http://www.castlewales.com/mar_chld.htmlhttp://www.pwestern.f9.co.uk/html/dat228.html#12 William Marshal and Isabel de Clare were married in August 1189. He was about forty-three and she was seventeen years old. They had ten children; five sons and five daughters, and all of the children lived. The birth dates of these children are not known, but it is known that William and Richard were the first two born. They are both mentioned in a marriage contract dated November 6, 1203, that was a contract to marry William the younger to Baldwin de Bethune’s daughter Alice, and if William should not live to fulfill the contract, then Richard would be married to her. It is known that William the younger was born in Normandy, but this is the only known fact of the birth of any of these children.
Chepstow Castle
At the end of the 12th century, Chepstow passed by marriage to William Marshall, a formidable soldier of fortune, and earl of Pembroke. With considerable experience in military architecture in France, he set about bringing Fitz Osbern's castle up to date. He rebuilt the east curtain wall, with two round towers projecting outwards, in order to protect this vulnerable side. Arrow-slits in the towers were designed to give covering fire to the ground in front of the curtain, and this was one of the earliest examples of the new defensive mode which was to become characteristic of the medieval castle.
Before 1245, the sons of William Marshall greatly enlarged Chepstow's defences and improved the internal accommodation. They added a new lower bailey, with an impressive twin-towered gatehouse. At the upper end of the castle, a strongly defended barbican was constructed at this time. Marshall's sons also made additions to the Great Tower, or keep.
http://www.templarhistory.com/marshall.htmlAnyone seriously interested in the Knights Templar is likely, at some time in their life, to make a pilgrimage to London, there to visit the district known to this day as 'Temple'. This area was, in the Middle Ages, the headquarters of the Knights Templar in England and represented a major centre for Templar thought and influence.
Little remains of the buildings placed upon this site, except for the famous Templar Round Church, mentioned elsewhere in this edition. Within the Church there can be found a number of effigies of a very early date, one of which is that of one William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. William is perhaps not one of the best known characters in either English or Templar history, and this state of affairs is perhaps somewhat regrettable, since, by his life and his honour, he almost certainly represented every ideal for which the Templars, in their early days, became renown.
William Marshall was far from being a simple Templar Knight. He was born around 1146, the second son of John the Marshall, a trusted knight of Norman ancestry, and of Sibyl, who was a sister of Patrick, Earl of Salisbury. Being a younger son, William did not inherit his Father's titles and so becoming a knight was probably to be expected for one whose proclivities obviously did not extend to high office in the Church. William was duly sent off to Normandy, to be trained by the hereditary Chamberlain of the region, William of Tancarville, and was eventually knighted in the year 1167.
Three years later William Marshall was appointed head of the military household of Prince Henry, the young son of King Henry II of England. Unfortunately Prince Henry died in 1183. As the man who had knighted the Prince, William became his 'Lord in Chivalry'. William was a physically powerful man who fared well in the tournaments and his time with Prince Henry allowed him to increase his influence with those of the Court who would also prosper in the years that followed.
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