The Story of William Marshall

The History of William Marshall is an extended poem in rhymed verses in Anglo-Norman language, representing a detailed biography of William (I) Marshall (c. 1146/1147 - May 14, 1219) - the first Earl of Pembroke and Lord Marshal of England. As the youngest son of a petty nobleman, William had no inheritance and no land. He spent his young years as an itinerant knight and a successful participant in tournaments. According to contemporaries, he was the greatest knight of the Christian world. Thanks to his marriage to Isabella de Claire , daughter of Richard Strongbow , William received the title of Earl of Pembroke , which made him one of the richest aristocrats in England. In addition, after the death of his older brother, he inherited the position of chief marshal. He led the royal army during the First Baronial War (1215–1217), was one of the guarantors of the Magna Carta of 1215, and after the death of John Bezzemlenny he served as regent of England with his young son Henry III ^[1] .

The text is written in minuscule in black ink, located in two columns on 127 pages, a total of 19214 lines. The initial letters are red and blue, each decorated with an abstract pattern ^[2] .

The poem describes in detail the biography of William Marshall, from his childhood to his death.

The main part of the “History” (about 2,300 lines) is devoted to the participation of William in tournaments, which brought him fame and fortune. He is described as an invincible tournament fighter , but this must be treated with caution. He appears as a knight who superbly handles both weapons and rides. In addition, he shows greed, cunning, pride and complacency ^[3] .

William Marshall died in 1219. His eldest son and heir, William Marshall, 2nd Earl of Pembroke decided to honor his father by ordering a poem in the spirit of a Romanesque epic. The name of its author is John, who, apparently, was an expat from Touraine . The first text editor, , suggested that the poet began writing History in 1224, when William (II) Marshall sailed to Ireland as royal governor. Probably the poet was left in the Welsh mark, where the main possessions of the Marshals were located, so that he would finish the poem on his return. He reports that he wrote his work on the Count’s money, but was in direct contact with William’s old administrator, John d'Aurley. Apparently, 3/4 of the text was ready by February 1225, after which, probably, having no news of the return of his patron, he did not return to work for about a year. Only in the spring of 1226 he again turned to the poem, which he finished in the autumn of that year after the return of the count. It is possible that the end of the poem was written in a burst of inspiration ^[4] .

It is possible that the poet was influenced by the creation in 1193 of Gerald from Wales in Latin, “The Life of Jeffrey Plantagenet, Archbishop of York . ” However, John himself wrote in the French language, although there is evidence that he knew Latin ^[4] .

To learn more about the life of William Marshall, John had to make a lot of effort. In 1224, everyone who could tell about William's early biography was dead: his last surviving brother, , died as early as 1206; Isabella de Claire, the widow of William, survived her husband for only 10 months. However, those who remembered Marshal remained in the household; at least two of his old squires knew William until 1183 and remembered his tales of his young years, which he often repeated to his sons. He also asked those who personally remembered the events of the biography of Marshall after 1180 to share them; One of the main sources of personal memories of him was the deceased's nephew, John Marshall of Hingham , who was his chief political adviser and spent many years in English politics. In addition, John had access to documents from the Marshals' family archive in South Wales, including William's accounts, charters, registries, and correspondence. He also used one Latin chronicle, which helped him deal with the earliest period in the history of Marshall, when his father actively participated in the events of the 1140s ^[4] .

The source for the creation of the poem was the memoirs of William's comrades-in-arms, the memoirs of those to whom he told about his early biography, as well as documents from the family archive ^[2] .

The only text of the “History” has survived to our time, which is a list created in the 13th century with probably the original unedited manuscript. However, it is known that in the Middle Ages there were several lists of works. 2 lists are mentioned in the catalogs of two libraries: one was stored in the Abbey of St. Augustine ( Canterbury ), the second - in the Cistercian ( Worcestershire ) - it was obtained from the library of Guy de Beauchamp, 10th Earl of Warwick . It is possible that these lists were made in the 1220s as a gift for the children of William Marshall and eventually were scattered throughout England. However, none of these lists has been preserved to our time ^[4] .

The surviving list of The History of William Marshall was acquired at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I either by Sir (d. 1607), or his brother, Henry Savile (d. 1622), rector of Eton . It is possible that the manuscript came from some monastery library. In the collection of the Saviles family, it went unnoticed until February 1861, when the entire Saviles library, which included medieval texts that had not been exhibited for more than 200 years, was sold at Sotheby's auction. In the catalog, the manuscript was included in Lot 51 and was entitled "Norman-French Chronicle of English Affairs (in verse), written by an Anglo-Norman scribe in the 13th century." In the trading floor, she was noticed and looked at by historian and linguist Paul Meyer. He later wrote that this lot aroused his curiosity, since in his studies he had never before encountered mention of French verses of this type. During the bidding, Lot 51 was purchased for £ 380 by the famous antiquarian and book collector Sir Thomas Phillips , who also bought 34 more manuscripts from the library ^{[4] [2]} .

Many years later, Meyer realized that he saw an important work at the auction - the biography of the famous medieval knight William Marshall. His career developed quite successfully, but he could not forget about the manuscript. Despite his best efforts, he could not find any references to this manuscript in all available libraries. Lot 51 was lost in the private collection of Phillips, which totaled more than 60 thousand units, which he placed on his estate in Worcestershire. Although he cataloged his manuscripts and published a catalog of them, there was no mention of the mysterious manuscript in any of them. Perhaps this was due to the fact that in 1863 he decided to move the library to a large house in Cheltenham, which took 2 years. In addition, he did not want to admit anyone to the collection he collected. Even after his death in 1872, the situation did not change: the heirs of Phillips did not answer all the letters of Meyer. But Meyer, who by that time was already a well-known academician, continued to insist until the fall of 1880, the Phillips gave up and allowed him access to the library and copy the text. After a long search in 1881, the manuscript was found: Phillips assigned her number 22155, but for some reason did not catalog it according to the rules, he himself most likely did not read it. The original manuscript was ultimately bought by the English artist and animator , and after his death, the New York library of Pirpont Morgan , where it is now located as a manuscript with the number M.888 ^{[4] [2]} .

Having carefully studied the text, Meyer realized that before him was not a chronicle or a work of art. The manuscript described in great detail the life of William Marshall, and this was the first biography of a medieval knight that he knew, written in the mid-1220s. He called this manuscript "The Story of William Marshall." In parallel with work on him, he studied other mentions of the knight, since he was a prominent figure of his time, and his name was mentioned in various chronicles and documents. Meyer devoted 20 years of his life to the study of the manuscript and published it in 1891-1901 under the title History of Guillaume le Marechal (William Marshall), Count Striguel and Pembroke. He did not provide a translation, he did only a historical review in French, as well as extensive indexes and comments that retain their value at the present time ^{[4] [2]} .

In 2002-2006, a commentary translation of the History into English was published in England ^[5] .

• Meyer P., ed. L'histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, 3 vols. - Paris: Renouard, 1891–1901. - (Publications de la Société de l'histoire de France).
  • Meyer P., ed. L'histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal . - Paris: Renouard, 1891. - Vol. 1. - 366 p. - (Publications de la Société de l'histoire de France).
  • Meyer P., ed. L'histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal . - Paris: Renouard, 1894. - Vol. 2. - 390 p. - (Publications de la Société de l'histoire de France).
  • Meyer P., ed. L'histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal . - Paris: Renouard, 1901. - Vol. 3. - 304 p. - (Publications de la Société de l'histoire de France).
• History of William Marshal, 3 vols / edited by AJ Holden; with English translation by S. Gregory; and historical notes by D. Crouch. - London: Anglo-Norman Text Society from Birkbeck College, 2002-2006.

• Asbridge T. Knight of the Five Kings. The story of William Marshall, the illustrious hero of the Middle Ages / Per. from English L. A. Igorevsky. - M .: ZAO Tsentropoligraf Publishing House, 2016. - 415 p. - 1,500 copies - ISBN 978-5-227-06778-4 . - ISBN 978-5-227-06777-7 .
• Crouch D. William Marshal . - 3rd Edition. - London, New York: Routledge, 2016 .-- 381 p. - ISBN 9781317283096 .
• Crouch David. Marshal, William, fourth earl of Pembroke (c. 1146–1219) // Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. - Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004-2014.