prince would not suffer them to prevail,lest by prohibiting the archbishop's progress,he might appear to wound his feelings.
Early on the following morning,after the celebration of mass,and the return of Ranulph de Glanville to England,we came to Cruker Castle,{16}two miles distant from Radnor,where a strong and valiant youth named Hector,conversing with the archbishop about taking the cross,said,"If I had the means of getting provisions for one day,and of keeping fast on the next,I would comply with your advice;"on the following day,however,he took the cross.The same evening,Malgo,son of Cadwallon,prince of Melenia,after a short but efficacious exhortation from the archbishop,and not without the tears and lamentations of his friends,was marked with the sign of the cross.
But here it is proper to mention what happened during the reign of king Henry the First to the lord of the castle of Radnor,in the adjoining territory of Builth,{17}who had entered the church of Saint Avan (which is called in the British language Llan Avan),{18}and,without sufficient caution or reverence,had passed the night there with his hounds.Arising early in the morning,according to the custom of hunters,he found his hounds mad,and himself struck blind.After a long,dark,and tedious existence,he was conveyed to Jerusalem,happily taking care that his inward sight should not in a similar manner be extinguished;and there being accoutred,and led to the field of battle on horseback,he made a spirited attack upon the enemies of the faith,and,being mortally wounded,closed his life with honour.
Another circumstance which happened in these our days,in the province of Warthrenion,{19}distant from hence only a few furlongs,is not unworthy of notice.Eineon,lord of that district,and son-in-law to prince Rhys,who was much addicted to the chase,having on a certain day forced the wild beasts from their coverts,one of his attendants killed a hind with an arrow,as she was springing forth from the wood,which,contrary to the nature of her sex,was found to bear horns of twelve years'growth,and was much fatter than a stag,in the haunches as well as in every other part.
On account of the singularity of this circumstance,the head and horns of this strange animal were destined as a present to king Henry the Second.This event is the more remarkable,as the man who shot the hind suddenly lost the use of his right eye,and being at the same time seized with a paralytic complaint,remained in a weak and impotent state until the time of his death.