and culture. He is more like our own ideal of a prince than any of
the other princes of the Middle Ages. The Lord Rees was not less
wise, and his life is less sorrowful and more brilliant. He also was
as great as a statesman as he was as a general; and he made his peace
with the English king in order to make his country quiet and rich.
Owen Cyveiliog was placed in a more difficult position than either of
his allies; he was nearer to very ambitious Norman barons. He was
great as a warrior; often had his white steed been seen leading the
rush of battle. He was greater as a statesman: friend and foe said
that Owen was wise; and he was greater still as a poet.

The age was an age of poetry. A generation of great Welsh poets
found an equal welcome in the courts of Gwynedd, Powys, and
Deheubarth; and even the Norman barons of Morgannwg began to feel the
charm of Welsh legend and song; Robert of Gloucester was a great
patron of learning. One of the chief events of the period was Lord
Rees' great Eisteddvod at Cardigan in 1176.

It was an age of new ideals. The Crusades were preached in Wales;
the grave of Christ was held by a cruel unbeliever, and it was the
duty of a soldier to rescue it. It appealed to an inborn love of
war, and many Welshmen were willing to go. It did good by teaching
them that, in fighting, they were not to fight for themselves. It
was in Powys that feuds were most bitter. A young warrior told a
preacher, who was trying to persuade him to take the cross: "I will
not go until, with this lance, I shall have avenged my lord's death."
The lance immediately became shivered in his hand. The lance once
used for blind feuds was gradually consecrated to the service of
ideals--of patriotism or of religion.