The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales: Book 1 Chapter 1. The archbishop proceeded to Radnor [Map], on Ash Wednesday (Caput Jejunii), accompanied by Ranulph de Glanville [aged 75], privy counsellor and justiciary of the whole kingdom, and there met Rhys [aged 55],11 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,12 a monk of the abbey of Cluny, and then by Eineon, son of Eineon Clyd,13 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 [his wife] wife, and, according to the common vicious licence of the country, his relation in the fourth degree, Guendolena, (Gwenllian), daughter of [his father-in-law] 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."
Note 11. Rhys ap Gruffydd was grandson to [his grandfather] Rhys ap Tewdwr, prince of South Wales, who, in 1090 [Note. 1093?], was slain in an engagement with the Normans. He was a prince of great talent, but great versatility of character, and made a conspicuous figure in Welsh history. He died in 1196, and was buried in the cathedral of St. David's [Map]; where his [Rhys ap Gruffydd's] effigy, as well as that of his son Rhys Gryg [aged 22], still remain in a good state of preservation.
Note 12. Peter de Leia, prior of the Benedictine monastery of Wenlock [Map], in Shropshire, was the successful rival of Giraldus for the bishopric of Saint David's, vacant by the death of David Fitzgerald, the uncle of our author; but he did not obtain his promotion without considerable opposition from the canons, who submitted to the absolute sequestration of their property before they consented to his election, being desirous that the nephew should have succeeded his uncle. He was consecrated in 1176, and died in 1199.
Note 13. In the Latin of Giraldus, the name of Eineon is represented by Aeneas, and Eineon Clyd by Aeneas Claudius.
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