William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke

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William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (* 1144 ; † 14 May 1219 in Caversham ), also known under the name Guillaume le Maréchal or simply the Marshal , was an Anglo-Norman knight , English baron and a regent and lord Marshal of England .

Particularly due to his success as a tournament fighter , he was already considered one of the most famous and best knights of his time in the Middle Ages. He served five kings of the Plantagenets in succession ( Heinrich II. , Heinrich the Younger , Richard the Lionheart , Johann Ohneland and Heinrich III. ) And witnessed the rise and fall of the Angevin Empire .

Life

The reclining figure of William Marshal in Temple Church

William came from the Anglo-Norman Marshal family . He was the second of four sons of John FitzGilbert († 1165) and his second wife Sibyll of Salisbury. His siblings included the older full brother John Marshal († 1194), the younger brother Henry Marshal and the oldest half-brother Gilbert († 1166). The family was of Anglo-Norman origin, that is, they came from Normandy and in all probability came to the island in the course of the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066 . The father owned estates in Wiltshire and was a master marshal at the royal court, responsible for the rearing and care of the horses.

William was born in the time of the so-called Anarchy , the English civil war between King Stephen and the "Empress" Matilda . The father was initially on the side of Stephen, by whom he was appointed castellan of Marlborough . Under the influence of his second wife, whose family was one of Stephen's enemies, he changed sides in 1141. In 1152 John's Castle in Newbury was besieged by King Stephen. According to legendary tradition, the king is said to have led young William to the castle with a rope around his neck and threatened his father to hang him on a tree if he did not submit. But John refused to surrender out of loyalty to Matilda, ready to sacrifice his son. The king is said to have been so impressed by this willingness to make sacrifices that he renounced the execution.

After the end of the civil war and King Henry II Plantagenet - the eldest son of Matilda - came to power, William was sent by his father to Normandy, where he served as a squire in the service of Guillaume de Tancarville ( House of Tancarville ). In 1164 he finally received the sword line and then joined the entourage of his uncle Earl Patrick of Salisbury . Together they were responsible for the safety of the royal couple on their travels. In 1168 they escorted Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine through her native Aquitaine . They were attacked by the rebellious Gottfried von Lusignan and his followers; Earl Patrick was killed in action, but William saved the queen and brought her to safety in nearby Poitiers . This act of arms established his reputation as a brave and loyal knight. The eldest son of the king, Henry the Younger, was entrusted to him for training. After he gave the young king the sword leadership in 1173, William made a name for himself with him in the following years as a tournament fighter at the royal courts of France. For example, at the great tournament of the Count of Champagne in Lagny-sur-Marne in 1179, where he made the acquaintance of the knight Baudouin de Béthune , or in 1180 in Joigny, where he competed with the young king for the countess's favor. In 1183 he supported his friend and protégé in his revolt against his father, but the young King Heinrich died that same year after an illness. William led the company to his grave in Rouen .

Coat of arms of the William Marshal

Then William went to the Holy Land , where he fought against the Saracens for two years . Back at home he entered the service of the old King Heinrich II. Plantagenet, whom he now loyally assisted in the fight against his son Richard the Lionheart and King Philip II of France . When the king had to flee from Le Mans in a hurry from his son on June 12, 1189 , William Marshal and Baudouin de Béthune covered his escape. They carried out a duel one after the other against Richard's knight André de Chauvigny , whom William was able to push off his horse and take prisoner. In Chinon , William stood next to Béthune and the bastard Geoffrey on July 6, 1189, as one of the last faithful at the king's deathbed. Williams' high standing and the respect he showed on the part of Richard the Lionheart secured him a position in the area around the court even under his reign. Even if he did not belong to the personal retinue of the new king, he was allowed to marry Isabel de Clare, daughter of Richard Fitz Gilbert de Clare, known as " Strongbow ", and one of the wealthiest heiresses of the time. This brought the county of Pembroke and extensive estates in Ireland with her into the marriage. During the absence of the king on the Third Crusade and his subsequent imprisonment in Austria (1190-1194) William was a member of the ruling council in England. He initially supported Prince Johann Ohneland in the overthrow of the regent William Longchamp , but in 1193 he again sided with the loyalists and took part in the fight against Prince Johann. King Richard forgave him for his wrongdoing and made him Master Marshal in 1194 after the death of his older brother John. On May 27, 1199 Richard also gave him the hereditary title Earl of Pembroke . From an inheritance claim of his wife, he acquired the county Longueville in Normandy at the beginning of the 13th century .

After Richard the Lionheart's death in 1199, William entered the service of the new King Johann Ohneland. He accompanied him to Ireland and in 1212 to Wales . Unlike his eldest son, he did not take part in the revolt of the barons. Nevertheless, he advised the king on June 15, 1215 in Runnymede to sign the Magna Charta . When the French Prince Louis the Lion landed on the English coast at the invitation of the barons in 1216 , William remained loyal to King John, although his cause was apparently lost when most of the country fell under the control of Prince Louis and most of it the barons passed over to this. This unwavering loyalty to his king gave William a new reputation as the ideal model for a loyal knight and sworn vassal. On his deathbed in Newark, the king gave him the guardianship of the still underage prince's son and thus designated him as regent of the kingdom. Immediately after the king's death on October 25, 1216, William let the young Henry III. crowned king and reached with Honorius III. for the boy the papal protection. Then William, over seventy years old, headed an army to march against Prince Ludwig's army. On May 20, 1217 he won the battle of Lincoln over the prince's troops and killed their commander Thomas von Le Perche in a duel. After further military successes and the change of sides of several barons to Heinrich III. the prince could be driven from the island and the destruction of the Plantagenets prevented. Shortly before his death in 1219, William - already over 70 years old - joined the Knights Templar .

William Marshal was in the Temple Church of London buried. The reclining figure of his grave can still be seen there today. After his death, Hubert de Burgh (until 1232) and Peter des Roches led the reign, who fought against each other. Between 1232 and 1234 Richard Marshal, the second eldest son of Williams, rebelled against the king and his advisers. Henry III. After his marriage he hardly trusted any English advisors. First his wife's Savoyard uncles, then his half-brothers ( House Lusignan ) were very influential.

Williams' eldest son of the same name commissioned the Verschronik L'Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal around 1226 , which recorded the eventful life of his father for posterity.

Success as a tournament knight

The political success of William Marshal remains incomprehensible if one does not consider his many successes as a tournament fighter. He was considered the most successful tournament fighter of his time, if not the 12th century. He climbed the social ladder only because of his ability as a tournament professional. At his first tournament in Le Mans (1167, so at the age of 23) he won 4½ horses and again the same number for his teacher William of Tancarville. To be as successful as possible, he teamed up with another knight from the king's training group, with whom he shared all costs and profits. In the ten months of the fighting season, they managed to capture 103 knights, including their equipment. This was a unique record for that time. Not only thanks to his loyalty, but also because of his reputation as the best tournament professional, he was entrusted with the fighting training of the king's son. According to John Marshall Carter, William Marshal won ransom money for more than 500 knights and 188 knights as prizes in the course of his career.

progeny

From his marriage to Isabel de Clare , Countess of Pembroke, William Marshal had several children:

All of the sons left no heirs, which is why the Earldom of Pembroke expired when the youngest of them died in 1245. Major parts of the lands in Pembrokeshire fell thereupon Joan de Munchensi († 1307), a subsidiary of Williams daughter Joan Marshal at whose husband William de Valence , a half-brother of King Henry III., Which later became the title of Earl of Pembroke was awarded new .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ George Edward Cokayne , Vicary Gibbs (Ed.): The Complete Peerage . Volume 10, Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester 2000, p. 360.
  2. ^ Paul Meyer: Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal. Paris 1891, pp. 1374-1380.
  3. ^ Paul Meyer: Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal. Paris 1891, pp. 3381-3425.
  4. ↑ John M. Carter: Sports History in Medieval Biographies. William Marshal (ca.1146-1219). In: Arnd Krüger , Bernd Wedemeyer-Kolwe (Hrsg.): Learn sports history from biographies. Festschrift for the 90th birthday of Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Henze. 2000, p. 78.

literature

  • Philipp August Becker: From the life of Guillaume de Maréchal . In: Romanesque research . tape 57 , 2/3 H, 1943, pp. 186-191 .
  • Thomas Asbridge : The greatest of all knights and the world of the Middle Ages . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-608-94923-0 .
  • John M. Carter: Sports History in Medieval Biographies. William Marshal (ca.1146-1219). In: Arnd Krüger , Bernd Wedemeyer-Kolwe (Hrsg.): Learn sports history from biographies. Festschrift for the 90th birthday of Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Henze . Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History, Hoya 2000, ISBN 3-932423-07-0 , pp. 67–78.
  • Georges Duby : Guillaume le Maréchal or the best of all knights. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-518-39302-2 .
  • Paul Meyer (Ed.): Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal. 3 volumes. Renouard, Paris 1891–1901.
  • Sidney Pointer: William Marshal. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore 1933.
  • Charles Lethbridge Kingsford: Marshal, William (d.1219) . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 36, Smith, Elder & Co., London 1893, pp. 225-233.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
John Marshal Marshal of England
1194-1219 		William Marshal
New title created Earl of Pembroke
1199-1219 		William Marshal
personal data
SURNAME Marshal, William, 1st Earl of Pembroke
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guillaume le Maréchal
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Anglo-Norman nobleman, Marshal of England
DATE OF BIRTH 1144
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 1219
Place of death Caversham