Publisher's Synopsis
Philip Yorke expressed concern that a nation, possessing so many curious documents of ancient history as the Welsh, should have so long neglected bringing them to the light and public investigation. The publication of the "Royal Tribes of Wales" in 1799 was a serious attempt to address this concern and is widely considered to be the first accurate account of the history of Wales and its Princes in the Middle-Ages which is now resurrected by Dennis Williams. Throughout the Middle-Ages the whole of Europe was dynamic and the 12th century in particular must always have a peculiar interest for those who have a love of the history of Wales. It is the time when the struggle is keenest and most dramatic between the centralising forces of the Anglo-Norman monarchy and the Celtic tribal organisation, between the ecclesiastical ideals of the Celtic Church such as they appealed to Sulien, and those of the Roman Church such as they were conceived by Hildebrand. It is the time when the literature of Wales revives and many of her great writers flourish; the time too when Celtic folklore penetrates into the literature of the neighbouring peoples.
