What did William Marshall do to earn the title of, "the greatest ever medieval knight"?
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A Victorian copy of William Marshall’s effigy.
In the in his biography of William Marshal, “The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power behind five English Thrones”, Thomas Asbridge wrote:
“William also possessed innate qualities and acquired skills that set him apart. Marshal’s raw physicality allowed him to absorb battering blows that might fell others, while his strength lent jarring force to the attacks he delivered with either lance or sword. Few could match the assured agility of his horsemanship and a canny, guileful strategic awareness meant that he was able to outthink opponents.”
He goes on to give evidence about Marshal’s exploits in a tournament;
“At an event held at Eu, on Normandy’s eastern frontier with Picardy, he captured ten knights and twelve horses in a single day, and the History reported that ‘the tide of his valour and reputation now began to rise, lifting him to high eminence’.” His aim was never to kill a knight at such a tournament but rather, to capture them, take all of their valuable equipment and make him pay a ransom. Needless to say, he became wealthy because of his knightly skills displayed at tournaments. He must have been exceptionally courageous facing a knight or several knights, charging at him at 25 miles per hour on a half a ton of horse with a lance pointing straight at his heart. There were no rules in the melees or tournaments with sometimes over a thousand knights partaking in this “free for all”.
The new statue of William Marshal, Its Earl of Pembroke. outside Pembroke Castle.
He was not only a very skilful knight, from relatively humble beginnings being the son of a minor lord, he rose to the importance of being regent to the young Henry III and saving England from having a French monarch. He worked for five kings including Henry II’s eldest son who was crowned in Henry II’s own lifetime (theoretically to reign in association with his father to prevent any possibility of an accession dispute) but died before his father. In the reign of King John, the barons rebelled against their monarch and it was Marshall who played a key part in advising the king to sign Magna Carta and gain peace at least for a short time. John soon renaged on the Charter but soon after his death, William sealed the charter in the name of John’s young successor, Henry III and people’s rights in England were guaranteed forever.(see the next section for details).
William Marshal’s early life
William had quite a tough upbringing and could have been executed by King Stephen when only five years old. His father, John, decided to fight for Matilda in a civil war known as “The Anarchy” and when he was defeated by Stephen, John Marshall had to agree to a truce but with his second son, young William, as a hostage to supposedly ensure that John would keep his word and not fight. Unfortunately for young William, John did not keep his side of the bargain and again took up arms. Now, William was to face three potential executions. Firstly, it appeared that he would be hanged and when that did not happen that he would be catapulted over John’s fortress walls. This too didn’t take place and so finally King Stephen had the idea of using William as a human shield during an assault on the fortress walls. Fortunately, William’s youth and naivety got the better of Stephen and he spared William’s life. Apparently, he endeared himself by asking if he could play with the guard’s spear when he was being led to the gallows and he wanted to use the catapult sling as a swing! Stephen even played at being a knight with the young William and felt it would be cruel to execute the young boy because of the treachery of his father. It is said that John’s reply, when accused of treachery, was that he did not care for his second born son and suggested that, “he still had the anvils to forge even finer ones!”
Having survived been a hostage, William went home but when he was 13, he was sent to train as a knight to the household of William of Tancarville who was known as “the father of knights”. Seven years later, William was ready to face the world as a knight. Unfortunately, his father died during his training and as he was the second son, nothing was left to him iJohn’s will. He therefore had to make a living participating in tournaments and defeating fellow knights.
William Marshal’s new statue carrying Magna Carta.
William Marshal the heroic knight.
These tournaments would often take place in France between two towns in an area of about nine square kilometres or the equivalent of twenty golf courses. Two squads of possibly 200 knights would be lined up against each other and then the wall of knights would charge at each other lances in hand. A battle would ensue with swords and maces slamming down on vulnerable opponents. The action would then spread out across the landscape and skirmishes would take place. There were rest areas where knights could have a degree of sanctuary but it was not uncommon for ambushes to take place where a group of knights would attack an individual knight who looked wealthy in the hope of getting a big ransom. In William’s first tournament, William captured three valuable knights including the King of Scotland! From this he gained valuable four destriers or war-horses, several lesser horses known as palfreys and packhorses. If you are not convinced that William was the greatest knight, here is another amazing story. At the tournament in Pleurs, William was seen to be the best knight of the tournament and should have been awarded a pike as his trophy but William could not be found at the end of hostilities. A search was carried out until someone heard a banging on metal at the blacksmith”s forge. When they investigated, they found William with his head on the anvil and the blacksmith trying to hit his helmet back into shape so that the helmet could be removed! It may be apocryphal but one last story has William at a tournament in Joigny hearing a song by a young novice herald at arms with a chorus that included the line, “Give me a good horse Marshal” which obviously appealed to William. On hearing it, William told the singer to follow him and promptly charged some knights. Doing his usual trick of seizing an opponent’s reigns, William unseated a knight and gave the war horse to the singer! Thomas Abridge in his biography of William has suggested that a war horse would cost between £40 and £100 and sometimes even more! Using figures from the 1160s one warhorse would cost the same as 40 “everyday horses” ( palfreys).
William Marshal as seen outside his castle in Pembroke.
William Marshal’s knight gear
In this period, plate armour had not been invented and so William would wear a mail hauberk made of 30 000 interlocking iron rings. It would cover his arms and chest and reach down to his knees with a couple of splits, front and back, so that he could skilfully ride his horse. He might also have worn mail leggings and mail mittens. Underneath the hauberk, he would wear padded cloth armour which, it was hoped, would absorb some of the heavy blows coming his way. On his head he would have a padded cap and mail hood which might be part of the hauberk like a mail” hoodie” or be a separate coif, covering his head and shoulders. On top of this he would wear an iron helm (helmet). Early in his fighting career, this would be a traditional conical shape with a nose guard. Sometimes this would be supplemented with a “ventail” which was a piece of mail attached to the coif or hauberk which could be raised to be attached to his helm, covering and protecting his face. Later on this was replaced by a conical helm with a flat top and a perforated visor. This armour would prove to be fairly effective with most sword blows and arrow strikes not being able to penetrate the combination of mail and padding. The one weapon that was effective, was the crossbow bolt that would be specifically designed and fired with so much power, that it could pierce the hauberk and padding beneath it. This would, of course, be seen in battle rather than tournaments where capture, not death, was the goal of participants. The first sight an opponent of William would see would be him charging with a 3 to 3 1/2 metre lance couched under this arm. William would have used a single handed, double edged, sword weighing just over a kilo or two and a half pounds and being 0.86 metres or 34 inches long. They would be made of a mixture of steel and iron that would be hammered endlessly to get a blade that would not easily snap and yet hold an edge. The wrong mixture could result in a sword that would be sharp but brittle and easily snap or a flexible blade but would be blunt and no use for slicing one’s opponent! He would also be familiar with using a dagger, an axe, a mace and a warhammer. Added to all of this would be his wooden shield, strengthened with metal plating or hardened leather.
There were two types of tournaments, “a plaisance” where fighting took place with blunted weapons and “a loutrance” where weapons were sharpened and therefore even more dangerous. Oddly, when fighting was a pleasance, no ransoms were allowed but fighting was still dangerous and required tremendous courage. It meant that participants would be well practiced for any real battle should they be called upon.
William Marshal’s tactics
One of William’s successful tactics was to grab a knight’s reins and pull him out of the fight and then subdue him with the help of his squires. He would sometimes stay out of the initial charge and would join in later on when opponents were getting tired. A captured knight had to leave the battlefield and negotiate his ransom at the end of the day. As long as the ransom was paid, the beaten knight would be allowed to rejoin the fight the following day. William became so successful that he and his companion Roger de Gaugy, captured 103 knights in nine months. On his deathbed, William was supposed to have said, “I’ve captured 500 knights and kept their arms, their horses and all their gear. If that means the kingdom of heaven is closed to me, then that’s that, I can’t give them back!”
From the British Library. This is not William Marshall but this is typical of his attire as well as his actions.
William was in great demand from patrons and after his initial success, he fought for Henry II’s son Henry, whom Henry II crowned as his successor when Henry II was still alive. (Henry II’s aim being to be succeeded legitimately, by his son without any confrontations etc) When William “fell out” with the young Henry, William was actually offered a transfer fee and £500 retainer a year, to fight in tournaments for Count Philip of Flanders. This was a huge sum and showed how valued he was in tournaments!
William Marshal and King Arthur.
In this period, there developed an abiding fascination with the stories of King Arthur and his knights. This began with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s account, the“History Of the Kings of Britain” in the 1130s and was taken further by Robert Wace, an Anglo-Norman, who added the concept of Arthur’s “Round Table”. Count Philip of Flanders was also the patron of Chretien de Troyes who added more to the “Arthurian literature”. He no doubt knew of William Marshall and may well have used him as a model for some of the knightly exploits in his poems. Chretien added to the legend of King Arthur by introducing Lancelot, Percival and the search for the grail. Curiously, William Marshall was accused of having an affair with the young King Henry’s wife, Margaret of France and in the Arthurian legend, Chretien wrote about Lancelot’s affair with King Arthur’s wife, Guinevere. The affair with young Henry’s wife was the creation of some very envious knights but it may have contributed to their fall out.
The legendary King Arthur whose exploits may have been modelled on those of William Marshall. Note the plate armour that Arthur is wearing in this painting was not around when William Marshal was alive.
To prove his innocence, William offered to fight on three consecutive days all three of the Knights who accused him of the liason. To prove that he was innocent he even offered, if the young king agreed, to have one of his fingers cut off from his right hand before the fight. Needless to say, not one of the three accusers took up his challenge. This was still the period of trial by battle and so William’s challenge was in keeping with the practices of the day. The offer fighting for honour and of cutting a finger off no doubt fuelled other Arthurian legends.The key reason for William leaving young Henry’s military retinue of tournament knights (the mesnie) was that people used to chant “Dex aie” meaning “God my help”’ the old war cry of the Norman kings but now began to shout “Dex aie li Mareschal” insulting young Henry by contemptuously and treasonously placing the William above him.
William Marshal and King Richard the Lionheart
Sadly, at the age of 28, young Henry died in 1183 and William moved to be a key supporter of King Henry II. The story of the reign of Henry II is a story of constant rebellion from his sons, aided and abetted by his wife Elenor of Aquitaine and the king of France. In 1189 Henry II’s forces were overwhelmed at Le Mans by the allied forces of the King of France and Richard the Lionheart and so decided to flee the area. They were pursued by the Lionheart and so William was given orders to take on the pursuers. By chance, William found himself being charged at by Richard the Lionheart. It looked like an unfair fight because Richard, keen to keep his weight down and his speed up, had left behind some of his armour and weapons behind. Richard wore a doublet and light helm and only carried a sword compared to William’s full kit which included a lance and a shield. According to William’s medieval biography, Richard shouted out;”God’s legs Marshall, don’t kill me. That would be a wicked thing to do, since you find me here completely unarmed”. William could have killed him there and then but knew it would be wrong on many counts and shouted back;”Let the Devil kill you, I shall not be the one to do it”. Instead he drove his lance into Richard’s horse and killed it instantly. A few days later Henry II died and William was summoned by the new King Richard I to work for him!
Richard was so confident about William’s ability and loyalty that he appointed him a co-justiciar with three others to look after the kingdom when Richard was away on a crusade.
The infamous King John
William Marshal and King John
Richard the Lionheart died having been shot by a crossbow bolt at Chalus in 1199. The next in line was Prince John, who rewarded William with the title of Earl of Pembroke. Coming from a lowly noble family, William had now risen to be an Earl who could be trusted to help run the country and be a key adviser to the King. However, King John, always suspicious of those around him now questioned William’s loyalty because William owned some French land and had to swear an oath of fealty to King Philip of France which meant he could not take up arms against Philip. To ensure William’s loyalty, John held two of William’s sons as hostages until 1213 when William persuaded 26 Anglo-Irish barons to swear an oath to John and this act placed William back at John’s side.
The British Library’s version of Magna Carta
Between 1214 and 1215 William was involved in securing peace between John and his barons which involved the King agreeing to Magna Carta. (See below) John had no intention of keeping what he had agreed to and with the support of the Pope, the treaty was annulled. The consequence of this was that civil war broke out again except this time, the rebel barons offered their allegiance to the King of France and in May 1216, Prince Louis of France landed in Kent with his army. Soon the rebels had London as well as most of Eastern England and so, things looked dire for John. In October John suddenly died with his successor, Henry III, being only nine years old.
William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in front of Pembroke Castle.
William Marshall saves King Henry III and the Angevin dynasty.
Fortunately for Henry III , not all the barons supported the rebellion and William was quickly made Henry’s guardian and therefore regent. William now carried out a masterstroke, he now re-issued Magna Carta in November, guaranteeing the rights that the rebels had requested. This resulted in some of the key barons such as William Longsword, the Earl of Salisbury switching to Henry’s side.
In March 2017, the walled city of Lincoln was attacked by the rebels and soon surrendered. Only the castle, under Lady Nicola de la Haye refused to give in and despite rebel reinforcements coming to Lincoln she still held out. Siege engines were then brought in and began to bombard the castle but again, Nicola stood firm. The bombardment continued through the rest of March, April and May but to no avail. It was at this point that Prince Louis, head of the French, made a fateful error. He divided his troops in two with half moving north to help the rebels at Lincoln and the other half going south to capture Dover castle. It was now up to the seventy year old William Marshall to defeat the rebels and their French allies. He now gambled on bringing it all to a head in one very risky action at Lincoln. The rebels with their French allies were not at full strength and this was his best chance. William’s numbered 406 knights, 317 crossbowmen and infantrymen. whereas the rebels and allies had in excess of 600 knights and several thousand infantrymen. It was a big risk to take them on but William believed it was a risk worth taking.
To help William, the papal legate (representative from the pope) excommunicated the French army and their allies, whilst absolving William’s army from their sins. They could now see themselves as holy warriors and bear white crosses on their surcoats. Adding to determined mindset were William’s rousing speeches warning his men that a French victory would result in mass French seizure of land and property. In Churchillian fashion, he called out that, “it is God’s wish that we defend ourselves” and “the road that lies ahead” must be freed “with blades of iron and steel”. To discover the best way to enter the city, William sent out reconnaissance parties and it was the Bishop of Winchester’s party, (in armour) who discovered an undefended, disused, gateway that had been blocked by masonry and rubble. William now set about creating diversionary tactics so that the rubble could be cleared and the gateway used to sneak into the city. The plan was a success and a large force of knights now charged in. William’s excitement was such that he pushed to the front and began to charge without his helm. This could have easily led to his death and so he had to return to get his helm before going into action. Even at the age of seventy, William was at the front, in the thick of the fighting! One chronicler describing the scene used phrases “like mown down and slaughtered like pigs’, when describing what happened to the rebel barons. Ferocious fighting then followed but momentum was with William’s army and after one of the rebel leaders, Thomas of Perche was killed, some of the rebels fled and others surrendered.
William’s last battle ground, in the area between Lincoln Castle where I stood to take this photo and Lincoln Cathedral.
However, although this battle was won, the war was not over as the French siege of Dover castle continued and French ships would soon be in the channel with reinforcements. William’s job was not yet over , he now had to organise a fleet of ships to prevent the French from landing. On 24th August, the French fleet was defeated. William could now be seen as a brilliant commander and the saviour of the King Henry III and the Angevins. After agreeing peace terms, the French went.
For the next year, William continued to be the young king’s adviser but he was worn out and had to withdraw from public office. Just before his death, on 14th May, 1219, he arranged to become a Knight’s Templar and hoped that God would forgive him for killing and hurting so many people as well as stealing their property. As a consequence of his admission to the Templars, he had a magnificent effigy made and was buried in the Temple Church in London.
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