Gerald of Wales - Later Life and Death

Later Life and Death

Gerald spent the remainder of his life in academic study, most likely in Lincoln, producing works of devotional instruction and politics, and revising the works on Ireland and Wales he had written earlier in his life. He spent two years (1204–6) in Ireland with his relatives and made a fourth visit to Rome, purely as a pilgrimage, in 1206. The controversy over St David's soured his relationship with the crown. In 1216 a baronial plan to put Louis VIII of France on the throne of England in the First Barons' War was warmly welcomed by him. He died in about 1223 in his 77th year, probably in Hereford and he is according to some accounts buried at St David's Cathedral.

There is a statue, by Henry Poole of Gerald in City Hall, Cardiff, and he was included in the vote on 100 Welsh Heroes for his Descriptio Kambriae and Itinerarium Kambriae. His reputation in Ireland, due to his negative portrayal of the Irish, is much less friendly.