then induced the king to enter on the lands
of Gilbert Basset and Richard Siward, two of
Marshal's chief supporters, and put them in
charge of his son, Peter des Rievaux (Ann.
Mon. iv. 74 ; Wendover, iii. 53) ; orders
were also given to have the messengers whom
Marshal had sent to France searched at Dover
(Shirley, i. 417, 18 July). Marshal nevertheless endeavoured to make peace, and in-
tended to be present at a further proposed
conference on 1 Aug. With this purpose he
had come as far as Woodstock, when his
sister Isabella warned him that treachery
was intended, and he accordingly went back
to Wales. On 14 Aug. the king called another assembly, at Gloucester, and when
Marshal again failed to appear, had him proclaimed as a traitor and deprived of his
office as marshal. Thereupon Marshal made
an alliance with Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, and
the king, invading the earl's lands, besieged
his castle of Usk. A truce was, however,
soon arranged, under which the castle was
surrendered to the king, and a further con-
ference fixed for 2 Oct. at Westminster.
The conference did not have the desired re-
sult, and as the castle was not restored,
Marshal at once laid siege to it. In the
early days of October the earl and his Welsh
allies captured the castles of Usk, Abergavenny, Newport, and Cardiff (21 Oct.) Henry
collected an army with a view to active
warfare; but meantime, on 30 Oct., Marshal's supporters, Siward and Basset, rescued
Hubert de Burgh and carried him off to the
earl's castle of Chepstow. Karly in November the king advanced to Grosmont. There,
on 11 Nov., Marshal's adherents — for the
earl himself would not attack the king in
person — surprised the royal camp, and made
a great booty. After this the king withdrew to Gloucester, while Marshal with a
few followers attacked the foreign mercenaries at Monmouth on 25 Nov., and after
defeating them with much slaughter, took
the castle. The war still went on favourably to Marshal and his allies, some of
whom plundered the lands of their opponents in the English marches, while others
besieged Carmarthen. Early in January
1234 Marshal himself defeated the royal
army under John de Monmouth or Monemue
(q. v.], a connection of the Lacys, and followed up his success by a raid, in company
with Llywelyn, which resulted in the sack of
Shrewsbury. But Archbishop Edmund was
now exerting himself actively to bring about
an agreement ; and through his influence
Peter des Roches and the king's other Poite-
vin advisers were at length dismissed from
the court on 9 April 1234; the archbishop
would seem to have effected a truce some
time earlier, and this was now prolonged to
the end of July (ib. i. 433-4).
But in the meantime Peter des Roches
and his friends had stirred up the Lacys and
Marshal's other opponents in Ireland, in-
cluding Richard de Burgh and Geoffrey de
Marisco, encouraging them to make war on
the earl as a traitor, and to seize him alive
or dead should he cross over to Ireland. In
consequence of these machinations Marshal
left Wales early in February, and on land-
ing in Ireland was joined by Geoffrey de
Marisco, who craftily pretended to be his
friend. Urged on by Marisco, Marshal col-
lected an army, and after taking Limerick
recovered many of his castles, which had
fallen into the hands of his enemies. The
Lacys then sent the Templars to demand a
truce, and Marshal in response proposed a
conference to be held next day, 1 April, on
the Curragh of Kildare. Marshal himself
was in favour of granting terms, but Marisco
treacherously advised him to demand the
surrender of the remaining castles, hoping
to thus make a conflict inevitable. This
evil advice was accepted, with the result
that Hugh de Lacy and his friends, knowing
that Marshal's army was faithless, appealed
to force. Marshal at length recognised the
treachery of his false friend, but declared
that he would rather ' die with honour for
the sake of justice than flee from the fight
and thus incur the reproach of cowardice.'
Marshal had with him but fifteen faithful
knights, against 140. Despite his desperate
valour he was at length overpowered and
his horse slain. While he strove to defend
himself on foot he was wounded from be-
hind, and so taken prisoner. His captors
carried him to the castle of Kilkenny, where
he was on the way to recovery when a clumsy
or treacherous surgeon cauterised his wounds
so roughly as to cause his death. Marshal
died on 16 April 1234, and was buried imme-
diately afterwards in the church of the Fran-
ciscans at Kilkenny. Henry repented too late
of his treatment of the son of the faithful
regent, and, bitterly lamenting his sad end,
declared that he had left no peer in England.
Marshal seems to have inherited to the full
his father's merits as a patriotic statesman
and a skilful soldier. He was like his father
also in the nobilitv of his personal character.
Even the author of the 'Histoire de Guillaume le Mar6chal,' writing probably in 1225, praises him for his
proesce e sens e bealtez
E bons mors e gentillesce,
Charite, enor e largesse.
