Here are a couple of posts on Marshal. He was a phenomenal tournament knight, he supposedly captured 500 men during his career, respected warrior, defeating Richard the Lionheart, and died regent of England for Henry III. Aside from his political achievements Marshal is so well known due to a biography commissioned and written shortly after his death. L'histoire de Guillaume Le Marchel gives an unparalleled insight into the life of a knight at the turn of the thirteenth-century. This text paints Marshal as an unparalleled warrior, perhaps unsurprisingly considering his son commissioned it, but the wealth and power he generated through his participation in tournaments and as the martial head of Henry the Young King's household corroborates much of it.

This text has been translated for the Anglo-Norman Text Society. David Crouch had written an excellent historical study (although Thomas Asbridge's more recent The Greatest Knight, based on his BBC documentary may be more readily accessible).