Cylchgronau Cymru

of lords of Breton origin such as Ralph de Gael-Montfort, who had been given the earldom of East Anglia, or the sons of the count of Penthièvre who were lords of Richmond in Yorkshire. As far as Geoffrey is concerned, Ralph de Gael-Montfort can be ignored, for he had quarrelled with William I and was exiled from England by 1075. Alan le Noir, second son of Etienne de Penthievre, held the earldom of Richmond contemporaneously with Geoffrey, but though Geoffrey gives due prominence to the see of York in his Historia, he does not show any special familiarity with Yorkshire as such. Geoffrey's contacts with Breton minstrels might have been made nearer home. We know nothing for certain of his early life, but he was probably educated at the priory at Monmouth, and as an ambitious young clerk, it would be natural for him to seek a post at Cardiff, the administrative centre for Glamorgan. Glamorgan was linked with the honour of Gloucester, with its centre at Bristol, for both estates were possessed by Robert fitz Hamon, who died in 1107 leaving four young daughters but no son. King Henry I assumed the wardship of the children, disposing of the three younger by marriage or by placing them in nunneries, but he kept the eldest, Mabel, under his control for ten years until she could be married to his eldest son, the bastard Robert of Caen, who thereby acquired her vast inheritance and in due course was created earl of Gloucester. If, before he went to Oxford, Geoffrey had been a clerk in the earl's household, it would explain his choice of Robert as the patron to whom his early dedication of the Historia was made. It would also provide a link with Cornwall, for at least five manors in that county were attached to the honour of Gloucester. By boat, it was no great journey to northern Cornwall from either Cardiff or Bristol, and Geoffrey shows familiarity with the Bristol Channel (or Severn Sea, as he called it). There is no suggestion that Breton poets were specially welcome at the Bristol court of the earl-his tastes, as far as they are recorded, seem to have been for the more serious studies of history. But in Cornwall Geoffrey could have found a group of Breton settlers holding manors near Tintagel and Camelford, and again grouped around Dimeliock, all places which Geoffrey used for his story of Arthur. Evidence of their existence can be found in the Domesday Survey of Cornwall and, in some instances, in later references in charters. In 1086 the land-holders in Cornwall were of varied races, as has been noted by Salzmann in his introduction to the text of the