Earl Marshall, and Protector of England, during the minority of king Henry the Third, and one of the greatest of the warriors and statesmen who shine in English history. Matthew Paris describes his burial in the Temple Church in the year 1119, and in Camden’s time, (A. D. 1586,) the inscription upon his monument was legible. “In altero horum tumulo,” says Camden, “literis fugientibus legi, Comes Pembrochiæ, et in latere, Miles eram Martis, Mars multos vicerat armis.”[502] Although no longer, (“the first of the cross-legged,”) as described by Stow, A. D. 1598, yet tradition has always, since the days of Roger Gillingham, who moved these figures, pointed it out as “the monument of the protector,” and the lion rampant, still plainly visible upon the shield, was the armorial bearing of the Marshalls.
This interesting monumental effigy is carved in a common kind of stone, called by the masons fire-stone. It represents an armed warrior clothed from head to foot in chain mail; he is in the act of sheathing a sword which hangs on his left side; his legs are crossed, and his feet, which are armed with spurs, rest on a lion couchant. Over his armour is worn a loose garment, confined to the waist by a girdle, and from his left arm hangs suspended a shield, having a lion rampant engraved thereon. The greater part of the sword has been broken away and lost, which has given rise to the supposition that he is sheathing a dagger. The head is defended by a round helmet, and rests on a stone pillow.
The family of the Marshalls derived their name from the hereditary office of earl marshall, which they held under the crown.
The above William Marshall was the son and heir of John Marshall, earl of Strigul, and was the faithful and constant supporter of the royal house of Plantagenet. When the young prince Henry, eldest son of king Henry the Second, was on his deathbed at the castle of Martel near Turenne, he gave to him, as his best friend, his cross to carry to Jerusalem.[503] On the return of William Marshall from the holy city, he was present at the coronation of Richard Cœur de Lion, and bore on that occasion the royal sceptre of gold surmounted by a cross.[504] King Richard the same year gave him in marriage Isabel de Clare, the only child and heiress of Richard de Clare, earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow, and granted him with this illustrious lady the earldom of Pembroke.[505] The year following (A. D. 1190) he became one of the sureties for the performance by king Richard of his part of the treaty entered into with the king of France for the accomplishment of the crusade to the Holy Land, and on the departure of king Richard for the far East he was appointed by that monarch one of the council for the government of the kingdom during his absence.[506]
From the year 1189 to 1205 he was sheriff of Lincolnshire, and was after that sheriff of Sussex, and held that office during the whole of king Richard’s reign. He attended Cœur de Lion in his expedition to Normandy, and on the death of that monarch by the hand of Bertram, the cross-bow-man, before the walls of Castle Chaluz, he was sent over to England to keep the peace of the kingdom until the arrival of king John. In conjunction with Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, he caused the freemen of England, both of the cities and boroughs, and most of the earls, barons, and free tenants, to swear fealty to John.[507]
On the arrival of the latter in England he was constituted sheriff of Gloucestershire and of Sussex, and was shortly afterwards sent into Normandy at the head of a large body of forces. He commanded in the famous battle fought A. D. 1202 before the fortress of Mirabel, in which the unfortunate prince Arthur and his lovely sister Eleanor, “the pearl of Brittany,” were taken prisoners, together with the earl of March, most of the nobility of Poictou and Anjou, and two hundred French knights, who were ignominiously put into fetters, and sent away in carts to Normandy. This battle was followed, as is well known, by the mysterious death of prince Arthur, who is said to have been murdered by king John himself, whilst the beautiful Eleanor, nicknamed La Bret, who, after the death of her brother, was the next heiress to the crown of England, was confined in close custody in Bristol Castle, where she remained a prisoner for life. At the head of four thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, the earl Marshall attempted to relieve the fortress of Chateau Gaillard, which was besieged by Philip king of France, but failed in consequence of the non-arrival of seventy flat-bottomed vessels, whose progress up the river Seine had been retarded by a strong contrary wind.[508] For his fidelity and services to the crown he was rewarded with numerous manors, lands, and castles, both in England and in Normandy, with the whole province of Leinster in Ireland, and he was made governor of the castles of Caermerden, Cardigan, and Coher.
In the year 1204 he was sent ambassador to Paris, and on his return he continued to be the constant and faithful attendant of the English monarch. He was one of the witnesses to the surrender by king John at Temple Ewell of his crown and kingdom to the pope,[509] and when the barons’ war broke out he was the constant mediator and negotiator between the king and his rebellious subjects, enjoying the confidence and respect of both parties. When the armed barons came to the Temple, where king John resided, to demand the liberties and laws of king Edward, he became surety for the performance of the king’s promise to satisfy their demands. He was afterwards deputed to inquire what these laws and liberties were, and after having received at Stamford the written demands of the barons, he urged the king to satisfy them. Failing in this, he returned to Stamford to explain the king’s denial, and the barons’ war then broke out. He afterwards accompanied king John to the Tower, and when the barons entered London he was sent to announce the submission of the king to their desires. Shortly afterwards he attended king John to Runnymede, in company with Brother Americ, the Master of the Temple, and at the earnest request of these two exalted personages, king John was at last induced to sign Magna Charta.[510]
On the death of that monarch, in the midst of a civil war and a foreign invasion, he assembled the loyal bishops and barons of the land at Gloucester, and by his eloquence, talents, and address, secured the throne for king John’s son, the young prince Henry.[511] The greater part of England was at that time in the possession of prince Louis, the dauphin of France, who had landed with a French army at Sandwich, and was supported by the late king’s rebellious barons in a claim to the throne. Pembroke was chosen guardian and protector of the young king and of the kingdom, and exerted himself with great zeal and success in driving out the French, and in bringing back the English to their antient allegiance.[512] He offered pardon in the king’s name to the disaffected barons for their past offences. He confirmed, in the name of the youthful sovereign, Magna Charta and the Charta Forestæ; and as the great seal had been lost by king John, together with all his treasure, in the washes of Lincolnshire, the deeds of confirmation were sealed with the seal of the earl marshall.[513] He also extended the benefit of Magna Charta to Ireland, and commanded all the sheriffs to read it publicly at the county courts, and enforce its observance in every particular. Having thus exerted himself to remove the just complaints of the disaffected, he levied a considerable army, and having left the young king at Bristol, he proceeded to lay siege to the castle of Mountsorel in Leicestershire, which was in the possession of the French.
Prince Louis had, in the mean time, despatched an army of twenty thousand men, officered by six hundred knights, from London against the northern counties. These mercenaries stormed various strong castles, despoiled the towns, villages, and religious houses, and laid waste the open country. The protector concentrated all his forces at Newarke, and on Whit-monday, A. D. 1217, he marched at their head, accompanied by his eldest son and the young king, to raise the siege of Lincoln Castle. On arriving at Stow he halted his army, and leaving the youthful monarch and the royal family at that place under the protection of a strong guard, he proceeded with the remainder of his forces to Lincoln. On Saturday in Whitsun week (A. D. 1217) he gained a complete victory over the disaffected English and their French allies, and gave a deathblow to the hopes and prospects of the dauphin. Four earls, eleven barons, and four hundred knights, were taken prisoners, besides common soldiers innumerable. The earl of Perch, a Frenchman, was slain whilst manfully defending himself in a churchyard, having previously had his horse killed under him. The rebel force lost all their baggage, provisions, treasure, and the spoil which they had accumulated from the plunder of the northern provinces, among which were many valuable gold and silver vessels torn from the churches and the monasteries.
As soon as the fate of the day was decided, the protector rode back to the young king at Stow, and was the first to communicate the happy intelligence of his victory.[514] He then marched upon London, where prince Louis and his adherents had fortified themselves, and leaving a corps of observation in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, he proceeded to take possession of all the eastern counties. Having received intelligence of the concentration of a French fleet at Calais to make a descent upon the English coast, he armed the ships of the Cinque Ports, and, intercepting the French vessels, he gained a brilliant victory over a much superior naval force of the enemy.[515] By his valour and military talents he speedily reduced the French prince to the necessity of suing for peace.[516] On the 11th of September a personal interview took place between the latter and the protector at Staines near London, and it was agreed that the prince and all the French forces should immediately evacuate the country.