Welsh Journals

(p. 17). Such matters-the value of Tacitus's testimony and the meaning of the Cynewulf-Cyneheard narrative-should have been more deeply engaged with in this study of the comitatus in early Britain. There are several recent works which are not included in the bibliography, the most surprising of which is J. Rowland, Early Welsh Saga Poetry. It is not adequate either simply to 'take' references from D. Whitelock's English Historical Documents (p.93, n.20) and the 'best works' on Anglo-Saxon saints are not (the editions of the Lives) 'by Bertram Colgrave'. Finally, no footnote references at all are provided for the discussion of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. D. P. KIRBY Bishop's Waltham THE LORD RHYS, PRINCE OF Deheubarth. By Roger Turvey. Gomer Press, Llandysul, 1997. Pp.128. £ 4.95. Published exactly 800 years after the death of its subject on 28 April 1197, this attractively produced volume is intended as a 'short, popular study' of Rhys ap Gruffudd or the Lord Rhys. As its author observes, Rhys has perhaps tended to be sidelined by historians, in part because he has fitted rather awkwardly into traditional narratives of Welsh history in the age of the princes with their emphasis on the rulers of Gwynedd. The publication under review seeks to remedy this perceived neglect. While not attempting a full biography of the prince-a task precluded, as Roger Turvey recognizes, by the nature of the available source material-the book offers an introduction to Rhys's life and achievements in the context of Welsh and, to a lesser extent, Angevin history in the twelfth century. The resulting picture is sympathetic, though not uncritical. Rhys is credited with bringing about a new phase in the political history of Wales with his 'superior and intelligent rule' and is praised as 'a man of open mind', ready to adapt Norman and Angevin ideas and institutions. The emphasis on the prince's openness to the Anglo-French world-notably in his castle building and in his patronage of the Cistercians and other religious orders-together with his preference for an Ostpolitik in which detente was the overriding goal is in tune with much recent scholarship, and has much to commend it. Rhys was certainly a modernizer, and there can be no doubt that he appreciated the benefits of peaceful coexistence with Marcher lords and the king of England. Yet, more than anything else perhaps, he was a conqueror. With some help from his elder brothers, Rhys created what was essentially a new polity in south-west Wales by taking over