Sir William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 – 1219) Melee Jousting Tournament Champion, Co-Initiator of the Magna Carta, Regent of England

On his deathbed, William recalled besting 500 knights during his jousting tournament career. Described as a knight-errant at the beginning of his knighthood, he honed his jousting and other martial arts skills to perfection, mainly because he direly needed the tournament prize money to raise himself out of impoverishment. As the youngest son of John FitzGilbert le Marechal, William’s received no inheritance after the death of his father when he was aged 18 years.

William’s story begins with his father’s refusal to accede to King Stephen IV de Blois (1096 – 1154)‘s surrender demands after his father allowed the 5-year-old to be taken as a hostage during the siege of Newbury Castle in 1152. In response to his refusal to abide by the initial surrender agreement, Stephen threatened to hang William if he continues to refuse to surrender the castle to him. John, then the hereditary Lord Marshal of England, replied that he should hang his son, saying, “I still have the hammer and the anvil with which to forge still more and better sons!” In an uncharacteristic display of pity, Stephen released the child who would one day rise in political power and influence to change the course of English history.

At the age of twelve, William was sent to Normandy to begin knighthood training at Château de Tancarville, first as a squire to William de Tancarville. Tancarville was a paternal cousin Robert “Guiscard” de Hauteville, Duke of Apulia and Calabria (1015 – 1085) and a cousin of King Stephen. He knighted William after a battle they fought together in northern Normandy in 1166.

Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – 1204) Queen Consort of France and England was instrumental in saving Pembroke’s life when he was in his early 20s. Impressed by stories about his bravery, she ransomed him after Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem, King of Cyprus (1150 – 1194) took William as a captive during an ambush that killed his uncle. Lusignan would later become King of Jerusalem after the death of his father-in-law Baldwin V in 1186.

After his release from captivity, he participated in his first melee jousting tournament. In winning the contest he discovered the profession that would be the source of his livelihood and fame for most of the rest of his life. His success in melee jousting tournaments led to his eventually acquiring fabulous wealth from ransoms and fees he earned as a freelance knight. In fact, before parting ways, King John (1166 – 1215), son of Henry II Plantagenet (1133 – 1189) 1st Plantagenet King of England and Ireland, lavishly paid William to protect him in tournaments in which he sponsored as a participant.

As the premiere and highest-rated knight in Christendom at the height of his career, William could be likened to the greatest contemporary athlete in any sport, both in terms of popular recognition and financial remuneration. For example, William’s initial contract to protect King John on the tournament pitch made him equivalent to today’s multi-billionaire. Yes, as the sole magnate of the Angevin empire, John was that wealthy and spent the equivalent of billions of dollars every year in the indulgence of his passion for the sport as an active participant himself and the primary benefactor of the annual tournament schedule. Today’s best-paid athletes would scarcely believe just how well he compensated William at the height of his jousting tournament career.

In August 1189, William married Isabel de Clare. She was the daughter of Richard “Strongbow” de Clare, Earl of Pembroke (1130 – 1176) Justiciar of Ireland, and his wife Eva of Leinster. Dermod MacMurrough gave Strongbow his daughter’s hand in marriage in gratitude for his principal role in reinstating him as King of Leinster after the Norman conquest of Ireland in 1170. Dermod was temporarily dethroned several years earlier by his cousin Irish High King Roderick O’Connor. With the later establishment of Henry II Plantagenet as Lord of Ireland, O’Connor was effectively the last of the High Kings of Ireland.

Originally ordered and constructed by William the Conqueror (1028 – 1087) 1st Norman King of England, Chepstow Castle is the oldest surviving stone castle in Britain. William acquired the property as part of his wife’s estate. He immediately set about renovating the castle to incorporate many features of military fortifications he encountered during his travels throughout Europe and the Middle East.

In 1215, acting as Earl Marshal on behalf of King John, his son William met with rebellious barons led by Knights Templar at Temple Church to negotiate their demands for the enforcement of the Charter of Liberties. The precedent of the Magna Carta, King Henry Beauclerc, son of William the Conqueror, signed the document into law in 1100. He and subsequent rulers all but ignored its enforcement. William changed camps sometime during or after the negotiations, ostensibly as a result of the Templar influence. His son William Jr later represented him during the convocation of the Baron Sureties of the Magna Carta at Runnymeade in 1215.

Following the death of King John in 1216, William served as Regent of England and Protector of King Henry III until 1219. The pivotal role he played as the de facto ruler of England in expelling French invasion forces, particularly with his victory over Comte du Perche at the Battle of Lincoln (1217), saved both the Plantagenet monarchal dynasty and the English language from extinction. If French Prince Louis VIII Capet’s army had prevailed, that would also have spelled the end of British sovereignty, perhaps indefinitely. The Plantagenet dynasty and the British monarchy owed him and future Earl Marshals an everlasting debt of gratitude.

His ruthless reputation on the battlefield and melee tournament pitch belied his preeminence as a chivalrous knight and highly effective leader. If there’s one overriding reason for his selection as the regent of England after King John’s death, it was because everyone around him trusted and revered his word as his sacred bond. Serving in that capacity, he thus instilled a necessary sense of integrity into the flailing monarchy’s image that had been severely tarnished by King John’s egregiously devious ways. His unassailable stature was the prime reason the Magna Carta barons met again in 1217 to confirm their roles as Sureties and loyal vassals of the monarchy of Henry III Plantagenet.

Henry reigned until he died in 1272. Although panned by the majority of historians as largely ineffective, he is generally regarded as a humane, fair, and chivalrous ruler, almost to a fault in their estimation. Above all else, he kept his word and steadfastly adhered to the terms of his agreements and treaties, especially those he ratified with rebellious barons early on during his rule. Like William, who was often criticized for giving more than he took away from the bargaining table during his tenure as Regent, Henry also opened a dialogue with his subjects that resulted in a plodding, yet long-lived reign as a result. This characteristic marks a sea change in monarchal behavior towards subjects of profound proportions and could be the primary reason the Plantagenet dynasty lasted for as long as it did after Henry’s death (including cadet branches, over two centuries – from start to finish, nearly 350 years).

Since his sons failed to produce male issue, as presaged by a curse placed on William by an Irish Catholic bishop, the hereditary title of Earl Marshal passed to the son of William’s eldest daughter, Maud Marshal (1194 â€“ 1248), and her husband Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk. Roger Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk, also failed to produce a male heir, so the title went to his nephew after his death.

His Grace Edward Fitzalan-Howard, 18th Duke of Norfolk, DL, inherited the title of Earl Marshal in 2002. The inaugural holder of the title from the House of Howard was Duke John Howard, KG (1421 – 1485) Earl Marshal, Lord Admiral. He inherited the title from Mowbray Dukes of Norfolk, the last of which was John de Mowbray, 4th Duke of Norfolk. Sir William Marshal was the second to inherit the office (his elder brother John was first).

Of the nine positions of the Great Officers of State, several of which are either ceremonial or traditionally vacant, only Earl Marshal and Lord High Admiral passed through inheritance.

L’Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal, the epic verse poem written shortly after his death at the request of one of his sons, is based on an account of William’s life as related by his squire John d’Erlay. It provides a first-hand and unadulterated description of William’s life and times. French historian Georges Duby lauded the poem as “infinitely precious: the memory of chivalry in an almost pure state, about which, without this evidence, we should know virtually nothing”. The only surviving copy of the original manuscript is part of the collection of the Pierport Morgan Library in New York City. According to expert historians, it is the only contemporary biography written during the Middle Ages about anyone who lived during that epoch.

As Pembroke, William is a major character in Shake-speare‘s The Life and Death of King John. The “history” mainly focuses on Plantagenet dynastic succession issues, both in England and France, with which King John contended throughout most of his reign.

Notes

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

View Archive

209 replies on “Sir William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 – 1219) Melee Jousting Tournament Champion, Co-Initiator of the Magna Carta, Regent of England”

[…] Sir William le Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 – 1219) 6GGF […]

Share this:

Related

By Steven Wood Collins

209 replies on “Sir William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 – 1219) Melee Jousting Tournament Champion, Co-Initiator of the Magna Carta, Regent of England”

Leave a comment