Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke

Who was Anselm Marshal, 6th Earl of Pembroke?

Anselm Marshal was the sixth Earl of Pembroke and Earl Marshal of England, the youngest and last of the five sons of William Marshal to hold that post. He succeeded his brother Walter on 24 November 1245 and lived for a month, dying at Chepstow Castle and being buried in Tintern Abbey.

When William Marshal was composing his will in 1219, he originally intended to allot nothing to his youngest son, Anselm, who was named after William's younger brother. It has been suspected that he wished for the young Anselm to rise from low rank to high on his own merits as William himself had done as a young knight errant. His advisors, however, convinced the ailing Marshal to grant Anselm a small piece of land.

Anselm was married to Maud, the daughter of Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and Essex. They had no children and Anselm's estates were divided between his four surviving sisters, Isabel, Sibyl, Eva, and Joan, and their husbands. The earldom of Pembroke lay vacant until 1247, when it was recreated for William de Valence, husband of Joan de Munchensi, heiress of Anselm's sister Joan and her husband Warin de Munchensi.