William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry

Georges Duby, among the most influential French scholars to bring the middle ages to life, based his "William Marshall: The Flower of Chivalry" on many sources. One of those needs special mention. "L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal" is a poem of more than 19,000 lines commissioned by the eldest of Marshall's five sons to celebrate the life of their father. And what a life, rising from humble squire to become a champion in many tournaments and a feared warrior who ended his years as Regent of England after a lifetime at war. As a young knight William Marshall was severely wounded while saving Eleanor of Aquitaine from an ambush. She ransomed him and he joined her service. (See Duby's "Women of the Twelfth Century, Volume 1: Eleanor of Aquitaine and Six Others.") After that, William served Eleanor's spouse, King Henry I, and their crowned heir to England, Young Henry: William's tournament winnings repaid Young Henry's debts. After that, William took his sword to Palestine, a vow made to Young Henry, who died at 15. Thereafter, William served Henry I again, then Richard I (Lionheart), his brother King John, and finally John's son, the boy-king Henry III. The age of chivalry's high point centered on the decade of the 1170s. We know of no better practitioner than William Marshall. His career and his conduct were those of the perfect knight. It is no exaggeration to say that the real life of William Marshall exceeded the on-screen career of any Hollywood action hero, with no stunt doubles or special effects. Duby puts more than William Marshall's career in brilliant context. His principal source, "L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal" was written, not in Latin, but in Anglo-Norman French. Duby explains its provenance. It remains the first document of such length to be written in French. And the odds are very good that the excellent poet who produced those 19,000 lines in octosyllabic couplets wrote them in England! Robert Fripp, Author, Power of a Woman. Memoirs of a turbulent life: Eleanor of Aquitaine

The life of William Marshal is an elusive life to study upon. There is very little written about him and what little there is reads more like propaganda. That being said, Georges Duby has done a superb job in bringing the character of William Marshal to life. We are told by Duby himself that he is not attempting to write a biography of Marshal, but rather use the lengthy poem written about Marshal to analyze his character and illustrate why he was thought of as the Flower of Chivalry. This is something that is hard to do. What is reality and what was written in order to lift Marshal high in the eyes of his peers? Using his own knowledge of the time along with other biographies written about Marshal Duby is able to depict a seemingly accurate rendition of the chivalric knight. We are treated to short, yet pleasingly full explanations of normal everyday medieval society. Where other authors pass over the trivial explanations Duby includes. Such as why a final resting place was chosen, the act of homage, why children were sent away, the importance of maternal uncles and so on... Small detail oriented research that one familiar with the period knows, and yet we as the amateur reader aren't too familiar with. This in itself makes this a book any reader of history should read. The only downside is that we may truly never know who Marshal was. What we know is based off of a poem commissioned by Marshal's son in order to lift his father, and thus the family, higher in the eyes of society. How much is propaganda? I think it safe to say almost everything is, but within this lengthy poem we can find the character of Marshal. I am eager to read something else written by Georges Duby. I would definitely recommend this book and author to all. 5 stars.

As you may recall in the film A LION IN WINTER, there was a briefly seen character named "William" (played by Nigel Stock in the superlative 1968 version starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn), the right-hand man of King Henry II, who fetched his master's sons, Richard and Geoffrey, and Henry's Queen Eleanor (imprisoned in England's Salisbury Tower) to the royal castle of Chinon in France for the 1183 Christmas court. This William was William Marshal, the subject of this small book (153 pages) of the same name by French medieval historian Georges Duby. The translated volume was published in 1985. Marshal was a remarkable man, whose knightly career spanned roughly five decades, over which time he went from penniless knight to acting-King of England (when he served as Regent for the young Henry III). Over that period, he was a faithful servant to four kings (Henry II, Richard I, John, Henry III) and one almost-king, the Young King Henry, the eldest son of Henry II crowned and anointed heir in 1170, but who pre-deceased Ol' Dad in June of 1183. William, by then Earl of Pembroke, died in 1219. Duby's interest lies in that facet of medieval feudalism called chivalry, and he admiringly uses Marshal's life to illustrate the subject. Indeed, the author's description of William's life seems sometimes oddly detached, as if describing a rat in a lab experiment. Georges uses as his primary source a biography of the man - twenty-seven parchment leaves containing 19,914 verses - commissioned by the family shortly after the earl's death, and which survived in its entirety to the present. The biography, "Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal", was written in French, a fact, I suspect, which was crucial in drawing Duby's attention to it. The author takes great pains to point out that feudal society was a hierarchical one comprised of superimposed layers, and with an order, ostensibly intended by God, "based on the intermingled notions of inequality, service, and loyalty." For laymen, i.e. the non-Church nobility - from bottom to top, from knight to king - it was a complex web of relations of domesticity, consanguinity, vassalage, and politics. Duby's great accomplishment in WILLIAM MARSHAL: THE FLOWER OF CHIVALRY is reducing this complexity to a human level for the reader using Marshal as the poster boy. With a knowledge of feudalism probably no greater than anyone with an average interest and instruction in Western history, I came away from this absolute gem of a book with a greater and satisfying understanding of five particular aspects of feudalism and chivalry: the loyalty expected of a vassal knight to his lord of the moment regardless of the latter's loyalty to his superior further up the ladder, the importance of tournaments to the knights' livelihoods, the role of increasing circulating specie in eroding the knights' class pretensions, the necessity of marriage to an heiress to move a bachelor knight up in societal rank (marriage = land = power), a

If you like middle Ageds, this is your book. IF you like chivalry, this is your book. If you like to read a good book, this is your book. Prof. Duby was not only a great scholar, but as a writer has a great style. He is simple and elegant. Although is a short book it will give you a great pleasure. Not only if you are a professional, but to anyone who likes History and learning. iN fact any book by Duby is an open window to the middles Ages. So just get ready for a great trip.

This book is great for those beginning the study of medieval life and warfare of the middle ages.William Marshal is the greatest knight that England has ever produced, and a reader will become captive in the story as William becomes one of the nations greatest and respected nobles.