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William Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke (1146–14 May 1219),
also called William the Marshal (Guillaume le Maréchal),
was an English soldier and statesman. He has been described as the
"greatest knight that ever lived" (Stephen Langton). He
served five kings — Henry the Young King, Henry II, Richard
the Lionheart, John and Henry III — and rose from obscurity
to become one of the most powerful men in Europe. Before him, the
hereditary title of "Lord Marshal" designated a sort of
head of household security for the king of England; by the time
he died, when people in Europe (not just England) said, "the
Marshal," they meant William.
A Remarkable Beginning
In 1152, when William was probably about six years old, his father
John Marshal switched sides in the civil war between King Stephen
and Empress Matilda. When King Stephen besieged Newbury Castle,
Stephen used William as a hostage to ensure that John kept a promise
to surrender the castle. John broke his word, and when Stephen ordered
John to surrender immediately or watch as he hanged William in front
of the castle, John replied that he go ahead, for "I still
have the hammer and the anvil with which to forge still more and
better sons!" Fortunately for the child, Stephen could not
bring himself to hang young William, and John's words were to prove
very unlikely.
Knight-Errant
As a younger son of a minor nobleman, William had no lands or fortune
to inherit, and had to make his own way in life. As a young man
he was sent to France to serve in the household of William de Tancarville,
where he began his training to become a knight. Through William
de Tancarville, he served in the household of mother's brother,
Patrick, Earl of Salisbury, but in 1168 his uncle was killed in
an ambush by Guy of Lusignan. William was injured and captured in
the same battle, but was ransomed by Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was
apparently impressed by tales of his bravery. He had been knighted
in 1167, and soon found he could make a good living out of winning
tournaments. At that time tournaments were dangerous, often deadly,
staged battles, not the jousting contests that would come later,
and money could be won by capturing and ransoming opponents. His
record is legendary: he fought in 5000 such bouts in his life and
never lost once.
"The Flower of Chivalry"
By 1170 his stature had risen so far that he was appointed tutor
in chivalry for Henry the Young King, son of Henry II of England.
The Young King's relations with his father were always fractious,
and William stood by Henry during the Revolt of 1173-1174, during
which he knighted the Young King. However, in 1182 William Marshal
was accused of undue familiarity with Marguerite of France, the
Young King's wife, and was exiled from court. He went to the court
of Henry II that Christmas to ask for trial by combat to prove his
innocence, but this was refused. A few months later the Young King
died, and on his deathbed he asked William to fulfil his vow of
going on a Crusade. William did so, crusading in the Holy Land from
1183 to 1186; while there he vowed to be buried as a Knight Templar.
The Right Hand of Kings
Upon his return William rejoined the court of King Henry II, and
now served the father through the many rebellions of his remaining
sons (Richard, Geoffrey, and John). In 1189, while covering the
flight of Henry II from Le Mans to Chinon, William unhorsed the
undutiful Richard in a skirmish. William could have killed the prince
but killed his horse instead, to make that point clear. After Henry's
death, he was welcomed at court by his former adversary, now King
Richard I, who was not foolish enough to exclude a man whose legend,
and power, just kept growing.
In August 1189, when he was 43, King Richard arranged for him to
marry the second-richest heiress in England, Isabel de Clare, the
17-year-old daughter of Strongbow. Her father, had been Earl of
Pembroke, and this title was granted to William, along with large
estates in England, Wales, Normandy and Ireland. The marriage transformed
the landless knight from a minor family into one of the richest
men in the kingdom, a sign of his power and prestige at court. They
had five sons and six daughters, and though every one of them survived
into adulthood, their family line went no further (see below). William
made numerous improvements to his wife's lands, including extensive
additions to Pembroke Castle and Chepstow Castle.
William was included in the council of regency which the King appointed
on his departure for the Third Crusade in 1190. He took the side
of Prince John when the latter expelled the justiciar, William Longchamp,
from the kingdom, but he soon discovered that the interests of John
were different from those of Richard. Hence in 1193 he joined with
the loyalists in making war upon the prince. Richard forgave Marshal
his first error of judgement, and allowed him to succeed his brother,
John Marshal, in the hereditary marshalship, and on his death-bed
designated him as custodian of Rouen and of the royal treasure during
the interregnum.
King John and the Magna Carta
William supported King John when he became king in 1199, but they
had a falling out when William did homage to King Philip II of France
for his Norman lands. William left for Leinster in 1207 and stayed
in Ireland until 1212, when he was summoned to fight in the Welsh
wars. Despite these differences, it was William on June 15, 1215
at Runnymede who dealt with the barons who made King John agree
to the Magna Carta, and he was one of the few English noblemen to
remain loyal to the royal side through the Barons' War. It was William
whom King John trusted on his deathbed to make sure John's nine-year-old
son Henry would get the throne.
On November 11, 1216, upon the death of King John, William Marshal
was named by the king's council (the chief barons who had remained
loyal to King John in the First Barons' War) to serve as both regent
of the 9 year old King Henry III, and regent of the kingdom. In
spite of his advanced age (around 70) he prosecuted the war against
Prince Louis and the rebel barons with remarkable energy. In the
battle of Lincoln he charged and fought at the head of the young
Kings army, leading them to victory. He was preparing to besiege
Louis in London when the war was terminated by the naval victory
of Hubert de Burgh in the straits of Dover. He was criticized for
the generosity of the terms he accorded to Louis and the rebels
in September 1217; but his desire for an expeditious settlement
was dictated by sound statesmanship. Self-restraint and compromise
were the key-notes of Marshals policy, hoping to secure peace and
stability for his young leige. Both before and after the peace of
1217 he reissued Magna Carta, in which he is a signatory as one
of the witnessing barons. Without his presence England may not have
survived the disastrous reign of John; where the French and the
rebels would not trust the English king's word, they would trust
William.
Death and Legacy
William Marshal's health finally failed him in February 1219. In
March 1219 he realized that he was dying, so he summoned his eldest
son, also William, and his household knights, and left the Tower
of London for his estate at Caversham in Oxfordshire, near Reading,
where he called a meeting of the barons, Henry III, the papal legate,
the royal justiciar (Hubert de Burgh), and Peter des Roches (Bishop
of Winchester and the young King's guardian). William rejected the
Bishop's claim to the regency and entrusted the regency to the care
of the papal legate; he apparently did not trust the Bishop or any
of the other magnates that he had gathered to this meeting. Fulfilling
the vow he had made while on crusade, he was invested into the order
of the Knights Templar on his deathbed. He died on May 14, 1219
at Caversham, and was buried in the Temple Church in London, where
his effigy may still be seen.
After his death, his eldest son, also named William, commissioned
a biography of his father to be written called L'Histoire de Guillaume
le Marechal. This book, written so soon after his death, has preserved
(and probably enhanced) the legend of William Marshal for posterity.
While his knightly achievements may be debateable, there is no doubt
of his impact on the history and politics of England, from his stalwart
defence of the realm to his support of the Magna Carta.
William Marshal, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, is our 27th Great Grandfather
Source: Wikipedia |
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