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  • Gerald of Wales: Instruction for a Ruler (De Principis Instructione) ed. by Bartlett Robert
  • Keagan Brewer
Bartlett, Robert, ed. and trans., Gerald of Wales: Instruction for a Ruler (De Principis Instructione) (Oxford Medieval Texts Series), Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2018; cloth; pp. lxx, 801; R.R.P. £125.00; ISBN 9780198738626.

Robert Bartlett is a well-known luminary of British medieval studies, and his recent edition and translation of Gerald of Wales’s De principis instructione for the Oxford Medieval Texts Series does not disappoint. Gerald himself is, of course, one of the most colourful writers of the Middle Ages, and though his works on Ireland and Wales are apparently read more often (both then and now), the De principis instructione is a valuable source for a variety of aspects of late twelfth-century British history and culture. As is typical of Gerald’s work, the text commences with a particular program, and then—through a process of revision, adaptation, and expansion—becomes a hodge-podge compilation of the author’s thoughts about a variety of disconnected topics. It is valuable for its depiction of royal values, its anecdotes, its often vituperative portrayal of court life and the Angevin kings, and other contemporary events. The work survives in only a single fourteenth-century manuscript from the Cotton collection (Julius B XIII), while Bartlett prints its original preface from another manuscript (Cambridge, Trinity College MS R. 7. II). The present form is a revision made probably in 1216–17 of a lost original written c. 1191. Gerald originally published the first of three books only, apparently due to fears that his vituperations of the Angevins would land him in hot water. What alterations were made between c. 1191 and 1216–17 are matters for speculation.

Book 1, forming roughly half of the text by volume, is structured around princely virtues: patience, modesty, prudence, bravery, generosity, and so on. However, as Bartlett notes, ‘what [Gerald] liked best was telling stories’ (p. xxiii). And so there are stories about Edward the Confessor, Thomas Becket, the Scots and Picts, the ‘discovery’ of the tomb of Arthur and Guinevere, and more. The work bears some similarities to Walter Map’s De nugis curialium and John of Salisbury’s Policraticus; at times sharing stories and common sources, in general the three works evidence a courtly milieu attracted to that curious mélange of history, morality, and legend that so characterizes the second half of the twelfth century. Books 2 and 3 concern English and French politics, and here the author shows his preference for the French dynasty as compared to the Angevin. There are valuable details about the later years of King Henry II (r. 1154–89).

Nevertheless, the material is scattered, repetitive, and sometimes difficult to interpret. Books 2 and 3 also include discussions of the Holy Land, particularly [End Page 176] Eraclius’s visit to Europe in 1184–85, the fall of Jerusalem to Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn in 1187, and the campaign of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I (‘Barbarossa’). The work ends seditiously with an expression of hope that the French kings will unite ‘two or three kingdoms’ and offer liberty, but ‘the hope was not able to come to fruition’ (p. 733) because God became angry after the Angevins’ attacks against the church.

Of much interest is Gerald’s attitude to King Henry II. He attacks Henry unreservedly for his assault on Thomas Becket and says that Henry’s sons’ rebellions were divine vengeance for the murder (p. 669). Gerald bemoans the deferment of Henry’s crusade, and says that his funding of monasteries as recompense was done under a deceitful pretext (p. 467). Gerald strongly repudiates Henry’s mocking welcome of the news that Eraclius was arriving to request support for the Kingdom of Jerusalem (pp. 531–33)—he depicts Henry as selfish, accusing Eraclius of wanting a crusade for his own benefit. Gerald also regrets Henry’s blasphemies (pp. 615, 661) and his attempt to delay Richard from setting out on crusade (pp. 593–95). The sometime contact he had with the king and other powerful people, and his unique perspective, make the text invaluable.

Bartlett’s translation is...

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