Welsh Journals

Historia as 'the most influential book ever to have come out of Wales' (p. 101). One might question whether the Historia actually came 'out of Wales'. Also, the quotations from Geoffrey are not from either Griscom's 'Vulgate' or Hammer's 'Variant' Latin versions but from the earliest of the extant Welsh versions of the Historia, the Brut Dingestow (ed. Henry Lewis, Cardiff, 1942). While some readers might object to such quotations as being removed from Geoffrey's Latin, I personally am delighted and would like the Welsh versions to be better known than they are. On this subject one might also take issue with Jarman's statement that 'over sixty manuscripts exist today' in Welsh of the Historia as being too conservative; in fact, the number is well over seventy. The history of the Welsh reception of Geoffrey's work is still to be written, and, although Jarman refers to the reception in a few pages (pp. 105 ff.), it is unfortunate that he did not do more with it. One final point of interest: the volume contains seven fine illustrations of events from Geoffrey that alone are worth the price of the book. EDMUND REISS. Pennsylvania State University. A BARONIAL FAMILY IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: THE CLARES, 1217-1314. By Michael Altschul. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore; Oxford University Press, 1965. Pp. 332. 60s. The Clares were the leading noble family outside the immediate royal circle in thirteenth-century England. Yet the long neglect of their history is understandable: the materials are scattered and fragmentary, and our patchy knowledge of other baronial families has made comparison hazardous. Dr. Altschul's book seeks to satisfy the long-felt need for a systematic account of the bases of the Clares' power and the nature of their political influence. The core of his volume is a chronological account of their political activities from 1217, when they acquired Glamorgan and the earldom of Gloucester, to 1317, when the family estates were partitioned after the death of the last earl at Bannockburn. Dr. Altschul attributes the Clares' rise to pre-eminence to royal favour and profitable marriages, and finds the key to their political conduct in their preoccupations as marcher lords. The last third of the book deals in considerable detail with the development and administration of the earls' estates, the sources of their income, and the legal privileges and powers they possessed as marcher and Anglo-Irish lords. Dr. Altschul's carefully documented views take account of most recent work on the subject and are presented with refreshing clarity and