Born the son of a minor baron. Later a protegé of Eleanor of Acquitaine, the Young King Henry, and Henry II, his loyalty to the Plantagenet kings eventually led to his being declared regent for the young king Henry III when William was in his 70s.205

The subject of the first medieval biography of anyone other than a king (“Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal”).205

While around five years old, his father gave him as a hostage to King Stephen in order to buy more time for his seige of Newbury. William later recalled Stephen playing a game of “knights” with him. After serving in a variety of households after his father’s death, he became Young King Henry’s tutor-at-arms. In 1173, he was the one to knight Henry, and when Henry died in 1183, it was William who took the Young King’s cloak bearing the crusdader’s cross to the Holy Land. The rich cloth which he brought back with him served as his own pall 33 years later.205

His friends recorded that, on the night he was entrusted with young Henry III’s regency, he remarked, “If everyone abandons the boy but me, do you know what I shall do? I will carry him on my back, and if I can hold him up, I will hop from island to island, from country to country, even if I have to beg for my bread.” In the turbulent England of the early Middle Ages, not long after the turmoil of the great civil war, William’s loyalty to the throne is remarkable. By the time he died, there was a system of royal government for others to expand and develop.205

Seems to have been a faithful husband, with 10 children and no recorded bastards. He was a brave, vigorous and deadly fighter into his seventies. He turned his extensive tournament experience into an efficient and lucrative business. Starting from nothing after his father’s death (which left him penniless), William died leaving his family one of the most powerful in the British Isles.205

He knew personally all the English kings who ruled from 1135 to 1272205

Married for her extensive lands and privileges205