William Marshal

In this aerial view of Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire, you can appreciate just some of William’s work: the twin-towered gatehouse in the foreground and the masonry curtain wall flanked by three rounded towers that protected the middle 16 bailey and the entrance to the Great Tower.

From landless knight to lord of Chepstow Castle

Beautifully preserved Chepstow Castle stretches out along a limestone cliff above the river Wye like a history lesson in stone. Historian Bill Zajac explains how William Marshal, skilled in the latest military techniques, transformed the castle into a formidable, but suitably comfortable, fortress at the forefront of castle design at the end of the twelfth century.

At the beginning of July 1189, Isabel de Clare — the ‘damsel of Striguil’ — was not yet 20 years old and sole heir to the extensive estates of her father, Richard de Clare, in England, Wales, Ireland and Normandy.

As a royal ward, her marriage was decided by King Henry II who had promised her to his loyal captain, William Marshal. The king died on 6 July before he could fulfil his pledge, but his successor, Richard I, eager to secure the Marshal’s continuing loyalty, honoured his father’s wishes.

Before that month was out, Isabel was no longer a damsel, but a married woman. William hastened to England on the new king’s business, but lost no time in making Isabel his wife — a union that brought him rich lands and claims to more. By right of his wife, William Marshal became a great magnate. In fact, at Richard’s coronation in September 1189, it was William who carried the royal sceptre before the king.

In 1189, William was in his early forties. He had begun his career as a landless knight but had gained fame and no little wealth as a star on the tournament circuit. He had served the Plantagenets in peace and war. On his death bed in 1183, Henry II’s eldest son, Henry the Young King, had

even entrusted his crusader’s cross to the Marshal; William faithfully carried it to Jerusalem and remained there from 1184 to 1186.

His marriage to Isabel would give the Marshal claims to his late father-in-law’s Irish conquests in Leinster and the earldom of Pembroke. His more immediate gains took the form of estates in England and Normandy and the lordship of Striguil — now known as Chepstow — in south-east Wales. That lordship controlled most of the lowlands along the Severn estuary between the Usk and the Wye and the Wentwood forest that overlooked them.

Chepstow Castle, established in 1067 by William fitz Osbern, stood as the head of the lordship.When William Marshal first acquired the castle, it had probably changed little since the end of the eleventh century. The Norman Great Tower, constructed between 1075 and 1115, remained at the heart of the fortress. Surviving sections of Norman walling suggest that the upper bailey had masonry curtain walls, but other parts of the castle’s defences might still have been of earth and timber.

During his campaigns and travels in Europe and the Holy Land, the Marshal had undoubtedly become familiar with the latest developments in castle design and he quickly applied his experience to bring Chepstow Castle up to date. There is archaeological evidence of his work.

Dendrochronological (tree-ring) dating of the magnificent timber doors that hung in the main gatehouse until 1962 (now displayed in the hall porch in the lower bailey) revealed that they were constructed no later than the 1190s. This not only makes them the oldest castle doors in Europe, but also reveals that the gatehouse in which they were hung was constructed by William Marshal.

William built the gatehouse to a cutting-edge design: two round towers, well-equipped with arrow loops, command and defend the gate passage that runs between them. It marks an important transition that was beginning to take place at the end of the twelfth century: square or rectangular gatehouse towers were increasingly supplanted by round or D-shaped alternatives, which eliminated blind angles for the defenders and presented glancing surfaces to attackers. The gatehouse also incorporated accommodation on the upper floors, but later alterations make it difficult to reconstruct the original arrangements.

The Marshal’s gatehouse at Chepstow was the precursor of the great twin-towered gatehouses at later thirteenth-

A ground plan of Chepstow Castle; the sections in light blue represent the surviving works of William Marshal.

Chepstow’s twin-towered gatehouse built by William Marshal in the 1190s to a revolutionary design.

Marshal’s Tower: An exterior view, an interior view from ground level and a detail of the decorative red ashlar pattern painted on the chamber walls.

century castles, like Caerphilly and Harlech. But William’s works were not limited to the gatehouse. In fact, he seems to have remodelled almost the entire defensive circuit of the castle, although much of his work in the lower bailey has been replaced by later work.

He strengthened the defences of the middle bailey with a masonry curtain wall, reinforced with three towers. A powerful D-shaped tower, well-supplied with arrow loops, projected into the lower bailey and flanked the gateway that gave access to the middle bailey. Overlooking the Dell to the south of the castle, the Marshal built a drum-shaped tower at the junction between the lower and middle baileys and added a D-shaped tower midway along the middle bailey curtain wall. His military experience is reflected in the arrow loops provided in these towers, enabling archers not only to cover the surrounding ground, but also to shoot along the walls to either side.

In the upper bailey, at the farthest end from the gatehouse, William Marshal’s work reveals that his concerns were not exclusively warlike. In the early thirteenth century, as well as rebuilding the bailey’s curtain walls, he raised a major tower at its corner overlooking the gate that gave access to the castle from the west. However, unlike his other towers at Chepstow, this one was rectangular rather than rounded.

While rounded towers offered definite military advantages, they were not as well suited to domestic accommodation. Here — in the most private corner of the castle — the Marshal incorporated a well-appointed and comfortable set of apartments into the circuit of the defences. It is easy to miss what is now called Marshal’s Tower because it is badly ruined but, when you next visit Chepstow, take the time to stop and appreciate it.

It was a two-storey structure, with battlements above. On the first floor was what must have been a fine room lit not by arrow loops but windows, several of which had window seats. The walls were painted with a red ashlar pattern, traces of which survive in the embrasure of a round-headed window in the southern wall. There was probably a fireplace and perhaps another window in the now missing east wall. Evidence for a fireplace and a drain on the ground floor points to its function as a kitchen that served the apartment above.

Given their high quality and their isolation at the far end of the castle, these rooms must have provided a retreat for William and his countess, Isabel. Although more than 20 years divided them, the sources suggest that their marriage, which produced ten children, was based on real affection. It may be fanciful, but it is easy to imagine William and Isabel retiring here together to escape the bustle of their household in the castle below.

Before his death in 1219, William Marshal would be responsible for building works at other castles in Wales — including Pembroke, Usk and Caerleon — and in Ireland. Many of these buildings reflected his knowledge of the latest techniques of European fortification gained during his long years in the service of the Plantagenets. However, it was at Chepstow that William Marshal first displayed his prowess as an innovative castle builder.