MARSHALL, Earl John b. 1126 Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales d. 29 Sep 1165 Newbury Castle, Marlborough, England

1126 - 1165 (39 years)

Name	MARSHALL, John
Prefix	Earl
Birth	1126	Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Gender	Male
Death	29 Sep 1165	Newbury Castle, Marlborough, England [1]
Burial	Oct 1165	Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire, England
WAC	15 Nov 1932	ARIZO [2]
_TAG	Reviewed on FS
Headstones	Submit Headstone Photo
Person ID	I12684	Joseph Smith Sr and Lucy Mack Smith
Last Modified	19 Aug 2021

Father	FITZ-ROBERT, Gilbert , b. 1075, Somerset, England Somerset, Englandd. 1129, Winterbourne Monkton, Marlborough, Wiltshire, England (Age 54 years)
Mother	VENOIX, Margaret de , b. 4 Nov 1083, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Walesd. 1129, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales (Age 45 years)
Notes	~SEALING_SPOUSE: Also shown as SealSp 2 Jun 1936, SLAKE.
Family ID	F6888	Group Sheet \| Family Chart

Family DEVEREAUX, Sybil , b. 27 Nov 1126, Sarum, Wiltshire, England Sarum, Wiltshire, Englandd. 3 Jun 1176, Pembrokeshire, Wales (Age 49 years)

Marriage 1164 Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales [3]

Children

+	1. MARSHALL, Earl William , b. 1146, Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Wales Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, Walesd. 14 May 1219, Caversham Manor, Oxfordshire, England (Age 73 years)

Family ID F6890 Group Sheet | Family Chart

Last Modified 24 Jan 2022

Photos At least one living or private individual is linked to this item - Details withheld.

Notes

John FitzGilbert, Marshal of the Horses
Also Known As:"John FitzGilbert"
Birth 1105 Pembroke,,Pembrokeshire,Wales
Death:Died 1164 in Pembroke,,Pembrokeshire,Wales
Place of Burial:Priory, Bradenstoke, Wiltshire, England
Immediate Family:
Son of Gilbert FitzRobert, le Mareschal and Margaret
Husband of Sybilla of Salisbury
Ex-husband of Aline de Pipard
Father of Gilbert FitzJohn FitzJohn; Walter FitzJohn le Marshall; John Fitzgilbert, II, Marshall; William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke; Maud FitzJohn Marshall and 3 others
Brother of William "Giffard" Fitzgilbert Marshall
Occupation:Marshal of the Horses, a Minor Nobleman in the Court of King Stephen
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Born John FitzGilbert about 1105, he is known in history as John Marshal (Marshall, Guillaume le Mareschal, etc.)

The son of Gilbert Giffard, Master Marshal at the court of King Henry I; John became Marshal to Henry upon his father's death in about 1129 until the King's death in 1135.

Henry had no legitimate male heirs, but had declared his daughter Matilda as his heir. Instead, upon his death Henry's nephew, Stephen de Blois, seized power and John Marshal declared for him.

Whether rightly or due to collusion of his enemies at court, John Marshal was rumored to be secretly supporting Empress Matilda/Maude after her arrival in England in 1139, and King Stephen besieged John's castle at Marlborough, after which he did declare for Maude, (his brother William Giffard later became her Chancellor 1141-1142).

Although capturing Stephen, Matilda was never crowned Queen of England. Unable to gain the upper hand militarily, Maude fled England in 1148. John's lands were seized or ransacked and he was excommunicated from the Church, despite having given his house and lands in Winchester to Troarn Abbey, land at Rockley Manor to the Templars, and being a benefactor of Bradenstoke Priory, where his Salisbury in-laws were interred.

Maude's son, Henry, came to oppose King Stephen and a truce was finally reached which allowed Stephen to rule during his lifetime upon his guarantee that the crown would pass to Henry, which it did, thus ending 'the Anarchy.'

After his coronation in 1154, King Henry II restored much of John Marshal's former holdings which had been confiscated by Stephen.

He married first, Aline Pipard in about 1129 and with her had two sons, Gilbert and Walter. As a result of a peace pact negotiated by Robert, Earl of Gloucester between John Marshal and Patrick of Salisbury who had besieged him, John agreed to set aside Aline and have her married to a cousin of the Earl of Gloucester's, and to take as his second wife Sybille, the sister of Patrick of Salisbury, which he did in about 1145.

Descendants of John Marshal and Sybille include Robert the Bruce, Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth I, George Washington and Sir Winston Churchill.

Although neither his grave marker or Sybille's remain, John Marshal's remains are at Bradenstoke.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=123363224

BIO: from http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISH%20NOBILITY%20MEDIEVAL1.htm#JohnFitzGilbertMarshaldied1165
JOHN FitzGilbert "the Marshal" (-before Nov 1165). He succeeded his father in [1130] as Master Marshal of the king's household. The 1129/30 Pipe Roll records "Johs Marisc" accounting for "terra et ministerio patris sui"[1272]. The Gesta Stephani Regis names "Joannes, ille Marescallus agnominatus" among the supporters of Empress Matilda in the English civil war[1273]. Military fee certifications in the Red Book of the Exchequer, in 1166, record that "Johannes Marescallus" used to hold knights´ fees in Oxfordshire during the reign of King Henry I, now held by "Gilbertus filius eius" from "Manasser Arsic"[1274]. Empress Matilda made various grants of property by charter dated to [1141/42] witnessed by "…Johes filius Gisleberti…"[1275]. "…Rainaldo comite Cornubie…Johanne Marescallo" witnessed the charter dated to [Feb/Mar] 1155 under which Henry II King of England restored properties of "Roberto filio Hereberti Camerarii", held by "pater suus vel avus suus"[1276]. The 1157 Pipe Roll records "Johi Marescall" in Herefordshire and Hampshire (three times)[1277]. The Red Book of the Exchequer refers to "Johannes Marscallus xx s" in Worcestershire in [1161/62][1278]. m firstly (repudiated [1141]) as her first husband, ALINE, daughter of [WALTER Pipard] & his wife ---. The Complete Peerage states that the marriage to a daughter of Walter Pipard, a minor Wiltshire baron, is "stated as a fact by Painter" but "this seems a rash deduction from the fact that John paid 30 marks for Walter´s land and daughter" [as recorded in the 1129/30 Pipe Roll in which "Johs Marisc" accounted for "terra et filia Walti Pipardi"][1279]. The early 13th century Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal records that John divorced his first wife and married "damesele Sibire la sorur le cunte Patriz"[1280]. She married secondly Stephen Gai[1281]. Henri Duke of Normandy confirmed an agreement between "Stephanum Gai et Adelicia uxorem suam" and "Gislbtu fil Johannis Mariscalli et eiusdem Aeline" relating to her inheritance by charter dated to [Apr/May] 1153[1282]. m secondly (before [1144]) SIBYL de Salisbury, daughter of WALTER FitzEdward de Salisbury & his wife Matilda de Chaources . The early 13th century Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal records that John divorced his first wife and married "damesele Sibire la sorur le cunte Patriz"[1283]. John FitzGilbert & his first wife had two children...

** from William Marshal, The Flower of Chivalry (Georges Duby) p 60--
Such household offices soon became hereditary. On Gilbert's death around 1130, his oldest son, John--William's father--inherited the title and the prerogatives attached to it; he retained them after 1139, when he definitively left the court and the king's person. At this time the king was gradually losing his power. In 1135, Stephen of Blois had succeeded his uncle, Henry I, who had no legitimate son still alive. Stephen had not ascended the throne without difficulty; to gain acceptance, he was obliged to increase concessions to the nobles. He was besieged, in fact, by all those who, to justify their subordination and to demand more priviledges, proclaimed Matilda, the late king's daughter, a more direct heir than Stephen. Their number gradually increased, while the treasury gradually emptied. Disturbances beset the divided realm. Some sided with the crowned king, some with the woman who disputed his succession. Such was the case around Marlborough Castle in Wiltshire, where John Marshal had retired to his own lands, regarding the occasion as a favorable one to pursue his own interests. This pursuit, in which, as the poem says, "one loses, the other wins," was war. By which we may understand pillage, rapine, and a hunt for spoils. From the other side of the plain, John encountered Patrick, guardian of Salisbury Castle, leader of a rival faction. In these mists of time, John's figure is scarcely discernible.

It was recalled only that he gave with a full hand and that, being neither earl nor baron of great wealth, he yet managed to maintain a great troop of knights--three hundred, the text says, doubtless exaggerating...

First of all, John Marshall happened to make the right choice at the right time: he sided with Matilda. During an excursion she was making in the vicinity of his lands, John served Matilda at the peril of his own life. One day when he little troop was giving way before the king's superior forces, John covered her retreat... Matilda, like all women in those days, rode sidesaddle; this was delaying their progress. "Lady, I swear to you by Jesus Christ," John apparently told her, "you cannot spur your horse in that posture. You must take one leg and put it over the saddlebow." He himself held fast, falling back to the convent of Wherwhell, where he sought to engage the pursuers, at least momentarily. The enemy set fire to the tower in which he had taken refuge; the melting lead of the roof dripped upon his face; the king's men left him for dead. God be thanked, he escaped. He was seen returning on foot to Marlborough but with only one eye. The memory of the princess is short, yet Matilda recalled the exploit, the devotion that inspired it, nor did her son, Henry Plantagenet, forget it when, upon Stephen's death in 1154, he became king of England. Thus John had won the love and favor of the patron from whom there was the most to gain.

He gradually advanced himself by his valor, and made a further gain by marrying the daugthter of a great house. Like all firstborn sons, John Marshal had been married early; his wife, about whom we know nothing, had borne him two sons. Now an opportunity appeared to contract a much more profitable alliance. It became evident that Matilda would prevail; Patrick, John's rival, ranged himself with the probable victors. In the little local war, he had the upper hand; moreover, he was of much nobler blood than John and possessed greater power. He offered his allegiance for a price. In order to win him over, the Plantagenets made him earl of Salisbury. In return they persuaded him to marrying his sister to John, their loyal supporter. This was one of the purposes that marriaged served: to reconcile enemies, to consolidate peace. Without hesitating--such substitution of wives were then common currency--John repudiated his wife and took the new one, acting out of what we should call civic interest and in order to please his lord; to settle the dispute between him and Patrick, and not out of greed. The second damsel Sibylla, was in fact worth a great deal more to John than the first.

** from Wikipedia listing for John Marshal (Earl Marshal)
John FitzGilbert the Marshal (Marechal) (d. ~1164) was a minor Anglo-Norman nobleman during the reign of King Stephen, and fought in the 12th Century civil war on the side of the Empress Matilda. In September 1141, Matilda fled the siege of Oxford and took refuge in the Marshal's castle at Ludgershall, Wiltshire. From there, John covered her retreat to Gloucester, but was forced to take refuge a church. The attackers set fire to the building, and John lost an eye to dripping lead from the melting roof.

In 1152, John had a legendary confrontation with King Stephen, who had besieged him at Newbury Castle. After John had broken an agreement to surrender, Stephen threatened to kill his son, who John had given as a hostage. John refused, saying he could make more sons, but Stephen apparently took pity on the young boy and did not kill him. This son, William, was to become a legendary figure in medieval lore, and one of the most powerful men in England.

The office of Lord Marshal, which originally related to the keeping of the King's horses, and later, the head of his household troops, was won as a hereditary title by John, and was passed to his eldest son, and later claimed by William. John also had a daughter, Margaret Marshal, married Ralph de Somery, son of John de Somery and Hawise de Paynell.

Family
In 1141, John divorced his wife Aline Pipard to marry Sibyl of Salisbury, the sister of Patrick of Salisbury, who had been a local rival of his, and a supporter of King Stephen, up to that point.

John's eldest son, also called John Marshal (d. 1199), inherited the title of Marshal, which he held until his death. The title was then granted by Richard the Lionhearted to William, who made the name and title famous. Though he had started out as a younger son without inheritance, by the time he actually inherited the title his reputation as a soldier and statesman was unmatched across Europe.

John FitzGilbert the Marshal of the Horses (c. 1105 – 1165) was a minor Anglo-Norman nobleman during the reign of King Stephen, and fought in the 12th century civil war on the side of Empress Matilda. Since at least 1130 and probably earlier, he had been the royal marshal to King Henry I. When Henry died, John FitzGilbert swore for Stephen and was granted the castles of Marlborough and Ludgershall, Wiltshire during this time. Along with Hamstead Marshal, this gave him control of the valley of the River Kennet in Wiltshire. Around 1139, John changed sides and swore for the Empress Matilda. In September 1141, Matilda fled the siege of Winchester and took refuge in the Marshal's castle at Ludgershall. While covering her retreat from Winchester, John Marshal was forced to take refuge at Wherwell Abbey. The attackers set fire to the building, and John lost an eye to dripping lead from the melting roof.

In 1152, John had a celebrated confrontation with King Stephen, who had besieged him at Newbury Castle. After John had broken an agreement to surrender, Stephen threatened to kill his son, whom John had given as a hostage. John refused, saying he could make more sons, but Stephen apparently took pity on the young boy and did not kill him. The boy grew up to be William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, a legendary figure in medieval lore, and one of the most powerful men in England.

The office of Lord Marshal, which originally related to the keeping of the King's horses, and later, the head of his household troops, was won as a hereditary title by John, and was passed to his eldest son, and later claimed by William. John also had a daughter, Margaret Marshal, who married Ralph de Somery, son of John de Somery and Hawise de Paynell.

Family

John was the son of Gilbert, Royal Serjeant and Marshal to Henry I, and his wife Margaret. After his father died in 1129 John inherited the title of the king's marshal. John married Aline Pipard whose father Walter Pipard had been a friend of John's father. John arranged an annulment of his marriage to Aline Pipard in order to marry Sibyl of Salisbury, the sister of Patrick of Salisbury, who had been a local rival of his, and a supporter of King Stephen, up to that point. John had two sons by Aline - Gilbert (d. 1166) and Walter (d. bef.1165). Walter predeceased his father and Gilbert died shortly after inheriting his father's lands.

John's eldest son by Sibyl of Salisbury, also called John Marshal (1145-1194), inherited the title of Marshal, which he held until his death. The title was then granted by King Richard the Lionheart to his second son by Sybilla, William (1147-1219), who made the name and title famous. Though he had started out as a younger son without inheritance, by the time he actually inherited the title his reputation as a soldier and statesman was unmatched across Western Europe. John Marshal had four sons in total by his second wife. As well as John and William, there was Henry (1150-1206), who went on to become Bishop of Exeter, and Ancel, who served as a knight in the household of his kinsman, Rotrou, Count of Perche. There were also two daughters Sybilla and Margaret.
References

Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis, Lines 55-28, 66-27, 81-28, 122A-29
Barlow, Frank. The Feudal Kingdom of England 1042-1216 London: Longman Group Limited, 1961. ISBN 0-582-48237-2
William Marshal, Knighthood, War and Chivalry 1147-1219 Longman 2002 ISBN 0-582-77222-2

External links

Catherine Armstrong John fitz Gilbert: the Marshal

Historical fiction

John fitz Gilbert the Marshal is the subject of Elizabeth Chadwick's novel "A Place beyond Courage" (2007).

Sources

[S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index.
John Marshall; Male; Birth: About 1126 Pembroke, Pembroke, Wales; Death: 1164; Father: Gilbert Marshall; Mother: Miss de Venuz; No source information is available.
Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church.
Search performed using PAF Insight on 27 Sep 2004
[S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index.
John Marshall; Male; Birth: About 1126 Pembroke, Pembroke, Wales; Death: 1164; Baptism: 20 MAY 1994 PROVO; Endowment: 20 AUG 1994 PROVO; Sealing to Parents: 06 SEP 1994 PROVO; Gilbert Marshall / Miss de Venuz; Father: Gilbert Marshall; Mother: Miss de Venuz; No source information is available.
Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church to request LDS temple ordinances.
Search performed using PAF Insight on 27 Sep 2004
[S64] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, International Genealogical Index.
Sibilla de Evereaux; Female; Birth: About 1127; Father: Walter de Evereaux; Mother: Sibill de Chaworth; Spouse: John Marshall; Marriage: About 1145 Of Peabroke,Of, Pembroke, Pembroke, Wales; No source information is available.
Record submitted after 1991 by a member of the LDS Church.
Search performed using PAF Insight on 27 Sep 2004