1204AD: Gerallt Cymro failed to achieve the position of Archbishop of Tyddewi, despite five years of lobbying. Beginning at the end of the 1100s, the chapter of Tyddewi had nominated Gerallt to be the new archbishop. However, Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury refused.

Despite this, King John supported Gerallt and so he acted as bishop elect for almost four years. With Hubert Walter still refusing to confirm his position, Gerallt set off for Rome to ask Pope Innocent III to confirm his election and he visited in 1199-1200, 1201, 1202-3.

Gerallt was also lobbying to raise the archbishopric of Tyddewi to that of an independent one on the same level as Canterbury. A cause supported by Llywelyn ap Iorwerth and Gruffydd ap Rhys II but opposed by King John who saw it as a threat to English dominance.

For his actions, in 1202 he was charged with inciting rebellion in the Welsh but the trial collapsed. The chapter of Tyddewi finally abandoned their support for Gerallt in 1203 and the elections were declared annulled by Innocent III. Geoffrey of Henlaw was appointed to the see.

Gerallt was finally forced to give up his ambitions in 1204AD under pressure from King John who imprisoned him in earlier as he travelled through France. Gerallt remained convinced the fact he was Welsh had prevented his election to the post.

Later in his life he would write to Pope Innocent III: "Because I am a Welshman am I to be debarred from all preferments in Wales? On the same reasoning so would an Englishman in England, a Frenchman in France, and Italian in Italy."