William Marshal
William Marshal (c. 1146 – 1219) was an English knight and Earl of Pembroke who served five kings: Henry II, Henry the Young King, Richard I, John and Henry III. After making his name as a tournament champion he married the heiress Isabel de Clare and became a great lord, and when King John died in 1216 he became regent for the nine-year-old Henry III, won the Battle of Lincoln the next year and reissued Magna Carta. He is known as “the greatest knight who ever lived”.
| Lived | c. 1146 – 1219 |
|---|---|
| Active in | England · Normandy · Pembroke · Leinster in Ireland |
| Known for | “The greatest knight”; regent for Henry III; the Battle of Lincoln, 1217 |
| Game start | 1213 · age 67 · Earl of Pembroke and Lord of Leinster — The road to Runnymede |
Life at a glance
- c. 1146 Born the fourth son of John Marshal, marshal of the royal household.
- 1152 Taken hostage by King Stephen at the siege of Newbury; his father refuses to surrender, but the king does not kill the boy.
- 1170 Becomes tutor in arms to Henry the Young King, Henry II's eldest son, and wins fame touring the tournaments with him.
- 1183 When the Young King dies, William takes up the cross he had vowed to take and goes to the Holy Land, staying a little over two years.
- 1189 Receives from Richard I the hand of Isabel de Clare, heiress of Pembroke and Leinster.
- 1199 Becomes Earl of Pembroke as King John comes to the throne.
- 1215 Stays at King John's side against the barons, helps with the negotiations at Runnymede, and is named in Magna Carta as one of the king's counsellors.
- 1216 When John dies he becomes regent for the nine-year-old Henry III and reissues Magna Carta in revised form.
- 1217 On 20 May, past seventy, he defeats the army of the French prince Louis at the Battle of Lincoln, and in September sends Louis home with the Treaty of Lambeth.
- 1219 Before dying at Caversham on 14 May he joins the Knights Templar, and he is buried in the Temple Church in London.
Family
The family members who appear with this character when you start the game. Years follow the historical record; where none survives, a ? is shown.
| Relation | Name | Dates | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Father | John Marshal | c. 1105 – 1165 | Marshal of the royal household |
| Wife | Isabel de Clare | 1172 – 1220 | Daughter of Richard de Clare, “Strongbow”; heiress of Pembroke and Leinster |
| Son | William | 1190 – 1231 | 2nd Earl of Pembroke |
| Son | Richard | 1191 – 1234 | 3rd Earl; died of wounds received at the Curragh in Ireland |
| Daughter | Maud | 1192 – 1248 | Married Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk |
| Son | Gilbert | 1194 – 1241 | 4th Earl; killed in a tournament |
| Son | Walter | c. 1196 – 1245 | 5th Earl |
| Daughter | Isabel | 1200 – 1240 | Married the Earl of Gloucester, then Richard, Earl of Cornwall |
| Daughter | Sibyl | c. 1201 – 1245 | Married William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby |
| Daughter | Eva | c. 1203 – 1246 | Married William de Braose |
| Son | Anselm | c. 1208 – 1245 | 6th Earl. All five sons died without children and the male line ended |
| Daughter | Joan | c. 1210 – 1234 | Married Warin de Munchensi |
In the game
You begin in spring 1213 in Leinster in Ireland as the sixty-seven-year-old Earl of Pembroke. As a lord from the start, you can use the Realm tab and diplomacy at once. You have your wife Isabel, five sons and five daughters, and King John has held your eldest and second sons as hostages for years. Amid rumours that the French king will cross the sea, King John, who never trusted you, summons you.
The turning point is “Bouvines”. The ships to Poitou in 1213 and the Sunday of Bouvines in 1214 move the odds. If John's allies lose, real history runs through Runnymede and Louis's landing, the deathbed at Newark, the streets of Lincoln and the sea off Sandwich, and Lambeth to the Temple Church in 1219; if the allies win, another branch runs to the end through a summer without a charter and a regency in Normandy.
“The white mantle of Caversham” in 1219, the year he really died, is the last brush with death. Survive it and there is another ending, a spring at Striguil in 1220.
- Scenario guide The road to Runnymede
- Era guide Middle Ages
- Related turning points What if King John's allies had won at Bouvines?
Frequently asked questions
Why is William Marshal called “the greatest knight”?
Because as a young man he won fame by capturing many knights at tournaments across Europe, and he was renowned for keeping faith with the five kings he served in turn. At his funeral Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, is said to have called him “the best knight who ever lived”.
What is William Marshal's connection with Magna Carta?
In 1215 he stayed on King John's side against the barons and helped with the negotiations; after becoming regent in 1216 he revised the charter the pope had annulled and reissued it in the name of the young Henry III. He reissued it again in 1217, doing much to ensure that Magna Carta survived rather than remaining a document of a moment.
How do we know William Marshal's story?
A verse biography in Old French, the History of William Marshal, written in the 1220s at the request of his son William, survives. Over 19,000 lines long, it was rediscovered in the 19th century and has become a precious record of the life of a medieval knight.
Sources
The History of William Marshal (verse biography, 1220s); the chronicles of Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris; Magna Carta (1215, 1216 and 1217 versions).