The Marshal Family in the Plantagenet World, 1189–1245
John Marshall
This monograph provides the first book-length transnational history of the Marshal family between the 1189 marriage of the flower of chivalry William Marshal to Isabel de Clare, daughter of the infamous Strongbow, until the failure of the family’s male line in 1245.
The late twelfth and thirteenth century were a formative period in Irish and British history. They witnessed colonisation, demographic expansion, and developments in the reach of governance as the Plantagenet empire ebbed and flowed with European politics. This was also a time of definition for the aristocracy, which was shaped by the legacies of conquest and continuity throughout the different regions. The story of the Marshal family epitomises this age of opportunity, for within a few generations a great landed estate stretching across Ireland, Britain, and France had been forged and fragmented through female inheritance.
These years witnessed the construction of domineering castles and magnificent abbeys throughout the Marshal estate, as well as rebellion and conflict as the family endeavoured to maintain and extend its position. The Marshal descent from the aristocracy of the Plantagenet world and Gaelic Irish royalty complicated their identity, embracing their conquering ancestry while at the same time cherishing a goblet of their saintly Gaelic relative, Lorcán Ua Tuathail, archbishop of Dublin.
This book follows the footsteps of the Marshal earls from Longueville to Leinster and Pembroke to Scotland as they navigated the complexities of medieval Ireland, Britain and France. Part I surveys the careers of the different earls as they fought to define and defend their position. Part II uses the experience of the Marshal family to illuminate themes which characterised the period, ranging from identity to piety and community, then concluding with the partition of the Marshal estate and what this reveals about the vibrant world in which the family lived.
John Marshall holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and has held fellowships at the Institute of Historical Research, London, and Lancaster University, publishing widely on medieval Irish, British and European history.
