John Marshal († 1165)

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John Marshal (also John FitzGilbert ) († before September 29, 1165 ) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and Marshal of England .

Origin and service under Heinrich I and Stephan von Blois

John came from the Anglo-Norman Marshal family . He was a son of Gilbert , the marshal of Henry I. He is first mentioned when he and his father defended the family's hereditary right to the office of marshal against other applicants during the reign of Henry I. In 1130 he paid a fee, which he was allowed to take over the office and possessions of his deceased father as heir, after which his official title began to be used as a family name. Shortly after the death of Heinrich I, he supported Stephan von Blois as the new king. From 1136 to 1138 he attested to numerous royal documents, and in 1137 he accompanied the king to Normandy .

Role in the controversy for the succession to the throne after the death of Heinrich I, the anarchy

When Matilda , the daughter of Henry I, also claimed the throne and there was an open civil war, the so-called anarchy , John appears to have switched to Matilda around 1138. He occupied Marlborough and Ludgershall Castle , which he had received as a fief from King Stephen. Then Stephen began a siege of Marlborough Castle, which was interrupted by the landing of Matilda and Robert of Gloucester in September 1139 in Sussex . In March 1140 John captured the robber mercenary leader Robert Fitz Hubert , but whether he was still supporting Robert of Gloucester or the King again at this time is a matter of dispute. Apparently he was trying to take advantage of the Civil War to establish his own rule in northern Wiltshire and the Kennet Valley .

After King Stephen's capture at the Battle of Lincoln in February 1141, John was clearly on Matilda's side. In July he was part of her retinue at Oxford and in August and September he supported the siege of Winchester . Presumably he was the John who was supposed to fight off a relief army of the king's supporters with a force. In Wherwell Abbey he was ambushed by the mercenary leader Wilhelm von Ypres . The abbey went up in flames and John is said to have lost an eye. For the next several years John remained a loyal follower of Matilda, especially since his brother William FitzGilbert served her as Chancellor. However, he used the Civil War to expand his holdings in Berkshire and Wiltshire. As the center of his possessions, he established his seat at Hamstead Marshall in Berkshire. Due to his territorial claims he came into conflict with the monks of Abingdon Abbey and with Patrick of Salisbury . In 1141 he and Patrick's older brother William of Salisbury had administered Wiltshire for Matilda, but before 1145 he got into an argument with Patrick and his family, which became a feud between these two supporters of Matilda. In this feud, however, the powerful Earl Patrick was able to prevail against John, so that John had to conclude an agreement with him. He then had to divorce her on the pretext that a close relationship with his wife Adelina had been discovered and marry Sybil, a sister of Earl Patrick, around 1145.

John continued to be a supporter of Matilda and is mentioned in 1147 or 1149 as a companion of Henry fitz Empress in Devizes . The 1152 siege of John's Castle in Newbury , Berkshire by royal troops turned King Stephen's rule into a crisis. John himself was not in the castle and wanted to come to the aid of his beleaguered followers. Under the pretext of wanting to negotiate, he gave the king his son William as a hostage. However, he used the following armistice to supply the castle with reinforcements and provisions. When the siege troops saw this violation of the armistice, they informed John that his son had been executed as a hostage, to which John replied that he could father more and better sons. However, King Stephen took pity on the child and refused to execute him. Instead, he brought young William to his court. Newbury finally fell to the king, who then moved on to Wallingford Castle . There it came to a decisive confrontation with Henry Fitz Empress, with John Marshal belonging to Henry's squad. However, the confrontation did not result in a battle, but rather in negotiations. These led to the Wallingford Treaty , which ended the Civil War.

Later life under Heinrich II.

At the beginning of the reign of the new King Henry II, John Marshal retained an important position at the royal court and was allowed to keep most of the lands he had occupied during the civil war. Only Ludgershall Castle apparently had to be returned to the king. After a year or two, however, he lost the king's favor and in 1158 he had to hand over Marlborough Castle to the king. When he claimed in 1163 that the king was referring to a prophecy by Merlin that Henry II would die before returning to England from France, he fell completely out of favor. As early as 1162 John had to give up his South Mundham estate , which, like other estates , was claimed by Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury. When his complaint was rejected by the archbishop's court, he turned to the king and complained about unjust treatment. Henry II decided on John's complaint during the council meeting in Northampton in October 1164. He rejected this, but he used the case to accuse Becket of abuse of office.

John died before Michaelis 1165.

Family and offspring

The origin of his first wife Adelina is unknown, possibly the daughter of Baron Walter Pipard of Wiltshire. From this marriage he had at least two sons:

  • Gilbert († 1166)
  • Walter

Around 1145 he divorced Adelina, who after the divorce married Stephen Gay , a landowner from Oxfordshire . Stephen Gay's sister was the mother of Robert of Gloucester , leader of Matilda's party.

From his second marriage to Sybil of Salisbury, John had four sons and three daughters, including:

Upon John's death, his inheritance was divided. Gilbert, the surviving son from his first marriage, inherited a minor portion and his mother's inheritance, while John II, the eldest son from his second marriage, inherited the majority. However, Gilbert died in 1166, so that John II inherited his share. On his death in 1194, John II left only one illegitimate son, John , so that William Marshal then became his father's heir.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ David Crouch: William Marshal. Knighthood, war and chivalry, 1147-1219. Longman, London 2002. ISBN 0-582-77222-2 , p. 14
  2. ↑ David Crouch: William Marshal. Knighthood, war and chivalry, 1147-1219. Longman, London 2002. ISBN 0-582-77222-2 , p. 18
  3. ↑ David Crouch: William Marshal. Knighthood, war and chivalry, 1147-1219. Longman, London 2002. ISBN 0-582-77222-2 , p. 19
personal data
SURNAME Marshal, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES John FitzGilbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Norman nobleman, Marshal of England
DATE OF BIRTH 11th century or 12th century
DATE OF DEATH before September 29, 1165