Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - William Marshall: The Greatest Knight in History (Encore)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. The Middle Ages didn't have sports like we have them today, but they did have competitions. These competitions were tournaments between knights where they demonstrated their Marshall prowess. During this period, there was one knight who stood out amongst all the rest. He never lost a tournament and rose to a level where he became the King of England in all that name. Learn more about William Marshall, the greatest night in history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:49 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. One of the defining characteristics of medieval Europe would be the system of knights and knighthood. Knights were, for the most part, an institution for the aristocratic or upper class. Knights were the elite warriors in any kingdom, or at least they were supposed to be. Becoming a knight was a process that took years and a significant amount of money.

Starting point is 00:01:29 A boy would start around the age of 7 to 10 as a page, where they would become comfortable with horses and weapons. Around the age of 14, they might advance to the rank of squire. A squire would personally attend to a knight, study chivalry and war, and work on improving their fighting and riding skills. and if all went well, sometime around the age of 18, they would be dubbed a knight. The ceremony was religious in nature and emphasized the knight's humility, loyalty, and chivalry. When knighthoods were first created, they could come from any class of society, but over time they became a class of their own, with new knights, usually being the sons of knights themselves. Knights weren't just about training and skill. It also required money.

Starting point is 00:02:10 A knight needed a horse, at least one set of armor, as well as weapons. And these things back then were not cheap. When they weren't out fighting actual wars, knights would often compete in what were known as tournaments. Tournaments were basically mock battles, where knights could display their combat abilities outside of actual combat and with a crowd of onlookers. The competitions would usually fall into one of two categories. One would be a joust, with knights on horseback charging at each other with long lances. The other, and usually more popular event, was commonly called a melee. Every tournament could have its own set of rules.

Starting point is 00:02:46 Meleys could be in teams or they could be solo affairs. They could take place in an enclosed area or they could be enormous affair situated between villages. Tournaments could also be big money, assuming you did well. Prizes would be offered by those hosting the tournament and sometimes there would even be a winner-take-all competition where you would have to put up your armor and horse as an entry fee. It was in this world of 12th century tournaments that one man in particular really shined. Some called him the greatest night in history. He was the medieval equivalent of Michael Jordan, Lionel Messi, Lewis Hamilton, Barry Bonds, and Aaron Rogers all wrapped up into one. William

Starting point is 00:03:22 Marshall. William was born in the year 1146, in what was probably Newberry England about midway between London and Bristol. He was the fourth son of a rather minor baron, so his prospects at birth were rather limited. One story which is told about him as a child indicates just how low his prospects were. His father's castle was being bestigued by King Stephen, who was in the middle of a civil war with the Empress Matilda. Stephen took the young William, only six years old, as a hostage, to ensure that William's father would honor his promise to surrender the castle. Instead, William's father fortified the castle and notified the Empress Matilda. When King Stephen returned, he threatened to hang the six-year-old boy William in front of the castle in retaliation.

Starting point is 00:04:04 His father told King Stephen to go ahead and hang him because, quote, I still have the hammer and the anvil with which to forge more and better sons, end quote. Thankfully for William, he wasn't executed, but rather taken back to the royal court to be educated, which was something he never could have hoped to have done if he hadn't been taken hostage. His father's fortunes began to wane, and at the age of 12, he was taken to live with his mother's cousin, William de Tancerville, in Normandy. It was here that his training began to become a knight. He grew up to be quite large, developing a reputation for having a huge appetite and was given the name greedy guts. By the time he became an adult, he was six feet tall, which, again, for medieval Europe, was really big.

Starting point is 00:04:46 He became a knight at the age of 20. His first major action was to fight for King Henry II in Normandy, which was being invaded by Flanders at the time. The fighting didn't go so well for him, as he didn't make any money from booty or ransoming other knights, and he in fact lost his horse. being the fourth son, he had no lands or property, so he had to make his own way in the world. His father died soon after he became a knight, leaving him nothing. He moved his attention to what would be the thing that he excelled at. Tournaments.

Starting point is 00:05:16 He was sponsored in his first tournament by his relative, William de Tunkerville, the man who had trained him. In 1167, he entered a tournament in the town of Le Mans, and did far better than expected. He won the melee. With the ransom put up by the other knights he captured, he now put up. possessed four horses. He entered and won several other tournaments at year as well, significantly increasing his wealth. The next year, he entered his uncle service, the Earl of Salisbury. He was assigned to guard the Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, while she was out touring her lands in the French Aquitaine. While guarding her, he was ambushed by a French

Starting point is 00:05:49 knight by the name of Guy de Luzignon, who captured William. The Queen was so impressed by his bravery in the tales of his tournament exploits that she paid for his ransom. And he remained in the service of the queen for the next two years, continuing to compete in tournaments and winning. In 1170, he was given a very important job by King Henry II. He was given the job of tutor in arms to Henry's son, who was known as Henry the Young King. Young Henry was crowned king while his father was still alive, and subsequently led a revolt against him in 1173 and 1174. The revolt didn't go well, and when it was over, young Henry and William received permission

Starting point is 00:06:25 from Henry II to travel around Europe entering tournaments. The two of them pretty much cleaned up, and the legend of William Marshall grew with every competition that he won. William was eventually accused of adultery with young Henry's wife, an accusation of which he was later cleared of. Young Henry died in 1183, and on his deathbed he made William fulfill his vow to go and fight in the Holy Land, which he did for two years. On his return from the Holy Land in 1185, William pledged his allegiance to Henry II and supported him in his revolt against his son, Richard the Lionheart. In return, Henry II granted William an estate known as Cartmel in Cumbria in the northwest of England. In 1189, while fighting against Richard, William actually met him in single combat on the battlefield. William managed to dismount him from his horse supposedly being the only person to have ever done so.

Starting point is 00:07:16 He could have easily killed Richard, but instead just killed his horse to prove a point. Later that year, Henry II died, and Richard became king. When William met Richard as king, Richard didn't punish him, but rather realized he was too valuable not to have in his service. He honored the agreement of his father to give William the hand of Isabel de Clare as well as her lands. William at this time was 43, and Isabel was 17. This made William the first Earl of Pembroke. Together, the two had five boys and five girls, and thousands of descendants who are still around today. William Marshall, the penniless fourth son of a minor baron, was now when,

Starting point is 00:07:55 of the richest men in all of England. When King Richard left to go on crusade in 1190, William was one of the men who was put on the Regency Council to run the country while the king was away. While Richard was gone in 1197, at the age of 50, William led a group to relieve a besieged French castle. He literally climbed the walls of the castle and then defeated the marshal of the castle in one-on-one combat in a single blow. And this was at a time when being 50 was really old. When King Richard died in 1199, he then offered his loyalty to his brother, King John. John was not the most popular of kings, and he faced an uprising from his barons. They eventually forced him to sign the Magna Carta, but one of the only nobles to stay loyal to John and not sign the Magna Carta was

Starting point is 00:08:40 William Marshall. Before John died in 1216, William was one of the only people left who he still trusted, so he made him the protector and regent for his son, Henry III. As Henry III was only nine years old when he became king, William Marshall was the de facto ruler of England. At the age of 70, a very advanced age for the 13th century, he led English forces at the Battle of Lincoln, defeating a French army, and actually fighting on the front lines. Finally, in 1219, he passed away at the age of 72. On his deathbed, he kept a promise he made from the Holy Land and became invested in the Knights Templar. He was buried in the Templar Church in London, and his grave can still be seen there today.

Starting point is 00:09:23 According to legend, he never lost a tournament in his life, and by his own estimate, he took over 500 knights ransom. The Archbishop of Canterbury proclaimed him to be the greatest knight in history. There was a 19,000-line poem written about his exploits titled La History di Guillaume Le Marchal. It is one of the few biographies from this entire period about somebody who wasn't a king. William Marshall was one of medieval Europe's greatest rags to riches stories. He went from being penniless to being the richest man in England and the de facto ruler of the country before his death. Despite all of his accomplishments, his 16-year career as a knight competing in tournaments is the legacy that he is most remembered for, and the basis of his claim to fame for being the greatest knight in history.

Starting point is 00:10:13 The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. I just want to thank everyone, including the show's producers, who support the show over on Patreon. If you'd like to support the show, just head over to patreon.com, which is currently the only place where you can get show merchandise. Also, if you want to talk to other listeners about the show, head over to our Facebook group or Discord server, both of which have links in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - William Marshall: The Greatest Knight in History (Encore)

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