=Source.=--_Gesta Stephani_, ed. Howlett, vol. iii., p. 10. (Rolls
Series, Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I.)
Wales is a land of woods and pastures, adjoining England on its nearest
borders, and jutting into the sea on the other side throughout its
whole extent. It abounds in stags and fish, and cows and oxen. The
men it rears are savage, swift of foot by nature, fighters by habit,
and untrustworthy and unsettled alike. When the Normans had conquered
England in battle, they established their sovereignty over this land
also with numberless castles. They crushed the natives with spirit,
and civilised them with patience; to ensure peace they imposed upon
them law and ordinances, and brought the land to such fertility and
abundant plenty, that you would deem it in no wise inferior to the most
fruitful part of Britain. But on the death of king Henry, when the
peace and concord of the realm were buried with him, the Welsh, who
always cherished mortal hatred of their lords, wholly cast off the yoke
to which their treaties bound them, and issuing in bands from divers
places, made hostile inroads now here, now there, and with plunder,
fire and sword, wasted towns, burned houses, and slaughtered men. They
first attacked the district of Gower on the seacoast, a beautiful and
abundantly fertile spot, and surrounded and entirely put to the sword a
band of knights and footmen massed against them to the number of 516.
Thereafter, exulting in the successful issue of their first uprising,
they boldly overran all the marches of Wales, bent on every crime and
ready for any mischief, neither sparing age nor reverencing rank, and
suffering no time or place to check their violence. Rumours of this
rebellion reached the ears of the king, who, to curb their unbridled
audacity, sent a force of knights and archers, hired at a great
cost of treasure, to crush them. Some, however, after many glorious
exploits, were slain there, while the rest, unable to endure the savage
onslaughts of the enemy, after much toil and expense, retreated with
dishonour.