Let me here again insist that the fundamental error has been the anachronism interpolated in Countess Margaret’s coronation claim (1377). This is really the sole foundation for the statement that the Clares earls of Pembroke held the office of Marshal of England; and it can be conclusively shown to arise from mistaking the coronation of 1236 for that of 1154.[621]
Having thus traced to its origin the confusion which made Richard Strongbow and his father Gilbert marshals of England, I may now deal with the further confusion which assigns to Richard ‘Strongbow’ a legitimate son Walter. In Ormerod’s ‘Strigulensia’ (p. 63), in Mr. Archer’s biography of Richard,[622] and now in the ‘Complete Peerage,’ the fact is accepted as certain. The authority for this statement is a Tintern Abbey charter, in which William Marshal the younger confirms certain grants (22nd March, 1223)—
pro animabus bone memorie Walteri filii Ricardi filii Gilberti Strongbow avi mei, et Willelmi Marescalli patris mei, et Ysabelle matris mee (‘Mon. Ang.,’ v. 267).
A very able genealogist, Mr. G. W. Watson, holds that this charter makes the existence of a son Walter “certain.”[623] But as the text appeared to me obviously corrupt, I referred to the Arundel MS.,[624] from which it is printed in the ‘Monasticon.’ I there made the startling discovery that, as I thought possible, the true text is this (in a 15th century transcript of a 14th century inspeximus of the 13th century charter):
pro animabus bone memorie Walteri filii Ricardi, Gilberti Strongbowe, Ricardi filii Gilberti Strongbowe avi mei, et Willelmi Marescalli patris mei et Ysabelle matris mee[625] (fo. 1).
This makes perfect sense, giving as it does the descent of the Honour from Walter Fitz Richard (de Clare), founder of Tintern. But a much later hand (? 17th century) has coolly run a pen through the three words I have italicised, thus making nonsense of the passage, which was then, in this mutilated form, printed by Dugdale! It is but a further instance of the havoc which he and others have wrought in the genealogy of the famous house of Clare.
As this charter is of independent value for its early (apparently earliest)[626] mention of the name ‘Strongbow,’ its date is of importance; Mr. Archer states that it is “dated Strigul, 22nd March, 1206,”[627] an obviously impossible date. Its real date was 22nd March, 1223[628] (7 Hen. III.).
We may now return to the office of Marshal in the 14th century. On June 3, 1317, the king called on the barons of the Exchequer to inform him from their records, “quæ et cujusmodi feoda marescalli Angliæ qui pro tempore fuerunt et eorum ministri temporibus progenitorum nostrorum videlicet de pane, vino, cereolis, et candelis percipere et habere consueverunt.” For reply they sent him the relative extract from the “Constitutio domus regis.”[629] In 4 Edward III., “Thomas counte Norfolk et marshall d’Engleterre” petitioned the king for his fees “qui appendent a son office de la marechausie dedeinz l’ostell et dehors auxi, come ses predecesseurs countes mareschauls ount estre servy”; and he annexed a list of them based on the above return.[630] Again, on April 13, 1344, the king called on the Exchequer for a return from its records “de feodis quam de aliis quibuscunque quæ pertinent ad officium comitis marescalli et mariscalciæ Angliæ,” etc., etc. Again they sent him the relative extract “in quadam constitutione de domo regis antiquitus facta”; but they added the passage “in Rubro Libro Scaccarii” on Queen Eleanor’s coronation (1236), and a ‘Dialogus’ passage on the fees due to the Marshal from those he imprisoned for default at the Exchequer.[631]
Lastly, we have in the treatise on the Marshal’s office, as given in Nero D. vi., the following passage at its close (fol. 86d):
In rubro libro de scaccario Regis folio xxxo sic continetur de marescallo.