- 13/06/2025
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00:00my walks take me to every corner of Britain as I seek out history embedded
00:07in the landscape in this country you're never very far from mysterious ruins a
00:15shadow of unwelcome visitors so from romantic moors to majestic peaks I'm
00:23really enjoying some serious walking each of my walks leads me through a
00:28different time and a stunning location to find the stories you can only really
00:34appreciate on foot this time I'm in Pembrokeshire home to miles of coastal
00:41walking a glorious cathedral and dozens of mighty castles so much of this history
00:48was created by a small band of warriors who took over this land and changed it
00:52forever I want to see how the Normans used war castles
00:58and seduction to leave a unique legacy
01:13the southwest corner of Wales can lay claim to the most celebrated coastline in
01:19the country there's a national park and one of our finest walking trails along its
01:25cliffs but 900 years ago the Pembrokeshire coast was at the heart of an
01:32independent Welsh kingdom a kingdom that had caught the eye of its dangerous new
01:38neighbors the Normans
01:43on this walk I'm going to explore a Norman conquest but it's very different from the
01:48famous one of 1066 this is the Norman conquest of Pembrokeshire
01:55unlike the knockout victory of Hastings this conquest was a long fiercely fought
02:01struggle which transformed the landscape and culture of Pembrokeshire the Normans
02:08turned a Welsh-speaking kingdom
02:12into an English-speaking shire
02:16one now dominated by castles churches and the amazing cathedral in the city
02:23of St David's this cathedral wasn't all made at the same time there's lots of
02:28different periods represented here
02:32the core of it which is the leany bits these columns and the arches here they are
02:39distinctly Norman I've been visiting Pembrokeshire since I was a kid but now for the first time I'm crossing the national park on a four-day walk to find out how a group of French-speaking warriors turned a corner of Wales into a place that's still known as little England
03:02from St David's I'll make my way along the coastal cliffs learning about the Norman's first meetings with the native Welsh
03:09I head inland on day two walking the fortified border the Normans created with the rest of Wales
03:23the river Cleveye is my guide on day three as I find out how a stunning Welsh princess seduced the Normans Welsh and English alike
03:35finally I'll reach the southern shore and discover the rich and unique culture of Norman Pembrokeshire
03:44St David's is officially Britain's smallest city with just 2,000 inhabitants but it attracts 70 times that number of tourists every year
04:01I wonder how many people realize when they stroll down here that they're walking in the footsteps of England's greatest warrior king William the Conqueror
04:12William came here in 1081 15 years after he crushed Harold at Hastings
04:21since the famous battle he'd stamped out Anglo-Saxon rebellions crushing unrest in the north with a campaign so brutal it was called the harrowing
04:33Norman castles and cathedrals were now rising across England
04:39but here in Wales the battle of Hastings hadn't changed anything instead it was still independent
04:48divided up between several rival kingdoms
04:51so when William rode all the way here to St David's he brought his army with him for protection
04:58these were the same kind of troops who'd won an entire kingdom at Hastings
05:03now he'd marched them right across South Wales to this spot
05:07must have looked pretty good coming down the high street
05:10I've arranged to meet historian Mark Hager in the ruins of St David's medieval palace
05:19I want to find out what brought William all this way
05:25so William arrives here not with an entourage but with a full-scale army is it an invasion?
05:31no not an invasion this is according to the the Welsh Chronicle which is pretty much our only source for this
05:36this is a pilgrimage to St David but the Chronicles do say that he comes with a large number of knights
05:42almost all the French we are told come with William so it's it's very much a show of strength
05:48the pilgrimage is as it were a face-saving exercise or a cover for what is a sort of politically motivated expedition
05:54possibly to sound out Rhys Abtudor the new ruler in charge of South Wales as a whole
06:01far from an invasion this was a diplomatic summit
06:06local Welsh King Rhys had won his kingdom in a battle only a few months earlier
06:11now he and his wife called Gladys were busy consolidating their rule and raising a new dynasty
06:19what is it William wants?
06:21he probably wants to know that his frontiers are safe
06:24now there's this new strong ruler in South Wales
06:27William may be concerned that there might be a degree of Welsh renewal pushing back at his own barons
06:33why does Rhys turn up? I mean he's walking into a whole army
06:36yeah he is but he is now sole ruler here and what he needs to do is confront William
06:40he can't just let him walk in and then walk out again
06:42so the two guys are eyeballing each other
06:45yeah
06:46what would that look like?
06:47well William's probably getting to the stage we know we know that he gets quite corpulent in his later life
06:52so he may already be showing a little bit of extra weight
06:54in terms of his appearance he probably looks very much like the characters that we see in the Bayer Tapestry
06:59who of course are very well known
07:00so he'd be wearing a sort of knee length tunic
07:02he'll have a nice cloak
07:03the Welsh on the other hand seem to dress very differently
07:06much more lightly and they're bare legged and bare foot
07:09would they have known each other's language?
07:11almost certainly not
07:13William does have an attempt to learn English after he becomes king and fails to manage to acquire that
07:18he's got even less need to have learned Welsh
07:20so no they almost certainly aren't communicating directly with each other
07:23so they'd have been surrounded by translators like the UN?
07:25yes absolutely
07:28despite the language barrier
07:30William and Rhys forged a deal here in St David's
07:33they agreed to recognise each other's status and respect the border between their kingdoms
07:43so William the Conqueror didn't become the conqueror of Pembrokeshire
07:47but the Normans were now well aware of the value of this land
07:53leaving the tiny city
07:55it's just a 15 minute hike to reach the famous Pembrokeshire Coastal Path
08:03this route's spectacular scenery draws walkers to Pembrokeshire in their thousands
08:08along with kayakers, sailors and wildlife lovers
08:20cliff walking's always like this
08:22you go scrambling uphill
08:26never for very far
08:28it's usually pretty steep
08:30but when you think you've got somewhere
08:33you know
08:34you're gonna go plummeting back down again
08:36mind you
08:37it is worth it for these views
08:47to help me get an insight into Norman activity round here
08:51I've brought a book with me
08:53it describes the main sites and history
08:57but isn't just standard route guide
08:59for starters
09:00it was written 800 years ago
09:03here we are
09:04journey through Wales
09:05and the description of Wales
09:06by Gerald of Wales
09:09Gerald was a local lad
09:11he was a priest
09:12and he got a pretty good education
09:14probably because he was the great grandson
09:16of the Welsh King Rhys
09:18Gerald wrote these two books in Latin
09:23a century after William the Conqueror's visit
09:27in them he describes the Welsh people
09:30whose wattle huts were dotted across this rugged land
09:34no detail is too small for Gerald
09:37he even notes that Welsh choirs were popular in his day
09:41he says you could hear them joining together to produce a single organic harmony and melody
09:48but these musical Welshman were also warlike
09:53they're light and agile
09:55they're fierce rather than strong and totally dedicated to the practice of arms
10:00not only the leaders but the entire nation are trained in war
10:04but then he changes tack a bit
10:05he goes
10:06the Welsh rarely keep their promises
10:08for their minds are as fickle as their bodies are agile
10:12there's not many Welsh about
10:20after three miles along the cliffs
10:22I've reached the valley of Nine Wells
10:24Gerald leaves you wanting to know more about the native Welsh people
10:29so I've arranged to meet historian Rean Emlyn
10:33who studies Welsh history at Aberystwyth
10:36who were the Welsh?
10:39I suppose the Welsh at the time had a very strong sense of being one people
10:43even though they were very politically divided
10:45people who shared language, common law, traditions
10:50my experience after several Friday nights in Merthyr and Swansea in Cardiff
10:56is that the Welsh are pretty good fighters
10:59did they have that same culture a thousand years ago?
11:01Yes, you see, warfare was just part of their culture
11:04and they had very successfully managed to repel the invaders
11:07of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings
11:09they managed to send them out packing
11:12what kind of fighting was it that the Welsh were so successful with?
11:17I suppose the Welsh made good use of the landscape
11:21they would use woodland
11:22and also use valleys such as this valley here
11:24they could usually attack down
11:26they knew their country
11:27and they could use the landscape to repel the invaders
11:30What was King Rhys' background?
11:32Rhys of Teudor was a very successful king
11:35he came from nothing
11:36his father didn't have any political strength at all
11:39so he managed to conquer and establish himself as a very powerful king in this area
11:44What do you think William would have thought of them?
11:46Good question
11:47I suppose he came to Wales with a very European mindset
11:51and because they just have a different culture
11:53different type of society
11:55we've been seen as savages, as barbarians
11:58to people like the Normans
12:00Bye!
12:03Barbarians or not, William was to keep his peace deal with King Rhys
12:07he and his Normans had quietly returned to England
12:10but I'm sure they didn't forget the land they'd seen here
12:13at the edge of Wales
12:20One thing that's really obvious when you get to a vantage point like this
12:24is how vital the sea must have been to this area
12:28Ireland's about a day away in that direction
12:31you've got Devon and Cornwall over there somewhere
12:34you've got the rest of South Wales snaking away down there
12:38it's a crossroads
12:43As descendants of the Vikings
12:45the Normans were above all a seafaring people
12:48and in this region they could see a potential hub in a sea trade network
12:55But with William and Rhys on their respective thrones
12:58the Welsh remained independent along this glorious coastline
13:02for several more years
13:08After 10 miles along the cliffs
13:10I'm dropping down onto the wide expanse of New Gale Sands
13:15My local guide, Gerald of Wales
13:17crossed this same beach 800 years ago
13:20and he tells an amazing tale about the place
13:24Gerald says that in his lifetime
13:27a huge storm hit this beach
13:30and all the sand blew away
13:32and it revealed a sunken forest
13:34which he believed had been swallowed up
13:37during the time of Noah
13:43Tree trunks became visible
13:45standing in the sea with their tops locked off
13:47the soil was pitch black
13:49and the wood of the tree trunks shone like ebony
13:59The fact is that last year there was another great storm here
14:03all the sand was blown away
14:05and guess what?
14:06a load of old trees were revealed
14:09and this is a bit of one of them
14:13because they still get washed up occasionally on the beach
14:17scientists have dated this wood back 10,000 years
14:21it wasn't drowned by Noah's flood
14:23but by the rising seas that followed the last ice age
14:27so while Gerald wasn't entirely correct about this geological marvel
14:34he was the first to record it
14:37as the 11th century drew to a close
14:41this area was facing a great storm of a different kind
14:45for six years the deal that William the Conqueror and King Rhys had struck
14:49kept the peace between the Welsh and the Normans
14:53but in 1087 William the Conqueror died
14:55and that changed everything
14:57the warlike Norman barons were always on the lookout for fresh lands to plunder
15:01and this area seemed a particularly tempting prize
15:05eventually William's son, William Rufus, let them have their way
15:09and the Norman armies began to march
15:11Norman interest had turned into a Norman invasion
15:15but all that's for tomorrow
15:31it's day two of my walk through Pembrokeshire
15:33and I'm heading away from the coast
15:35into the county's less visited interior
15:39my walk picks up 12 years
15:41after William the Conqueror's first visit here
15:43as Norman interest turned into a Norman invasion
15:49today I'll trace the rough frontier
15:51that formed as the Normans wrestled control of this southwest tip of Wales
15:56past early defences at Hayes Castle and Wolfe's Castle
16:00climbing great Trefgan Mountain
16:03gives the perfect lookout over the landscape facing the invaders
16:07finally I'll head southwest to discover how the native Welsh fought back as I reach Whiston
16:21the Norman march on Pembrokeshire
16:23the Norman march on Pembrokeshire began in 1093
16:29but it wasn't a royal campaign
16:31it was a privatised invasion
16:34led by a band of ambitious barons
16:37William the Conqueror had been able to keep these nobles on a tight leash
16:43but by the time his son William Rufus had been on the throne for five years
16:49he could contain them no longer
16:51he allowed them to attack Wales
16:57King Rhys was determined to defend his homeland
17:00Welsh and Normans clashed in a battle near the Brecon Beacons
17:04but as at Hastings it was the invaders who triumphed
17:08Rhys was killed, his son exiled and his daughter captured
17:13most of Pembrokeshire was now seized by the Normans
17:18but in the next year the native Welsh regrouped and fought back
17:23it became clear that this Norman conquest
17:25was going to be very different from the 14th of October 1066
17:30the impact of that one day at Hastings
17:35where William clobbered Harold's army
17:39was so great that essentially it sealed England's fate
17:43but it wasn't going to be like that in Wales
17:45there'd be decades of guerrilla warfare
17:48there'd be ambushes and sieges and peace deals and treachery
17:54this was going to be a long hard slog
17:57the conquest of Pembrokeshire was anything but clear-cut
18:02so I'm heading through what became the borderlands
18:04between Welsh and Norman Territory
18:08soon after their invasion
18:10the Normans realised they needed to defend the prized land
18:14they'd worked so hard to take in what we now call Pembrokeshire
18:18what they needed was some kind of fortress
18:21and believe it or not I'm trying to find a castle in the middle of this
18:25mad jungle
18:27there is supposed to be one
18:29it's on the map
18:30can you see there?
18:32Hayes Castle, Mott
18:34it would make sense for there to be a castle here
18:36because actually we're in a really steep sided valley
18:40I don't know if you can make that out
18:42but strategically great place for a castle
18:45colossal stone castles are one of the glories of Pembrokeshire
18:51fortresses like Pembroke and Carew draw thousands of tourists every year
18:57but the one I'm looking for at Hayes Castle House
19:00proves that there are dozens more castles hidden in the landscape
19:04today what remains of the fortress lurks in an overgrown corner of Robert Humphry's garden
19:09a steep sided lump hidden among the trees
19:13did you realise when you bought this place that there was a mott here?
19:16we knew it was here but we didn't realise exactly what we'd taken on when we moved in
19:21as the proud owner of a scheduled ancient monument
19:25Robert can't even cut down a tree without calling the archaeologists
19:28no wonder it's a wilderness back here
19:30this robe, did you put this in?
19:32yeah, put it in just to help the children get up when they came to play
19:35help the children? and help us
19:36oh, it's taller than I imagine it would be
19:45and it's quite a size here isn't it?
19:48you've got a real platform here
19:50about the same size as a fairly expensive modern house I would have thought
19:53do we know anything about it other than it's a little hill in the middle of your back garden?
19:58I mean apart from the fact it's on the map
20:01we did a bit of research, there's something on the internet, not very much
20:03but there's all sorts of stories but there's no real written history about the mott itself
20:09what about a date? I think it was about 1100
20:11just sort of looking at what's going on around here
20:14that's roughly when the Normans were looking to sort of colonise this part of Wales
20:17well it might not be the most sophisticated castle there's ever been
20:22it's not crenellated is it? no
20:24but on the other hand I'm jealous, I'd love to have it in my back garden
20:26thank you Tony
20:30so the remains of Hayes Castle don't reveal a great deal
20:34but one thing that's clear is that it was a mark on the landscape
20:39a mark of conquest
20:41and barely four miles further along the old frontier there's another
20:46a bigger, more complex mott at Wolfe's Castle
20:48my 12th century guide Gerald of Wales says that castles were a key part of Norman's strategy
20:59nice to meet you
21:01and I'm hoping modern day castle expert Daniel Power can explain why they were so important
21:07ah this is clearer
21:09that's the mott and that's the bailey?
21:10that's right, yes
21:11this is a typical Norman mott and bailey
21:15which basically combines two older forms of fortification
21:20an artificial mound and then an earthen ring work
21:24and you sometimes get those as separate fortifications
21:26but in the mott and bailey you get them combined
21:29these mott and baileys were a key piece of Norman military hardware
21:33the man-made hill of the mott was topped with a wooden tower
21:36while the outer bailey was protected with a palisade fence
21:41if you were Welsh and saw one of these you'd be a bit surprised wouldn't you?
21:45a bit overawed
21:47yes, the Welsh hadn't built fortifications like this before
21:50this was a new type of fortress
21:52very small, quickly constructed
21:55and an obstacle to an army
21:57how would this have been used?
21:58would it have been a place for going out and skirmishing
22:01and then running back to the protected doors of the mott and bailey?
22:04well that's one of the things that the Normans are most skilled at
22:07they construct these fortresses and they don't just use them for defence
22:10they also use them for attack
22:13from here you would be able to take a raiding party into northern Pembrokeshire
22:17and then still get back here before nightfall
22:19this would also be a residence
22:21and the more that this became a residence with a fine wooden house and so on
22:26then increasingly it would also become the centre of an aristocratic inheritance
22:31this is something which you would pass on to your eldest son
22:35I still find it eerie that a thousand years later
22:40what was the epicentre for a great deal of violence and mayhem
22:45is now this kind of cute little hidden hill
22:48it's really good to meet you
22:49thanks a lot
22:52Wolf's Castle was a power base for the Lord who held it
22:55a way of turning conquered land into a family estate
22:59that pattern was repeated across Pembrokeshire
23:03as Norman Lords tried to stake a claim in this wild west of Wales
23:08the best place to see the bigger picture round here is where I'm heading now
23:13the crags of Great Trefgan Mountain
23:17they call this a mountain but it's only about five and a half hundred feet
23:21they could probably be done under the trade's descriptions after that
23:24you can imagine being a Norman lookout up here
23:46keeping watch over this fiercely contested country
23:50Wolf's Castle lies just north of me
23:55Robert's Mott at Hayes Castle to the west
24:01and further south, Rudd Baxton, Haverford West
24:07and Camrose
24:09all guarding the western Kledhai Valley
24:12that the Normans were clearly intent on securing
24:15the history of this conquest was shaped by the landscape
24:24but despite these castles
24:26the threat from the native Welsh never really went away
24:29my final borderland stop today
24:32was part of a long drawn out conquest
24:35it was built by a knight over 20 years after the Normans' first invasion here
24:39he actually had the great name Wizzow the Phlegm
24:44or is it a really disgusting name?
24:47probably both
24:53Wizzow was one of a new breed of professional conquerors
24:57brought in during the reign of the new king Henry I
24:59Henry had taken a keen interest in Norman Pembrokeshire
25:06and believed the border had to be strengthened
25:10he had a point
25:13over the years the Welsh besieged and captured this Mott three times
25:19each time the Normans retook it and rebuilt it
25:23and 900 years later this village is still called Wiston
25:29Wizzow's place
25:33Castles like Wiston's would guard the 200,000 acres of Norman Pembrokeshire
25:39for decades to come
25:41creating a border across southwest Wales
25:44that today seems difficult to imagine
25:47many castles were eventually abandoned
25:52but others were developed
25:54becoming the landmarks of Pembrokeshire
25:57we still recognise today
25:59tomorrow I'm gonna head south
26:02to find out what the Normans were doing on the land they now ruled
26:06behind this hard fought frontier
26:09but today I'm just heading down into the village
26:12for a break from the medieval warfare
26:16and a good night's kip
26:24Day three of my walk through Pembrokeshire
26:27yesterday I learned how the Normans invaded and conquered a huge swathe of this county
26:33today I want to find out what they then did with this newly won land
26:38how they transformed it into a place some still call Little England
26:48In years of coming to Pembrokeshire
26:51I've never visited the Cleveye estuary
26:53but today starts with a boat trip
26:56running down with the stream from Slevege
26:59Back on dry land
27:01I'll be walking the Creswell River banks
27:02before turning south to find the most fascinating Welsh woman of her age
27:08at Carew Castle
27:22Gerald of Wales, my ever dependable guide, all right
27:25he says that the word Cleveye means sword
27:28which kind of makes sense because look at that river
27:32it carves its way into Pembrokeshire like a blade
27:39By this point, nine miles from the sea, the river has become an estuary
27:45the tide rises and falls by over three metres
27:49and the brackish waters are an absolute haven for wildlife
27:52Shell ducks, egrets and kingfishers live along its banks
27:59and I'm going to join them on the water
28:06It's time to get my feet wet
28:11Waiting for me at the beach, a local boatman Pete Ward
28:15and historian Matthew Stevens
28:16Hi Matthew
28:19Hi, nice to see you
28:25Presumably a lot of the Normans would have come by river when they first arrived here
28:29Absolutely, and if you look at the places where the Normans conquered and colonised
28:33they're all within a couple of miles of the coast or the estuary here
28:36The rich farmlands on the banks of this river were the spoils of the Norman conquest
28:42But these fields weren't worth anything without someone to till them
28:48They were Welsh here of course, but the Welsh were a very different method of agriculture, you know, family based
28:54And presumably the Normans wouldn't have wanted to farm themselves, that would have been below them
28:58Yeah, absolutely
28:59What did they do?
29:01So then they start bringing people in from the outside to settle here
29:04There were two groups, a lot of English were brought in from the south west
29:07From places like Somerset, Gloucestershire, you know, and they would have arrived up the estuary here
29:13I mean granted pieces of farmland
29:15You said two groups?
29:16Yeah, and the other group of course was Flemings
29:18Flemings? As in from Flanders?
29:21Yeah, from what's now the Netherlands and the north of Belgium
29:24Even then they were overpopulated there
29:26And people in that part of the world were looking for places to go
29:29And they were recruited to come and settle the land here
29:32Alongside these economic migrants, some of the native Welsh joined in the Norman way of life
29:39But many others were driven out onto the poorest upland soil
29:43All these people must have had quite an impact on the landscape
29:47Well it really changes the way the landscape looks
29:49You know, we can see now from the era that settlements were founded in Norman times
29:53You have a little village clustered together with all the fields and really long straight lines around them
29:57Also South Pembrokeshire very quickly becomes a place where English is the most common language
30:03And the fact that it changes the countryside from a Welsh-speaking to an English-speaking environment
30:08You know, says a lot about the numbers
30:13Thanks for your help
30:15See you
30:17Nice to meet you
30:19Seven miles downstream and I'm back in my walking boots and back on the footpaths
30:24The Normans, or rather their hard-working peasants, farmed the soft beautiful landscape on the banks of this river
30:34A terrain very different from the rugged coast
30:37And so many of the new settlers spoke English that it eventually got a name
30:43The Little England Beyond Wales
30:45When I was a kid I used to come to Pembrokeshire every August on holiday
31:01But of course it was coastal Pembrokeshire that I knew
31:05I didn't realise that there was another Pembrokeshire
31:07And I bet there are loads of people like me
31:11But this Pembrokeshire, inland Pembrokeshire, is incredibly beautiful, isn't it?
31:16In the Middle Ages, this area was rich enough to pay for grand fortresses and manor houses
31:35Like my next stop
31:39Kerou Castle
31:46Today, the National Park calls this a place of endless romance
31:52And it's certainly true that in the early days of Norman Pembrokeshire
31:56It was the home to one of the most romantic characters of the era
32:00Princess Nest
32:02She's been called the Helen of Wales
32:05Because of her fabulous looks and her many admirers
32:10Many admirers led to many children and descendants
32:13It's claimed this Welsh princess is the ancestor of King Henry VIII, Princess Diana and even President John F Kennedy
32:23Dr Sue Johns has studied Nest's remarkable life
32:28Hi Sue
32:30Hi Tony, hi
32:32Who was Nest?
32:33Well, Nest is the daughter of Rhys of de Haybarth, the leader or ruler of the local dynasty here
32:40So this is our King Rhys?
32:42This is King Rhys, who had been killed by the Normans after battle in 1093
32:46So what happens to his daughter?
32:48Well, Nest becomes a ward of court of King Henry I
32:51And she then, at some point in her contentious career, has an affair with Henry I
32:56An affair with the King of England?
32:59An affair with the King of England, by whom she has an illegitimate child
33:02But she didn't become Queen of England?
33:04Oh no, no, no, no, no, no
33:06Henry I is a bit of a rambumptious character, Tony
33:08He has over 28 illegitimate children
33:11By numerous mistresses
33:13And Nest is just one of those mistresses
33:15She's eventually married off to a Norman called Gerald de Windsor
33:19Who is the Castellan or Constable of Pembroke Castle
33:22So already she's had an affair with the King of England
33:26And now she's having a marriage with her father's enemy
33:30With the hated Normans, yes
33:32Castle
33:34This land at Cairo was part of Nest's dowry
33:39She and Gerald built a fort here that grew into this vast medieval castle
33:44Now 35,000 people a year visit this treasure of the National Park
33:55There must have been some Welsh who would be really offended by this affront
33:59Well, of course there were, they're bound to be
34:01Their local princess has been married off to the hated Normans
34:05Her cousin, Owainup Cadogan, on a Christmas visit to his father
34:09Here's the bard singing about the beautiful nest
34:11Pays her a visit, decides that he wants her back
34:15Goes away, gets himself a band of young men
34:18And attacks the castle where she and her husband, Gerald
34:21Are sleeping one night
34:23And is his abduction successful?
34:25Oh, it's very successful, yes
34:27He takes her away, they stay together for a couple of years
34:30And they have two children together
34:32But then her husband, Gerald of Windsor
34:34Runs into Owain and kills him in 1116
34:37She then may have had a reconciliation with Gerald, we don't know
34:41But we do know for sure that she has other sexual relationships with other powerful men in the area
34:47Later and has children with them as well
34:49Nest may have had ten children with five different fathers
34:54Her many descendants were key players in Norman Pembrokeshire
34:58And included the great writer, Gerald of Wales, whose books I'm carrying with me
35:03So what does he say about his grandma?
35:06Well, he only mentions her in the context of her genealogy
35:09And he's very proud and boasts about his connections to all the important dynasties in the area
35:15What does he say about her sexual relations?
35:18He's very quiet, he keeps it hidden and he doesn't mention it
35:21That's very odd, isn't it? Why do you think he is shtum about that?
35:25Embarrassment, yeah, embarrassment
35:27It's a very odd story, isn't it? Because you could say it's about a woman who is consistently abused, abducted
35:35But on the other hand, you could say she's a very wily operator
35:39Who realises that her only chance of advancement was via her looks and her family connections
35:44Yes, you can see her either as a victim of the powerful men of her day
35:48Or as a sharp strategist who's doing what she can to survive and to make good in very difficult times, yeah
35:53What's your money on?
35:56Strategy
35:59It may have been Norman barons who conquered this part of Pembrokeshire
36:04But a whole cast of characters were responsible for transforming it
36:10You've got people like Nest who are having relationships and indeed children with people on both sides of the divide
36:17You've got peasants who are Flemings, you've got others from the south-west of England
36:24You've got the original Welsh, there are the Normans
36:27It's a big cosmopolitan melting pot
36:29Tomorrow, I want to investigate the unusual culture all that intermingling produced
36:41I'll finally get to catch up with my learned friend Gerald of Wales
36:47And find the legacy that's still with us 900 years later
36:52But right now, I'm looking forward to a night's rest with a view of this magnificent castle
37:08Three days of walking in Pembrokeshire
37:11And I've seen how the Normans conquered and settled this corner of Wales
37:14They married Welsh princesses and brought in peasants from as far afield as Flanders
37:21On my final day, I want to discover the lasting culture the new cosmopolitan society created
37:29Leaving Caeroo, I'm returning to the coast and the seaside valley of Manobeer
37:35Home of my 12th century guide, Gerald of Wales
37:38From there, I'm walking the beaches and cliffs of the southern coast
37:44Before a celebratory drink with some Pembrokeshire locals in the Stackpole Inn
37:55You're never too far from the sea in Pembrokeshire
37:58And an early morning hike has brought me this time to the southern coast
38:02Manobeer has long attracted famous writers
38:05Virginia Woolf, Siegfried Sassoon and George Bernard Shaw all loved this spot
38:12But before them all came Gerald of Wales
38:21Gerald says that that valley is the most pleasant and productive in the whole of Wales
38:27He says he loves its fish pond and its orchard and its water mill
38:31He says the sea is brimful of fish and there's loads of wheat and lots of wine
38:37He even says that its air is like heaven's breath
38:41But then he admits that he was born here, so maybe he's a bit biased
38:48Gerald was born in Manobeer Castle in 1146
38:5250 years after the Norman invasion
38:54He'd go on to become a leading churchman
38:58A courtier to Henry the second and the writer of over 20 books
39:04Gerald tells the story about when he and his brothers were little and used to play on this very beach
39:08They'd build sandcastles and he'd build sand cathedrals
39:12Which on the one hand is a twee anecdote which makes him look good
39:15But on the other hand makes the point that Norman Pembrokeshire didn't just produce knights
39:19It could produce academics and scholars as great as Gerald was
39:21Gerald's account of Norman times here are both vivid and witty
39:22But now there's the chance to find out more about the man himself
39:26Emma Cavill has studied this Pembrokeshire priest and prodigy
39:27What kind of man was he?
39:28He's one quarter Welsh if you could say that
39:30He's one of a new academic women
39:33He's called the New York Times
39:35Gerald's account of Norman times here are both vivid and witty,
39:42but now there's the chance to find out more about the man himself.
39:47Emma Cavill has studied this Pembrokeshire priest and prodigy.
39:51What kind of man was he?
39:53He's one-quarter Welsh, if you could say that.
39:57He's three-quarters Norman.
39:59He's descended from the Princess Nest,
40:01so he's very conscious of his mixed heritage.
40:04He's very much a product of that,
40:06but he's also himself intellectually very curious.
40:10He's funny even to us today.
40:12Like a medieval Stephen Fry.
40:14Yes.
40:17Gerald was climbing the ranks of the church in the 1180s,
40:21just as the Norman Cathedral began to rise above St David's.
40:27And in many ways, Gerald's career and that soaring church
40:32were the pinnacles of the confident, distinctive culture of Norman Pembrokeshire.
40:38One of his leading ambitions is to become bishop of St David's,
40:46but not just bishop, also archbishop,
40:48to make it an independent province from Canterbury.
40:51He never, ever does get to be that.
40:54Why not?
40:55Well, I think the problem is that if you have a province like St David's
41:00as an independent province, an archbishopric in its own right,
41:04can lead on to claims of political independence,
41:06which is obviously not something that the English king is going to be very keen on.
41:09Sure, but Gerald came from a Norman family, didn't he?
41:13Yes, he did,
41:15but he's also very, very well connected in Wales.
41:19He's so proud of his Welsh heritage.
41:22But is it that the Welsh think he's too Norman
41:23and the Normans think he's too Welsh?
41:25Absolutely.
41:26He feels that when he's at home,
41:28when he's in Wales, he's known as Gerald the Englishman.
41:30And when he's at the English court, he's Gerald the Welshman,
41:32that comes out in a lot of his writings.
41:35Not exclusively Welsh or English,
41:38Gerald was pure Pembrokeshire.
41:45After my morning in Manabir,
41:47it's time I set out along the coastal footpath.
41:51The landscape here is far softer than the coast to the north,
41:55and the climate feels milder too.
41:57The local farmers are able to harvest potatoes here by the start of May.
42:11In the sea out there, you get dolphins and whales and masses of seals
42:16and more exotic species like turtles and sharks
42:20and these giant, spectacular sunfish.
42:24And the source of the warmth is also in the water.
42:26This whole peninsula sits in the Gulf Stream,
42:30a warm current that runs up from the Caribbean.
42:34It's practically tropical.
42:43I've reached the final stop of my walk,
42:46the Stackpole Inn.
42:47Hello, guys.
42:50Hi, Tony.
42:50How are you doing?
42:52Well, I think I deserve a glass of something after four days and 55 miles.
42:57Oh, just perfect timing.
43:00And local history buffs Rob and Keith
43:02have promised to prove how some of the culture of Norman Pembrokeshire
43:05has survived to this day,
43:08hidden away in small villages like Stackpole.
43:10Were you two born and bred in Pembrokeshire?
43:14Oh, yes, very much so.
43:16Not too far from here.
43:17We're both Pembrokeshire through and through.
43:19Yes, I think we were both born in the same parish.
43:21And is it still Little England beyond Wales?
43:25Yes, the boundaries are blurring a little bit now,
43:27but we've still got this, well, Pembrokeshire dialect to the south.
43:32So you're down the pub as usual.
43:34What might you say to each other?
43:35I say,
43:36Who's it going, babe?
43:37How are you out there?
43:39Oh, not so bad, bye.
43:40Fair to middling.
43:41Has that all changed for you?
43:42Was it all fixed in yet?
43:44Why, you know,
43:45do you know it's all too clutch?
43:46I took no broad easy enough,
43:48but I couldn't get them back together.
43:50I bet you got in it right, Wopple.
43:51I bet your face was like a hen's backside in August.
43:55Well, I got the hen's backside in August,
43:59which I think is one of the most interesting metaphors I've ever heard.
44:02And this bizarre dialect really does owe a debt
44:06to the conquerors of nine centuries ago.
44:09When the Normans arrived here in south-west Wales,
44:13along with the Normans came a lot of west-country settlers
44:16and a lot of Flemish as well.
44:18And they've left us with some of these words
44:21that remain still in use today.
44:24By far, the vast majority of words that have been imported
44:27are from the west country.
44:29If you went to Somerset or Hampshire or Dorset,
44:31you'd still hear similar words in use there today.
44:34But if you went to Brecon or Abbasock,
44:35they'd have no idea what those were.
44:37Do you think of yourself as English, Welsh, Pembroke, Eze?
44:41I think Welsh in the correct context, yes.
44:45I would still say I was a Pembrokeshire man first,
44:47rather than a Welshman.
44:50That's how we've got along for the last 800 years.
44:55So, more than 900 years after the Normans killed the Welsh King Rhys
44:59and seized his land, Pembrokeshire still carries the mark of their conquest.
45:08The castles they raised, the cathedral they built,
45:13even the culture they inspired.
45:16It's extraordinary, isn't it,
45:25that the Normans created so much
45:27of what we now know as Little England beyond Wales.
45:31But there's a final twist to this story.
45:33In the year 1485,
45:35another army marched through Pembrokeshire.
45:38And this one was led by a highly ambitious young Welshman
45:41called Henry Tudor,
45:44who was descended from Rhys at Tudor,
45:47who had been vanquished by the Normans four centuries previously.
45:51It was from here that Henry started the march
45:54that would lead him to the English throne
45:56and the founding of the Tudor dynasty.
46:00But that's the start of another story.
46:04If you want to follow in my footsteps,
46:06you can download a guide to my walk
46:08by going to www.channel4.com.
46:16Next up, like the Costa Brava,
46:18but with more elephants,
46:19Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith.
46:22They're off to Jaipur
46:23and the best exotic Marigold Hotel
46:25for adventures in life.
46:38I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:40I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:40I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:42I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:44I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:45I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:46I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:47I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:48I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:49I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:50I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:51I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:52I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:53I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:54I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:55I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:56I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:57I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:58I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
46:59I'm going to follow in my footsteps.
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