Marshall John Fitz Gilbert & Lady Sibile of Salisbury

 189118348. Marshall John Fitz Gilbert & 189118349. Lady Sibile of Salisbury

~1110, John [the Marshall] born in England, s/o §§Gilbert the Marshall & Margaret ?.

~1125, Sibile born in England, s/o §§Walter of Salisbury & Sibyl de Chaworth.

1130, Both Gilbert and his son John are listed in the King’s court.

1130, John’s father died.

1130, John listed in the court of King Henry I as Master Marshall of the King’s household. He paid £20 for ownership of his father’s lands, and 40 marks for the office of Marshall of the court.

[––John––]

1130, John married Aline, heir & d/o Walter Pipard, a minor Wiltshire landholder. [They had  2 sons: Gilbert died within a year of his father, John died before Gilbert.]

1131, John fitz Gilbert, marshall, assessed for lands in Somerset, Berkshire and Wiltshire. (S) History of William Marshall, Holden, 2002, P55.

By 1135, John and his father attested to at least 12 royal acts of Henry I in both England and Normandy.

1135, On the death of Henry I, John retained his position under King Stephen.

12/22/1135, Stephen crowned king of England; ursuping King Henry I’s daughter Empress Matilda; and starting a civil war.

1136-37, Winter, southeast England. John the Marshall one of the witnesses of King Stephen’s grant to the priory of Eye, Suffolk.

3/1137, John accompanied King Stephen to Normandy; from Portsmouth to La Hogue, then to Caen, Bayeux and Rouen.

6/1137, King Stephen’s and his Norman army was at at Lisieux. (S) DNB, V20, 1909, P832.

12/25/1137, John the Marshall with King Stephen at the Christmas court at Dunstable, Bedfordshire; laying siege to the castle.

2/2/1138, King Stephen arrived in Northumbria with a large force.

4/1138, King Stephen returned south and held court at Northampton, which John the Marshall attended.

1138, John took possession of the castles of Marlborough and Ludgershall in Wiltshire as castellan, which he fortified.

6/1139, John the marshall for King Stephen. (S) Anarchy of King Stephen’s Reign, King, 1994, P119.

9/30/1139, Empress Matilda, d/o Hing Henry I, landing at Arundel in Sussex, invaded England.

3/26/1140, Robert fitz Hubert, a Flemish mercenary, captured the castle of Devizes in Wiltshire by a night attack hoping to become a Wiltshire lord. John, inviting Robert to Marlborough, able to captured him and sold him to the earl of Gloucester for 500 marks.

2/2/1141 at Lincoln, King Stephen was captured and brought to Matilda.

1141, John switched sides and joined with Empress Maud in the civil war. John used his position and his castles in Wiltshire to attack the lands of Stephen’s supporters. One of his frequent victims was Patrick, constable of Salisbury.

4/7/1141 at Winchester, Empress Matilda acknowledged as “Lady of England and Normandy” by Bishop Henry.

6/24/1141, Matilda’s forces expelled from London by the citizens and an army of Queen Matilda, wife of King Stephen.

7/25/1141 at Oxford, John the Marshall a guarantee and witness for an agreement involving Empress Matilda, Geoffrey de Mandeville and Aubrey de Vere.

8/1141, John participated in the seige of Winchester. Henry of Blois, bishop of Winchester and brother to King Stephen, brought troops to relieve the siege. The Empress decided to flee to John’s castle of Ludgershall with John, while Robert of Gloucester continued the battle. At the village of Wherwell, John sent the Empress on to his castle with Brian fitz Count, and he stayed with some men to defend her retreat at the River Test. At the end of this struggle at the river, only John and one of his knights were left standing. They retreated to the church of Wherwell Abbey, and the enemy set fire to it. The enemy departed thinking that John had perished, but he survived and made it to his castle of Marlborough. He lost one eye from melting iron in the fire.

9/14/1141, Empress Matilda’s forces defeated at the battle of Winchester by forces led by King Stephen’s wife Mathilde of Boulogne. The Empress’ brother Robert of Gloucester was captured during the escape. John continued helping Empress Matilda with her escape.

1141, [After the battle of Winchester] Patrick, earl of Salisbury, sent word to John fitz Gilbert, supporter of Matilda, that if he would wait, they would attack him the next day. (S) Armies, Chivalry and Warfare, Strickland, 1998.

1141, John attacked near the nunnery at Wherwell, Hampshire. After taking sancturary in the church, the attackers set fire to the church which then collapsed. John was burned and lost and eye but survived after being left for dead.

11/1/1141, Matilda exchanged King Stephen for Robert.

12/25/1141, Stephen again crowned King. [The civil war would continue for 12 more years.]

1144, John le Marshal, castellan of Marlborough, plundeers the clergy. (S) Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II – Howlett, 1886, P107.

[––John & Sybil––]

1145, John in a dispute with Patrick, earl of Salisbury. To resolve the dispute, John puts away his wife and marries Patrick’s sister Sybile.

4/1149, Duke Henry arrived from Normandy and went to Devizes [Wiltshire], where he met with earls and barons including John the Marshall.

1152, John, weeking entrance to Newbury castle, gave his son William as a hostage of King Stephen who had besieged castle. Once he entered, John set about fortifying the castle against the siege. Stephen ordered John to surrender immediately or watch as he hanged William in front of the castle. John replied that he should go ahead, for “I still have the hammer and the anvil with which to forge still more and better sons!” Fortunately, Stephen could not bring himself to hang young William. As a younger son of a minor nobleman, William had no lands or fortune to inherit. The castle eventually fell but John had escaped.

1/1153, Duke Henry landed in England with 140 knights and 3,000 infantry in 36 ships. Supported by the Earl of Chester, he captured Malmesbury and relieved Wallingford.

Winter/1153, with Duke Henry and King Stephen’s forces facing each other in snow and cold, a peace agreement was made. John Fitz Gilbert, marshall, in the contingent of Duke Henry.

4/9/1153, John the Marshall accompanied Duke Henry to Stockbridge, Hampshire, where they met with the archbishop of Canterbury and multiple bishops.

4/1153, 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. (S) FMG.

3/1154, Duke Henry left England for Normandy.

By 1154, John the Marshall had witnessed at least 4 charters of the Empress, 5 charters of Duke Henry in Normandy, and 12 charters of King Stephen.

10/25/1154, King Stephen died.

12/19/1154, Henry II succeeded King Stephen of England.

Aft. 1154, King Henry II gave to John the manors of Marlborough, Wexcombe, and Cherhill in Wiltshire; yielding £82 annually in revenues. He retained the office of marshal of the royal household. John also held 7 other knights’ fees: land of the bishop of Winchester, of the bishop of Exeter, of the bishop of Winchester, of the abbot of Abingdon, of Richard de Candos, of Manasser de Arsic, and of Geoffrey de Mandeville. John held Tidworth in Wiltshire by serjeanty of his office as marshal.

1/1155 at Lincoln, ‘Johanne Marescallo’ witnessed a royal charter restoring to Robert fitz Herbert the Chamberlainship of his father and grandfather.

3/1155 at Westminster, John Marescall and Earl Patric of Salisbury both witnessed a charter of King Henry II to Roger, earl of Hereford.

1/1156 at Dover, John Marescall witnessed a royal charter to Christ Church, Canterbury.

3/4/1156, The King to … Deliver from our Treasury to John Marshall 100 shillings, which he laid out in our expenses when we were last at Devizes castle [Wiltshire.]. (S) Journal – British Arch. Assoc., V40, 1884, P147.

1157, ‘Johi Marescall’ recorded in Herefordshire and Hampshire. (S) FMG.

1158, John retained his position as Marshall, but lost the governorship of Malborough castle.

1161-62, ‘Johannes Marscallus xx s’ in Worcestershire. (S) FMG.

1/1164,Constitutions of Clarendon … in the fourth year of the papacy of Alexander, in the tenth year of the most illustrious king of the English, Henry II., in the presence of that same king, … in the presence of the following: [10 counts], Richard de Luce, …, John Mareschall, …

9/14/1164, K. Henry in London, the day on which Archbishop Becket summoned to appear in the Curia Regis at Westminster to answer the complaint of John,  the King’s Marshall. [The Archbishop “came not.”] (S) Corbet’s Complete Collection of State Trials, V1, 1809, P1.

10/7/1164, John Mareschall at the Exchequer in London.

1165, John, ‘that scion of hell and root of all evil’, died; his eldest son by Sybile inheriting. (S) Southampton Record Series, V25, 1981, P203.

(S) CH&I.H.II.. (S) King Stephen, King, 2010. (S) The Greatest Knight, Asbridge.

Family notes:

§§Gilbert the Marshal of the royal household of King Henry I. The office was subordinate to the office of constable of the royal household, responsible for everything connected to the horses of the royal household, the hawks and the hounds. He had the general duty of keeping order in the royal court/household, arranging for the billeting of members of the court, keeping tallies and other vouchers of the expenditures of the household, keeping rolls of all who performed their military service there, and being responsible for the imprisonment of debtors.

Children of John and Aline:

i. Gilbert Marshall, born bef. 1145 in England.

1165, Gilbert died.

Children of John and Sybile:

i. John Marshall, born ~1146 in England.

6/1166, John Marshall witnessed a royal charter at Feckenham, Worcestershire.

5/29/1169, John Mareschall excommunicated with many others by Archbishop Becket.

3/1194, John died. (S) Lancashire Pipe Rolls, Farrer, 1902, P343.

ii. William Marshall (94559174), born ~1147 in England.

iii. Margaret Marshall (1947061027), born ~1155 in England.