The age of Owen Gwynedd and the Lord Rees and Owen Cyveiliog brought
a higher ideal still. If the Crusader made war sacred, the monk made
labour noble. The chief aim of the monk, it is true, was to save his
soul. He thought the world was very bad, as indeed it was; and he
thought he could best save his own soul by retiring to some remote
spot, to live a life of prayer. But he also lived a life of labour;
he became the best gardener, the best farmer, and the best shepherd
of the Middle Ages. Great monasteries were built for him, and great
tracts of land were given him, by those who were anxious that he
should pray for their souls. The monk who came to Wales was the
Cistercian. The monasteries of Tintern, Margam, and Neath were built
by Norman barons; and Strata Florida, Valle Crucis, and Basingwerk
showed that the Welsh princes also welcomed the monks.

Better, then, than the brilliant wars were the poets and the great
Eisteddvod. Better still, perhaps, were the orchards and the flocks
of the peaceful monks.



CHAPTER X--LLYWELYN THE GREAT



On the death of the Lord Rees, one of the grandsons of Owen Gwynedd
becomes the central figure in Welsh history. Llywelyn the Great rose
into power in 1194, and reigned until 1240--a long reign, and in many
ways the most important of all the reigns of the Welsh princes.

Llywelyn's first task was to become sole ruler in Gwynedd. The sons