The Wife’s Tale, Isabel Marshal and Ireland

Paddy Nary

The marriage of Isabel de Clare and William Marshal is often viewed as a perfect example of the ascent of a man through his marriage o an important heiress. Like most other medieval women little is known of Isabel to us. It is only through her conduct in Ireland after 1207 and especially her centring on her doings in Kilkenny.
Isabel was not born to be an heiress her older brother Gilbert died in 1185 meant that the heir to Leinster was to be a woman. The choice of her husband was of supreme importance to Ireland, with regard to how the Lordship would survive and develop. Through choosing her husband her guardian the King could control the passage of lands and affect the balance of power in Ireland. There may have been some who harboured ambitions and were embittered when she was given in marriage to the Marshal, an outsider. Isabel’s new husband was not a popular choice among the barons.
She must have been aware that it was not the first time that a woman from her family was given as a reward for an ambitious man. She herself was the product of such a match when her mother Aoife married Richard de Clare, otherwise (Strongbow) Earl of Striguil, (Chepstow.)

Richard was not a favourite of Henry 11 as he had opted for the losing side in the civil war. Strongbow welcomed a chance to redeem his fortunes by taking his chance with Diarmuid Mac Murrough in Ireland. With McMurrough’s death Strongbow claimed his lands as a right through his marriage to Aoife. Strongbow was not to enjoy his prosperity for too long because he died in 1176. William arrived back in London in 1189 to meet and marry Isabel. They had great difficulty claiming Isabel’s inheritance from Prince John eventually had to appeal to King Richard for help. William was right to claim that he had nothing, “save through her”.

As a child Isabel (a very valuable heiress) was taken into custody by the King and stayed there until she married. She was part of the royal household, marriage to the most famous knight in the world must have been an over whelming prospect for such a young girl. They appear to have been a successful match, Isabel became pregnant by the end of 1189 and they eventually produced ten living children. Their first visit to Ireland in 1200 was not a qualified success as her husband failed to impress the barons.
Another opportunity to impress the battle hardened veterans came in 1207- 08, William was recalled to England by the king and left behind his pregnant wife.
“The Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal” describes the situation,

In Kilkenny on the day set
they were all there with him
and once they had arrived on that day
The Marshal “My Lords,
here you see the countess whom I have brought here
by the hand into your presence
She is your lady by birth,
the daughter of the Earl who graciously,
in his generosity enfieffed you all,
once he had conquered the land.
She stays behind here with you as a pregnant woman.
Until such time as God brings me back here,
I ask you all unreservedly the protection she deserves by birth right,
for she is your lady as we all know
I have no claim here save through her.

With these words the Marshal left to return to his displeased King, and Isabel stepped into the limelight. She was a figure of respect to the barons a living link to the strong men who had enabled the Norman colonisation to proceed – her maternal grandfather Mac Murrough and her father Strongbow. She was well aware of her symbolism and she used this power to bolster her husband’s position as Lord of Leinster. She was a woman well used to military life strategy and this would serve her well in the coming crisis. As already mentioned she proved to be a formidable defender of her rights in the military opposition organised by her principal rival Myler Fitz Henry. Aided of course by loyal and experienced soldiers, it was Isabel who was responsible for the victory. She had forced the other rebel knights of Leinster to come to terms. With Fitz Henry defeated John had no other option then to allow William return to Isabel and Leinster.
Isabel was a woman of courage and resilience but a more telling key to her character comes when her husband’s conciliatory actions to his rebellious knights are recounted. The rebels are described as coming to Kilkenny begging for forgiveness and mercy. He being a compassionate knight forgave them and returned the hostages. The author of the Histoire described Isabel’s reaction to all this.

“Once the countess was informed of this,
I can tell you she was not well pleased,
for they had done her many a wrong and hurt,
and their crimes were many.
I can assure you that, had he listened to her,
the earl would have exacted revenge on them”.

This picture of events portraying Isabel as out for vengeance is not entirely accurate. Punishments were severe for the principal rebels, Fitz Henry having been forced to hand over his castle at Dunamase and his son a hostage to Isabel. He was also pledged to surrender his lands after his death to the Marshal. Other rebels were also harshly treated for a time.
She is reputed to have directed the building of a motte at Old Ross and to have assisted in the founding of New Ross. The years after 1207 that they spent together in Ireland were marked by building, endowing, and regulating castles, churches and boroughs. Before she died Isabel had to endure the death of William, her distress at his sufferings and eventual death are portrayed in the Histoire.

“It was observed that the countess,
could not walk without coming to grief,
for her heart and body, her head and limbs,
had suffered from her exertions,
her weeping and her vigils.

Now that William was dead, Isabel was weak with grief and had to face into old age alone. Not only that but she had to face a battle before her to claim control over her own lands in Ireland, which were denied to her by Geoffrey de Marisco. In 1219 she won control of her lands but did not live long to enjoy them for she died in 1220, barely fifty years of age.
In William’s last days, he divulged his secret agreement with the Templars. Back in the 1180s he had decided to enter the ranks of that Order before his death and wished to receive a burial at the Bretherns hands. The Master of the Templars in England travelled to Caversham to perform the rite. One year earlier the Marshal had issued instructions for the white robe emblazoned with the red cross to be prepared. Later that day 14th May William died and his embalmed body was prepared for burial covered in his treasured silken cloths. Finally on the 20th May 1219 the Marshall was laid to rest in the Round Templars Church in London.
Amazingly all five sons of William and Isabel died without legitimate heirs, At the death of the last Marshal brother in 1245 eleven days after his brother, Walter a totally unexpected dilemma was revealed, the partition of the huge Marshal inheritance between their five sisters or their heirs. The five daughters who inherited married into some of the most powerful families in Ireland and England.
Bishop Ailbe was in dispute with William concerning diocesan lands that the Marshal had appropriated in developing the manor of Ferns. The Bishop took the step of obtaining a letter from Rome threating the Marshal with excommunication if the lands were not returned. This did not have the desired effect for when William died he was still under excommunication by the Bishop of Ferns. The premature demise of all five Marshal brothers was rendered even more extraordinary by the fact they all died childless. The deaths of the Marshals five sons without heir was attributed to the Episcopal” curse” by the bishop of Ferns.
By the time the partition was completed in 1247 only Matilda Marshal, widow of Roger Bigod Earl of Norfolk and William Earl of Warenne was alive.
The Male Line of the Inheritance of William Marshal:
William, m. Alice daughter of Baldwin de Bethune. Walter, m. Margery,
Anselm, m. Matilda de Bohun.
Gilbert, m . Margaret of Scotland.Richard, m. Gervase.
The Female Line of the inheritance of William Marshal:
Matilda, m.Hugh Bigod, Joan, m. Warin de Munchensy, Isabel,m. Gilbert de Clare.
Eva, m. William de Braose. Sibyl, m. William de Ferres.

So it was for a third successive generation that the lands of Leinster descended splely through the female line. The once enormous Lordship of Leinster was divided up and changed forever from the Lordship that Isabel had fought to defend.
Hers was a life well lived by the standards of the time. Blest with a devoted husband, many children, and a determined disposition. Isabel Marshal was a woman who was every bit a match for her illustrious husband, a fact one suspects, was not lost on William.

Sources:

• William Marshal and Ireland.
• William Marshal 3rd Edition.
• The Greatest Knight.