General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> The /Protector/
REFN: 1506AN
REFN: P1506
In a room of the Tower of London in August 1189, two people who were
about to be married met for the first time. This twist of fate or act of
destiny would have a far-reaching effect on English history. The young
lad y was Isabel De Clare, sole heiress of Richard Strongbow De Clare,
Earl of Pe mbroke and Striguil, and Aoife, daughter of Dermot MacMurrough,
King of Leins ter. The man was William Marshal, the second son of John the
Marshal and Siby l, sister of Patrick, Earl of Salisbury. There are no
accounts of this first meeting nor of their marriage ceremony, but this
was the final step in the ma king of one of the greatest knights and
magnates of medieval English history.
William Marshal's life is well documented because less than a year after
hi s death in 1219, his eldest son William II commissioned a record of his
fathe r's life. "L' Historie De Guillaume le Marechal," is a metrical
history of a man and of the knightly class in the late twelfth and early
thirteenth centur y. Little is known about the writer of "L' Historie"
except that his first na me was Jean, that he personally witnessed some of
the events in Marshal's lat er life, and that he had access to Marshal's
squire John D'Erley. The point o f view is that of the secular knightly
class and not of the ecclesiastical cl ass. The events recorded in "L'
Historie" can be verified in most instances b y the official records in
the Pipe Rolls, Charter Rolls, Close Rolls, Patent Rolls, Oblatis Rolls,
and chronicles of the times.
William Marshal was born c 1146, and as a younger son, becoming a knight
was his natural choice of a p ath to success and survival. Marshal was
sent to his father's cousin William of Tancarville, hereditary
Chamberlain of Normandy, to be trained as a knight in c1159. He was
knighted, probably by his uncle, in 1167.
Below right: Wil liam Marshal's Great Tower at Pembroke Castle.
In 1170 William Marshal was app ointed head of the mesnie (military)
household of the young Prince Henry by K ing Henry II. From this time
until young Henry's death in June of 1183, Marsh al was responsible for
protecting, training and running the military househol d of the heir. In
1173, William Marshal knighted the young Henry, and thereby became
Henry's lord in chivalry. We know that Marshal led young Henry and hi s
mesnie to many victories on the tournament fields of Normandy. It is
duri ng the years from 1170 to 1183 that William Marshal established his
status as an undefeated knight in tournaments. It is here that Marshal
began to establ ish his friendships with the powerful and influential men
of his day. His rep utation and his character were built through his own
actions and abilities. I n this age of feudalism, Marshal was a landless
knight. He had no lord from w hom he could gain advantages or status.
On the death of the young Henry, Marsh al obtained permission from Henry
II to take the young Henry's cross to Jerus alem. Marshal spent two years
in the Holy Land fighting for King Guy of Jerus alem and the Knights'
Templar. There are no known records of his time in the east, but we know
that some of the castle building techniques he later used a t Pembroke
were probably learned here.
Henry II granted Marshal his first fi ef, Cartmel in Lancashire, in 1187.
With this fief Marshal became a vassal of King Henry II and swore fealty
to him as his lord and his king. Until Henry II's death in 1188, William
Marshal served as his knight, his counselor, and his ambassador. When
Richard I came to the throne, he recognized Marshal as a brother and
equal in chivalry. Fulfilling the promise made by his father, Ri chard
gave Marshal the heiress Isabel De Clare and all her lands in marriage.
With this marriage, William Marshal became "in right of his wife" one of
th e greatest lords and magnates in the Plantagenet kingdom. Isabel
brought to Marshal the palatine lord