31 August 2017
William Marshall
( described by Cardinal Langton as ' the greatest Knight that ever lived')
Famous for sparing Richard the lion heart's life and rising from obscurity to become Marshal of the Kingdom.
The Complete Peerage Volume II-
List of Marshals of England + Earls Marshal
Temp. Henry I - Gilbert
By 1130 John Marshal son of Gilbert
By 1166 John Marshal son of John
1194 William (Marshal) Earl of Pembroke, brother
1219, May 14, William (Marshal) Earl of Pembroke, son of William
1231, April 6, Richard (Marshal) Earl of Pembroke, brother
1234, April 16, Gilbert (Marshal) Earl of Pembroke, brother
1241, June 27, Walter (Marshal) Earl of Pembroke, brother. Died 24 November 1245.
William was born c1147, the 4th son of John Marshall Fitzgilbert, marshal of King Henry I, and the 2nd son of John's 2nd wife, Sybil (D'Evereux) of Salisbury. He was born during the war between Stephen and Matilda that raged between 1139 - 1153.
Following a dispute, between king Stephen and William's father, William, then 4 or 5 years old was taken as a hostage to guard against his father's trickery. As this did not stop him William was expected to be killed but the king spared his life. William remained in the custody of the king.
King Stephen died in 1154 and was succeeded by Matilda's son, Henry II. William was released after a general peace was negotiated in the kingdom and early in the 1160's was sent to Normandy to the Tancarville household, William de Tancarville being a distant cousin. Here William Marshal learnt the skills needed to be professional fighter.
In 1166 William was knighted by William Tancarville.
After a battle at Neufchatel in 1166, where William lost his expensive war horse, several knights were let go from the Tancarville household. William had to sell the new cloak he had received for his knighting to buy another horse. He fought in several tournaments where the ransom of horses and money gave him some independence. He learnt techniques and earned a reputation amongst others. He travelled across France taking part in tournaments until 1168 when he returned to England where he went into the service of his uncle, Patrick of Salisbury.
Just after 1168 his uncle had been given the task of assisting Queen Eleanor to govern Poitou. The earl, along with William and others, was escorting Eleanor peacefully between castles when they were set upon by the Lusignan brothers and their men. Whilst Queen Eleanor was safely escorted away whilst a skirmish took place earl Patrick was killed and William injured. William was taken as a hostage by the Lusignan men. After a couple of months of rough treatment he was freed following payment by Queen Eleanor for his release and retained in the queen's household..
For the next 15 years of his life he served in various royal households where he continued on the tournament circuits. In 1170 he transferred to the household of Eleanor's son, Henry and following young Henry's death he entered the retinue of the old king, Henry, in 1186, after a 2 year pilgrimage to the Holy Lands.
One of the most economical means of royal patronage was the granting of wardships; the keeping of the lands and persons of under age boys or female heirs, whose custody belonged to the king if their father's held their lands directly from the crown. One of the first grants William had was the keeping of 15 or 16 year old John of Earley who he took into his household as a squire. About 1186 William was given the wardship of Heloise of Lancaster, heiress of the barony of Kendal in Westmorland, with a view to marrying her if he so wished. William decided against marrying Heloise and later married Isabel de Clare, heiress of Pembroke and Striguil, daughter of Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare and Aoiffe MacMurragh, daughter of Dermot MacMurragh, king of Leinster. Despite the age difference, William being 43 and Isabel 17 years old at the time of their marriage they appear to have had a 'decent' relationship, having 5 sons and 5 daughters together during their marriage.
On 11 November 1216 at Gloucester, 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 protector of the nine-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 King's army, leading them to victory.
At the end of January 1219 William suddenly became ill. In the middle of March he was taken to his manor of Caversham. Here he arranged that Leinster, Pembroke, Striguil and ancestral Marshal lands went to his eldest son, William. His 2nd son, Richard, was given the Norman lordship of Longueville and also the Giffard honor of Crendon in England. Gilbert was to be made a clerk. Some provision was made for Walter who was still a boy in 1219. He had his father's acquisition of Goodrich and other manors. the youngest of them, Ansel, was initially ignored. However the intervention of John of Earley with Marshal secured Ansel lands in Ireland worth £140. Only 1 daughter, Joan, was unmarried at the time and was temporarily provided for by £30 of land and a cash sum of 200 marks.
William left his body to be buried a the church of the New Temple in London and the manor of Upleadon, Herefordshire was his gift to the order.
William Marshal died about midday on the 14th of May 1219.
William and Isabel had the following children:
 | William -1190-1231. Married firstly Alice of Bethune and secondly Eleanor of England, daughter of King John and Isobel D'Angouleme. Was one of the Magna Carta Surety Barons. |
| Richard - 1191-1234. Married Gervase, daughter of Alan de Dinan, and had become in her right lord of Dinan and Viscount of Rohan in Brittany. One chronicle writes that Richard had received the best knightly and chivalric training in France and was the "marshal of the army of the King of France." |
| Maud - 1193-1248. Married Hugh Bigod and then William of Warenne, son of Hamelin Plantagenet, illegitimate son of Geoffrey of Anjou. |
| Gilbert -
1197-1241.Married Marjorie of Scotland.
On Richard’s death, his brother Gilbert was his heir and successor. Gilbert had been intended for an ecclesiastical career. He had taken minor orders and received the livings of Orford in Suffolk on May 30, 1225, and of Wigham in Kent on September 19, 1228. He was in Ireland when Richard was killed, and he returned to Wales. On Gilbert’s return to England, he was granted a pardon by King Henry III for taking part in Richard’s rebellion. His brothers Walter and Anselm were also pardoned. On June 11, 1235, Gilbert was knighted and invested with all his brother’s lands and offices by King Henry at Worcester. November 12, 1239, Gilbert took the cross with his brother-in-law Richard of Cornwall at Northampton. Gilbert took the cross with the understanding that Richard would use his influence to return Gilbert to the king’s favor. Gilbert had lost favor when he took Richard of Cornwall’s side in the rising of 1238 against the king’s foreign favorites. In July 1240, Gilbert was on the point of leaving England to go on crusade when the king recalled him and took him back into favor. On June 27, 1241, Gilbert was taking part in an unauthorized tournament at Ware when he was thrown from his horse and drug across the field. He died from his injuries that very day and was buried in the Temple Church in London near his father and his brother William. In September 1230, Gilbert had married Margaret de Lanvallei; she died or was divorced because in August of 1235 Gilbert married Margaret, sister to Alexander II of Scotland. Gilbert had no children by either marriage. |
| Walter - 1198-1245. |
| Isabel -1200-1240. (My 23x great aunt through being a sister of Sybil, my 23x great grandmother, but also my 24th great grandmother through her marriage to Gilbert de Clare. |
| Sybil - my 23x great grandmother, born 1201. Married William de Ferrers. |
| Anselm - 1206-1245.
Married Maud de Bohun.
Anselm was his brother’s heir, but he apparently died before he was ever invested with the lands, titles and offices of his brother Walter. He married Maud, daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, second earl of Hereford, but they had no children. Anselm died December 23, 1245 at Striguil, but there are no records of how he died. Anselm and his brother Walter were buried near their mother, Isabel, at Tintern in Monmouthshire. Thus all five of William and Isabel Marshal’s sons died without any children, and the division of all the lands these two individuals inherited, acquired, and held would eventually be split among the children of their five daughters. There is no direct male lineal descent from William Marshal’s line. Of his five sons, three died in unexplained and/or undiscovered manner, Richard was murdered, and Gilbert died in a tournament.
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| Eva - 1206-1246. Married William de Braose. Direct Ancestors. |
| Joan - Unmarried at
the time of her father's death in 1219. Later married Warin de Munchensi. They had three children: John (dsp 1247); William (d1287); and Joan (d1307) who married William de Valence (d1296). Warin died in 1255 and the inheritance of Johanna and Warin passed through their daughter Joan to the de Hastings of Abergavenny.
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Sources:
The World of the Medieval knight by Charles Phillips
Who's Who in Early Medieval England by Christopher Tyerman
William Marshal, Knighthood,War and Chivalry, 1147-1219 by David Crouch
http://www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/families/marshal/williammarshal.shtmlhttp
www.medievalgenealogy.org.uk/families/marshal/williammarshal.shtml
The Greatest Knight by Elizabeth Chadwick - historical fiction text, based on facts and events regarding the life of William Marshal