Episode #64, "The Life and Times of Sir William Marshal," Maps and Sources

A brief discussion:

If you want to read a modern, accessible biography of William Marshal, Thomas Asbridge's is the best, and it can be easily picked up at most online bookstores, big bookstores like B&N, and Kindle - or on Audible. David Crouch's very academic biography is more critical; he doesn't know if he likes Marshal or not, while Painter's much older biography is a great read and he treats William like the second coming. Biography is a dangerous realm for historians, it's always hard to be unbiased. Pick your poison.

SOURCES

Asbridge, Thomas The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, Power Behind Five English Thrones. London: Simon & Schuster, 2015.

Brooks, Richard. The Knight Who Saved England: William Marshal and the French Invasion, 1217. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2014.

Crouch, David. William Marshal: Knighthood, War and Chivalry, 1147–1219. 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 1990 (3rd ed. 2016).

Jones, Dan. The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England. London: HarperCollins, 2012.

Kaeuper, Richard W. Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Keen, Maurice. Chivalry. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984.

Painter, Sidney. William Marshal, Knight-Errant, Baron, and Regent of England. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933.

MAPS

The Angevin Empire. Yes, everything in red belongs to King Henry II of England. Yes, the King of England controls more of France than the King of France. No, the King of France isn't happy about that.

Which is why when King Philip II of France got his chance, he took all that land back. The loss of the Angevin Empire almost all occurred under the reign of King John.

The First Barons' War, 1215-1217 - the final conflict of William Marshal's career. Note the English territories in Ireland - lots of those belonged to William's wife Isabel du Clare.

The Battle of Lincoln, 1217. From Richard Brooks' book I cited above.