Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke

Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke, (* 1196 ; † November 24, 1245 ) was an English magnate .

origin

Walter Marshal came from the Anglo-Norman family Marshal . He was the fourth son of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and his wife Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke . His mother was the only surviving legitimate child of Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , and one of England's richest heiresses when she married Walter's father. After William Marshal's death in 1219, Walter's older brothers William , Richard and Gilbert successively inherited the family's estates, but all of them died childless. His eldest brother William had given him Goodrich Castle in the Welsh Marches as a fief. In 1240 he supported his brother Gilbert in an attack on Welsh territories in south-west Wales, where he captured Cardigan Castle . When Gilbert was killed in a tournament on June 27, 1241, Walter was now the heir to the family's lands and the title of Earl of Pembroke . In addition, he was heir to the feudal title of Lord of Striguil and Lord of Leinster .

Military service and death

Marshal was only able to take over his inheritance in 1242 because he had the wrath of King Henry III for participating in several tournaments . had drawn. The king had expressly forbidden this on the grounds that he did not want his subjects to kill each other in sport. Marshal, who had attended the tournament in which his brother Gilbert was killed, should atone for his insubordination. He had to wait a year before attaining the earliest dignity and inheritance of Lord Marshal . In the same year he accompanied King Heinrich III. on his campaign in the Saintonge . When war broke out again in Wales against Prince Dafydd ap Llywelyn in 1244 , his vassals supported the royal army. Marshal himself probably did not take part in the king's campaign. In July 1245 he fell ill at Goodrich Castle and died four months later. He was buried at Tintern Abbey in Monmouthshire .

Family and inheritance

On January 6, 1242, Walter had married Margaret de Lacy, Countess of Lincoln , the wealthy widow of John de Lacy, 1st Earl of Lincoln and mother of two. The marriage remained childless, which is why Walter's younger brother Anselm Marshal became the heir. When he too died childless just a month later, the vast family property with lands in England, South Wales and Leinster in Ireland was divided among the five Walters sisters and their heirs, so that the inheritance was passed on to the Bigod , Clare , Ferrers , Mortimer , Bohun , Cantilupe, Valence and Hastings fell. Walter's widow Margaret received several estates in Pembrokeshire as Wittum for life , and in 1254 she received most of them from Kildare in Ireland.

literature

• Thomas B. Costain: The Magnificent Century. Buccaneer Books, Cutchogue (NY) 1994, ISBN 1-56849-371-1 .

Web links

• RF Walker: Walter Marshal, eighth earl of Pembroke (d. 1245). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jeremy Ashbee: Goodrich Castle . English Heritage, London 2005. ISBN 978-1-85074-942-4 . P. 31
2. ^ Michael Altschul: A baronial family in medieval England. The Clares . The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1965, p. 284

predecessor	Office	successor
Gilbert Marshal	Earl of Pembroke Marshal of England 1242-1245	Anselm Marshal