Meander in Latin means a winding course. The word may have originated from the Greek name for a river in Caria which was a winding one – Miandros.
Originally when I thought of this blog, I planned to post
photos and commentary of places that I wandered to this month. And I will
include a couple of photos, but I ended up meandering through a historical
person’s life, and that is my main topic this time.
I think I first came across the name William Marshal in a
book of my father’s called ‘Below the Salt’ (published in 1957 by Doubleday)
written by the Canadian writer Thomas B. Costain. (A meander - By the time this
book was published Costain had written nine novels and three histories in
fifteen years. Costain does not seem to be well known or mentioned these days,
but I like his books. He was also an editor at McClean’s as well as an
associate editor at Saturday Evening Post and later an advisory editor at
Doubleday.)
‘Below the Salt’ is sort of a time travel book in that one
of the main characters keeps having dreams of a former life during the time of
King John and the Magna Carta. William Marshal was a knight and earl involved
in this time, though he is a minor character in the book.
Recently I’ve been watching a documentary on Acorn TV,
called ‘Tales of Irish Castles.’ One of the episodes spent quite a bit of time
on William Marshal and I learned that Marshal married the heiress Isabel of
Clare, who had lands and castles in both Wales and Ireland. The narrator said
that the two of them had a happy and prosperous relationship during turbulent
times. He also mentioned that Marshal was known as “the greatest knight” during
his lifetime. I wanted to know more.
In the Saskatoon Public Library, I found the book called
‘The Greatest Knight’ by Thomas Asbridge. The first really fascinating fact was
that in 1861 a young French scholar (Paul Meyer) came across a rare manuscript
at a Sotheby’s auction. (Another meander – Meyer was called as a witness in
France at the Dreyfus trial in 1898, as a handwriting expert.)
Meyer examined the manuscript and noted that it “Contains
an original chronicle, which seems to report the conflict that broke out in
England during the reign of Stephen, nephew of Henry I.” He thought that the
manuscript (written in Medieval French verse) had not been opened or touched
for about 250 years. In the auction the book went to a famous book collector
and antiquarian, Sir Thomas Phillips. Meyer did not see the text again for
twenty years. When he finally got hold of it again after Phillips’ death, Meyer
discovered that it was the life story of a man called Guillaume le Maréchal
(William Marshal).
William Marshal was first mentioned when King Stephen of England took him hostage as a five-year-old, in guarantee for his father’s word in the great conflict over the English crown after Henry I’s death. William’s father broke his word and decided not to support King Stephen. The latter decided to hang the young boy. Luckily this didn’t happen. William was the youngest son of John Marshal and had no prospects. He remained a hostage for some months but was eventually returned to his family.
Around the age of twelve William was sent to Normandy, to a
kinsman of his mother’s. At this time the English kings held England (as well
as parts of Wales and Ireland) and lands in what is now France. Henry II (who
took over as king when Stephen died) held Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and Brittany.
From his marriage to Eleanor, he also gained Aquitaine. William Marshal spent
most of his young adulthood in these Angevin lands as a soldier and knight.
Since he had no family expectations, William had to find
ways to support himself. After patronage from his Norman kinsman was withdrawn William
went on the tournament circuit. In those days, tournaments did not involve the structured
jousting we often see in movies and television, but rather melees where groups
of knights fought each other in open fields. Whatever horses and equipment a
knight could capture became his and any other knights he captured had to pay
ransom to be released. William became good at this and did very well for
himself in horses and funds.
For a time, William served in the retinue of Eleanor of
Aquitaine and later in that of Henry, the young king. (Another meander: King
Henry II was worried about the succession as he’d experienced the civil war in
England, so he had his first-born son crowned while Henry II was still alive.)
Henry II and Eleanor had five sons and three daughters. Three of the living
sons (Henry, Richard, and Geoffrey) though given lands across the Channel from
England to look after, each at one time or another revolted against their
father or fought each other. William Marshal supported Henry the young King
until the latter died in battle.
Henry II forgave Marshal for supporting his son in
rebellion and took him on after William had returned from a brief crusade to
the Holy Land. When Henry II died, Marshal served Richard I (the Lionheart) and
became co-justiciar of England while Richard was on crusade. (Meander: Marshal
once spared Richard’s life when the two of them fought on opposite sides.) Around
this time Marshal also married Isabel of Clare, whose lands made him one of the
richest men in England. On the way back from the crusade Richard was taken
prisoner in Austria and held for ransom. Richard’s brother John was hoping to
take over the kingdom, but Richard returned, and attempted to take back some of
the Angevin lands that John had let go to the King of France. William Marshal
fought at Richard’s side.
When Richard eventually died, Marshal was able to work,
though with difficulty, for King John, who was reviled by many in his time and
in the centuries to come, so that no other English king has ever taken that
name.
In 1205 William Marshal quarreled with King John and went to his and Isabel’s estates in Ireland for a time. He returned to royal favour in 1212 and was a negotiator at John’s side during the baronial rebellion which began in 1215 and led to the signing of the Magna Carta.
By the time he died in 1219, William Marshal had lived
through the reigns of four kings and served three of them.
“In many respects, William Marshal was the archetypal medieval knight. His qualities epitomised, perhaps even defined, those valued in late twelfth- and early- thirteenth century Western European aristocratic culture. His storied career stood as testament to what knights could achieve: the heights to which they could rise and the extent to which they could shape history.” – from ‘The Greatest Knight’ by Thomas Asbridge.
