In 1215 King John had agreed to the terms of Magna Carta, but he then reneged on his word, plunging the kingdom into war. The rebellious barons offered the throne to the French prince Louis and set off the chain of events that almost changed the course of English history. Louis first arrived in May […]
1217 and the ideals of chivalry
In 1217 a man known as ‘the greatest knight’ broke a treaty to, as he saw it, save England from French rule. Catherine Hanley asks: did he go against the ideals of chivalry? “What, then, is chivalry?” This question is posed in the History of William Marshal, a 13th-century biography of a man who is […]
Lost and found: remembering William Marshal, the Greatest Knight
Historian and novelist Elizabeth Chadwick writes for Historia about the life of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, soldier, statesman and regent of England, to mark the 800th anniversary of his death in 1219,
The Battle That Saved England
Catherine Hanley on the 800th anniversary of the Battle of Lincoln. In May 1217 the realm of England was in chaos. A year previously Louis, heir to the throne of France and a renowned warrior, had invaded; he had been invited by English nobles unhappy with King John’s broken promises. He declared that the crown […]