At Candlemas, 1219, the aged regent was smitten with a mortal illness.  His followers bore him up the Thames from London to his manor of Caversham, where his last hours were disturbed by the intrigues of Peter of Winchester for his succession, and the importunity of selfish clerks, clamouring for grants to their churches.  He died on May 14, clad in the habit of the Knights of the Temple, in whose new church in London his body was buried, and where his effigy may still be seen.  The landless younger son of a poor baron, he had supported himself in his youth by the spoils of the knights he had vanquished in the tournaments, where his successes gained him fame as the model of chivalry.  The favour of Henry, the “young king,” gave him political importance, and his marriage with Strongbow’s daughter made him a mighty man in England, Ireland, Wales, and Normandy.  Strenuous and upright, simple and dignified, the young soldier of fortune bore easily the weight of office and honour which accrued to him before the death of his first patron.  Limited as was his outlook, he gave himself entirely to his master-principle of loyally to the feudal lord whom he had sworn to obey.  This simple conception enabled him to subordinate his interests as a marcher potentate to his duty to the English monarchy.  It guided him in his difficult work of serving with unbending constancy a tyrant like John.  It shone most clearly when in his old age he saved John’s son from the consequences of his father’s misdeeds.  A happy accident has led to the discovery in our own days of the long poem, drawn up in commemoration of his career[1] at the instigation of his son.  This important work has enabled us to enter into the marshal’s character and spirit in much the same way as Joinville’s History of St. Louis has made us familiar with the motives and attributes of the great French king.  They are the two men of the thirteenth century whom we know most intimately.  It is well that the two characters thus portrayed at length represent to us so much of what is best in the chivalry, loyalty, statecraft, and piety of the Middle Ages.

[1] Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal, published by P. Meyer for the Soc. de l’histoire de France.  Petit-Dutaillis, Etude sur Louis VIII. (1894), and G.J.  Turner, Minority of Henry III., part i, in Transactions of the Royal Hist.  Soc., new ser., viii. (1904), 245-95, are the best modern commentaries on the history of the marshal’s regency.

CHAPTER II.

THE RULE OF HUBERT DE BURGH.

William Marshal had recognized that the regency must end with him.  “There is no land,” he declared, “where the people are so divided as they are in England.  Were I to hand over the king to one noble, the others would be jealous.  For this reason I have determined to entrust him to God and the pope.  No one can blame me for this, for, if the land is not defended by the pope, I know