William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (by other counting also 5th Earl of Pembroke ) (* around 1190 ; † April 6, 1231 in London ), was an English magnate . He was a member of the aristocratic opposition that forced King John Ohneland to recognize the Magna Carta . After he had already played an important role in the First War of the Barons under his father , he was during the minority of King Henry III. one of the most powerful English magnates. Although he did not achieve the statesmanlike stature of his father, he was nevertheless an able administrator and military man. With a successful campaign against the Welsh in 1223, he secured English rule in South West Wales and pacified the region until the 1250s. In Leinster , Ireland , he continued his father's work and encouraged colonization by the influx of English settlers and by promoting monasteries, so that the area experienced a period of stability and peace under his rule. To secure his extensive possessions, Marshal built or expanded numerous castles such as Cilgerran and Chepstow in Wales and Carlow in Leinster.
origin
William came from the Marshal family . He was the first son of the Anglo-Norman nobleman William Marshal (Guillaume le Maréchal) and Isabel de Clare in Normandy . When King John Ohneland had doubts about his father's loyalty in 1205, he had to hold William hostage, after which William spent seven years at the royal court. He was not released until 1212, when the king again needed his father's support.
Role in the war of the barons
His father then became one of the king's most important advisers and supporters and was an unwavering supporter of the king even in the crisis of 1215. After the death of Johann Ohneland in October 1216, he became regent for the underage Heinrich III. The younger William, however, joined the aristocratic opposition in Stamford in the spring of 1215 . The reason for this could be the experience that William had to make as a hostage of the king, maybe it was also a deliberate calculation that each member of the family joined the two warring camps. In June he was elected one of the twenty-five barons to oversee the observance of the rights wrested from the king in the Magna Carta . When it came to the open war of the barons again in the fall of 1215 , William remained on the side of the rebels, for which he and his colleagues were excommunicated by the Pope . When the French Prince Ludwig landed on the side of the rebels with an army in England in the spring of 1216 , he became marshal of the latter's army. Although he took part directly in the fighting, he carefully avoided running into his father. His aim was to get back the castle and lordship of Marlborough , Wiltshire , which his grandfather John Marshal had owned 70 years earlier. When Prince Ludwig refused to do this, he moved, offended, to the king's camp. He now fought openly for the king, conquered Winchester and Southampton as well as Marlborough that he kept to himself. In May 1217 he supported his father in the decisive victory over the French and the rebels at the Battle of Lincoln , so that Prince Ludwig had to conclude the Peace of Lambeth in September 1217 and renounce his claim to the English throne.
Conflict with the Regency Council
After his father's death in May 1219, he inherited his estate and the title of Earl of Pembroke and became Marshal of England. After his mother's death the following year, he inherited Netherwent in Wales and Leinster in Ireland . The family estates in Normandy, which his father was able to keep even after the Franco-English War , fell to his younger brother Richard . Marshal was one of England's richest magnates through his possessions in England, Wales and Ireland. The Regency Council, which for the underage Heinrich III. led the government, now attempting after the end of the civil war to claim the castles and estates that had been occupied by royal partisans during the war of the barons but had not yet been returned after the end of the fighting. This included Fotheringhay in Northants and Marlborough , both owned by Marshal. The Regency Council tried for five years to dispute these dominions from him in order to give them to other barons, which resulted in constant tension. Fotheringhay was claimed by John of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon . The Regency Council tried to accommodate this cousin of the Scottish King in order to improve relations with Scotland. Marshal refused to hand over rule. There was also a dispute over the Marlborough Castle he held . In April 1220 the Regency Council reprimanded him for building the castle further without permission.
Wars in Wales, Ireland and France
The War of 1220 in Wales
In the Peace of Worcester of 1218, the Regency Council had to recognize the Welsh prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth as steward of Cardigan and Carmarthen while the king was a minor . The other territories of the Marcher Lords , which Llywelyn had conquered since 1215, he promised to return to their previous owners. However, when he took two dominions, including Gower , back from the Welsh Lord Rhys Gryg in 1220 , he forgave them at will, including Gower to his son-in-law John de Braose . Claiming that Marshal's vassals, with assistance from Ireland, had attacked properties of their Welsh neighbors, Llywelyn launched a savage attack on Pembrokeshire . He captured Narberth and Wiston Castle and burned Haverfordwest . In the peace negotiations, Llywelyn demanded a ban on the reconstruction of the destroyed castles and the assignment of territory. Under the pressure of the Welsh raids, Marshal's vassals agreed to these demands.
Marshal now demanded from the royal justiciar Hubert de Burgh that this release his vassals from their promises to Llywelyn, he should confirm that Llywelyn had acted without the king's permission. In return, the legal advisor demanded that Fotheringhay Castle be handed over again. After the legal advisor had confirmed Marshal's demands in writing, Marshal handed the castle over to the Regency Council in 1220.
The War of 1223 in Wales
In March 1223, Llywelyn from Iorwerth suddenly conquered the castles of Kinnerley and Whittington in Shropshire . Marshal then began a counter-attack in South West Wales, whereupon Llywelyn was forced to sign a truce until April 23, Easter Sunday. On April 15, Marshal landed at St David's with an army from Leinster, Ireland . After the armistice expired, he captured Cardigan on Easter Monday and Carmarthen two days later . Llywelyn then sent his son Gruffydd ap Llywelyn with an army to South Wales, which Kidwelly burned down. Presumably Marshal was able to defeat the Welsh and then built Carmarthen Castle, and he began building the heavily fortified Cilgerran Castle . After attempts to end the war between Marshal and Llywelyn failed, the lawyer sent a strong troop of horsemen to assist Marshal, which enabled him to secure his conquests, including Kidwelly Castle . Marshal allied himself with two Welsh lords, Rhys Mechyll and Cynan ap Hywel , who were both grandsons of Lord Rhys of Deheubarth . He gave the conquered southern Ceredigion to Cynan ap Hywel. In addition, Hubert de Burgh conquered Montgomery with a large army in September 1223 , where he began building Montgomery Castle . Llywelyn then had to seek peace. He left Montgomery to the king, evacuated Kinnerley and Whittington and confirmed the acquis in South West Wales. Marshal was appointed administrator of Cardigan and Carmarthen by the king. In return, the sovereign rights of the Welsh princes and lords were confirmed. Cynan ap Hywel handed the southern Ceredigion back to Maelgwn ap Rhys , for which he was compensated by Marshal with Ystlwyf and the eastern part of Emlyn, while the western part of Emlyn Cilgerran was slammed. Through this peace Marshal had restored the pre-1215 property, after which the lesser Marcher Lords of Cemais , St Clears , Laugharne , Llansteffan and Kidwelly got their dominions back.
Campaign in Ireland
After his success in Wales, Marshal turned to Ireland in 1224, where Hugh de Lacy claimed Ulster , which King John had taken from him in 1210. At the end of 1223 he conquered it with the help of his half-brother William and with the help of vassals of his brother Walter from Mide , although Walter de Lacy himself did not support him. Marshal was appointed Royal Justiciar of Ireland on May 2, 1224 . In June he crossed over to Waterford and established his starting position in Dublin . From there he besieged Trim , Mide's main castle, and sent an army to relieve Carrickfergus Castle . Against the alliance of Hugh de Lacy with the Irish Ó Neills, he allied himself with the Irish chiefs of Connacht , Thomond and Desmond . In August, Trim was captured, whereupon Hugh de Lacy finally had to submit. Walter de Lacy was reinstated as Lord of Mide. Surprisingly, Hugh was also treated mildly, and Ulster was returned to him in 1226.
Marriages
As early as 1203, Marshal's father had arranged for him to marry Alice, a daughter of Baudouin de Béthune and Hawise, Countess of Aumale, Count of Aumale . The marriage took place in 1214, but Alice probably died in 1216. In 1221 Hubert de Burgh and the papal legate Pandulf William offered to marry Eleanor , a sister of the king, in order to finally take him over to the side of the Regency Council. William eventually married her in 1224, and as a small price to pay for his royal bride, he also had to turn Marlborough Castle over to the Regency Council. Until 1226, William was a loyal supporter of Justitiar Hubert de Burgh, who had increasingly taken over the government for the young king alone.
Conflicts in Ireland and break with de Burgh
Another point of conflict in Ireland was Richard de Burgh's claim to Connacht. This justified his claim by a donation from King John in the 1190s to his father William . In 1215, however, the King had given Connacht to the Irish Lord Cathal Ó Conchobhair, so that his son Áedh, who had previously supported Marshal against Hugh de Lacy, also claimed rule over Connacht. When Marshal defended himself against Richard de Burgh's claims, the English justiciar Hubert de Burgh, a cousin of Richard, deposed him in June 1226 as Justiciar of Ireland. He was succeeded by Geoffrey Marsh. In 1227 Marshal returned to Ireland once more to order his vassals in Leinster to hand over the royal castles in Leinster to Geoffrey Marsh. He further supported the claims of Áedh Ó Conchobhair on Connacht, whereupon Hubert de Burgh also deprived him of the administration of Cardigan and Carmarthen in Wales.
Further campaigns and death
In 1228 Hubert de Burgh called Marshal for another campaign to Mid Wales against Llywelyn from Iorwerth. It is not certain whether Marshal took part in the campaign. The campaign failed completely, and the Marcher Lord William de Braose was captured by the Welsh. In May 1230 Marshal took part in the king's campaign in France with an entourage of 20 knights . While the king of Brittany was advancing to Bordeaux and had to return without having achieved anything, Marshal made successful forays into Normandy and Anjou . He was one of the few barons whose reputation was not damaged by the unsuccessful campaign.
The captured William de Braose was accused by Lord Llywelyn of having started an affair with his wife Joan of Wales and was therefore hanged in May 1230. Braose left no male descendants, so the administration of his possessions was transferred to Marshal, who was still in France. On his return from France, Marshal traveled to London, where his widowed sister Isabella was married to Richard of Cornwall , the king's younger brother. Shortly after the wedding, Marshal died suddenly in London. He was buried next to his father in Temple Church , where his famous funerary monument is still preserved.
Both of Williams' marriages had remained childless. His younger brother Richard became his heir . His widow Eleanor married Simon de Montfort in 1238 .
Around the year 1226 Marshal had commissioned the Chronicle of L'Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal , which recorded the eventful life of his father for posterity.
Web links
- Nigel Saul: Magna Carta 800th: William de Marshal
- RF Walker: Marshal, William (II), fifth earl of Pembroke (c.1190-1231). 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
- William Marshal, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, on thepeerage.com , accessed July 21, 2015.
Individual evidence
- ↑ there are different details here; the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states April 6; April 24th is indicated at www.thepeerage.com .
- ↑ Nigel Saul: William Marshal (Magna Carta 800th). Retrieved December 3, 2015 .
- ^ David Carpenter: The minority of Henry III . University of California Press, Berkeley 1990. ISBN 0-520-07239-1 , p. 185
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| William Marshal |
Earl of Pembroke Marshal of England 1219-1231 |
Richard Marshal |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Marshal, William, 2nd Earl of Pembroke |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English magnate |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1190 |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 6, 1231 |
| Place of death | London |