It Is
Not Known Where He Died, But It Is Permissible To Hope That He
Breathed His Last In The Old Home Which He Never Forgot Or Ceased To
Love.
He mentions that the Welsh loved high descent and carried their
pedigree about with them.
In this respect also Gerald was Welsh to
the core. He is never more pleased than when he alludes to his
relationship with the Princes of Wales, or the Geraldines, or
Cadwallon ap Madoc of Powis. He hints, not obscurely, that the real
reason why he was passed over for the Bishopric of St. David's in
1186 was that Henry II. feared his natio et cognatio, his nation and
his family. He becomes almost dithyrambic in extolling the deeds of
his kinsmen in Ireland. "Who are they who penetrated into the
fastnesses of the enemy? The Geraldines. Who are they who hold the
country in submission? The Geraldines. Who are they whom the
foemen dread? The Geraldines. Who are they whom envy would
disparage? The Geraldines. Yet fight on, my gallant kinsmen,
" Felices facti si quid mea carmina possuit."
Gerald was satisfied, not only with his birthplace and lineage, but
with everything that was his. He makes complacent references to his
good looks, which he had inherited from Princess Nesta. "Is it
possible so fair a youth can die?" asked Bishop, afterwards
Archbishop, Baldwin, when he saw him in his student days. {2} Even
in his letters to Pope Innocent he could not refrain from repeating
a compliment paid to him on his good looks by Matilda of St. Valery,
the wife of his neighbour at Brecon, William de Braose.
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