Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0582037867, Paperback)

Now fully illustrated, this second edition represents a complete reappraisal of the career and character of this remarkable man, and provides a riveting account of the realities of aristocratic life in the age of chivalry. Written in an engaging and refreshing style, this text shows that William Marshal was not the bone-headed and unfeeling warrior that many imagine knights to have been. He lived in a sophisticated political world, and he threaded his way through the minefield of the royal courts of the day with courage and panache. William Marshal lived a life of an epic scale and David Crouch's treatment of his life provides a fascinating insight into all kinds of medieval obsessions - the tournament, warfare, greed for land and power, love and lordship. With the new translation of the contemporary epic poem, Histoire de Giuillaume de Mareschal, and newly discovered documents, David Crouch has substantially re-worked and expanded his original volume.