One of the British journalist who first documented the lives of ordinary people of Wales was a Welshman.
Born in 1146 during the reign of the last Norman king, Stephen, Manorbier near Tenby, the beauty of a well-known short breaks in Wales tourists, Gerald Welsh, or Giraldus Cambrensis as he was known in those Latin days lived in government in the first four Plantagenet kings, dies at age 77 in 1223rd
was the grandson of Norman Knight Guillaume de Barry and the famous Welsh Princess Nest, daughter of Rhys ap Tewdwr, so it was a mixed blood. But he felt a Welshman, even though his critics said that too many Norman and Welsh too Welsh to Norman.
It May be of interest for short breaks in Wales by historians that the church education in Gloucester and studied in Paris before being employed in about 1172 the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Richard of Dover, on various church mission in Wales.
a short holiday in Wales St Davids Cathedral visitors will find it interesting that, after the death of his uncle, David Fitzgerald, Bishop of St Davids in 1176, the chapter felt Giraldus is the man most likely to withstand the aggression of the Archbishop of Canterbury - Thomas Beckett was murdered only six years ago. However, Henry 11 rejected his motion, preferring Peter de Leia, one of his Norman vassals, as he felt the appointment of "a man of great integrity and strength can give strength to the Welsh and increase their pride .'
he became a clerk and chaplain of Henry 11 in 1184, but his ambition to become a bishop, or even the archbishop of St. Davids was never realized.
He sought in vain to the Archdiocese of Wales, even lobbying the support of Pope Innocent 111, who once complained: "For I am Welsh myself debarred from all preferments in Wales"
In his writings, which many academics in Wales tourists can read, Gerald gave details of how ordinary people lived in Welsh. He recorded their craft, their skills, their warrior achievements, and even every day habits. He also commented on the whiteness of their teeth, which will interest short breaks in Wales will know, they are cleaned regularly with a splayed branches such as rudimentary toothbrush, cut the hedges.
