ABSTRACT
In Lent 1188 Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury toured Wales preaching the Third Crusade. He was accompanied in his travels by Gerald, Archdeacon of Brecon, the man whom posterity has dubbed ‘Giraldus Cambrensis’. Wales at that time was divided between various native Welsh princes and the Anglo-Norman Marcher lords who for a century or more had occupied Usk valley up to and including Brecon and the whole of the south coast of Wales as far as Pembroke and Haverfordwest. The likelihood of death on crusade as well as the expenses that participation entailed no doubt explains why the friends or relatives of would-be recruits tried to dissuade them from responding. The old woman at Cardigan who gave thanks to God that her only son had been deemed worthy in His sight to take crusading vows may indeed have been exceptional. There were other strands in crusade recruitment.
