NameIsabel De Clare ![](../img/i_tree.png)
BirthBET ABT 1172 AND 1174, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Death1220, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales
BurialTintern Abbey, Tintern, Monmouthshire, England
Spouses
Birthabt 1146, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Death14 May 1219, Caversham Manor, Berkshire, England
BurialMay 1219, Round Chapel Of Knight's Temple, London, Middlesex, England
MarriageAug 1189, London, Middlesex, England
Notes for Isabel De Clare
Isabel Fitzgilbert de Clare
1. Matilda MARSHAL
2. William MARSHAL*
3. Eve MARSHAL
4. Walter MARSHAL
5. Joan MARSHAL*
6. Anselm MARSHAL*
7. Isabel MARSHAL
8. Sibyl MARSHAL
Notes for William (Spouse 1)
Notes:
Weis" "Ancestral Roots. . ." (55:27A), (63:28), (66:27), (69:27), (76:27),
(80:27), (81:28), (127:30), (257:30), (260:30), (261:30).
Cokayne's "Complete Peerage" (Berkeley, p.126), identifies him as Maud's brother. (Berkeley, p.127), identifies him as MARGARET's brother. (Derby, pp. 19) identifies him as SIBYL's father.
Acceded: 1189
and The Marshal of England. Pembroke, Netherwent, Leinster, Orbec, Bienfaite, half Giffard.
BET 1144 AND 1146?? b. 1146. d. 1219.
First Earl of Pembroke. He was a Knight, Counselor and Ambassador of Henry II Plantagenet, King of England. He was also a member of the Knights Templar, which is why he's buried in the Temple Church. He was also the son-in-law of King John I and saved his throne during the Magna Carta Crisis. After the death of John I, he was Regent of England for King Henry III from 1216-19.
In a room of the Tower of London in August 1189, two people who were about to be married met for the first time. This twist of fate or act of destiny would have a far-reaching effect on English history. The young lady was Isabel de Clare, sole heiress of Richard Strongbow de Clare, Earl of Pembroke and Striguil, and Aoife, daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster. The man was William Marshal, the second son of John the Marshal and Sibyl, sister of Patrick, Earl of Salisbury. There are no accounts of this first meeting nor of their marriage ceremony, but this was the final step in the making of one of the greatest knights and magnates of medieval English history.
William Marshal's life is well documented because less than a year after his death in 1219, his eldest son William II commissioned a record of his father's life. "L' Historie de Guillaume le Marechal," is a metrical history of a man and of the knightly class in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Little is known about the writer of "L' Historie" except that his first name was Jean, that he personally witnessed some of the events in Marshal's later life, and that he had access to Marshal's squire John D'Erley. The point of view is that of the secular knightly class and not of the ecclesiastical class. The events recorded in "L' Historie" can be verified in most instances by the official records in the Pipe Rolls, Charter Rolls, Close Rolls, Patent Rolls, Oblatis Rolls, and chronicles of the times.
William Marshal was born c 1146, and as a younger son, becoming a knight was his natural choice of a path to success and survival. Marshal was sent to his father's cousin William of Tancarville, hereditary Chamberlain of Normandy, to be trained as a knight in c1159. He was knighted, probably by his uncle, in 1167.
In 1170 William Marshal was appointed head of the mesnie (military) household of the young Prince Henry by King Henry II. From this time until young Henry's death in June of 1183, Marshal was responsible for protecting, training and running the military household of the heir. In 1173, William Marshal knighted the young Henry, and thereby became Henry's lord in chivalry. We know that Marshal led young Henry and his mesnie to many victories on the tournament fields of Normandy. It is during the years from 1170 to 1183 that William Marshal established his status as an undefeated knight in tournaments. It is here that Marshal began to establish his friendships with the powerful and influential men of his day. His reputation and his character were built through his own actions and abilities. In this age of feudalism, Marshal was a landless knight. He had no lord from whom he could gain advantages or status.
On the death of the young Henry, Marshal obtained permission from Henry II to take the young Henry's cross to Jerusalem. Marshal spent two years in the Holy Land fighting for King Guy of Jerusalem and the Knights' Templar. There are no known records of his time in the east, but we know that some of the castle building techniques he later used at Pembroke were probably learned here.
Henry II granted Marshal his first fief, Cartmel in Lancashire, in 1187. With this fief Marshal became a vassal of King Henry II and swore fealty to him as his lord and his king. Until Henry II's death in 1188, William Marshal served as his knight, his counselor, and his ambassador. When Richard I came to the throne, he recognized Marshal as a brother and equal in chivalry. Fulfilling the promise made by his father, Richard gave Marshal the heiress Isabel de Clare and all her lands in marriage.
With this marriage, William Marshal became "in right of his wife" one of the greatest lords and magnates in the Plantagenet kingdom. Isabel brought to Marshal the palatine lordships of Pembroke and Striguil in Wales and the lordship of Leinster in Ireland. These were large fiefs of land where the lord held as tenant-in-chief of the Crown. A palatine lord's word was law within his lands. He had the right to appoint his own officials, courts and sheriffs, and collect and keep the proceeds of his courts and governments. Except for ecclesiastical cases, the king's writ did not run in the palatinates. King Richard also allowed Marshal to have 1/2 of the barony of Giffard for 2000 marks. This barony was split with Richard de Clare, Earl of Clare and Hertford, who held the barony in England as lord while Marshal held the land in Normandy as lord. This gave Marshal the demesne manors of Crendon in Buckinghamshire and Caversham in Oxfordshire, for 43 knights' fees, and the fief of Longueville in Normandy with the castles of Longueville and Mueller and Moulineaux, for about 40 knights' fees.
1. Matilda MARSHAL
2. William MARSHAL*
3. Eve MARSHAL
4. Walter MARSHAL
5. Joan MARSHAL*
6. Anselm MARSHAL*
7. Isabel MARSHAL
8. Sibyl MARSHAL