Power and patronage across the Plantagenet dominions: the making and breaking of the Marshal assemblage, 1189-1245

Abstract

This thesis offers an original analysis of a transnational lordship which spanned thirteenth-century Britain, France, and Ireland. The focus of this study is the Marshal family, who were earls of Pembroke and lords of Leinster from 1189 until the failure of the familys male line and subsequent partition of their lands in 1245. It is argued that their lands in Ireland and Wales played a much bigger part in the Marshal estate than has previously been thought, which is clear from their political actions and the rich documentation of the Marshal partition.

This thesis also uses the Marshal family as a means of asking broader questions about the nature of Plantagenet governance, transnational networks, and noble political culture in the thirteenth century, placing a particular emphasis on the role of patronage. It is proposed that the experience of the Marshals illustrates the inherent stresses and tensions apparent within transnational structures of power such as the Plantagenet dominions, especially regarding the varying levels of magnate status and liberties throughout the different regions. This thesis argues that this dichotomy determined both the shape and sequence of much of the politics of the period, while also enabling regional events to grow to transnational affairs and, indeed, vice versa.

By using patronage as a lens, this thesis demonstrates the vulnerability of transnational power for both the king of England and families such as the Marshals. For the king, material gains were used to secure the support of the Marshals and many of their contemporaries, particularly during times of domestic and international tension. For the Marshals, their religious patronage and their grants to their tenants illustrate the importance of continuity and legitimacy of power for the nobility of the Plantagenet dominions, which was the case particularly in politically contested regions such as France, Ireland, and Wales.

In sum, this thesis offers a comprehensive analysis of the transnational estate of the Marshal family and their role in Plantagenet politics, using their experience as a means of opening up a wider discussion as to the nature of English governance and trans-maritime aristocratic networks in the thirteenth century. Hence it is hoped that the analysis put forward in this thesis, as much as its approach more generally, will act as a point of future research and discussion into medieval Britain and Ireland and the nexus of aristocrats which connected them.