PEMBROKE, WILLIAM MARSHAL, I ST EARL OF ( ? 1219), English statesman, second son of John le Marechal, by Sibylle, the sister of Patrick, earl of Salisbury, succeeded to the title through his marriage with Isabel, daughter of Richard, 2nd earl of Pembroke (q.v.). In 1170 he was admitted to the house hold of Prince Henry, the heir-apparent, and remained there until the death of his young patron (1183). He undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he served as a crusader with distinction for two years. Although he had abetted the prince in rebellion he was pardoned by Henry II. and admitted to the royal service about 1188. In 1189 he covered the flight of Henry II. from Le Mans to Chinon, and, in a skirmish, unhorsed the undutiful Richard Coeur de Lion. None the less Richard, on his accession, promoted Marshal and confirmed the old king's licence for his marriage with the heiress of Strigul and Pembroke. This match gave Marshal the rank of an earl, with great estates in Wales and Ireland, and he was included in the council of regency which the king appointed on his departure for the third crusade (1190). He took the side of Prince John when the latter expelled the justiciar, William Longchamp, from the kingdom, but in 1193 he joined with the loyalists in making war upon the prince. Richard allowed him to succeed his brother, John Marshal, in the hereditary marshalship, and on his death-bed designated him as custodian of Rouen and of the royal treasure during the inter regnum.
Though he quarrelled more than once with John, Marshal was one of the few English laymen who clung to the royal side through the Barons' War. He was one of John's executors, and was sub sequently elected regent of the king and kingdom by the royalist barons in 1216. He prosecuted the war against Prince Louis and the rebels with remarkable energy. In the battle of Lincoln (May 1217) he charged and fought at the head of the young king's army, and he was preparing to besiege Louis in London when the war was terminated by the naval victory of Hubert de Burgh in the straits of Dover. He was criticized for the generosity of the terms he accorded to Louis and the rebels (Sept. 1217); but his desire for an expeditious settlement was dictated by sound states manship. Self-restraint and compromise were the key-notes of Marshal's policy. Both before and after the peace of 1217 he reissued Magna Carta. He fell ill early in the year 1219, and died on May 14, at his manor of Caversham near Reading. He was succeeded in the regency by Hubert de Burgh, in his earldom by his five sons in succession.