Welsh Journals

THE MEDIEVAL BISHOPS OF LLANDAFF by DAVID WALKER IT1 is surprising how rarely historians have found it necessary to mention the bishopric, or any bishop, of Llandaff in discus- sions of the major problems of Church and State in the British Isles in the Middle Ages. Professor David Knowles has given prominence to the fact that in the fourteenth century a succession of friars was appointed as bishops at Llandaff, as at Bangor. But generally, the diocese is rarely mentioned. Whether we take those volumes of the Oxford History of England which cover the medieval period, or specialised studies of ecclesiastical history, references to Llandaff are very rare. In her intensive and exhaustive study of Church and State in the reign of Henry II,3 Professor Foréville noticed Llandaff on a dozen occasions, none of them in contexts of major significance. Professor David Knowles could study the episcopal colleagues of Thomas Becket, and confine his attention to the English dioceses,4 yet not be accused of sins of omission on that account. Scant references suffice for the standard works on the English 1 This paper was originally delivered as a lecture for the Bridgend Local History Society. It has been expanded, but I have retained the form of the lecture. I have limited footnotes mainly to bibliographical notes. 2 See, for example, Professor Knowles, Religious Orders in England, i (1956), 322; ii (1957), 369, 370; "The English Bishops, 1070-1532", Medieval Studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn, S.J., ed. J. A. Watt, J. B. Morall, F. X. Martin (Dublin, 1962), 292. 8 R. Foreville, UEglise et la Rqyaute en Angleterre sous Henri II Plantagenet, (1154-1189), (Paris, 1942). 4 David Knowles, The Episcopal Colleagues of Archbishop Thomas Becket (Cambridge, 195 1).