According to Giraldus Cambrensis in the Itinerarium Cambriae, in 1158 Ifor Bach was a tenant of William, Earl of Gloucester, who held Cardiff Castle.
Ifor scaled the walls of Cardiff Castle using his bare hands, seized the Earl, his Countess Hawise, a daughter of the Earl of Leicester, and their young son Robert, and kidnapped all of them to the woods of Senghenydd.