MARSHALL, William Earl Of Pembroke

  General Notes:

Marshal and regent in England and France, who served four kings. Trained in the duties of a knight at the court of a relative, William, Lord of Tancarville. In 1167, William Marshall was made a knight and accompanied his uncle, Patrick, Earl of Salisbury, to Poitou, one of the French provinces in the possession of the English king. While there, Marshall proved himself a brave and able knight. In 1170, King Henry II appointed him as guardian and tutor of his eldest son, also named Henry, who had just been crowned as associate king. Marshall served the younger King Henry until the boy's death in 1183. Marshall then returned to work for Henry II through his turbulent last years when his sons Richard I and John rebelled against him. When Richard I succeeded his father in 1189, he arranged a marriage between Marshall and Isabel De Clare, daughter and heiress of Richard De Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. By this marriage, Marshall became one of the most powerful of England's barons; some 200 knights acknowledged him as their feudal lord. When his elder brother, John, died, William inherited the family estates and the office of marshal of the court. Richard I died in 1199, and John succeeded to the throne. He gave Marshall the title of Earl of Pembroke, to which William's wife was heiress. Marshal served John loyally in the Norman campaigns of 1200-1204 against King Philip II of France, but then they quarreled. He was out of favor from 1205-1212, and spent much of this time at his vast estate in Ireland. John recalled Marshall to court when he was faced with a rebellious baronage ready to ally itself with Philip II. Marshall was one of the barons who advised John to accept the Magna Carta. When John died in 1216, Marshall was chosen as regent for the young Henry III. In this capacity he drove the forces of Philip's son, Louis (later Louis VIII of France), the ally of the rebel barons, from the realm. He suppressed the revolt and restored social order. About nine years after William Marshall's death in 1219, his son hired a professional writer to write a biography of his father's extraordinary life. This biography, Lâ'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal, composed in Anglo-Norman verse, is considered an extremely valuable historical document. ¹

William married Isabel Fitzgilbert DE CLARE, daughter of Richard DE CLARE 2nd Earl Of Pembroke and Unknown, in Aug 1189 in London, Middlesex, England. (Isabel Fitzgilbert DE CLARE was born about 1172 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, England and died in 1220 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, England.)