William Marshal, a Knight’s Tale

Via Marc Marshall                 

                                 

  

The story of how the fourth son of a minor 12th century baron rose to be one of the richest men of his day, Regent of England and governing the country on behalf of the boy-king Henry III, is most certainly a true knight’s tale!

The remarkable story of the life of William Marshall is chronicled in the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, the only known written biography of a non-royal to survive from the Middle Ages. The poem, composed after his death by an unknown author called John, extols William as being ‘the best knight in the world’, and offers a unique window into courtly life of the time.

William was born around 1146. As the younger son of a minor noble he would have understood from a very early age that he could expect no lands or riches to come knocking at his door, and that he would have to make his own way in life. When he was about 12, William was packed off to his mother’s cousin William de Tancarville in Normandy in France, to begin his training as a knight.

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