0:00:04 > 0:00:09Look closer at the heart of Britain's parliamentary democracy
0:00:09 > 0:00:14and you come upon a forgotten hero of our history.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20This is William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke,
0:00:20 > 0:00:23not a household name to us,
0:00:23 > 0:00:26but once he was the most celebrated warrior of his day.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28And now he stands here,
0:00:28 > 0:00:30behind the royal throne,
0:00:30 > 0:00:32just as he did in life.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37This is a man who fought at the side of four kings of England,
0:00:37 > 0:00:40who saved this nation from French conquest,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44and preserved the English royal line,
0:00:44 > 0:00:49but he's commemorated here, amongst men who stood up to the crown.
0:00:49 > 0:00:55The men who issued Magna Carta, our own bill of rights.
0:00:55 > 0:00:57Looking at these figures,
0:00:57 > 0:01:00it's hard to know whether they're supposed to be guarding the throne
0:01:00 > 0:01:02or keeping it in check.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The real men behind these images were men of violence,
0:01:06 > 0:01:10men who held this country through right of conquest
0:01:10 > 0:01:13and yet, it was they who demanded and issued the document
0:01:13 > 0:01:17that still guarantees our most fundamental freedoms.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21To me, the key to unravelling that conundrum lies
0:01:21 > 0:01:25in the remarkable life of William Marshal,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29a life that was rediscovered through a lost manuscript,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33the first biography of a medieval knight.
0:01:33 > 0:01:38It's an epic story of a man who rose through the ranks,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40as a peerless warrior, tournament champion
0:01:40 > 0:01:43and paragon of chivalry.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47He died regent of England
0:01:47 > 0:01:49leaving behind a simple memorial.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54William could have chosen to be remembered as a courtier,
0:01:54 > 0:01:57a politician, a great landholder.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59He was all of those things.
0:01:59 > 0:02:03But in the end, this effigy was designed to reflect
0:02:03 > 0:02:05the reputation he earned in life
0:02:05 > 0:02:08as the greatest knight in the world.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23In the heart of modern Manhattan,
0:02:23 > 0:02:28you can find a priceless window onto the medieval world.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Because here, in the vaults of the Morgan Library,
0:02:35 > 0:02:39a unique 800-year-old document survives.
0:02:41 > 0:02:45It tells us the story of William Marshal,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48a knight of the 12th and 13th centuries.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56And it puts flesh and blood on an obscure figure of history.
0:03:00 > 0:03:06This is the earliest biography of a real-life knight.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10It's estimated that perhaps there were 20 copies made,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13but of those only one has survived
0:03:13 > 0:03:16and that's this very copy in front of us.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20The manuscript was really first heard of
0:03:20 > 0:03:22only at a Sotheby auction in 1861.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27There was no title, nothing from the outside of the book told us
0:03:27 > 0:03:29it was the life of William Marshal.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32It was actually commissioned by his son, who of course, inherited
0:03:32 > 0:03:34all of his lands and they wanted
0:03:34 > 0:03:37to make sure that their father was duly remembered.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42VOICE READS IN ANGLO-NORMAN FRENCH
0:03:45 > 0:03:47It's Anglo-Norman French
0:03:47 > 0:03:49and it's actually rhymed verse.
0:03:49 > 0:03:52They got a good French poet to do this.
0:03:52 > 0:03:55He was certainly very conscientious,
0:03:55 > 0:03:57because he interviewed many of those who were still alive
0:03:57 > 0:03:59that knew William Marshal.
0:03:59 > 0:04:04We know that he was probably over 6ft tall, he had brown hair,
0:04:04 > 0:04:07he had a face that would have been worthy of a Roman Emperor.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09I don't know if that's true or not,
0:04:09 > 0:04:14but it certainly makes good reading, but that's what the poet tells us.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18Look closely at this text
0:04:18 > 0:04:22and an astonishing eyewitness story emerges -
0:04:22 > 0:04:25one man's journey through the medieval world.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28"He dealt such a blow at him that it cut through his helmet,
0:04:28 > 0:04:31"separating the coif from the hauberk and piercing the flesh..."
0:04:31 > 0:04:34"..flitches of bacon, wines, wheat, flour and..."
0:04:34 > 0:04:37"You shall not marry her anywhere else but here and in this house,
0:04:37 > 0:04:39"your wedding will be so arranged..."
0:04:39 > 0:04:40"The Marshal leapt forward
0:04:40 > 0:04:42"and clung by his hands to a strut supporting..."
0:04:42 > 0:04:46What makes this manuscript so special for me, so priceless,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49is that it's this text that enables us to take William
0:04:49 > 0:04:52from just being another name in history
0:04:52 > 0:04:54and actually turns him into being a man.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00In these pages, he emerges as the great hero
0:05:00 > 0:05:02of the central Middle Ages,
0:05:02 > 0:05:05and that means that we can't take this text at face value,
0:05:05 > 0:05:07we have to ask questions, we have to ask what qualities
0:05:07 > 0:05:11does this text want us to believe William had?
0:05:11 > 0:05:14How does it set about creating him and shaping him
0:05:14 > 0:05:16as that perfect knight?
0:05:18 > 0:05:22The biography gives us a gripping romantic tale,
0:05:22 > 0:05:24but for me, it's only the starting point.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28To recover the truth of William Marshal's life,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31the life of a great medieval knight,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36we have to follow in his footsteps and look at all the evidence.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39And our journey begins back in England,
0:05:39 > 0:05:42in a forgotten corner of the West Country.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51William Marshal was born around 1147,
0:05:51 > 0:05:54less than a century after the Norman Conquest of England.
0:05:57 > 0:06:03His father was John, the Marshal of the king's horses, a minor noble,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07and I've come to visit the remains of one of his fortifications.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10It may not look like much,
0:06:10 > 0:06:14but actually, this is the most basic form of medieval castle.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18You can see a really rudimentary trench has been put here
0:06:18 > 0:06:22to try to stop attack, a kind of moat, and then we've got
0:06:22 > 0:06:25a mound, a defensible position that could be used.
0:06:25 > 0:06:30Now, this is light years away from the great towering stone castles
0:06:30 > 0:06:32that you might imagine from the Middle Ages,
0:06:32 > 0:06:36but what's so exciting about this place for me is that
0:06:36 > 0:06:39this landscape is known as Hamstead Marshall and it's right here
0:06:39 > 0:06:43that William Marshal took his first steps onto the pages of history.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48William was born into a time of civil war
0:06:48 > 0:06:51between King Stephen and Matilda,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54grandchildren of William the Conqueror,
0:06:54 > 0:06:59a period known as The Anarchy that lasted almost 20 years.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04Earthworks and wooden palisades went up across the country,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07shaky defences for the few they could shelter.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11But we know that, in 1152, somewhere in this landscape,
0:07:11 > 0:07:16probably in this very spot, John Marshal's men were attacked.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19It was besieged by King Stephen's army
0:07:19 > 0:07:23and his troops would have been spread out across this landscape.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27The biography paints a vivid picture.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31"You should have seen the squires start to clamber with great daring
0:07:31 > 0:07:33"over the ditches and up the embankments.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36"And those within the walls defended themselves
0:07:36 > 0:07:38"courageously and furiously.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42"They hurled down slabs of stone, sharpened stakes,
0:07:42 > 0:07:45"and massive pieces of timber to knock them into the ground."
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Word was sent to John Marshal,
0:07:51 > 0:07:53who raced to the rescue of the men inside
0:07:53 > 0:07:56and begged for a truce from King Stephen.
0:07:56 > 0:08:01The king granted his request, but only in return for a hostage,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04so John produced his son,
0:08:04 > 0:08:06not the eldest one, we're told,
0:08:06 > 0:08:08but the second one - William.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13William was just a little boy,
0:08:13 > 0:08:18perhaps four, maybe five years of age, and he now found himself
0:08:18 > 0:08:21a crown hostage in the midst of enemy troops.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26In a very real sense, I think his life was in danger,
0:08:26 > 0:08:30and then, shockingly, news arrived that his father had reneged
0:08:30 > 0:08:31on his side of the deal.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33And he bluntly refused to surrender,
0:08:33 > 0:08:38and declared that he no longer cared about the fate of his infant son.
0:08:38 > 0:08:40He's supposed to have said that he had the anvils
0:08:40 > 0:08:43and the hammers to forge an even better child.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49In the days that followed, King Stephen sought to use
0:08:49 > 0:08:52the young William's life as a bargaining chip.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55He was hoping to pressurize John into submission
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and so, he repeatedly paraded the boy in full view of the castle,
0:08:59 > 0:09:02threatening his life.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06At one point, William was dragged to the gallows to be hung,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09at another, he was placed in a catapult.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12They even contemplated using him as a human shield
0:09:12 > 0:09:14during a frontal assault.
0:09:14 > 0:09:19Unbelievably, throughout all of this, John remained unmoved.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26The bluff succeeded and the King held on to William,
0:09:26 > 0:09:29though, eventually, he was released unharmed.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33As a young child, William had learned first-hand
0:09:33 > 0:09:36about the brutal realities of the medieval world
0:09:36 > 0:09:40and that his own success, even survival,
0:09:40 > 0:09:42were by no means guaranteed.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46No-one could have guessed
0:09:46 > 0:09:49that the expendable younger son of John Marshal would go on
0:09:49 > 0:09:53to change the course of English history.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56And that's partly because William wasn't,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59in the way we'd think of it, an Englishman.
0:10:00 > 0:10:03By birth, he was a Norman,
0:10:03 > 0:10:05and it would be in Normandy
0:10:05 > 0:10:08that the young boy would turn into the knight.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12At the age of 13 or 14,
0:10:12 > 0:10:16William took to the seas to join the household of his mother's cousin,
0:10:16 > 0:10:20William de Tancarville, the Chamberlain of Normandy.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23But for the young William Marshal,
0:10:23 > 0:10:27this wasn't so much a journey abroad as a journey back home.
0:10:31 > 0:10:35William's ancestors had made the crossing in the opposite direction
0:10:35 > 0:10:37with William the Conqueror.
0:10:37 > 0:10:39The events of 1066 were just
0:10:39 > 0:10:42one part of an extraordinary period
0:10:42 > 0:10:44of conquest and expansion,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47which saw a new elite warrior class
0:10:47 > 0:10:49claiming thrones across Europe
0:10:49 > 0:10:52and the Mediterranean.
0:10:52 > 0:10:54A class that William Marshal
0:10:54 > 0:10:56would come to epitomise.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02In the National Library, in Paris,
0:11:02 > 0:11:08you can get an extraordinary glimpse of the first medieval knights,
0:11:08 > 0:11:11preserved forever in ivory.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20This is one of the oldest chess sets in Europe.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Chess was a game invented in India
0:11:22 > 0:11:24and this set was most likely crafted
0:11:24 > 0:11:27by an Arab working in southern Italy.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30And he seems to have adapted the game that he knew
0:11:30 > 0:11:34to depict the northern warriors who had conquered him.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39You can see that the person who's created this piece,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42a pawn, is trying to show that he's wearing a form of
0:11:42 > 0:11:46male armour, and he's got the classic Norman helmet,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49with a central nose piece.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53Conical helmet, he's an infantryman.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56And he's got a slightly haunted look about his eyes, as if to say,
0:11:56 > 0:11:59"I'm the man in the front line.
0:11:59 > 0:12:01"I'm going to be getting it first."
0:12:02 > 0:12:07And then, of course, there are the mounted warriors.
0:12:07 > 0:12:12The two pieces that fascinate me the most are the horsemen.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14There are some wonderful little details.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18So we see a beautiful stirrup
0:12:18 > 0:12:20and one of the massive revolutions
0:12:20 > 0:12:22in technology that made so much
0:12:22 > 0:12:25difference in the 11th century was the creation of the stirrup.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28Suddenly, you didn't just have to hold on to the horse
0:12:28 > 0:12:30with your legs, you could actually control the horse
0:12:30 > 0:12:31and stay in the saddle.
0:12:33 > 0:12:38In Arab chess, this figure was just known as 'the horse',
0:12:38 > 0:12:40but under the influence of the Normans,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42it is changing into the knight.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46But this isn't quite yet the knight as we know it.
0:12:48 > 0:12:53This one at the front has the classic Norman kite shield.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The shape that's so resonant from the Bayeux Tapestry.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00This one at least is wearing
0:13:00 > 0:13:03what's pretty clear to be some form of helmet.
0:13:03 > 0:13:06The other one maybe it's an attempt to show a helmet,
0:13:06 > 0:13:08maybe it's just some kind of hood.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13We have this idea that every one in the 11th century would have
0:13:13 > 0:13:15known exactly what a knight was.
0:13:15 > 0:13:17But that's not true.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19It's precisely in this century
0:13:19 > 0:13:22and in the decades leading up to William Marshal's birth
0:13:22 > 0:13:28and his life that this class, this new warrior class, is emerging
0:13:28 > 0:13:33and these chess pieces are some of the very first examples
0:13:33 > 0:13:36of an attempt to depict that new knightly group.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43We call them knights, but if you look at the writings of the time,
0:13:43 > 0:13:47they refer to them in Latin as 'milites' - soldiers.
0:13:49 > 0:13:54In German or French as 'Ritter' or 'chevalier' - horse riders.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58And in Anglo-Saxon as 'Cniht' -
0:13:58 > 0:14:00a retainer.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05This is what William had arrived in Normandy to become.
0:14:05 > 0:14:10A horseman, a soldier, and a faithful retainer.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14THEY SPEAK IN FRENCH
0:14:16 > 0:14:19The place where William spent his first years
0:14:19 > 0:14:23in Normandy has since been swallowed by layers of later building
0:14:23 > 0:14:27and subsequently, by the forces of nature.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44It's actually got quite a creepy atmosphere.
0:14:49 > 0:14:53I'm told that somewhere in the midst of this labyrinth
0:14:53 > 0:14:58is the core of the castle where William arrived around 1160.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05I'm not really sure how safe this floor is.
0:15:05 > 0:15:10The story goes that what we can see through this door
0:15:10 > 0:15:15is essentially the medieval part of this, this castle, the chateau.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17So I'm going to inch forward.
0:15:17 > 0:15:19Hopefully, I won't plummet.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Well, I think you can see
0:15:29 > 0:15:33that this is a much older part of the building,
0:15:33 > 0:15:38maybe signs that it might go back as far as the 12th century.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41The local legends around this suggest that this is where
0:15:41 > 0:15:43William Marshal might have slept.
0:15:43 > 0:15:48Guillaume le Marechal is a famous figure, even here, in Tancarville.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51And the reason is, is because this is where William came
0:15:51 > 0:15:54when he was 13, 14-years-old, just a boy.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59He made the trip across the Channel, his first visit to Normandy
0:15:59 > 0:16:01and he came here to learn how to be a knight.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07He spent six years in this place
0:16:07 > 0:16:11and we can be sure that he spent almost all of his days
0:16:11 > 0:16:15engaged in learning the arts of war, how to use a sword,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19how to ride a horse, how to wield a lance from horseback.
0:16:19 > 0:16:21His days wouldn't have been easy.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24But it's here, in his biography,
0:16:24 > 0:16:28that an image of William Marshal, the man, begins to emerge,
0:16:28 > 0:16:32or rather of William Marshal, the teenager.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36The picture it paints is basically of an adolescent boy -
0:16:36 > 0:16:41we're told that William gained a reputation for liking to sleep,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44and worse still, that basically he was a greedy guts,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46he liked stuffing his face.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49It conjures a 12th-century locker room atmosphere -
0:16:49 > 0:16:53all men together, the bullying, the banter.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55If you wanted to come somewhere
0:16:55 > 0:16:59to learn how to be a knight in the mid-12th century,
0:16:59 > 0:17:01you couldn't really choose a better place than this.
0:17:01 > 0:17:05I know it looks decrepit and neglected now,
0:17:05 > 0:17:09but when William was here, THIS was the place to come.
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Another contemporary described the Lord of this place,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15the Lord of Tancarville, as the "father of knights".
0:17:15 > 0:17:18He was so famed for the size of his knightly retinue
0:17:18 > 0:17:22and for the excellent education in military warfare that he gave them.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28William lived out his teens as a trainee or squire,
0:17:28 > 0:17:33until, in 1166, the armies of Flanders invaded
0:17:33 > 0:17:37and anyone who could fight was needed in the defence of Normandy,
0:17:37 > 0:17:41so William was pressed into service at the age of 19.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44In a hasty battlefield ceremony,
0:17:44 > 0:17:47he knelt before his Lord and was girded with the weapon
0:17:47 > 0:17:49that made him formally a knight -
0:17:49 > 0:17:51a sword.
0:17:51 > 0:17:55The great symbol of knightly status, but also the essential
0:17:55 > 0:18:01practical tool for the bloody business of medieval warfare.
0:18:01 > 0:18:03And I've come to the Wallace Collection, in London,
0:18:03 > 0:18:08to meet Tobias Capwell, and to see one of the finest medieval swords
0:18:08 > 0:18:10to survive in the world.
0:18:10 > 0:18:13So this is it, Wallace's fabulous sword collection.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16Yes! Small, but fabulous.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19Gosh!
0:18:19 > 0:18:20THOMAS CHUCKLES
0:18:22 > 0:18:24It's incredibly light.
0:18:24 > 0:18:26It literally feels like it's got a life of its own,
0:18:26 > 0:18:28- like it's not there.- Uh-huh.
0:18:28 > 0:18:30I've never felt anything like that in my life.
0:18:32 > 0:18:36Gosh, it feels amazingly manoeuvrable as well.
0:18:36 > 0:18:39Yeah. You have to be a bit careful
0:18:39 > 0:18:42when we take swords out of cases, cos they do want to kill people.
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Could this have chopped through someone's arm?
0:18:46 > 0:18:49Yeah, or head, or leg.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52- Ouch.- The effectiveness of these weapons is scary.
0:18:53 > 0:18:57So for me, one of the most evocative moments from William's life
0:18:57 > 0:19:00is that instance when he is created as a knight.
0:19:00 > 0:19:04But the most important part of that occasion for him, as it was for all
0:19:04 > 0:19:08other knights, is the moment when the sword is girded to his side.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10It's almost akin to the moment
0:19:10 > 0:19:13when the holy oil is loosed upon the head of a monarch.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15It's a moment of transformation.
0:19:15 > 0:19:18- When they go from being one type of human being to another.- Yeah.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22The sword as a symbol of the elite warrior class goes way back,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25a long time before the Middle Ages.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27It's an ancient principle
0:19:27 > 0:19:30and it's based on a couple of different factors.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33First of all, it's the expense.
0:19:33 > 0:19:36The materials to make a sword are very expensive
0:19:36 > 0:19:39and also hard to come by.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Working the metal, getting the best balance of these important
0:19:42 > 0:19:45properties out of it is difficult
0:19:45 > 0:19:48and there are only a few craftsmen that can do it really well.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50If you make a small mistake
0:19:50 > 0:19:52and there's one little, you know, silicate inclusion
0:19:52 > 0:19:54in the wrong place,
0:19:54 > 0:19:56the sword will break the first time you hit somebody with it.
0:19:56 > 0:19:58But that's not what you want on the battlefield.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00That's not really what you want.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04And finally, a weapon like this demands, you know,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07a very high level of martial skill
0:20:07 > 0:20:12and being a martial artist requires luxury of time,
0:20:12 > 0:20:13to be really good at it.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17You need to be fighting and practising all of the time.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21And you had to be, essentially, a member of the aristocracy,
0:20:21 > 0:20:24you had to have the wealth to be able to afford something like this.
0:20:24 > 0:20:26That's what gives it its status.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29Or you need to be in the service of someone wealthy.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31You know, part of the culture of knighthood,
0:20:31 > 0:20:33even in this early period I think,
0:20:33 > 0:20:36is that, you know, good warriors, who may not, you know,
0:20:36 > 0:20:38have an extremely elevated status,
0:20:38 > 0:20:41can be brought into the household of someone
0:20:41 > 0:20:44and then, you know, elevate themselves in that way.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47- And that's exactly what happens to William.- Exactly.
0:20:49 > 0:20:54The simple reality of William's day was that if you wanted to serve as an elite warrior,
0:20:54 > 0:20:59you had to have the money to afford weapons, armour and horses.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Of course, in times of war and conquest,
0:21:02 > 0:21:04there were spoils to be gained on the battlefield,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08the problem came at times of peace.
0:21:08 > 0:21:09To fill this void
0:21:09 > 0:21:14a new idea evolved - a means both to hone your skill at arms
0:21:14 > 0:21:17and to accrue wealth -
0:21:17 > 0:21:19the tournament.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22And so much of what we know about this phenomenon
0:21:22 > 0:21:24comes from William's biography.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27"Everywhere, the news spread that between Sainte-Jamme
0:21:27 > 0:21:32"and Valennes, there would be a tournament in a fortnight's time."
0:21:33 > 0:21:38The field for William's first tournament was 30 miles wide.
0:21:38 > 0:21:43Put out of your mind the staged jousts of the later Middle Ages,
0:21:43 > 0:21:48these were battles with scores of participants that ranged over miles.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52"The companies were now in sight of each other..."
0:21:52 > 0:21:56"..some sped along in disorderly fashion, whilst others approached at a measured pace..."
0:21:56 > 0:21:58The violence could be bloody and terrifying.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00"There were so many blows that it was hard to count..."
0:22:00 > 0:22:02"..one of the knights sought to pull him to the..."
0:22:02 > 0:22:05"..many a shield run through and many a sword blow landed on helmets."
0:22:05 > 0:22:09But the aim was not to kill, but to capture your enemies
0:22:09 > 0:22:12and release them back in return for a payment
0:22:12 > 0:22:16in horses, weapons or hard cash.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18"Five knights rode up and surrounded him,
0:22:18 > 0:22:19"seizing his bridle and..."
0:22:19 > 0:22:21"Up came William the Marshal,
0:22:21 > 0:22:24"fully armed, strong, and of tall, handsome stature..."
0:22:24 > 0:22:29Over the next 15 years, William became a famous tournament champion,
0:22:29 > 0:22:33and later boasted to have captured 500 knights.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36His biographer tells us he fought only for honour,
0:22:36 > 0:22:41but he can't help revealing what else was at stake -
0:22:41 > 0:22:42money.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46This text has a fascinatingly difficult relationship
0:22:46 > 0:22:49with that idea of materialism for William.
0:22:49 > 0:22:52It tells us here, for example, that he's been in a tournament,
0:22:52 > 0:22:55he's done, of course, he's done brilliantly, he's won everything.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57But it says very specifically,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00right at the top here.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03HE READS IN ANGLO-NORMAN FRENCH
0:23:03 > 0:23:05"He had no thought whatsoever for gain,"
0:23:05 > 0:23:09and it goes on to say that all he really cared about was honour.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12BUT if you go just a few folios forward,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14then we get a slightly different image.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18Rather wonderfully, the text actually reveals
0:23:18 > 0:23:21that William effectively employed his own accountant.
0:23:21 > 0:23:24He had a man who was named Wigain,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28the clerk of the kitchen, a man who kept a written list of every single
0:23:28 > 0:23:32knight that William defeated in a tournament during this period,
0:23:32 > 0:23:33more than 100.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35And on the basis of that list,
0:23:35 > 0:23:38William was able to see what ransoms were coming in.
0:23:38 > 0:23:41He was essentially able to check his cash flow.
0:23:42 > 0:23:45With so much at stake, it was in the interests of every knight
0:23:45 > 0:23:47for the fight to continue,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51but not for the risks to outweigh the rewards.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56There's a revealing anecdote at this point in the biography.
0:23:56 > 0:23:58He's attending a tournament.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02William's shown as defeating a man called Philippe de Volosges.
0:24:02 > 0:24:07Philippe turned to William and gave him his pledge
0:24:07 > 0:24:08and on the basis of that,
0:24:08 > 0:24:12William trusted him and decided to let him go.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16I think what we're seeing here are the very early stages
0:24:16 > 0:24:18of the codification of practice between knights -
0:24:18 > 0:24:24the idea of honour, of trust, of an interdependence.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26Really, these are the first signs
0:24:26 > 0:24:29of the code that we would think of as chivalry.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33William Marshal would come to define chivalry.
0:24:34 > 0:24:37The word literally meant 'good horsemanship',
0:24:37 > 0:24:41and comprised all the physical virtues of the knight.
0:24:41 > 0:24:43But in the setting like the tournament,
0:24:43 > 0:24:46it was acquiring a new sense.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50A true chevalier was a man of honour
0:24:50 > 0:24:54whom other knights could rely on to play by the rules of the game.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56Knights were evolving rapidly in status
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and sophistication from the early mounted warriors.
0:25:00 > 0:25:04But William's rise through the ranks would come
0:25:04 > 0:25:07not through the chivalric combat of the tournament,
0:25:07 > 0:25:10but through his ability to display prowess
0:25:10 > 0:25:12in the real bloody business of war
0:25:12 > 0:25:17and to come to the notice of the great and the good.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22In 1168, William was travelling in the retinue of his uncle,
0:25:22 > 0:25:24the Earl of Salisbury,
0:25:24 > 0:25:28as they journeyed through France on a perilous mission,
0:25:28 > 0:25:32escorting a great lady between her castles.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35On the road, the party was suddenly ambushed...
0:25:35 > 0:25:37The Earl was killed instantly,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41and William found himself fighting off over 60 attackers.
0:25:41 > 0:25:46He was wounded, captured, and barely escaped with his life.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51But he bought enough time for his charge to escape to her castle.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54She didn't forget the man who had rescued her,
0:25:54 > 0:25:55but paid his ransom.
0:25:57 > 0:25:58And luckily for William,
0:25:58 > 0:26:02she happened to be Eleanor of Aquitaine,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05one of the most powerful women in the world.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09Eleanor was heiress to the Duchy of Aquitaine.
0:26:09 > 0:26:13She was married to Henry, Count of Anjou,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16who'd recently inherited the kingdom of England.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20Between them, they ruled over a realm unrivalled in Europe,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22which brought north men
0:26:22 > 0:26:24like William into contact
0:26:24 > 0:26:25with the Mediterranean south.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32Aged only 21, William Marshal was drawn by Eleanor into the very heart
0:26:32 > 0:26:37of the most powerful and culturally vibrant court in Christendom.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43In Poitiers, Eleanor's great hall still survives,
0:26:43 > 0:26:47known evocatively as the Hall Of Lost Footsteps.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00Lost to the vastness of the space...
0:27:03 > 0:27:08..and to the sensory overload that greeted a new arrival at court.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18William would have been confronted by a barrage
0:27:18 > 0:27:21of different languages, voices, sounds.
0:27:25 > 0:27:30The court would have been packed with entertainers, musicians,
0:27:30 > 0:27:34poets, singers, troubadours...
0:27:34 > 0:27:37Another visitor to the court around this same time remarked
0:27:37 > 0:27:41on how he developed a taste for the most exotic foods,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44in particular, roasted crane.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50This was a setting in which it was possible not just to operate
0:27:50 > 0:27:53during the day, but also at night.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58The royalty and the aristocracy could afford light and candles,
0:27:58 > 0:28:00an impossibility for peasants,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03and in that setting, in the darker hours,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06then we see a different side to the court...
0:28:08 > 0:28:12It was packed with the creatures of the night.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15There was a position that was officially described
0:28:15 > 0:28:18as the Marshal Of The Whores.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20One especially notorious performer
0:28:20 > 0:28:24bore the rather wonderful appellation Roland The Farter.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31William was a long way from the West Country now.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34This was the world of the poet, the troubadour,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38the real world that inspired the Arthurian romances
0:28:38 > 0:28:42and Eleanor placed William at the heart of her Camelot,
0:28:42 > 0:28:47as mentor and companion at tournaments to the heir to the throne,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51crowned by his father as Henry, The Young King.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58The young Henry was the most glamorous figure in Europe,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01a king who had no kingdom to rule,
0:29:01 > 0:29:04but devoted himself to the ideal of chivalry.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07He spent his life at the tournament,
0:29:07 > 0:29:13lavishing money and patronage on his own round table of knights.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16William quickly rose to the head of this retinue,
0:29:16 > 0:29:21so much that his tournament prowess began to outshine that of the king.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27William was to learn that for a knight to get by,
0:29:27 > 0:29:31he would need to master another aspect of chivalry -
0:29:31 > 0:29:32'courtesie',
0:29:32 > 0:29:36the knack of navigating the cut-throat world of the court.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42It seems that, eventually, William's star rose so far
0:29:42 > 0:29:46within the entourage of the Young King that some people,
0:29:46 > 0:29:51in the words of the biographer, became envious, they became jealous.
0:29:51 > 0:29:53A whispering campaign spread like wildfire
0:29:53 > 0:29:56amongst the members of the court,
0:29:56 > 0:30:01deprived of royal patronage by the Marshal's all encompassing success,
0:30:01 > 0:30:06until one took the news to the Young King himself.
0:30:06 > 0:30:11And the biography lays bare that moment in pretty stark terms.
0:30:11 > 0:30:17It tells us that it was said that William had been fornicating
0:30:17 > 0:30:20with the Queen or, in even blunter terms,
0:30:20 > 0:30:21"Il le fait a la reine."
0:30:22 > 0:30:25He'd been doing it to the Queen.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27William was accused of adultery
0:30:27 > 0:30:31with the Young King's wife, Queen Margaret,
0:30:31 > 0:30:34and what made this charge so powerful was that it played into
0:30:34 > 0:30:40the paranoias of a court bred on tales of Sir Lancelot and Guinevere.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44The adultery of the great knight with his royal master's queen.
0:30:44 > 0:30:48Their attack was taken from the world of court poetry,
0:30:48 > 0:30:52but so was the Marshal's chivalric response.
0:30:52 > 0:30:57He staunchly denied everything and publicly challenged his accusers,
0:30:57 > 0:31:01but none of them was ready to take him on in trial by combat.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04He had no choice but to go into exile,
0:31:04 > 0:31:07but he used the opportunity to spread his fame
0:31:07 > 0:31:10in tournament victories across northern Europe.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14And before long the King realised he'd been deprived
0:31:14 > 0:31:16of his most able retainer.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19William returned with his reputation salvaged,
0:31:19 > 0:31:23while his enemies were exposed by their incautious boasts.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34It's an extraordinary, romantic tale.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37But what should we make of the dramatic parallels
0:31:37 > 0:31:41between William's story and the Arthurian Romances?
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Laura Ashe, an expert on medieval literature has her own theory.
0:31:45 > 0:31:47Interesting about that though is I think
0:31:47 > 0:31:50we often underestimate how much reality there is in the Romances,
0:31:50 > 0:31:52because these Romances really were written
0:31:52 > 0:31:55for people like William Marshall
0:31:55 > 0:31:57and they actually do show you
0:31:57 > 0:31:59how to keep an eye on reality.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03I think that all of those stories of Lancelot and Guinevere
0:32:03 > 0:32:06or of Tristan and Isolde, they make it very clear
0:32:06 > 0:32:09that this is something that happens,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13because I think the figure of Lancelot is really a metaphor,
0:32:13 > 0:32:17you know, a metaphorical way of worrying about the fact
0:32:17 > 0:32:21that any king's best knight is going to be a better knight than the king.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24You know, we have a basic clash here
0:32:24 > 0:32:28that if you have a meritocratic system of prowess of battles,
0:32:28 > 0:32:31tournaments, everyone knows who is the best knight.
0:32:31 > 0:32:33And then, if you have a hereditary system of kingship,
0:32:33 > 0:32:35they're not going to be the same person,
0:32:35 > 0:32:39so in some ways, I think the story, that recurring story of the adultery
0:32:39 > 0:32:42of the queen and the queen's champion
0:32:42 > 0:32:45is just a way of expressing that cultural anxiety.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48And the model for William is not going to be King Arthur,
0:32:48 > 0:32:50it's going to be Lancelot.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Absolutely, absolutely, and of course Lancelot is superior to Arthur,
0:32:53 > 0:32:57just in the way that William was superior to the Young King Henry.
0:32:59 > 0:33:02William's life is a fascinating insight into the essential
0:33:02 > 0:33:06interdependency between a king and his knights
0:33:06 > 0:33:09and the complexities of this relationship would dominate
0:33:09 > 0:33:11the rest of his career.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15And what he learned in the romantic court of the Young King,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17was that the emerging code of chivalry
0:33:17 > 0:33:21might help a knight to navigate his way through these difficulties.
0:33:23 > 0:33:29In 1183 the Young King met a squalid end, dying of dysentery.
0:33:29 > 0:33:36And William fulfilled on his behalf his dying wish - to go to Jerusalem.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40The Marshal spent more than two years travelling to the Holy Land,
0:33:40 > 0:33:43arriving in the East just as tensions between the crusaders
0:33:43 > 0:33:48and Saladin's Muslim armies were reaching boiling point.
0:33:48 > 0:33:49But frustratingly,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53we know nothing of William's contribution to this epic struggle.
0:33:54 > 0:33:59The biography does reveal one tantalising fact -
0:33:59 > 0:34:03in that he now vowed to join the famous Order Of Crusader Knights,
0:34:03 > 0:34:05the Templars, before his death.
0:34:07 > 0:34:10He returned from the Holy Land in 1186.
0:34:10 > 0:34:15Through tournaments, courtly life and his brush with the crusades,
0:34:15 > 0:34:17William was starting to be seen
0:34:17 > 0:34:19as the embodiment of the chivalric ideal.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22Something that would serve him well in years to come,
0:34:22 > 0:34:24as bigger challenges loomed.
0:34:26 > 0:34:30William now presented himself back at the court of King Henry II.
0:34:30 > 0:34:35And he moved definitively from the fantasy world of the tournament,
0:34:35 > 0:34:39to the real battlefields and politics of Europe.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56It was in this period that William forged his reputation as one
0:34:56 > 0:34:58of the greatest knights in Europe.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03It's extraordinary to think that William spent the best part
0:35:03 > 0:35:07of 20 years nearly constantly on the move,
0:35:07 > 0:35:09criss-crossing this landscape.
0:35:10 > 0:35:13These were the lands of King Henry's birth
0:35:13 > 0:35:17and he was constantly defending them against rival French rulers.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22William quickly became much more than just a soldier to Henry -
0:35:22 > 0:35:26a sign of the heights to which the best knights were rising.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32Men like William and other leading members of the royal household could
0:35:32 > 0:35:36serve as advisers, as elite warriors and commanders in the field,
0:35:36 > 0:35:41but perhaps, above all, they were prized for their trusted loyalty.
0:35:41 > 0:35:45This quality was one of the most essential aspects of chivalry,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48but as William had already learned,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51showing loyalty to a king was no simple matter.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53The problem came when the members
0:35:53 > 0:35:57of the dynasty you served began turning on one another.
0:35:57 > 0:35:59The question for William then
0:35:59 > 0:36:02was exactly where did your loyalties lie?
0:36:04 > 0:36:08The Angevin realm had long been riven by infighting.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12Henry II's offspring rebelled against his authority
0:36:12 > 0:36:14four times in 16 years.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18But the decisive threat was posed by his ultimate heir -
0:36:18 > 0:36:21Richard the Lionheart.
0:36:21 > 0:36:24This put William in an impossible position -
0:36:24 > 0:36:27asked to fight against the man who would one day be his king.
0:36:29 > 0:36:34The moment of truth came in June 1189 at the town of Le Mans,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37where William was covering the ageing King Henry's retreat
0:36:37 > 0:36:41and found himself confronted by the heir to the throne.
0:36:43 > 0:36:45This will be a confrontation to savour.
0:36:45 > 0:36:48A clash between Richard the Lionheart,
0:36:48 > 0:36:52the man who will become England's finest warrior king,
0:36:52 > 0:36:56and William Marshal, the greatest knight of the Middle Ages.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00The two men charged towards one another at a gallop.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03William had his lance levelled.
0:37:03 > 0:37:07The question was whether he would dare to strike Richard directly,
0:37:07 > 0:37:11potentially killing the future king of England.
0:37:11 > 0:37:14At the last second, William adjusted his aim
0:37:14 > 0:37:17and drove the point of his lance into the body of Richard's horse.
0:37:17 > 0:37:20The beast fell to the ground, dead.
0:37:20 > 0:37:25For the moment, at least, Henry II's escape had been secured.
0:37:31 > 0:37:36But less than a month later, King Henry II was dead of an ulcer
0:37:36 > 0:37:39and the man whom William Marshal had bested
0:37:39 > 0:37:41was now proclaimed the new king.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46One of the most poignant and telling scenes
0:37:46 > 0:37:50of English royal history played itself out in the aftermath,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54in the nearby abbey where William buried his master.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59This is Henry II, King of England,
0:37:59 > 0:38:02ruler of the great Angevin empire.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06But there's an irony that we find in here in his tomb effigy,
0:38:06 > 0:38:10laid out in resplendent and restful state,
0:38:10 > 0:38:14because, in reality, he suffered a pretty ignominious death.
0:38:14 > 0:38:18When William Marshal and the King's leading retainers found him
0:38:18 > 0:38:22the royal chamber and the king's body had been ransacked
0:38:22 > 0:38:24by fleeing servants.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26The corpse was found semi naked
0:38:26 > 0:38:32and sprawled on the floor with blood caked around his mouth and his nose.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36William and the other knights covered the King's body and then,
0:38:36 > 0:38:42ever faithful, the Marshal escorted him here to the Abbey of Fontevraud.
0:38:46 > 0:38:51It was a last act of fidelity to a king most thought best to abandon.
0:38:54 > 0:38:58With Henry's death, all thoughts now passed to the new king,
0:38:58 > 0:39:02his successor, Richard the Lionheart.
0:39:02 > 0:39:05For William Marshal, waiting here at Fontevraud,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09the days that followed were a period of great anxiety.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Given what had passed between them before, he had every
0:39:12 > 0:39:16expectation that the new king would strip him of his status.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20The biography paints an incredibly evocative picture.
0:39:23 > 0:39:28Richard arrived and looked down upon the body of his dead father.
0:39:30 > 0:39:35His face was said to have been an emotionless, unreadable mask.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39For all of those looking on, William Marshal included,
0:39:39 > 0:39:42there was not even the slightest hint
0:39:42 > 0:39:45of what the new king's next move might be.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57What he did was to call on William Marshal.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01"Marshal," he said, "The other day you intended to kill me."
0:40:03 > 0:40:05Boldly, William responded,
0:40:05 > 0:40:08"It was never my intention to kill you.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12"I am strong enough to aim my lance."
0:40:12 > 0:40:16What we're seeing is a game of politics, of power,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20of courtly life, so how did that game play out?
0:40:20 > 0:40:22Well, against all expectations,
0:40:22 > 0:40:26Richard the Lionheart chose not to punish William Marshal.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30Instead, he drew him into his own inner circle.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35It was simply inconceivable to throw someone of proven loyalty
0:40:35 > 0:40:38like William Marshal onto the scrapheap.
0:40:39 > 0:40:43The staunch fidelity William had shown in 1189 proved enough
0:40:43 > 0:40:48to counteract his opposition to Richard's claim.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50There's no doubt that he'd backed the losing side
0:40:50 > 0:40:53when he'd supported Henry II to the end,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57but because of the chivalric, knightly culture in which he lived,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00there was one thing that William could cling on to.
0:41:00 > 0:41:04In this time of turmoil and upheaval,
0:41:04 > 0:41:08he'd proven himself to be loyal to the last
0:41:08 > 0:41:12and in the end, that would prove to be his salvation.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15It was a crucial lesson to William,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18which he never seems to have forgotten,
0:41:18 > 0:41:21that people might not forgive a man who changed sides,
0:41:21 > 0:41:26but a man who remained loyal could retain his honour and win reward.
0:41:29 > 0:41:33The reward for William's unstinting royal service came in the lands and
0:41:33 > 0:41:40castles of the king's ward, Isabel, daughter of the Lord of Striguil.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44Striguil, known today as Chepstow,
0:41:44 > 0:41:48still commands the entrance to the Wye Valley, in South Wales.
0:41:49 > 0:41:54For over a decade, its orphaned heiress awaited her adulthood
0:41:54 > 0:41:58and the fortunate husband, who would inherit her land.
0:42:01 > 0:42:04Possession of this castle changed the lives
0:42:04 > 0:42:06of both William and Isabel.
0:42:07 > 0:42:12For Isabel, after years waiting in the wings as a prized heiress,
0:42:12 > 0:42:15this must have felt something akin to a return home
0:42:15 > 0:42:17to the land of her father.
0:42:20 > 0:42:22But I think there's no doubt
0:42:22 > 0:42:26that it was William who experienced the most profound change.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29He'd spent decades fighting in other people's castles,
0:42:29 > 0:42:32living in other people's fortresses
0:42:32 > 0:42:35and now, he became the Lord of his own castle.
0:42:35 > 0:42:40This was the realisation, the achievement of every knight's ambition -
0:42:40 > 0:42:43to go from being a landless warrior,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46to becoming a landed knight,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49a baron of the Kingdom of England.
0:42:50 > 0:42:56Now 42-years-old, William had risen at an astonishing rate.
0:42:57 > 0:43:02The bestowal upon him of castles like Chepstow was transforming
0:43:02 > 0:43:07the Marshal from a figure defined by his loyalty to others
0:43:07 > 0:43:12to someone with his own interests and his own powerbase.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23And this building itself, the great hall,
0:43:23 > 0:43:27the main keep of the castle here, at Chepstow,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30was the absolute epicentre of his authority.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36This is the place where he himself could hold court.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38So who might have come here?
0:43:38 > 0:43:40Well, first and foremost
0:43:40 > 0:43:42it would have been his own family,
0:43:42 > 0:43:45chief amongst them, his wife Isabel,
0:43:45 > 0:43:49who really was the reason he had possession of this castle.
0:43:49 > 0:43:53But beyond that, there was another essential group
0:43:53 > 0:43:56that would have met here, congregated,
0:43:56 > 0:43:58that would have been drawn to this space,
0:43:58 > 0:44:04and that was his knights, his own closest, most faithful retainers.
0:44:04 > 0:44:09Men like John of Earley, Henry Hose, Geoffrey Fitzrobert.
0:44:09 > 0:44:11They came to this castle,
0:44:11 > 0:44:15because they knew they could gain patronage and protection.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22William was himself now a father of knights,
0:44:22 > 0:44:25with men at his disposal to do his bidding.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29In addition to Striguil, over the next decade,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33William gained possession of the Earldoms of Leinster and Pembroke,
0:44:33 > 0:44:36the Wild West of medieval Europe.
0:44:38 > 0:44:42These men and these lands, all added to his power,
0:44:42 > 0:44:46but they introduced in life a new complication -
0:44:46 > 0:44:49obligations to his family and followers
0:44:49 > 0:44:53that could compete with his famous loyalty to his own master -
0:44:53 > 0:44:55the King.
0:44:56 > 0:45:01Of course William, as Earl of Pembroke, was here to do the King's bidding,
0:45:01 > 0:45:04but I think his priorities lay elsewhere.
0:45:04 > 0:45:07This place gave him an incredible opportunity to carve out
0:45:07 > 0:45:09a semi independent lordship,
0:45:09 > 0:45:12to be able to reward his faithful retainers,
0:45:12 > 0:45:14and perhaps above all,
0:45:14 > 0:45:17to be able to realise that greatest of knightly dreams -
0:45:17 > 0:45:19to be able to found his own dynasty.
0:45:21 > 0:45:25William set about finding lands and rewards for his knights,
0:45:25 > 0:45:30as generations of Norman conquerors had done before him.
0:45:30 > 0:45:34But his timing was inauspicious.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37The world was changing around him.
0:45:37 > 0:45:41Richard the Lionheart died fighting in France in 1199,
0:45:41 > 0:45:44and the Angevin Empire was quickly dismembered
0:45:44 > 0:45:48under the less effective rule of his younger brother John.
0:45:48 > 0:45:50For the first time since 1066,
0:45:50 > 0:45:55knights like William were deprived of access to glories in France,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58and confined to Britain.
0:45:58 > 0:46:03And the King, instead of handing out the proceeds of conquest,
0:46:03 > 0:46:06was taxing his knights and taking their lands...
0:46:07 > 0:46:10..William included.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13And in this new era, the balance of power
0:46:13 > 0:46:16between a monarch and his knights would have to be resolved.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18In the year 1212,
0:46:18 > 0:46:22discontent with the increasingly unpopular king
0:46:22 > 0:46:26led to unrest across England and before long,
0:46:26 > 0:46:31the realm was in the grip of a fully fledged civil war.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35But by 1215, the rebel barons and the King
0:46:35 > 0:46:40had finally negotiated a new settlement for a new era,
0:46:40 > 0:46:45and that settlement survives in the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51So I feel immensely privileged,
0:46:51 > 0:46:55because it's no exaggeration to say that this box contains
0:46:55 > 0:46:58a document that changed English history.
0:47:00 > 0:47:03John was forced to agree to a series of concessions
0:47:03 > 0:47:07enshrined in a text of profound significance.
0:47:09 > 0:47:13So this is Magna Carta, the great charter.
0:47:13 > 0:47:16We like to think of this document as being
0:47:16 > 0:47:19one of the cornerstones of a Western democracy,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22as a document that speaks about inalienable rights to liberty.
0:47:22 > 0:47:25And in some ways that's true,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28because it does contain the critical clause
0:47:28 > 0:47:30"nullus liber homo" -
0:47:30 > 0:47:32no free man -
0:47:32 > 0:47:35and goes on to talk about protection from imprisonment,
0:47:35 > 0:47:38from the seizure of property
0:47:38 > 0:47:41and a right to an appeal to a panel of your peers
0:47:41 > 0:47:43or recourse to law.
0:47:44 > 0:47:47There's a beautiful irony to this document,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50because the people who were at the heart of Magna Carta,
0:47:50 > 0:47:52the forging of this agreement,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56were knights, and we tend to think of that group as
0:47:56 > 0:48:01men who were warriors, who were bloodthirsty, rapacious warlords,
0:48:01 > 0:48:03and yet here we find them
0:48:03 > 0:48:07right at the heart of a great charter of liberty.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11But in many ways, this document in 1215 was actually about
0:48:11 > 0:48:13something much more specific.
0:48:13 > 0:48:17It was about the relationship between John and his leading nobles.
0:48:20 > 0:48:24The collapse of the Angevin Empire and John's rapacity
0:48:24 > 0:48:26had prompted knights, men who were
0:48:26 > 0:48:30accustomed to winning their status through warfare,
0:48:30 > 0:48:33to talk the language of law and governance.
0:48:33 > 0:48:37But it would be wrong to imagine that the drafting of this document
0:48:37 > 0:48:40ushered in a period of enduring peace.
0:48:42 > 0:48:46In 1215, what we really have is an agreement that is much more
0:48:46 > 0:48:48along the lines of a peace treaty,
0:48:48 > 0:48:51a series of conditions that are ironed out
0:48:51 > 0:48:53through negotiation between John and his nobles,
0:48:53 > 0:48:57with William Marshal at the heart of those dealings,
0:48:57 > 0:48:59that are essentially there to produce a truce,
0:48:59 > 0:49:02and, in fact, that truce only lasts for a few months.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Certainly by the end of that year, 1215,
0:49:05 > 0:49:09Magna Carta as it then stood was essentially a dead letter.
0:49:09 > 0:49:14The Magna Carta that survived to influence English and world history
0:49:14 > 0:49:16was not published by King John
0:49:16 > 0:49:20but was issued after his death the following year,
0:49:20 > 0:49:22and under another seal.
0:49:22 > 0:49:24This is a version of Magna Carta,
0:49:24 > 0:49:28sealed by "rectoris nostri et regni nostri" -
0:49:28 > 0:49:32our guardian and the guardian of our realm,
0:49:32 > 0:49:34and that man is named.
0:49:35 > 0:49:37William Marshal.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43It's the clue to the last act of William's life -
0:49:43 > 0:49:47one that would stamp William's seal on our history for ever
0:49:47 > 0:49:49as the man who saved the kingdom.
0:49:53 > 0:49:58Back in 1213, William had been called out of semi retirement.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01As John's barons left him one by one,
0:50:01 > 0:50:04he had summoned the man in the kingdom
0:50:04 > 0:50:08most famed for old-fashioned loyalty.
0:50:08 > 0:50:10The Marshal was now 69,
0:50:10 > 0:50:13an old man by the standards of his day,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16and carried huge respect on both sides.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19It was he who had helped engineer the negotiations
0:50:19 > 0:50:22that led to Magna Carta,
0:50:22 > 0:50:24but for all William's efforts,
0:50:24 > 0:50:27John's power as a monarch could not be salvaged,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30and his kingdom was overrun by the rebels,
0:50:30 > 0:50:35this time with the help of Louis, Prince of France.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39Soon, half the kingdom was in foreign hands,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44and William found himself once again burying a king.
0:50:46 > 0:50:51On 18th October 1216, the war still raging,
0:50:51 > 0:50:55John died, the broken king of a broken kingdom.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01At the moment of King John's death in 1216,
0:51:01 > 0:51:03England was in utter turmoil,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06ripped apart by civil war.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Two-thirds of the English aristocracy
0:51:09 > 0:51:13had turned their back on the Angevin royal dynasty,
0:51:13 > 0:51:17and with the arrival of an invasion force under the French Prince Louis,
0:51:17 > 0:51:20more than half of the realm had been lost,
0:51:20 > 0:51:23including the vital commercial centre of London.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27So who was the heir to this kingdom on its knees?
0:51:28 > 0:51:31Well, it was John's son, Henry,
0:51:31 > 0:51:34a boy of just nine years of age.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38His prospects could not have been bleaker.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44The child King was brought up from his sanctuary in Wiltshire...
0:51:45 > 0:51:48..and all eyes turned to the Marshal,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50the most revered man in England
0:51:50 > 0:51:53and the boy's only hope.
0:51:56 > 0:52:00William raced south to meet the young Henry on the road.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04The meeting that followed was deeply emotionally charged.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06The boy was so small and vulnerable
0:52:06 > 0:52:10that he actually had to be carried by one of his household knights.
0:52:10 > 0:52:14He approached the Marshal, pleading for his protection,
0:52:14 > 0:52:18saying, "I give myself over to God and to you."
0:52:19 > 0:52:23William responded by pledging himself to serve Henry
0:52:23 > 0:52:26so long as he was able.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30At this moment everyone wept, the Marshal included.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42The old man knelt before his nine-year-old sovereign,
0:52:42 > 0:52:46the fates of both were now inextricably linked.
0:52:48 > 0:52:49This was, I think,
0:52:49 > 0:52:53the most important decision of William Marshal's life -
0:52:53 > 0:52:56the moment at which he gambled everything,
0:52:56 > 0:53:00backing a boy who seemed doomed to failure.
0:53:00 > 0:53:03It was said that William promised that he would support Henry,
0:53:03 > 0:53:05no matter what.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08Even if all the rest of the world deserted him,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12he would carry the young boy on his shoulders from land to land,
0:53:12 > 0:53:14begging for food and bread if he had to.
0:53:15 > 0:53:20By this choice, William put his family, his dynasty,
0:53:20 > 0:53:24the lands that he'd gained on the line.
0:53:24 > 0:53:27There was a very real possibility that his dynasty,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30that his future would come to an end
0:53:30 > 0:53:33when Henry III failed as a king.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36William now accepted the honour,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40but also the burden of England's regency.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42So, why did he take this risk?
0:53:44 > 0:53:48We can never know, but perhaps we can look for an answer
0:53:48 > 0:53:51in his conception of chivalry.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53He did not want to be shamed,
0:53:53 > 0:53:56he did not want to damage his reputation.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00He wanted to be seen to do the honourable, chivalric thing,
0:54:00 > 0:54:04the thing that a knight of his status should do.
0:54:04 > 0:54:09In the end, William may have made a calculated, self-serving decision
0:54:09 > 0:54:12to preserve his good name,
0:54:12 > 0:54:16or acted out of an authentic sense of loyalty to the Crown.
0:54:16 > 0:54:20Whatever the case, William now found himself at the front line
0:54:20 > 0:54:24of a war that would determine the fate of England.
0:54:26 > 0:54:30In May 1217, William, at the age of 70,
0:54:30 > 0:54:33drew up his forces outside Lincoln
0:54:33 > 0:54:39intent on striking a decisive blow against the rebels and the French.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43It was said that he delivered a rousing speech to his men,
0:54:43 > 0:54:48claiming that the invading French were bent upon total destruction.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51"Fight with unbreakable resolve," he urged,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54"for the sake of your loved ones,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57"for our land and to win the highest honour."
0:55:01 > 0:55:04This man, as much Norman as English,
0:55:04 > 0:55:08a man once defined by his class not his nation,
0:55:08 > 0:55:13had now issued an emotional appeal grounded in English identity...
0:55:16 > 0:55:18..and it was William's decision to place himself
0:55:18 > 0:55:22at the heart of the fighting here in Lincoln,
0:55:22 > 0:55:27despite his old age, that inspired the Royal army to victory.
0:55:29 > 0:55:32If this battle had played out differently,
0:55:32 > 0:55:34we'd be looking at an England that would suddenly be
0:55:34 > 0:55:37part of the kingdom of France.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Our future as a nation would have been entirely different.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44And it's Lincoln that means that what we now think of
0:55:44 > 0:55:49as the Royal line, the English Royal line, survived as we know it.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53In the end, it was a knight who could achieve this success.
0:55:53 > 0:55:55For all the romanticism, all the mythology
0:55:55 > 0:55:58that surrounds ideas of chivalry,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01it's still true to say that the greatest of knights,
0:56:01 > 0:56:04men like William Marshal, could shape history.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12William served as regent for a further two years
0:56:12 > 0:56:16before old age took him.
0:56:16 > 0:56:20But in that time, he sought to settle and stabilise England,
0:56:20 > 0:56:25the England of Magna Carta, reissued under his seal.
0:56:26 > 0:56:30William Marshal died in a different England
0:56:30 > 0:56:32to the one in which he'd been born,
0:56:32 > 0:56:36but it was a country that HE had been instrumental in shaping.
0:56:36 > 0:56:39For centuries thereafter,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42England would be ruled by kings supported,
0:56:42 > 0:56:46but also checked, by a warrior aristocracy
0:56:46 > 0:56:49and the ideals they hammered out on the tournament field,
0:56:49 > 0:56:52in the politics of the court,
0:56:52 > 0:56:54in the blood of civil war
0:56:54 > 0:56:57and ultimately in Magna Carta,
0:56:57 > 0:57:03formed the basis of the principles by which we are all now governed.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05And, for me,
0:57:05 > 0:57:10this is the greatest revelation of William Marshal's life.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14He is, I think, emblematic of a period
0:57:14 > 0:57:18in which knights became more than mere agents of conquest.
0:57:18 > 0:57:21It was William and knights like him
0:57:21 > 0:57:24who stemmed the tide of Royal tyranny,
0:57:24 > 0:57:26who promoted the rule of law.
0:57:26 > 0:57:30Of course, most did so in pursuit of their own interests
0:57:30 > 0:57:32but nonetheless,
0:57:32 > 0:57:36they helped to create the country in which we now live.