Knight Errant: The Life ande Adventures of William the Marshal

Celebrating a key figure in the age of Magna Carta, Rupert stirringly evokes a gorgeous world in which the knight was dominant. In their coats of mail like silk shirts and their golden spurs, these were ‘the angels men complain of, who kill whatever they come upon’. A talk celebrating a key figure in the age of Magna Carta. Reckoned by a contemporary to be ‘the best knight who ever was or will be’, William the Marshal was the classic knight errant, who made his name – and a fortune in ransoms – on the tournament circuit in northern France. Such was William’s renown that he rose to be Regent of England during the minority of Henry III, uniting the nation and saving the English monarchy. Rupert compares William’s verse biography with the Arthurian romances of his contemporary, Chrétien de Troyes, and finds fiction merging with reality. He stirringly evokes a gorgeous world in which the knights were dominant. In their coats of mail like silk shirts and their golden spurs, these were ‘the angels men complain of, who kill whatever they come upon’.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Rupert Willoughby

Rupert Willoughby is an historian and Classicist, a poet, a father and a wild swimmer with a passion for castles, lakes and uncovering the layers of the past. A graduate with First Class Honours in History from the University of London (where he immersed himself in the ‘Byzantine’, or medieval Greek Empire), he is the author of the best-selling Life in Medieval England for Pitkin, and of a series of popular histories of places, including Chawton: Jane Austen’s Village, and the whimsical, yet scholarly Basingstoke and its Contribution to World Culture. Rupert also contributes regular obituaries to The Daily Telegraph. Accredited by The Arts Society since 2011, he is an experienced lecturer, who is known for his light, humorous touch, his love of narrative and his vivid evocations of the past. Rupert’s forefathers were Vikings and his foremothers were Tatars.