biography
| name: |
Giraldus Cambrensis
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also known as Gerald of Wales or Gerald de Barri
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pronunciation:
[jiraldus kambrens
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1147–1223)
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| biography:
| Historian and clergyman, born in Manorbier Castle, Carmarthenshire, SW Wales, UK, the son of Nesta, a Welsh princess. He was elected Bishop of St David's in 1176, but when Henry II refused to confirm his election, he withdrew to lecture at Paris. Later appointed a royal chaplain, in 1185 he accompanied Prince John to Ireland. He wrote an account of Ireland's natural history and inhabitants, following this with Expugnatio Hibernica (c.1189, History of the Conquest of Ireland). In 1188 he travelled through Wales to recruit soldiers for the Third Crusade, and wrote up his observations in the Itinerarium Cambriae (1191, Itinerary of Wales) and Cambriae descriptio (1194, Description of Wales). He recounts his unsuccessful struggles to make the bishopric of St David's independent of Canterbury in his autobiography, De rebus a se gestis (c.1204–5, published in English as The Autobiography of Giraldus Cambrensis). His works contain vivid anecdotes about his native Wales, the Christian churches, and the growing universities of Paris and Oxford. He is buried at St David's, Pembrokeshire. |
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