Earl William Marshal PEMBROKE, Jr ¹

   Other names for William were "The Younger", PEMBROKE & STRIGUIL Earl, IRELAND Chief Justiciar and MARSHALL.

   Ancestral File Number: LLZR-2C.

   General Notes:

"The Younger", Earl of PEMBROKE and STRIGUIL, Chief Justiciar of IRELAND.

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Eleanor, Mar =1 (2) William Marshal Earl of Pembroke, Died 1231."

The Political History of England, Vol II, George Burton Adams Longmans Green and Co, 1905, Ch XX, p414:
[1208] "Even the greatest barons were subjected to arbitrary acts of power of the same kind. On the slightest occasion of suspicion the king demanded their sons or other relatives, or their vassals, as hostages, a measure which had been in occasional use before, but which John carried to an extreme. The great earl marshal himself, who, if we may trust his biographer, was never afraid to do what he thought honour demanded, and was always able to defend himself in the king's presence with such vigorous argument that nothing could be done with him, was obliged to give over to the king's keeping firsthis eldest and then his second son..."
Ch XXI, p435: [1215] "John's preparations alarmed the barons, and they determined not to wait for April 26, the appointed day for the king's answer. They came together in arms at Stamford, advancedfrom thence to Northampton, and then on to Brackley to be in the neighborhood of the king, who was then at Oxford. Their array was a formidable one. The list recorded gives us the names of five earls, forty barons, and one bishop, Giles de Braose, who had family wrongs to avenge; and while the party was called the Northerners, because the movement had such strong support in that part of England, other portions of the country were well represented. Annalists of the time noticed that younger men inclined to the side of the insurgents, while the older remained with the king. This fact in some cases divided families, as in the case of the Marshals, William the elder staying with John, while William the younger was with the barons. That one abode in the king's company does not indecate, however, that his synpathies in this struggle were on that side..."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol I, The Conquering Family, Thomas B Costain, 1949, Doubleday & Co.
p251: "As [King John] drew near the appointed place [at Runnymede], the sound of cheering reached their ears, mingled with the neighing of horses and the loud, clear blast of trumpets. Coming into sight of the shore opposite the island, they saw it wasfilled with armed horsemen, the sun shining on helmets and breastplates and on lances held erect to display the proudest pennons in England: the colors of Bigod, of Bohun, of Percy, of Lacey, and Mowbray, and De Vere. The reined in suddenly, his face red with mortification. Here for the first time he saw with his own eyes the tangible evedince of the unanimity of the barons in opposition to him. They had refused to follow him on his continental forays. It had taken hatred of him tobring them out thus in full force!
"...An unexpected adherent was the oldest son of William Marshal. His appearance was not due to the rather common practice of straddling the fence of allegiance, one member of a family going one way and another serving in the opposite camp. Young William was an enthusiastic partisan of the popular cause and had refused to take his father's advice."

A History of The PLantagenets, Vol II, The Magnificent Century, Thomas B Costain, 1951, Doubleday & Co, p32:
"While Louis was in France the marshal was at work. He went on a tour of the southeast corner of the kingdom, winning adherents everywhere...His own son, William, was among the most notable of the convert, and the Earl of Salisbury, a natural son of Henry II by the Fair Rosamonde and more familiarly known as William Long-Espee. Other barons joined the train of the newly appointed head of the state and were with him at a councel of war held with Willikin of the Weald..."
p88: "...Henry became ill with dysentery and decided that he had done as much as could be expected of him. Leaving the eldest son of the Good Knight, who had become marshal in his father's stead, to command the forces which were being left behind, he sailed back to England in October..."
p107: "...Realizing that the opposition to his party would always center around the sons of the Good Knight, the five young Marshals who constituted the strongest and wealthiest family in England, the bishop sought by every means to build up a counterbalance among the other nobes of substance and power..."
p114: "Chapter Ten
"The Five Sons of the Good Knight
"William the Marshal left five sons,the first, named after his father, succeeding to the earldoms of Pembroke and Striguil and the hereditary post of marshal of England. At no other period of English history has one family possessed as much power and wealth as the Marshals at this juncture..."
p116: "...With the shrill voice of the bishop ringing in his ears, [King Henry] hurriedly summoned the eldest son of the family, who was now Earl of Pembroke and marshal of England, and told him what had occurred. Would itnot be a sensible thing, he hinted, for the family to give up the two manor houses in question?
"William the son was not at all disturbed. He declared that, in the first place the lands had belonged to his father, that they had been fairlywon in time of war, and that his father had died legally seized of them. It is not recored that he used the most important point, which must have been, however, in all their minds, that the papal legate had offered his father remission of allhis sins if he would assume the burden of the kingdom after John died, that the old marshal had done so and had driven the French out of England, thereby assuring to Henry the possession of the throne. This promise had come directly from the Pope at Rome and would override any earlier ban pronounced by a bishop.
"At any rate, the young marshal declared that he had no intention of being intimidated into relinquishing the land.
"When the bishop heard what had been decided hefell into a state of such sustained anger that he hurried to demand an audience of the King. `What I have said, I have said!' he cried. He went on then to prophesy the end of the family. `In one generation the name shall be destroyed. The sonsshall be without share in that benediction of the Lord, `Increase and multiply.' Some will die a lamentable death and their inheritance will be scattered. All this, my lord King, you will see in your lifetime.'
"Having thus said his last word on the subject, the old bishop returned to Ferns.
"William, the oldest of the five brothers, remained head of the family for twelve years, fighting in all the wars with such stoutness that he was considered a worthy successor to his great father. He resembled the Good Knight closely, being tall and magnificently put together and having a handsome head of light brown hair. He became Chief Justiciar of Ireland and crushed all opposition ther with thoroughness. He also succeeded in giving Llewelyn a drubbing when that ever-aggressive chief of the Cymry elected to invade the Marshal domain in Wales.
"King Henry was very fond of William the second and offered his youngest sister, Princess Eleanor, to him in marriage...
"The King's offer created immediate opposition. The members of the Council wanted to find a royal husband for the little princess. As a matter of principle also they were against allowing any more commoners to take wives of royal blood. William himself did not think well of the idea; he would have to wait too long for his wife to grow up. Henry persisted, and so in due course the match was arranged. When Eleanor was ten years of age the ceremony was performed, but it was not until five years later, at which time William was in his middle forties, that the marriage was consummated.
"It will be recalled that the first William had married the heiress of Pembroke when he was about the same age and she was inherteens. That had been a most successful marriage, and there was every reason to believe that the union of their son with the princess would have turned out equally well. Eleanor was deeply in love with the tall and handsome marshal. She had fulfilled her early promise and was now a very great beauty indeed. During the brief term of married life which fate allowed them she went everywhere with him, riding by his side when he hunted, sitting with him when he transacted business. She would have gone with him to the wars in France if that had been allowed.
"William died with tragic suddenness at the end of one year of complete happiness with his high-spirited bride. He had returned from France and had seen his sister Isabella married to Richard of Cornwall, his great friend, and had seemed in good health. Three days later he was dead. History records nothing of his death except the abruptness of it, and it can only be assumed, therefore, that some inner disorder was the cause. His bride of sixteen was son overcome with grief that she was sure everything worth while in life had come to an end. She took an oath never to wed again (a dramatic manifestation of the intensity of her grief which would causemuch trouble later) and contemplated entering a nunnery for the rest of her life.
"Henry was stricken with grief also and seemed to think the death of his stanch lieutenant another proof of the punishment exacted from the Plantagenets forthe death of Thomas a Becket. At any rate, on hearing of the fatality, he exclaimed, `Alas! Is not the blood of the blessed Thomas the Martyr yet avenged!'"

The Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol VIII T F Tout, 1905, AMS Press, p8:"...[1217] A crowd of waverers changed sides...[including] William, the young marshal, the eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke..."
p23: "...the great William Marshal, whose eldest son and successor, William Marshal the younger, was in 1224 married to the king's third sister, Eleanor...
"...The pacification arranged in 1218 sat lightly upon [Llewelyn], and he plunged into a war with William Marshal the younger that desolated South Wales for several years. In 1219 Llewelyn devastated Pembrokeshire so cruelly that the marshal's losses were currently, though absurdly, reported to have exceeded the amount of the ransom of King Richard..."
p24: "...But peace never lasted long west of the Severn, and in 1222 William Marshal drove Llewelyn out of Cardigan and Carmarthen...The marshal complained bitterly of the poor support which Henry gave him against the Welsh, but Hubert restored cordiality between him and the king. In these circumstances the policy of marryingCleanor to the indignant marcher was a wise one..."
p41: "...William Marshal, the brother-in-law of the king, the gallant and successful soldier, the worthy successor of his great father, came home from Brittany early in 1231. His last act was to marry his sister, Isabella, to Richard of Cornwall. Within ten days of the wedding his body was laid beside his father in the Temple Church at London..."

ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File Ver 4.10 8XKP-QK Died/Bur 9 Apr 1231, Ver 4.11 Born Abt 1190 Normandy France Died 6 Apr 1231 Sp Bur 15 Apr 1231 Temple Church London Middlesex England, Ver 4.13 LLZR-2C Born May 1198 Pembroke Pembrokeshire Wales Died 11 Apr ?1222.

FAMILY SEARCH ANCESTRAL FILE
Ancestral File v4.19 LLZR-2C: Died 11 Apr 1222 in Sp.

   Marriage Information:

William married Alice De BETHUNE about 1214 in Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales.

   Marriage Information:

William also married Duchess Eleanor England PEMBROKE, daughter of King John ENGLAND and Queen Isabella De Taillefer ENGLAND, on 23 Apr 1224. (Duchess Eleanor England PEMBROKE was born in 1215 in Winchester, Hampshire, England, died on 13 Apr 1274-1275 in Montargis, Loiret, France and was buried in Montargis, Loiret, France.)