Bob Juch's Kin

76317440. Jolian de Neville was born about 1140. He married Amfelicia de Rolleston. [Parents]

76317441. Amfelicia de Rolleston was born about 1150.

76320768. Sir Ralph St. Leger ¹ was born about 1248. He died 1290. [Parents]

76322830. William de Briwere 2nd Lord of Horsley was born about 1145 in Little Bytham, Lincolnshire, England. He died 1226 in Stoke, Devonshire, England. William married Beatrice de Vaux. [Parents]

76322831. Beatrice de Vaux was born about 1149 in Gillesland, Irthington, Cumberland, England. She died 24 Mar 1216 in Stoke, Devonshire, England. [Parents]

76322864. Ralph de Mortimer was born about 1055 in Wigmore, Herfordshire, England. He died 1100. Ralph married Millicent de Ferrers. [Parents]

HUGH, ROGER and RAOUL DE MORTEMER

The Conqueror and His Companions
by J. R. Planché, Somerset Herald. London: Tinsley Brothers, 1874..

Wace, in his description of the great battle, speaks of a "Hue de Mortemer, who, with three other knights, the sires of Auvilier, Onebec, and St. Cier, charged a body of English who had fallen back on a rising ground, and overthrew many." Monsieur Auguste le Prévost, in his note onn this passage says authoritatively, but without citing his evidence, that "it was not Hugh de Mortemer who assisted at the battle of Hastings, but his father Raoul, son of Roger Lord of Mortemer sur Eaulne," in which opinion he is followed by Mr. Taylor, in his translation of Wace's account, without further information. In the recently compiled lists of MM. de Magny and Leopold de Lisle be is also called Raoul; but upon what evidence?

The English translator of Orderic, in a note on the death-bed discourse of William the Conqueror, says, equally without proof, that it was Roger de Mortemer, son of the elder Roger, who fought at Hastings.

It is quite true that we cannot implicitly rely upon Wace, who has been misled by his informants or betrayed by his memory in many instances, and where his statements are improbable or contradicted by direct or circumstantial evidence we may justly consider him mistaken; but it is a bold thing to deny without very strong reasons that there was no Hugh de Mortemer in the fight at Senlac.

That Monsieur le Prévost may be justified in stating that it was not Hughh de Mortemer, son of Raoul and grandson of Roger, who was present at the battle I will not dispute, but Wace does not say it was, and there is such wild confusion and glaring contradictions in all the pedigrees I have examined of the Norman Mortemers that I consider it premature to discredit Wace's assertion, while I by no means deny that not only Ralph, but his father, or some other of the name of Roger of that family, may also have been present in the battle, as assumed by the erudite antiquaries whose opinions I have quoted. I propose, therefore, to give the worthy Prebend of Bayeux the benefit of the doubt till better advised, and at the same time state as briefly as possible the result of my own researches into the early history of the Mortemers or Mortimers.

"The first of the name that I have observed," says Dugdale, "is Roger de Mortimer, by some thought to be the son of William de Warren, by others of Walter de St. Martin, brother of that William." And farther on he adds that "this Roger de Mortimer was by consanguinity allied to William the Conqueror, his mother being niece to Gunnora, wife to Richard, Duke of Normandy, and great-grandmother to the Conqueror."

For these statements he relies on Guillaume de Jumièges, the Normann genealogist, to whom we are indebted for so much interesting information of this description, but who is occasionally as incorrect as his contemporaries. As I have already, in my notice of William de Warren, shown the fallacy of this descent of Mortimer, I shall not inflict it a second time on my readers.

There can be no doubt tbat Mortemer (latinized, Mortuo-mari), the locality from which the surname of the family was assumed, is situated in that portion of Normandy known as the Pays de Caux, and at the source of the river Eaulne; that the Castle of Saint Victor-en-Caux was the caput baroniaeof the family, and that it was in the poseession of a Roger de Mortemer anterior to the invasion of England, as in 1054, twelve years previous to that event, Count Eudes, or Odo, brother of Henry I, King of France, invaded the territory of Evreux, and William, then Duke of Normandy, sent this Roger de Mortemer, at that time his general, with Robert, Comte d'Eu, Hugh de Montfort, Hugh de Gournay, William Crispin, and Walter Giffard to oppose him. (See the long and elaborate controversy in M. de la Mairie's "Recherches Historiques," 1852, respecting the scene of this battle.)

The French had taken possession of the town of Mortemer, and had passed the night in revelry. The Normans surprised them at daybreak, while the majority were asleep, and set fire to the town. Awakened by the flames in their lodgings, they armed themselves in the greatest confusion. Wace is as usual most graphic in his account. One man, he says, could not mount his horse, not being able to find his bridle; another could not get out of the house he was in, being unable to find the door. Every issue from the burning town was guarded by the Normans, and the fight was kept up in the midst of the conflagration from morning till three hours past noon. The French were nearly all killed or taken prisoners. One of the few who escaped was Eudes, the King's brother; but Guy, Count of Ponthieu, was taken prisoner, and his brother Waleran slain. There was no varlet, let him be ever so mean or of ever so low degree, but took some Frenchman prisoner aud seized two or three horses with all their harness; nor was there a prison in all Normandy which was not full of Frenchmen. They were to be seen fleeing around, skulking in the woods and bushes, the dead and wounded lying amidst the smouldering ruins, on the dunghills, about the fields, and in the by-paths.

Ralph III, surnamed "the Great," Comte de Valois aud Amiens, by Orderic called De Montdidier, who was on the side of the French, succeeded in making his way out of the town, and took refuge in the Castle of Mortemer, where he was sheltered by its victorious lord, who had formerly sworn fealty to him, and who, after entertaining him for three days, safely conducted him to his own territories.

For this breach of duty to Duke William, Roger de Mortemer was banished from Normandy and his possessions confiscated, but being afterwards reconciled to the Duke, had them all restored to him, with the exception of the Castle of Mortemer, in which he had harboured William's enemy Count Ralph, and that the Duke gave to Roger's cousin, young William de Warren; a sufficient answer to those who assert that Roger was his son.

Orderic, in making the Conqueror allude to the oath of fealty Roger had taken to Count Ralph, does not assign the reason for it, or hint that Roger de Mortemer was the Count's son-in-law. Here at any rate is some very important light thrown upon the pedigree of Mortemer, as none of the ancient or later genealogists have mentioned the wife of this Roger. Notwithstanding her noble descent, no trace of her is to be found even in the "Art de Verifierles Dates," but her name appears to have been Hadewisa, who possessed of her own inheritance the vill of Mees, at the mouth of the river Bresle, in the diocese of Amiens, and the district called Le Vimieu, and her gifts to the Abbey of St. Victor at this place were confirmed in 1102 by Theobald, Bishop of Amiens. Montdidier is in the same diocese, and had been forcibly seized by Count Ralph, who eventually died there September 8, 1074. Roger de Mortemer, therefore, it has been reasonably presumed, did homage to the Count for the lands he held of his fief, and which were given to him in franc marriage with his daughter.

Still, upon the principal question, who were the parents of this Roger de Mortemer, we have no conclusive evidence; no fact to start from of an earlier date than 1054, when we find him a leader at the battle fought in his own town, beneath the walls of his own castle. His age at that period can be no more determined at present than his parentage; but we see he was married, in possession of the family estates, and had attained sufficient military rank and reputation to be intrusted by Duke William with the chief command of a division of his forces. He was living, as well as his wife, in 1074, when, upon their joint petition, a priory which had been established at St. Victor as a cell to the abbey of St. Ouen was itself erected into an abbey. This was only twenty years after the battle of Mortemer, and unless incapacitated by illness, there is no reason why he should not have been eight years previously in that of Senlac. At all events he is said to have contributed sixty vessels to the Duke's fleet, and if not himself in the expedition, was doubtlessly represented, either by his son Ralph, or it may be by some other relative named Hugh.

My reason for the latter suggestion is that Ralph de Mortemer, by his wife Millicent, had two sons, the eldest of whom was named Hugh, and may not have been the first so named in the family, as he certainly was not the laSt. It is a question, indeed, with some, whether Ralph, if the son of Hadewisa, as there is no reason to doubt, cauld have been old enough in 1066 to bear arms at Hastings. His mother must have been very young in 1054, and her eldest born, in his infancy. I say eldest born, for it is not proved that Ralph was an only child any more than that his father Roger was an only child.

A Wydo or Guy de Mortimer, and a Bartholomew de Mortimer were living in the latter half of the twelfth century, whose parents must have been contemporary with the first Roger de Mortemer we know of, and the branch of Mortimer of Ricard's Castle has yet to be traced to its offshoot.

Roger de Mortemer, living in 1074, was dead before the compilation of Domesday, when Ralph de Mortemer was found possessed of one hundred and twenty-three manors, besides several hamlets, and the Castle of Wigmore, built by William Fitz Osbern, Earl of Hereford, and which became the principal seat of his family. His tenure of these estates in 1086 by no means proves that they were bestowed upon him for his services at Senlac. He might have succeeded to many by inheritance from his father Roger, or some other kinsman, on whom they had been bestowed by the Conqueror, and obtained some with his wife Millicent, whose family has yet to be discovered. It is most provoking to be left thus continually in the dark respecting the families of the wives of these Norman nobles. A knowledge of them would frequently be of the greatest importance to English history, by accounting in many instances for the acts of their husbands. Witness, for example, the fact recently discovered respecting Hadewisa, wife of Roger de Mortemer. Herbeing the daughter of Ralph de Montdidier, Count of Amiens, at once discloses the difficult position in which Roger was placed between his sovereign and his father-in-law, to both of whom he owed fealty, and explains the excuse King William admitted he had for sheltering his Prince's enemy. A similar discovery regarding Millicent might as satisfactorily account for the conduct of her husband Ralph, who is one day in arms against his sovereign and the next for him, without any motive assigned for his tergiversation. Matrimonial alliances and family dissensions have naturally influenced, and will continue to influence, the actions of public men, and history is constantly corrected and illustrated by a disclosure of the secret springs of action which have their rise in private interests and feelings. I therefore say with the French Lieutenant de Police, "Cherchez la femme,"and depend upon it, nine times out of ten you will arrive at the truth of the story.

I have as yet searched in vain to affi1iate Millicent de Mortemer. Her family name is not alluded to by Stephen, Comte d'Aumale, who married her daughter Havise, in his confirmation charter to the Church of St. Martin-des-Champs, a Cluniac Priory in one of the suburbs of Paris. He simply informs us that she was then deceased. Vincent and Dugdale make no guess at it, and I shall prudently follow their example.

Roger de Mortemer, the eldest, was, I have stated, dead before the compilation of Domesday, as we hear no more of him after 1074, and in 1088 we find Ralph in arms against William Rufus, having joined the movement of Bishop Odo in favour of Robert Court-heuse, and with the assistance of the Welsh doing much mischief in Worcestershire and on the Welsh borders. Two years afterwards, having been restored to the King's favour, he, with Robert, Comte d'Eu, and Walter Giffard, fortified his castle in Normandy against Court-heuse, and. continued apparently true to his English overlord from that period.

In 1100 (the 1st of Henry I) he founded the priory of Wigmore, and in the history of the foundation of that establishment, printed by Dugdale in his "Monasticon," Ralph de Mortemer is stated to have died in Normandy on the nones of August that same year. Clearly an error, clerical or other, as in 1104, on King Henry's arrival in Normandy, Ralph de Mortemer is mentioned by Orderic as amongst the many nobles of that duchy who possessed large estates in England, and received him with great honour, making him many costly presents befitting a king. The history itself also not only records his services in the war that followed, but states that King Henry gave him the command of the forces sent against Robert Court-heuse, whom he vanquished and brought captive to the King, which, if it means anything, would amount to the assertion that he was the general-in-chief of the royal army at the battle of Tenchebrai in 1106; but of this there is no coroborative evidence, and as his name even does not appear amongst the known leaders in that memorable action, I conclude that he was at that time deceased.

By his wife, the unidentified Millicent, Sir Ralph de Mortemer had two sons: Hugh, who succeeded him, and William, to whom his brother gave Chelmarsh, and who, though represented to have died without issue, has been proved by Mr. Stapleton to have been the progenitor of the line of Mortimer of Attleborough. He had also a daughter named after her grandmother, Hadewisa, Havise, or Avice, wife, as I have previously stated, of Stephen, Comte d'Aumale. From this Hugh de Mortemer descended the many illustrious men of that name, whose blood, eventually mingling with that of the Plantagenets and the Tudors, still flows in the veins of the royal family of England.

76322865. Millicent de Ferrers was born ¹ about 1060 in Wigmore, Herfordshire, England. She died before 10 Mar 1087/1088. [Parents]

76322866. William de Meschines Earl of Cambridge was born 1096 in Gernon Castle, Normandy, France. He died about 1132 in of Egremont, Cumberland, England. William married Cecily de Romilly. [Parents]

76322867. Cecily de Romilly was born about 1100 in of Normandy. She died 1151. [Parents]

76322874. Madog ap Maredydd was born about 1095 in Powys, Wales. He died 1160 in Winchester, Hampshire, England. Madog married Susannah verch Gruffydd about 1128. [Parents]

Madoc ap Meredith, Prince of Lower Powys, from him called Powys Fadoc, who d. at Winchester in 1160, and was buried in Meifod Church, near Mathrafal, his castle-palace on the banks of the Vwrnwy, where the carved stone lid of his coffin, with the cognizance of the dragon, is still to be seen. According to the Welsh chronicle, he was "one who feared God and relieved the poor." By the Princess Susanna his consort, dau. of Griffith ap Cynan, King of North Wales, this monarch had, with other issue, Griffith Maelor ap Madoc and Owen Vychan ap Madoc. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 113, Cherlton, Barons Cherlton, of Powys]

76322875. Susannah verch Gruffydd was born about 1095.

76322886. Walter de Berkeley Lord of Gartley, Great Chamberalain was born about 1136 in Gartley, Banffshire, Scotland. He died about 1190. Walter married Eva de Molle.

76322887. Eva de Molle was born about 1144 in Carrick, Ayrshire, Scotland. [Parents]

76322888. Hamelin Plantagenet 5th Earl of Surrey ¹ was born 1130 in Normandy, France. He died ^{2, 3} 7 May 1202 in Lewes, Sussex, England and was buried in Chapter House of Lewes Priory, Sussex, England. Hamelin married Isabel de Warenne Heiress of Surrey on Apr 1164 in Surrey, England. [Parents]

Assumed the name of Warren and became the Earl of Surrey, Vicomte of
Touraine. (See Early Yorkshire Charters Vol viii pp 20-24 for
daughters' details).

Hameline Plantagenet, natural brother to King Henry II, likewise obtained, jure uxoris, the Earldom of Surrey, and assumed the surname and arms of de Warren. This nobleman bore one of the three swords at the second coronation of Richard I, and in the 6th of the same reign [1195], he was with that king in his army in Normandy. He d. 7 May 1202, four years after the countess, having had issue, William, Adela, Maud, another dau. who m. Gilbert de Aquila, Isabel, and Margaret. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 569, Warren, Earls of Surrey]

From 'An Illustrated Account of Conisbrough' by Robert Allen Marsh
1163 Hamelin Plantagenet, son of Geoffrey, Earl of Anjou, and half-brother of King Henry 2nd became the 5th Earl on his marriage to the widowed Isabel. It is accepted that he built the Castle Keep on the site of an earlier wooden stronghold c.1180-90, and probably the curtain wall soon afterwards. Isabel and Hamelin made an endowment of 50/- a year for a priest and a chapel within the castle 1189. Hamelin's nephew, King John, issued a charter at Conisbrough in 1201 and may have lodged in the Keep. Hamelin was one of a number of treasurers responsible for raising 70,000 marks of silver to affect the release of King Richard who had been imprisoned in Austria on his return from the Holy Land. Hamelin himself contributed 40.8.7d. He died in 1201 and was buried at Lewes.

76322889. Isabel de Warenne Heiress of Surrey ^{1, 2} was born 1137 in Surrey, England. She died ³ 13 Jul 1199 in Lewes, Sussex, England. [Parents]

76322890. William Marshal 3rd Earl of Pembroke ^{1, 2} was born ³ 1146 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales. He died ³ 14 May 1219 in Caversham Manor, England and was buried ³ in Temple Church, London, England. William married ³ Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare on Aug 1189 in London, Middlesex, England. [Parents]

Marshal of England
Protector of the Realm
Regent of the Kingdom

The office of Marshal to the king was a hereditary perquisite of a middling Wiltshire family. The duties were various, but mainly they consisted of acting as second-in-command to the constable of the royal household, maintaining order in the palace and guarding it, looking after the stables, keeping the rolls of those who performed their military service, and checking the accounts of various household and state departments.

From this family came William Marshal, whose biography was written by his squire John of Earley so providing us with one of the deepest and most fascinating insights into the life of a great baron of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.

His father, John Marshal, whom the Gesta Stephani rather unkindly describes as 'a limb of hell and the root of all evil' was a man who loved warfare, and played the game of politics with great success. At first he supported Stephen but, when he began to realize the failings of the King and the potentialities of Matilda's party, he changed sides. Almost immediately he proved by a consummate act of bravery and hardihood, that he was worth having: escorting Matilda to safety in his castle at Ledgershall, John found that the party was going dangerously slowly because Matilda was riding side-saddle, so he persuaded her to ride astride, and stopped behind to delay the pursuers at Wherwell. His force was soon overpowered by the numbers of the enemy, and John took refuge with one of his knights in the Abbey. The opposing party promptly set fire to the church, and John and his knight had to take cover in the tower, John threatening to kill his knight if he made any move to surrender. As the lead of the roof began to melt and drop on the two soldiers, putting out one of John's eyes, the enemy moved off, convinced that they were dead. They escaped, in a terrible state, but triumphant, to John's castle.

He plainly expected his children to be as tough as himself, as an incident of the year 1152, when William was about six, will show. King Stephen went to besiege Newbury Castle, which Matilda had given John to defend; the castellan, realizing that provisions and the garrison were both too low to stand a long siege, asked for a truce to inform his master. This was normal practice, for if the castellan were not at once relieved, he could then surrender without being held to have let his master down. Now John had not sufficient troops to relieve the castle, so he asked Stephen to extend the truce whilst he, in turn, informed his mistress, and agreed to give William as a hostage, promising not to provision and garrison the castle during the truce. This he promptly did, and when he received word from Stephen that the child would be hung if he did not at once surrender the castle, he cheerfully replied that he had hammer and anvils to forge a better child than William.

The child was taken out for execution, but at the last moment Stephen relented with that soft heart that was his undoing, and though his officers presented such enticing plans as catapulting William over the castle walls with a siege engine, he would not give in. Later on he grew attached to the child, and one day when William was playing an elementary form of conkers with the King, using plantains, the child saw a servant of his mother, the lady Sibile (sister of the Earl of Salisbury), peeping in to check up on his safety. William cried out a greeting and the servant had to run for his life. The child did not know what danger she was running, but it was good and early training for his future career.

When he was thirteen William was sent to serve in the retinue of his father's cousin, the chamberlain of Normandy. This was his apprenticeship in knighthood, and was to last eight years. As a squire he would learn by experience all the skills of a knight, and the elaborate code of honor that went with it. After he had been knighted in 1167, he began to go round the tournaments to make his name, and earn a living by the spoils. He was eager for the fray, so eager in fact that in his earliest tournaments he concentrated too much on the fighting, and forgot to take the plunder. He had to be warned by elder and wiser knights of the dangerous folly of such quixotic behavior---a good war-horse captured from an unseated opponent could fetch 40 pounds. Even so, his heart was really set upon fame, and he recalled in old age the pride he had experienced as a youngster when, having retired to the refuge (a hut regarded as neutral territory in a tournament) to fix his helmet, he overheard two knights outside commenting on how well he was fighting.

He was, however, only the second son of a middling baron, and he could not live off honor; so it must have been wonderful news for him when in 1170 he heard of his appointment as captain of the guard and military tutor to King Henry II's heir, the fifteen-year-old Henry, already crowned in his father's lifetime in, as it turned out, a fruitless attempt to ensure the succession. In 1173 it fell to his lot to make the young King a knight.

Henry seems to have had a good sense of humor, for in 1176 when the two were cantering back into town after a tournament, William managed to bag another knight, and led him reined behind, with the King following. A low-hanging water sprout swept the knight off his horse, but Henry kept what he had seen to himself, and the laugh was definitely on William when they got home to find he was leading a horse, but no knight to ransom.

Tournaments were so frequent at that time that a real enthusiast could attend one a fortnight, and William and the King must have attained a record number of attendances. This was the equivalent of hunting to a nineteenth century country gentleman, though much more rugged. In ten months William and a colleague captured one hundred and three knights, and risked death on each occasion: one memory William kept of those days was having to receive the prize of hero of the day kneeling with his head on an anvil whilst a smith tried to prize off his battered helm. Another memory he retained was arriving too early for a fight, and dancing with the ladies who had come to watch---in full amour!

Then came trouble---William's enemies began to spread rumors that he was the lover of Henry's wife, and seeing that the suspicion could not fail to mar their relationship, William cut out on his own. He was immediately inundated with tempting offers from great lords who wanted to engage his services---three times he was offered 500 pounds a year or more, but he turned them down and went instead on pilgrimage to Cologne.

He was soon recalled to service with the young King in 1183, but it was only to see him die of a fever. At the last William promised that he would carry out Henry's vow to go on crusade, and having buried his master, he carried out his promise.

He came home in 1187 to take his place as an esteemed servant of the King, and to marry the second richest heiress in England who brought him the Earldom of Pembroke and extensive lands in England, Wales and Ireland. He served Henry II in his final bitter years and once, when he was covering the king's retreat, he put the fear of God into Prince Richard who was leading the pursuit. The Lionheart cried out, 'By the legs of God, Marshal, do not kill me, ' and William killed his horse instead.

Such conduct was dangerous, but when Richard came to the throne he showed the Marshal that he respected him for it, and when he went on crusade he made William one of the four associate justiciars appointed to help William de Longchamp, who had the care of the kingdom. This was excellent training in administration and justice, which was to stand William in good stead later when he had to bear responsibilities far greater than those with which a simple soldier can deal.

It also gave him lessons in how to deal with the immensely difficult Prince John, who, fearing, with some justice, that Richard intended to leave the kingdom to his nephew Arthur of Brittany, had to consolidate his position whilst his brother was away. When he heard that Richard had been captured on his way home and was being held to an incredibly stiff ransom, John's ambitions became boundless, and the Marshal had, added to his normal duties, the double problem of keeping the prince in check and raising a vast sum of money.

Richard returned to find William a wise counselor now as well as an incomparable soldier, and he used him well; but in 1199 he died, and William worked with skill and energy for the smooth accession of John. This King was to bring him worse problems than he had ever known.

For the next seven years William had to watch John losing Normandy to the Marshal's old friend Philip Augustus, knowing there was nothing to be done about it. Instead of knightly virtues, treachery was now the order of the day, and when he taxed the French King with using traitors, he had only this for reply: '. . . it is now a matter of business. They are like torches that one throws into the latrine when one is done with them.'

Attempting to rescue something out of the chaos of the loss of Normandy, William undertook the negotiations with France to make peace, and find a formula by which the English barons might retain their lands in France. What he found instead was the implacable suspicion of John who, fearing that William was going over to the French side, confiscated all his castles and official positions, and took his two eldest sons as hostages.

So William spent the next five years in Ireland, looking after his vast estates and interests there far away from John, but unfortunately, in an area in which John took an especial interest. Every move William made was countered by the royal officials, and active hostilities soon commenced. However, William had the better and more faithful knights and, despite the royal offensives, he tended to win, so in 1208 a truce was made.

Soon afterwards William received on his lands William de Briouse, whom John regarded as a bitter enemy, and so the quarrel flared up again. Finally the sixty-six-year-old knight had to come to court and offer to fight an ordeal by battle to prove his faith. No one dared to take up the challenge, though a winning contestant would have rocketed into favor with the King.

But by the year 1212 John was in serious trouble, and was to learn where his true friends lay. William swung the baronage of Ireland into support for the crown, helped to organize the vital rapprochement with the Pope, and prepared to gather the King's friends together and put his castles in order in readiness for the inevitable struggle. A great moderating force was Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was to be associated with William throughout the struggle, persuading John to accede to those demands of the barons which he had helped to formulate.

In 1216 William was back in the saddle as commander-in-chief of the royal forces opposing the barons and their ally the Dauphin and his French troops. All was well between the Marshal and the King who had so badly misjudged him, and now John tried to make amends. But the years of suspicion and discord still told: when he gave William the castle of Dunamase, he was upset that his justiciar failed to hand it over---he had forgotten an arrangement he had made secretly with the justiciar that William was to have nothing, whatever documents he produced, without a secret handshake (holding each other's thumbs) being given.

Now as John lay dying in Newark Castle, with half his kingdom in enemy hands, and a nine-year old child as his successor, he realized the worth of the man he had hounded so long, and urged all present to commit the kingdom into the care of the Marshal after his death.

William was an old man, the treasury was empty, discord reigned, and the position seemed hopeless---he wept and begged to be excused; but John of Earley, his squire, pointed out what honor there was to be won, and changed his mind for him in a flash. 'It goes straight to my heart that if all should abandon the King except me do you know what I would do?; I would carry him on my shoulders, now here, now there, from isle to isle, from land to land, and I would never fail him, even if I were forced to beg my bread.'

Filled with a sense of the glory of his task, the regent now raided the rich stores of jewels and clothing accumulated by the royal house 'against a rainy day' to pay the soldiers he so desperately needed. He sent out showers of letters of protection to the enemy barons, tempting them to change sides. Gradually he built up his powers for the decisive blow, at Lincoln in May 1217.

There William led the charge, with the wily Bishop of Winchester who found a way in, and fought up and down the streets of Lincoln with many a shout of 'Ca! Dieu aide au Mare-chal!' Finally they reached the open space in front of the cathedral where William personally captured the French commander and received three massive blows which left dents in his helmet. The worthy Dame Nicola, who had kept the castle for so long for the King against enormous odds, was at last relieved, and the war was almost won.

The Marshal sped down to Dover to intercept the convoy of reinforcements coming from France, and then set about making peace. He was generous---perhaps over-generous---to French and English alike, there was no victimization, and little recrimination. The speediest route back to peace was chosen, for England had suffered enormous damage from the civil war.

This was perhaps the worst time for William---the period of reconstruction. He knew well how to fight, but the sheer boredom and worry of administration of this kind must have borne heavily on the old man. Disputes and claims had to be settled so that both sides were satisfied, and no one would have a pretext for re-starting rebellion. Above all money was needed to oil the wheels and restore the losses of war, and the best way to make rebels is to overtax them. He even had to ban tournaments, which would obviously lead to dangerous positions being taken up once more. He must have wondered what he had come to---the greatest fighter in Europe, and the one who loved a fight better than anything. Instead he spent his time setting up judicial commissions and trying desperately to balance the budget.

He continued hard at work until the end of February, 1219, when he was taken ill and confined to his bed in the Tower. Doctors came and went but could do nothing, and quickly all his family and his knights and retainers gathered round him for the end. He asked to be taken up river to his manor of Caversham near Reading to die, and there, he and his household went, in mid-March, followed by the young King Henry III, the papal legate, and the highest officers of state.

He urged the king 'to be a gentleman,' and told him that if he should follow the example of some evil ancestor, he hoped he would die young. He worried long and hard over who should be his successor, and found no-one who could unite all under his rule, so wisely chose the papal legate. He made his will, and worried for a moment at the lack of provision for his young son Anselm, but, remembering his own career, felt that he could make his own way. 'May God give him prowess and skill.' He remembered an unmarried daughter and made provision for her 'until God takes care of her.' He had always been a religious man, founder of monasteries, crusader, and honest knight. He called for silken cloths he had thoughtfully brought back from the Holy Land thirty years before, and gave instruction that he should be covered with them at his funeral.

He wanted to be buried as a Knight Templar, and when the master of the order came to clothe him, he said to his wife 'Belle amie, you are going to kiss me, but it will be for the last time.' Happy now that all the arrangements had been made, William could rest a little, and wait comfortably for death. He talked gently with his knights---one of them was worried that the clerks said no one could be saved who did not giveback everything he had taken. William set his mind at rest---he had taken 500 knights in his lifetime, and could never restore the booty, so if he were damned there was nothing he could do about it. 'The clerks are too hard on us. They shave us too closely.' When his clerk suggested that all the rich robes could be sold to win his salvation, he said 'You have not the heart of a gentleman, and I have had too much of your advice. Pentecost is at hand, and my knights ought to have their new robes. This will be the last time I can supply them. . .' He was a religious man---true---but he could not abide nonsense and knew his own duty.

In his last days he was very gentle to his family. One day he said to John of Earley that he had an overwhelming desire to sing, and when John urged him to do so, as it might improve his appetite, he told him it would do no such thing, people would just assume he was delirious. So they called in his daughters to sing for him, and when one sang weakly, overcome with emotion, he showed her how she should project her voice and sing with grace.

On 14 May, William suddenly called to John of Earley to open all the doors and windows and call everyone in, for death was upon him. There was such a press that the abbots of Nutley and Reading, come to absolve the Marshal and give him plenary indulgence, were barely noticed, except by the dying man, who called them to him, made confession, prayed, and then died with his eyes fixed upon the cross.

The corte moved slowly up to London for the great state funeral, and there William's old friend Stephen Langton spoke his eulogy over the grave: 'Behold all that remains of the best knight that ever lived. You will all come to this. Each man dies on his day. We have here our mirror, you and I. Let each man say his paternoster that God may receive this Christian into His Glory and place him among His faithful vassals, as he so well deserves.' [Who's Who in the Middle Ages, John Fines, Barnes and Noble Books, New York, 1995]

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William Marshal, of the great baronial family of Marischal, marshal to the king, is first noticed as receiving from Prince Henry, the rebellious son of Henry II, upon the prince's deathbed, as his most confidential friend, his cross to convey to Jerusalem. He m. the great heiress of the Clares in 1189, and with her acquired the Earldom of Pembroke -- in which rank he bore the royal scepter of gold, surmounted by the cross, at the coronation of King Richard I, and he was soon afterwards, on the king's purposing a journey to the Holy Land, appointed one of the assistants to Hugh, bishop of Durham, and William, Earl of Albemarle, Chief Justice of England, in the government of the realm.

Upon the decease of his brother, John Mareschall, marshal of the king's house, in 1199, he became lord marshal, and on the day of the coronation of King John, he was invested with the sword of the Earldom of Pembroke, being then confirmed in the possession of the said inheritance. In the first year of this monarch's reign, his lordship was appointed sheriff of Gloucestershire and likewise of Sussex, wherein he was continued for several years. In the 5th he had a grant of Goderich Castle in Hereford, to hold by the service of two knights' fees; and in four years afterwards he obtained, by grant from the crown, the whole province of Leinster, in Ireland, to hold by the service of one hundred knights' fees.

Upon the breaking out of the baronial insurrection, the Earl of Pembroke was deputed by the king, with the archbishop of Canterbury, to ascertain the grievances and demands of those turbulent lords, and at the demise of King John, he was so powerful as to prevail upon the barons to appoint a day for the coronation of Henry III, to whom he was constituted guardian, by the rest of the nobility, who had remained firm in their allegiance. He subsequently took up arms in the royal cause and, after achieving a victory over the barons at Lincoln, proceeded directly to London, and investing that great city, both by land and water, reduced it to extremity for want of provisions. Peace, however, being soon concluded, it was relieved. His lordship, at this point, executed the office of sheriff for the cos. of Essex and Hertford.

This eminent nobleman was no less distinguished by his wisdom in the council and valor in the field, than by his piety and his attachment to the church, of which his numerous munificent endowments bear ample testimony. His lordship had, by the heiress of Clare, five sons, who s. each other in his lands and honors, and five daus., viz., Maud, Joan, Isabel, Sybil, and Eve. The earl d. in 1219, and was s. by his eldest son, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 358, Marshal, Earls of Pembroke]

William Mareschal, now Marshall (Mareschal to the King), he became Earl of Pembroke, Lord of Leinster, and Lord Marshal of Ireland, 1207, having then a grant of the whole province of Leinster. He d. 16 March, 1219, having issue, five sons and five daus. His sons, William, Richard, Gilbert, Walter, and Anselme, all succeeded to the Earldom of Pembroke and Lordship of Leinster, the last of whom dying s. p. 21 December, 1245, the title of Pembroke became extinct and the Lordship of Leinster was divided amongst the five daus., viz., (1), Maud, who being m. to Hugh le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, had issue. Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 628, Baronage of Ireland]

See also: http://www.castlewales.com/marshall.html
and http://www.castlewales.com/mar_chld.html

76322891. Isabel FitzGilbert de Clare ¹ was born about 1172 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales. She died ² 1220 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales and was buried in Tintern Abbey, Chapel Hill, Monmouthsire, England. [Parents]

76322892. Hugh IX de Lusignan was born 1144. He died 5 Nov 1219 in Damiette, France. Hugh married Mathilde d'Angouleme. [Parents]

76322893. Mathilde d'Angouleme was born 1050. She died after 29 Aug 1233.

76322894. Aymer Taillefer of Angouleme married Alice de Courtenay about 1180.

76322895. Alice de Courtenay was born about 1160 in Courtenay, Loiret, France. She died about 1218. [Parents]

76322912. Lord Walter II de Clifford Sheriff of Hereford was born about 1145 in Clifford's Castle, Hertfordshire, England. He died 1223 in Clifford's Castle, Hertfordshire, England. Walter married Agnes de Condet Lady of Cavenby. [Parents]

76322913. Agnes de Condet Lady of Cavenby was born about 1165 in Cavenby, Lincolnshire, England. [Parents]

76322914. Robert II d'Ewyas Baron of Ewyas Harold ¹ was born about 1146 in Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire, England. He died ¹ 1198. Robert married Petronilla Scudamore about 1175. [Parents]

76322915. Petronilla Scudamore was born about 1145 in Kentchurch, Hereford, Herefordshire, England. She died ¹ after 1204. [Parents]

76322920. Robert de Vipont ¹ was born 1158 in Brougham Castle, Appleby, Westmorland, England. He died ¹ 1227. Robert married Idonea de Busli before 1194 in Appleby Castle, Westmorland, England. [Parents]

76322921. Idonea de Busli ¹ was born about 1175 in Old Warden, Bedfordshire, England. She died ¹ 1240. [Parents]

76322922. William II de Ferrers 4th Earl of Derby ^{1, 2} was born 1172 in Ferrers, Derbyshire, England. He died ² 22 Sep 1247. William married ³ Agnes de Meschines on 2 Nov 1192. [Parents]

This nobleman, upon the return of King Richard from captivity, took arms in his behalf and, joining the Earl of Chester, besieged Nottingham Castle, which, after a brief resistance, surrendered. For this and other acts of fidelity, he was chosen by the king to sit with the rest of the peers in the great council held at the said castle in Nottingham in the ensuing March. Moreover, at Richard's second coronation he was one of the four that carried the canopy over the king's head. Upon the accession of King John, his lordship, with the Earls of Clare and Chester, and other great men, swore fealty to the new monarch but upon the condition that each person should have his right. His lordship was present at the coronation of King John and 7 June following, being solemnly created Earl of Derby by special charter dated at Northampton, he was girt with a sword by the king's own hands (being the first of whom in any charter that expression was used). He had also a grant of the third penny of all the pleas before the sheriff throughout the whole country whereof he was earl, to hold to him and his heirs as amply as any of his ancestors had enjoyed the same. Moreover, in consideration of 4,000 marks, he obtained another charter from the king of the manor of Higham-Ferrers, Northampton, with the hundred and park; as also of the manors of Bliseworth and Newbottle, in the same shire; which were part of the lands of his great grandfather, William Peverel of Nottingham. King John also conferred upon him a mansion-house situated in the parish of St. Margaret within the city of London, which had belonged to Isaac, a Jew, at Norwich, to hold by the service of waiting upon the king (the earl and his heirs), at all festivals yearly without any cap, but with a garland of the breadth of his little finger upon his head. These liberal marks of royal favor were felt so gratefully by the earl that in all the subsequent struggles between the king and the refractory barons, his lordship never once swerved from his allegiance, but remained true to the monarch; and loyalty to the interests of his son, King Henry III. His lordship assisted at the coronation of the new monarch and immediately after the ensuing Easter, he took part with the famous William Marshall(governor of the king and kingdom), the Earls of Chester and Albemarle, and many other great men in the siege of Mountsorell Castle in Leicestershire, then held by Henry de Braybroke and ten other stout knights. And the same year was likewise with those noble persons at raising the siege of Lincoln, which place the rebellious barons with Lewis, King of France, had invested. His lordship m. Agnes, sister and one of the co-heirs of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, by whom he had two sons, William and Thomas. He died of the gout in 1246 and his countess d. in the same year after a union, according to some authorities, of seventy-five, and by others, of fifty-five years. His lordship was s. by his elder son, William de Ferrers, 5th Earl of Derby. [Sir Bernard Burke, Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages, Burke's Peerage, Ltd., London, 1883, p. 196, Ferrers, Earls of Derby]

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There is substantial confusion over his name. See The Complete Peerage Vol. 4, p 193 for an account. Personally, I feel there could have been two brothers, William and Robert, Robert being the Earl and when he died at Acre his nephew William son of his brother William succeeded, but no documents support this theory either! In The Complete Peerage vol. XIV, p.250 it is suggested that Robert is a fabrication by Vincent, Earl of Ferrieres. [Brian Tompsett, Directory of Royal Genealogical Data]

76322923. Agnes de Meschines ^{1, 2} was born about 1174 in Chester, Cheshire, England. She died ² 2 Nov 1247. [Parents]

76322924. Geoffrey FitzPiers 4th Earl of Essex ¹ was born ² before 1163 in Saffron Walden, Essex, England. He died ³ 14 Oct 1213 and was buried in Shouldham Priory, Downham, Norfolk, England. Geoffrey married Aveline de Clare before 29 May 1205 in England. [Parents]

Judiciar of England

76322925. Aveline de Clare was born 1172 in Hereford, Herefordshire, England. She died ¹ before 4 Jun 1225 in England. [Parents]

76322926. Hugh Bigod 3rd Earl of Norfolk ^{1, 2} was born 1186 in Thetford, Norfolk, England. He died ³ 18 Feb 1244 in Thetford, Norfolk, England and was buried in Thetford Church, Norfolk, England. Hugh married ³ Maud Marshal about 1212 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales. [Parents]