William Marshal (1147 – 1219)
Most of what we know about William Marshal comes from his biography, which was commissioned by his son and executors in the mid-1220s. He was born to very minor nobility, and after his father’s failed rebellion against King Stephen, the young William was given to the king as a hostage. Favored by Stephen, he eventually made his way into the house of William de Tancarville of Normandy. As a teenager, William developed a reputation as a lazy, self-indulgent glutton. But as he approached his twenties, he began to demonstrate his phenomenal fighting prowess.
He entered his first tournament (a very violent kind of mock battle) in 1166, coming up against fought against forty “finely-equipped” knights, including the King of Scotland and his retinue. Surpassing all expectations, the young William came out victorious. This furthered more than just his knightly reputation as a warrior as anything won during the tournament became the property of the victor. So although Marshal had begun the day as a relatively under-equipped warrior, by the end of he found himself in possession of four fine packhorses as well as a heap of weaponry and armor.
William Marshal also played a pivotal role in the politics of the time. He served under five Angevin kings. William knighted the first one, Henry II, himself. But despite their shared passion for all things chivalric, William soon found himself expelled from court, accused of seducing the young Henry’s wife. While in exile he fought in numerous tournaments and in the mid-1180s even embarked on a Crusade to the Holy Land, something we know remarkably little about other than that he linked up with the Order of the Knights Templar. Upon returning from the Crusade, the 40-year-old William married an 18-year-old heiress. It proved a successful, loving marriage, however, and established William as the Earl of Pembroke.
As well as being Earl of Pembroke, William was now also Regent of the Realm. He went on to fight in this capacity under Richard I (the Lionheart) who he had once almost killed in battle, and after Richard’s death under King John I. John was despised by the English barons, and after their rebellion was ultimately forced to sign the famous Magna Carta in 1215. But despite this, William remained loyal to him; so much so that John’s last words were allegedly about William’s unfailing, loyal service. William Marshal fought his last battle for Henry III against the English rebels and the French at the Battle of Lincoln in 1217. Aged 70, he led the charge himself and won the royal forces the battle. William, by this stage recognized as one of the greatest knights to have ever lived, died just two years later.