Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/239

 Marshal   MARSHAL, WILLIAM, second and  (d. 1231), was eldest son of William Marshal, first earl of Pembroke [q. v.], by Isabella, daughter of Richard de Clare. The first mention of him occurs on 6 Nov. 1203, when it was arranged that he should marry Alice, daughter of Baldwin de Bethune (Charter Rolls, pp. 112b-13). After his father fell into suspicion on account of his homage to Philip Augustus in 1205, the young William was given as a hostage to the king (Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, ll. 13272-3). Previously to August 1212 he was in charge of Robert FitzRoger(Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 94b), but soon afterwards he was released and put under the care of his father's squire, John d'Erlegh. The king wrote to the earl that his son was in need of horses and clothes, and offered to provide for him, at the same time he denied that it was intended to send the young William out of England (Cal. Rot. Claus. i. 133; cf. Histoire, ll. 14533-64). In 1214 Marshal married his bride, but the marriage does not seem to have been of long duration, though Alice was alive in September 1215 (ib. 11.14990-15015; Cal. Rot. Pat. p. 156). On coming to manhood Marshal at once joined the baronial party, and was present at the meeting at Stamford in February 1215. In June he was one of the twenty-five executors of Magna Carta, and was in consequence excommunicated by Innocent III on 11 Dec. On 9 April 1216 Marshal, being still in opposition to the king, had letters of safe-conduct to come to his father (ib. p. 175b). He did not, however, return to his loyalty, and when Louis of France landed in May, Marshal was one of those who rendered him homage. When the French prince made Adam de Beaumont marshal of his host, William complained that this office was his by hereditary right, and though his claim was conceded a feeling of bitterness perhaps remained (Hist. des Ducs de Normandie, p. 174). Nevertheless in July Marshal seized Worcester for Louis; but when Randulph earl of Chester came up on 17 July Marshal, forewarned as it is said by his father, took flight. Like others of his party the young Marshal resented the pride of the French nobles; he himself had a particular ground of complaint, because Marlborough, with which his family had been so long connected, was granted to Robert de Dreux. In consequence he abandoned Louis in the autumn of 1216, and retired to Wales, though he did not at once join the party of the young king (ib. p. 175). It was perhaps he and not his father who during 1217But in February 1217 [sic] captured Caerleon(Bruty Tywysogion, p. 303). In March 1217 Marshal, aided by William Longsword [q. v.], rose against Louis at Rye, and formally joined the royal party (Chron. de Mailros, p. 130, Bannatyne Club). From this time he supported his father actively, and fought with himIn the following month he took part with his father in operations against Louis in Surrey and Hampshire and played a foremost part in the fight [sic] at Lincoln on 20 May. He was put in charge of the lands of various members of the opposite party; so early as March 1217 he had received those of Earls Saher of Winchester and David of Huntingdon (Cal. Doc. Scotland, i. 666). He also held the castles of Marlborough and Ludgershall, Wiltshire, but his attitude seems to have caused the young king's advisers some anxiety. His wife was dead and he was proposing to marry a daughter of Robert de Bruce. As it was desirable to detach him from the northern lords and from the French, to whom his brother Richard's position in Normandy inclined him, he was promised the hand of the king's sister Eleanor (, i. 244).

Marshal was with his father at the time of his death in May 1219, and at once entered peacefully on his vast inheritance and earldom. The Norman lands also came nominally to him, but he surrendered them formally to his brother Richard by charter dated 20 June 1220 (, Rot. Normanniæ, II. cxxxviii). In the summer of 1220 Llywelyn attacked Marshal's land in Pembroke, and wrought such mischief that the raid is said to have been more costly than Richard's ransom (Ann. Mon. iii. 61). The earl complained to the king, but for the time abstained from active warfare (, i. 143-4,150). However, two years later, when Marshal was absent in Ireland, Llywelyn took advantage to renew the war, and captured the earl's castles of Abertavy and Carmarthen. At this news Marshal returned from Ireland with a large host, landing at St. Davids on Palm Sunday, 9 April 1223. Abertavy was