Gerald the Welshman (Giraldus Cambrensis) was a mediaeval ecclesiast. Of noble birth, with mixed Saxon-Welsh-Norman ancestry, he described himself as "a Welshman", and was employed by the Archbishop of Canterbury on various ecclesiastical missions in Wales. Appointed archdeacon of Brecon at the age of only 28 (and frustrated in his desire to become Bishop of St David’s), he then spent two years on a royal commission to Ireland, which gave him material for two books about the land and its people. In 1188, a year after his return, he accompanied Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, through Wales to preach the Third Crusade, a journey which provided him with material for a much more affectionate book about the land of his birth and those he considered his countrymen. Naively vainglorious and boastful, Gerald displayed intense interest in many intellectual subjects (he has been called the Father of Comparative Linguistics), and is considered the most "modern" (as well as the most voluminous) of all mediaeval writers.