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He was one of the most feared and celebrated knights in the entire medieval world. He fought in wars, survived Crusades, and served five different kings of England. Kings and barons across Europe respected him. His enemies feared him. And at an age where his friends were long dead, he rode into war one final time. And he changed the map of the Western world as we know it today. This is a story of William Marshal, knight, crusader, kingmaker, and arguably one of the most consequential men you've never heard of. And this one man, the landless nobody, born with literally nothing, would end up basically ruling England itself without ever actually being a king. And in doing so, he would rescue a forgotten document from the ash heap of history and almost accidentally set the foundation for democracy, constitutional law, and literally modern human rights as we know it. So how did one knight ride to the rescue of the Western world? Well, today we're going to get into all that. So sit back, relax, and welcome to History Camp. What's up, people? And welcome back to History Camp. My name is Mark Agnon, and thank you so much for joining me in my tent, where every single week, we explore the most interesting, fascinating, controversial stories throughout all history, forever and always. Yes, that is what I do here in this tent. I try to understand everything that's ever happened, and every single day, there's new history getting made. And I only got here in the 90s, so there's all sorts of stuff I need to catch up on. All right, but first, before we dive into anything, I want to say a few things to you. Yeah, dude, you watching right now? I want to say thank you so much for tuning in, for listening to this podcast. Every time you click on an episode or just comment or like, or literally anything at all, you help make my dreams come true. You help support our show, you keep the lights on, and you keep the fire burning, and I just really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I also have great news. If you are interested in joining the inner sanctum, if you want to get closer and more intimate with the good people here at the campsite, well, we have a bonfire. We have the gathering where we all meet up, and that is@patreon.com Camp Gagnon. That is where we do extra episodes. We do episodes without any advertisements. So if you're one of those people, it's like, oh, the ads. Well, good news. For the price of a cup of coffee, no more ads ever again. And on top of that, you get to talk to Christos. So if you don't want to do that, I would Recommend to staying right here and Never go to patreon.com campcagnon now, today I'm joined just by a couple homies that are posted up in the tent with me. I have my pal Jesus, my friend Andrew, and of course, on the ones and twos, on the shiny buttons that makes everything go round, my pal Christos. What's up, Christos? Christ. I'm so sorry. We have a bunch of people in here and we don't have time to allocate everyone to just yapping the whole episode. So we're going to jump in on the most infamous night that maybe changed the world. And you probably never even heard of him. His name is William Marshall. But where does the story of William Marshall begin? It goes all the way back to 1152, at this battle that they call the Siege of Newberry Castle. And it's in basically the middle of an English Civil war. And I don't even say the English Civ War, because there was like a bunch of civil wars basically the whole time. But this is one, one specific one called the Anarchy. So at this time, William Marshall was approximately six years old, just a kid, and he was basically being used as like, like, like a bargaining chip. Like he was being used to, like, kind of liaise between the two sides. So his daddy, this guy, John Marshall, he basically made a deal with this guy, King Stephen, who would surrender the castle in exchange for a temporary ceasefire. So back in the day, in order to guarantee a deal like this, John literally hand son as a hostage. This is a story that we've seen a few times, right, where like, they're trying to broker a deal and in order for one family to trust another family, they're like, hey, give us your kid. That way we know you're not going to come in and kill us all. Because if we have your kid, you're going to, you know, play nice. So basically, Jon agrees. And the moment Jon had the breathing room, he broke the agreement completely. He reinforced all the castle's defenses and sent word over to his allies. So as a result, King Stephen is pissed. So he sends messengers over to John, Surrender the castle or we're going to kill your son. Now, John Marshall's reply is one of the most insane things that any dad has literally ever said. He told the King, and this comes directly from William Marshall's own biography. This is what William Marshal, the kid that's being a hostage, this is what he writes. This is his dad writing to the King, I still have the hammer and the anvil with which to forge still more and better sons. Bam. I mean, that is wild. If you think your dad sucks. Well, he probably does, but so does this guy. I mean, that is pretty brutal for your own dad to be like, hey, we got another, like. I mean, it's also fire to call your own, like, genitalia. Hammer and an anvil. I guess maybe he's the hammer. He's also saying, I can produce more of these. Yeah, yeah. No, literally, that's crazy. Not only more, I can make better, right? I'm the hammer. And I got a ton of anvils. You know what I mean? Like, I got a throng of anvils, a whole hammer, a harem of them. I don't even need this one, son. So this biography that I'm talking about was commissioned by William's own son decades later. So we should be honest, right? It's written to obviously glorify William Marshall's life. And some of the more dramatic moments are probably kind of, you know, hammed up for maximum effect. But the hostage moment itself is actually corroborated by a bunch of different sources. And the general outline is, generally speaking, accepted by historians. What those same sources also tell us is that King Stephen, this guy, he didn't go through with the execution. So according to the biography, young William was so happy basically in captivity. Just like, just like the sweetest little six year old kid. He's like jousting with like wildflowers on like the king's camp. Like, literally just like the sweetest little kid ever. That Stephen couldn't actually bring himself to kill this, like, bargaining chip. Now, according to one account, soldiers actually prepared to hang him, and William innocently asked if they were going to use the pretty rope to make a swing. I mean, like, is, is that not like. It's almost like, makes you sad. You're like, what a beautiful, like, innocent child that sees them like hanging up these ropes and they're like, you gonna make a swing set. Like, it's like so adorable. And so again, whether that detail is like, actually true or like an embellishment from the biography, the outcome is documented and this is what is in the historical record. So the king literally just like cried for the boy and the boy ended up living. Now, William Marshall, the star of our story, that's now in captivity under King Steven's, you know, tutelage, he was a younger son, he's not actually the heir to anything. So in the medieval world, that basically means, like, he's not going to get anything. No lands, no Title, no inheritance. Like, there's all these people above him. So all of his father's estate and all of his riches is going to go to his older brothers. And William was basically, from the moment that he was born, kind of on his own. You know, like, you're like, they. I think, who's the redheaded prince that's married to Meghan Markle? Prince Harry. Prince Harry, literally, they said that he's the spare. So, like, your father, your brother's the heir, and you're the spare. And so that's kind of like the way that these things were seen. So this kid is basically giving up as a bargaining chip, his father gives him away, says, I don't want anything to do with him. He's on his own. If you want to kill him, you can. I can make more. And I already have the heirs to my kingdom already lined up. And. Yeah. So basically, from William Marshall's perspective, King Stephen spares his life, and that is so meaningful to him because he's like. As he's getting older, he realizes what was actually going on. He's like, wow, this is crazy. So when he's about 12 years old, he was sent away to Normandy to the house of a relative named William D. Tenker V or Tankerville. If I don't do the whole French thing, you know you're French. I know, I know. It's just you read it, and it's like when you, like, go to a restaurant, you're like, oh, I'll get a croissant. And it's like, what are you doing, dude? I'll get the escar. Guys, you're not gonna get that. Okay. Of all know, you're going to get chicken fry, chicken fries, or chicken fingers. Anyway, now there he goes to Normandy, and William Marshall is supposed to train to become a knight. Now, in order to become a knight, you got to learn horsemanship, you got to learn swordsmanship, you got to learn Latin prayers. You have to study romance literature from, like, the greatest French writers, and you have to understand, like, the politics of, like, living in a court. And he would also, if we accept the accounts at face value, earned the nickname Greedy Guts for his ravenous appetite. So this is just a young kid basically going to, like, night school to learn to be a badass. So he's officially knighted in 1166 during a campaign while in Normandy. And William's first real taste of battle was kind of fine. He acquitted himself pretty well, and everyone agreed that, you know, he was doing a pretty good job. But medieval historian this guy, David Crouch, puts it pretty bluntly. War in the 12th century wasn't just about honor. There was money to be made through ransom and seizing treasure. And if you're a knight kind of like going and pillaging a village, you can just go kind of like scoop up some stuff that you find put in your pocket, and then you're actually like, making crazy bread just from doing these, like, you know, government approved missions. Okay. So the life of a knight is not only just like, going and doing battles and, you know, sieges and stuff like that. You're also kind of expected to perform in a way. So they would have these medieval tournaments, and they are not the elegant formal jousting events that you would see in movies. Like, it's not. Everyone's not Heath Ledger, right? At least not yet. Like, it gets a little bit more ornate. But in the 12th century, a tournament was kind of just like a mass brawl. So this is literally what it is. Hundreds of nights, sometimes thousands of them. It's literally like UFC with, like, swords and lances and maces, all, like, crashing into chaos. Trying to, like, knock the opposing knights from their horses and then, like, take them as prisoner. And it's like this kind of like, fake battle that they use to kind of, like, keep themselves sharp, but also as entertainment for all the people that are, you know, watching. Now, the prize isn't a ribbon. It's literally kind of like ransom. So you capture a knight, you keep his horse and his armor, and then you actually will like, get paid to release him. And it's kind of like a medieval, like, sports league, but the prizes are other human beings. So you can imagine like, ufc, but, like, if you choke someone out, he has to, like, pay you to, like, let him go. And that's kind of how they did it. So different courts would have their different nights, and they would kind of battle, and then the winners would get paid money from the guys that they beat. Now, we should be clear with William Marshall. He didn't compete in these tournaments because he wanted glory. He competed because he needed money. So even though King Steven spared his life, it's not like he adopted William. It's not like he was like, living as, like a young prince in this guy's kingdom. He was still left to fend for himself at the end of the day, you know, he was still just like the younger son of a noble and still landless and had no inheritance and basically no safety net. He just had some opportunities and knew the right people. So this, like, tournament night circuit was One of the most efficient wealth generation mechanisms for someone at this guy's level, like, where he was at in society. And William saw it and approached it with like, like really like an athlete. Like, you'd almost think like, Conor McGregor, right? Like, he's like living in a van. Like, hey, I'm just like a poor kid in Ireland, but if I compete in this thing, I can move up to this thing. I can move to this thing and I can actually, like, change my, like me and my family's entire life. And William Marshall's kind of on the same track. He's desperate, he's not in contact with his family, he's got no money, and he has no choice but to win. So in his first major tournament at le Mans in 1167, just a year after he's actually knighted, William cleaned it out. Dude, he captured. Night after night, he was just like grabbing boys just like rap. He was like a beast. And by the end of the day, he had accumulated enough ransoms and prizes to own, according to his own biographer, the equivalent of four and a half horses. Which back in the day is like a ton of money. That's not just like winning. He was like, like he was legit, like the double champ. And he does whatever the f he wants, you understand? But he didn't just level up his game until he entered a long term partnership with a Flemish knight. This is a guy named Roger D. Goi. Now, together, the two of them worked the tournament circuit across France and Normandy and just dominated everywhere they went. They were like a two man team and they would just clean up. So In a single 10 month stretch, William personally captured 103 knights for ransom in these, you know, like sort of theatrical battles. And over the next 16 years, his biographer claims that he remained undefeated in tournament play, never lost. So by 1170, William Marshall had basically become a celebrity. I mean, he's tall. He was about like 6ft, which for the time was like enormous, you know what I mean? Like, the average height was probably what, like, what are you. Chris says six, three. Stop. Okay, all right, you know what? I'm not going to you anymore. He was super fast. He was, like, smart. He was like, apparently pretty handsome. And he had two tactics that would become like his signature thing, all right? He would grab the reins of his opponent's horses and literally just drag them from the tournament field and like, just, literally just be like, I'm taking you and your horse. We're going. And then Two was holding his team back from the melee until everyone else was tired. And then he would ride in to basically harvest, like, all the knights and basically the prizes while everyone else was just too tired. So he was kind of playing like a tactical game. He wasn't just running in there like a dumbass. He was just like, okay, let me try to, like, do this little horse maneuver. Or I was going to pull back, let you guys tire each other out, and then come in for the end. And now the second tactic is pretty savage, right? It's not, like, impulsive. It's not super heroic. You know, especially in the time, like, there's so much ego that's involved. It's like, you got to go out there and fight brave. He was like, no, I'm going to post up on the wall and be patient and win, because at the end of the day, I don't care about glory. I care about getting this bread. So William Marshall understood how to play smarter than everyone else and how, most importantly, when to actually strike. And the quality in this arena would serve him far beyond the tournament field, because by the end of his career as a tournament kn, William would claim to have personally captured more than 500 opponents. That's 500 people that he either outsmarted or just straight up overcame with strength. And whether that exact number is precise or not, we can't say really. But the scale of it tells us something that's real, that this was a man who made himself a hero, who built his own legacy from scratch with nothing but just his own strength and his own strategic mind. And it's arguably in, like, the most competitive arena that the medieval world had. Like, even in years later, like in, you know, the 13th, 14th century, jousting becomes a little bit more refined. Like, you know, like kings start to do it, it becomes a bit more noble. But in the time, I mean, it's legit, like UFC in, like, 1998, you know, I mean, this guy is just, like, getting after it. And that reputation as one of the most fierce jouster, you know, like tournament nights, really opens a door that changes the course of his entire Life. So by 1170, King Henry II of England appointed William as a tutor in arms to his eldest son. And this son is this young dude known to history as Henry the young king. Now, Henry the Younger had been crowned during his father's lifetime, which was a medieval tradition that was kind of meant to smooth out the secession process. I mean, as we know through history, secession is, like, one of the most difficult and bloodiest components of any type of empire. So while the king's alive. He's like, my son's the king. That way, this is all done above board. But it created a problem in this time. It meant that there was a king of England with no actual kingdom. Henry the young king held a crown, but didn't actually have the power, right? Like, his daddy was actually still the king. And as a result, Henry the younger was pissed. Now, William didn't just become his guardian, but he became a mentor and a companion and just like a real friend. And when the young king rebelled against his own father in 1173, alongside his brothers Richard and Jeffrey, William's loyalty never wavered from the young prince that he was basically, you know, took an oath to serve. And this was the complicated currency of what it meant to be a medieval knight. Really, what it. What chivalry in the time meant that your oath was to your lord, not to, you know, politics or principles or morality. It's like if I vowed to ride for this guy, like, it's to the end, you know, it's like if, like, the u. S, like, president, you know, if, like, the cabinet was more loyal to him than, like, actually helping the people. Imagine, you know, that would never happen. Easy mark. That would never happen in history. You know, that'd be crazy, right? Anyway, William was loyal to the young king and that was it. So from 1176 to 1182, William and the young king did the tournament circuit together. These were William's peak years. And he was like the warrior that was going through and just, like, crushing everyone. And everyone knew him at, like, the height of his power. He was famous all over. And now he's also going around to these tournaments attached to actual royalty. So as a result, his legend is growing to, like, these mythic proportions. And then comes 1182, William was accused. And again, we don't know exactly, but a lot of historians will say this was a false accusation of having an affair with the young king's wife, Margaret of France. So you can understand what's going on here, right? This king says, hey, you're going to bring up, you know, my son. He's going to be Henry the younger. He's going to become the next king, and you're going to become, like, his mentor. And then all of a sudden, he sleeps with the guy supposed to be mentoring his wife. That's the allegation. And you can understand, in the time this was front page tabloid news. Now, his biography presents the accusations as a court conspiracy by his haters. Now, whether that's the actual story, no one can really tell. But what we do know is that he was removed from service. And then a year later, he was cleared and then called back to the young king's side. And he arrives just in time to actually watch maybe one of the more tragic moments of this whole saga. In 1183, Henry, the young king, got sick. He gets dysentery during a campaign, and he knew that he was dying. So in these final moments, he calls William to his deathbed, and he gave him some. Something. He gave him his own personal crusader's cloak. And he had a request. You see, King Henry had sworn a vow to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and he had never fulfilled it. And so he asked William to go in his place to carry his cloak to the Holy City. And his friend agreed. And William Marshal was, as we know, a man who keeps his word. So this is just this guy's life, right? He's a tournament champion. He's now tied up with royalty because he's got to bring up the king he gets accused of sleeping with. Like, the new king's wife gets banished. And then as the new king is dying, he comes back and is like, what's going on? Oh, you're about to die, bro. I'm so sorry. Gives him a big hug and then gets a mission, bro. Just gives him a cloak and is like, hey, you got to go to the Middle east and bring my cloak with you. So in 1183, he traveled to the Holy Land, and he arrived during a massive period of tension in the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was just four years before Saladin would crush the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin. And we've done a whole episode on Saladin and the fall of the Holy Land and the Crusades and all this stuff, so you should check that out. And we don't. We won't go into, like, the entire story here, but what matters for this story is what William encountered. So the details are pretty sparse about Marshal's time when he actually goes to the Holy Land. His own biography admits uncertainty about what exactly happened. But there are sources that do tell us that upon his arrival, he was received with honor by the military orders. The. The. Basically the people that ran, you know, the hospitals, the people that, like, ran the infrastructure at the time, what they call the Hospitaliers, and specifically the Knights Templar. Now, somewhere in the heat of Jerusalem, having completed his mission by delivering his lord's cloak, William Marshal made a private vow of his own that he would die as one of them. So Marshall spent roughly two years in the Holy land. And the biography says that commanders on all sides were reportedly, like, reluctant to see him leave. But before he embarked on his journey home, he acquired two lengths of silk cloth. These are basically burial shrouds. And he folded them carefully and he locked them away, and he went all the way back to England, and they basically were put into a chest that he didn't open for 30 years. Now, William returned from the Holy Land in 1186, and then he reentered the service of King Henry II, now the, like, old lion of English politics. And, you know, he himself had all sorts of issues. He was embattled and increasingly alone as his sons around him kind of tried to close in and take power. And this is where William Marshall basically makes one of his most brilliant political moves, one that would secure his legacy in the history, historical record forever. So 1189, King Henry II, this is the main king, the oldest dude, he's like the. He's the top dog, trying to, like, figure out which one of his sons is going to succeed him. After Henry the Younger dies, he's fighting a losing war against his own son, Richard. You probably heard of Richard because his name would, you know, be known to history as Richard the Lionheart. And he had allied with King Philip II of France. Henry II was fleeing the city of Le Mans when basically the rear guard had fully collapsed. William Marshal was with him. And Marshal turned his horse around and rode back into the chaos to basically cover the King's retreat. Now riding down this dusty French road, suddenly, William Marshal is face to face with Prince Richard himself. Literally, this dude that's battling his lord, the guy that he's serving, he's his own son. He's in front of this guy. And Richard looks at William and he shouts. And he reportedly warns William that he would be damned if he killed him. Now, William Marshal looked at the future King of England at this point, and he had the upper hand. He was a way more, you know, like a way better trained knight. He was a way more adept, you know, like military soldier. He knew that he could just take this guy out and he had to do something. So he lowered his lance and he killed Richard's horse. Now, Richard then tumbles to the ground, and William just rides away and the Mrs. The message here is pretty clear. It's delivered without a word. He basically just says, hey, I could have killed you, but I chose not to. And his biographer presents this as just straight up chivalry. Like he was just an honorable guy that didn't want to kill the son of The Lord that he was, you know, basically vowing to serve. But the truth is that it's actually more complicated. It was very shrewd politics. Henry II was clearly losing. He was, you know, losing to all of his sons. They're basically rebelling. And so killing the king's son and heir, the man who would almost certainly rule England within months, would have not only been dishonorable, but it probably would have been suicidal. William's mercy was probably real to an extent, and it was also very calculated. And these things can both exist at the same time. He is said to have been arguably the only man to have unhorsed King Richard the Lionheart in combat. Now, shortly after this, King Henry ii, he dies. And broken by his son's betrayal, he reportedly dies weeping when he learns that his youngest son, John, had also turned against him. Now, William, according to his own biography, personally helped carry the king's body to Fontvrad Abbey for burial. And then the man who he had unhorsed just days earlier, that had met on this dusty French backroad road, he's literally looking at him get coronated. And he himself becomes king. That is Richard the First, the Lionheart. And as a result, he rewarded William with something that Henry II had promised years before, but had never delivered. The hand in marriage to Isabel Declare. Now, let's talk about this girl Isabel real quick, all right? Because she's kind of been footnoted in a lot of tellings of this story, but I think her element in this is actually really important. So Isabel Declare was the daughter and the sole heiress of this guy, Richard Declare, also known as Strongbow. He was a Norman lord who had conquered basically all of Ireland. And she was one of the wealthiest women in all of Europe. She had vast estates all over England and Wales and Normandy and Ireland. She was the Countess of Strugill in her own right. She had the royal titles and all the money. And in terms of raw political and economic power, she was arguably the more valuable partner in this entire marriage, right? She has the land, the titles, the connections. They're all hers. Now, William brings a military reputation and royal favor and, of course, you know, fame and infamy. He's well liked and adored throughout most of Europe. But Isabelle brings the empire. And here's kind of the crazy part. He was 43 at the time. She was 17. So, look, it's. History's a different country. Okay, hear me out. This obviously isn't great, all right? And it's weird for now, but at the time, it's not that unusual. And the marriage, it seems like, actually worked. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a break real quick because I gotta tell you something kind of embarrassing. All right? I've been working out pretty consistently for a while. I love working out. I think it's super important. Part of my daily routine. And I don't really eat garbage, and I'm doing all the stuff you're supposed to do, and I got in pretty good shape. But at some point, I noticed the results kind of just stopped, like, matching my effort kind of around the time that I had a kid. You know, I'd put in, like, the same amount of work, but, like, I wasn't getting the same results at the gym. I would get, like, a little bit more belly fat. My energy was kind of inconsistent. Recovery was taking a little bit longer, and I assumed, like, I was just getting older, which makes sense, right? You know, guys, when they hit their 30s, testosterone not, like, naturally goes down. And, you know, when that happens, your body literally starts storing more fat and you start losing muscle faster. But here's the thing that messed me up. The more body fat you carry, the more your body actually converts testosterone into estrogen, which makes it even easier to gain this fat. It's a cycle that keeps on going around. And so I started taking Mars Men. And honestly, I've been on it for a while, and I've actually noticed a difference. This is going to sound crazy. This is real 20, 24. I did blood work. My testosterone was, like, fine. It was, like, on the lower side of normal. And I did blood work recently completely unrelated to this. And I've been taking Mars Men for, I don't know, maybe like, four or five months. My testosterone went up. Now, I don't know if it's from Mars. I'm not going to say it's only them. Maybe I've been eating a little cleaner, I've been sleeping better. Who knows? But my testosterone actually got an increase. I mean, I couldn't believe it. My energy feels steadier throughout the day. My workout's been better. And going into summer, I'm actually, like, leaning out in a way that I feel better about now. Mars Men is a natural supplement. I don't even have it in the studio because it's at my house. There's no synthetic hormones, no sketchy stimulants, just actual ingredients like tonga Ali, shilajit, zinc boron. And they're designed to actually support healthy testosterone levels. Now, look, you can just go buy all of these supplements yourself. You can go buy Tonga Lee shilajit, but you gotta make sure they're from the right place. 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Now, when they ask where you heard about it, tell them the good people at Camp Gagnon sent you. It really helps the show more than you know. Now let's get back to it. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a break really quick because I just want to state the obvious. You're not going to hire a chiropractor to do brain surgery. And if you're gonna go fight in the Octagon, you wouldn't hire a guy that watches a lot of ufc. And if you have a personal injury case, you're not gonna just like, hire your buddy that's good with contracts because you know that when you're hurt, it's because someone else was negligent. You don't want just, you know, lawyer y vibes. You want real lawyers. And that's where Morgan and Morgan comes in. They are America's largest injury law firm with over a hundred offices nationwide and more than 1,000 lawyers. Crazy thing, they've recovered over $30 billion for over 500,000 clients. They've got a real track record of fighting to get people full and fair compensation. So if you are ever injured, you can check out Morgan and Morgan. And their fee is free unless they win. Yes, free. You literally don't pay anything unless they win your case. That's how confident Morgan Morgan is that they can get compensation for you and your injuries. So for more information, go to for the people.comgagnon that is f o r the people.com g a g n o n or dial pound law that is £529 and let them know that you got sent by the people here at the campsite. Also, this is a paid advertisement. Now let's get back to the show. William did a pretty good job as a husband. He governed her estates through Ireland and actually expanded Pembroke Castle and Chepstow Castle and actually founded the port town known as New Ross. And by all accounts treated her holdings as a shared inheritance rather than just like a conquest. They had five sons and five daughters together. And contemporary sources suggest that they were, by the standards of the era, like an actual partnership. Isabel eventually, you know, managed the estates while William served at court and out in the field. And without her wealth and without her land, William Marshall's political ascent in the decades ahead would just not have been possible at all. She wasn't a reward per se, she was half the equation. But we'll talk about her a little bit later and we can get into more of that. But now, William Marshall, at 43, basically dominated Europe's tournament circuits, watched the lord that he was supposed to serve die, went to battle to help King Henry ii, traveled to the Holy Land, you know, knocked Richard the Lionheart off his horse and then got rewarded by Richard for sparing his life to marrying the richest girl in Europe and also made a vow to join the Knights Templar. This guy finally had made a name for himself and actually had like a, a life worth protecting. Now, if you're thinking that the story of William Marshall is over, well, you're wrong. You're very wrong because this next chapter of his life is not a victory lap. It's a long, grinding test of everything that he's ever built in his entire life, basically everything that he had ever worked for. It starts with what they call the crisis of Richard's Crusade. Now, King Richard I departed for the third crusade in 1190. And at the time he left England in the care of a council, basically a bunch of lords and top military personnel to look after the country. And William served on it. And almost immediately the kingdom started to fall apart. Richards appointed basically justice. This guy, William Longchamp, was so heavy handed that he alienated virtually every baron in England. William Marshal was a part of the coalition that would drive Longchamp into exile. It was this delicate kind of political maneuver because it meant acting against the King's Chosen representative, which of course is going to be risky if you're going against the king's guy. If the king comes back and the guy is like, hey, these guys try to oust me, you could get killed. But William threaded the needle really carefully and did what basically he thought had to be done. But things still got worse. In 1192, Richard was captured by the Duke Leopold of Austria on his way home from the Crusade and he was basically held for ransom. Now, Richard's brother John, who had been waiting for an opportunity just like this to basically seize the throne, he started to act. So now the kingdom is now kingless, its leaders being held hostage abroad. After this war, his scheming brother basically is now consolidating support at home to be like, oh, my brother's gone, that's so sad. Anyway, I'm the king now. And now the royal treasury is draining to pay the ransom to get their king back. Now, William Marshall spent two years holding that situation from completely just exploding, working to keep John from seizing power and trying to get Richard back home. And then finally Richard was freed. But here's the thing, Richard came home and immediately Richard died. Yeah, from a crossbow wound at a minor French siege in 1199, at the age of 41. So this whole thing happens. He gets captured by Leopold, do the ransom, stop the siege of the throne, and then he comes back and dies right away. Now William is faced with the most consequential political decision of his entire life. There are now two candidates for the throne. There's Arthur of Brittany, that's Richard's 12 year old nephew, who had a stronger legal claim under this very strict sort of secession theory. And then of course you have Prince John, that is Richard's little brother, who was an adult and he was down and he desperately wanted to do it. So the council, consisting of William Marshal, had to choose who they would pick. I mean, it's a tough one. Do you choose the person that is perhaps more qualified, but he's not the strongest, you know, successor? Or do you choose the person that has the actual most legal claim to kind of keep the whole kingdom at peace? Well, William chooses the younger brother, John. And this choice defined everything. His biography frames this choice as loyalty as well as pragmatism. A child king would then mean years of instability and competing forces for the throne and other people trying to get into his ear to basically act, you know, as the ruler. But an adult like John, you know, with whatever his flaws are, could at least govern. And that's probably, you know, Part of the truth, but let's be honest, like, William also had a personal stake here. John had influence over his Irish estates. So this political move was not purely just like, doing the right thing for the kingdom. It was. It was a choice, you know, by a man who basically, he wanted to keep, you know, the loyalty as well as the self interest and keep those things aligned. So on the day of John's coronation, William was formally granted the title as Earl of Pembroke. And the reward was pretty quick. But what followed here would quickly become one of the hardest stretches of William Marshal's entire career. Harder, arguably, than any battle that he ever fought in his life, because John was catastrophically bad at being king. I mean, truly atrocious. He almost immediately loses Normandy to the French. He taxed his barons so much that they were pissed and basically trying to get rid of him. He alienated the Church so severely that England was, like, literally placed under papal interdict for years, because, again, at the time, England was a part of the Catholic Church and was sort of under the Holy See of, you know, the Roman Catholic authority. So by pissing them off now, they are just completely getting like, lambasted by, you know, this massive power center that is in the Vatican. He was paranoid and vindictive and jealous, and it was just extremely untrustworthy and was just an absolute mess to work with. And to add insult to injury, like, besides being just like the worst king ever, John didn't trust William. I think about that. Like, William literally places Jon in the. In position. Like, hey, your brother Richard died. That's so sad. I'm going to put my reputation online to put you, John, on the throne. And then even still, John doesn't trust him. He held William's eldest son as a hostage for years, literally. John is like, hey, thanks for the throne. I'm now going to take your son as a hostage that you can never actually try to come at me or, you know, take the throne for me. That's how paranoid he was. So now William Marshal retreated to Ireland multiple times when the court atmosphere was just too dangerous against him. And there's, like, legit tension here, real moments where all these relationships nearly completely break down. But William never openly defected. He kept his oath to the throne, as was basically his guiding principle in life. His biographer presents this as just pure virtue. But yet again, there's, you know, a bit more of a, I guess a realistic view that we could see this, you know, defecting from a sitting king was a really fast way to lose literally everything. Like, you might get your son killed. Your son might become just like a slave to this king. You lose all of your estates all through Ireland. You get your wife taken like, it'd be a mess. And when you're dealing with a king that is as petty and impulsive as John, it's, like, impossible. So by 1213, John's crisis with the barons is now reaching a breaking point. So he turns to William as his closest advisor, and he's in a court full of men who hated him. And turns out William Marshall was the one person that John could actually trust. And then in 1215, everything changes. The barons of England had reached their limit. This guy, King John, was an absolute idiot. He broke every promise, violated every agreement, didn't release the Epstein files. He was. He was. He was doing a lot of bad stuff. And he treated his magnates like subjects, basically, to squeeze rather than partners, to, like, you know, respectfully govern and get something back, but also scratch their back. He was just a bad political operator. And as a result, they rose up against him and they basically forced him to a meadow called Runnymede. And this is where, you know, he set his seal to the Magna Carta, a document establishing for the first time in English history that the king himself was subject to the law. Now, William Marshall was there. He was one of the named guarantors of this charter. His presence gave it a credibility that it probably wouldn't have had otherwise, because, remember, he was the most respected military figure in all of England. And his endorsement signaled to a lot of these barons that this was a serious document, not some political stunt trying to, like, appease the people. That this was like, no, we're actually going to sign a political charter that the king is actually under some type of jurisdiction. Because at the time, kings had this divine right. Whatever they wanted to do, they could do. If they wanted to kill a baron, they could just straight up do it. Like, there was no recourse for kings. They were existing outside of any type of common law at all. And for the first time with the Magna Carta, they were now seen as having some type of, I guess, you know, some type of accountability to the law. This was the great charter that now even kings were subject to. And as far as, like, constitutional democracies go, this was unheard of at the time. It was like, really one of the first times in history that the most powerful person in society had anyone or anything to answer to. But as we know, John basically immediately went back on it. He wrote to the Pope to have it annulled he invited French intervention. He declared war on his own barons, the Magna Carta, within months of its signing he basically said was pointless. And then In October of 1216, King John himself dies of dysentery. Then we get around applause for that. I mean, sure, like, you know, the Magna Carta was good, but like this guy was a mess and was also effing up the whole plot for our boy, our boy William Marshall. You know, I don't know, King John just seems like maybe he's getting a bad rap, you know, I mean, this is a kind of a one sided telling. But regardless, he now leaves the kingdom in the middle of a civil war with the French Prince Louis occupying London and the entire eastern coast. Now we have a nine year old boy as the nominal king and the Magna Carta is discarded in the wreckage of this failed reign. William Marshall is now 70 years old and England needs him one last time. They call up old William to say, hey buddy, you've done a good job, you've had quite a career, but we need you just to. He kind of is like giving me like a Ned Stark energy from Game of Thrones. Right, right. Like he's just kind of like a good guy that tries his best to help the King and just time and time again to like, hey, we effed it up. Can you just like bail us out? He's the ringer. He's the ringer. Right now there's a nine year old boy who's in charge and his name is King Henry iii. And the nobles around him are facing a pretty difficult reality. Who could they trust to hold England together when half the country is now under a French occupation and the other half is kind of in rebellion and disarray? All the barons are pissed. And the King is a child. Well, you know who it is. And his name is William freaking Marshal. So he accepts the new role, which was officially titled the Rector Regis en regni, meaning the Governor of the King and of the kingdoms. So it's like, you know what that means? He's the region of England and he's the king in everything but name. Now his first move was maybe the most important political act of his life and arguably one of the most consequential acts in the history of English governance. He reissued this little document that kind of was thrown away because this dumbass kind of messed it up, and it's called the Magna Carta. He reissues the Magna carta in Henry III's name under his own seal within weeks of taking power. I mean, this is like, levels of political genius and constitutional integrity that goes. That transcends into generations. And it's extremely significant because think about what this means. The document that placed the King under the rule of law, the document that John spent his final year basically trying to discard and get annulled, was now in William's hands, transformed from, like, you know, this legal stunt into a promise to the British people, is now truly. It's an instrument of reconciliation. And it promises these barons that if they abandon loyalty to Louis and return to the English cause and ultimately fight for their English king, the charter would be honored. And this time, for real, for real, like, we are actually going to stand on this. And it was crisis management at the highest possible level. And it actually worked. Slowly, the barons are hearing this, and they're like, all right, we'll give it a shot. But Prince Louis and his forces still held London and the entire eastern coast, and they were not going to just leave. So on May 20, 1217, William Marshal rode to war for what everyone around him must have thought was going to be his final battle. But he didn't go to London. London. Now, he went to this small city in the English Midlands that was being attacked by these French soldiers and by these rebellious English knights that had defected. They were besieging the Lincoln Castle, one of the few remaining loyalist strongholds in all of the North. Now, the castle's constable, this remarkable woman named Nicole de la Haye, who honestly deserves her own camp episode, because this is like her. Her story is crazy. She had, at this point, held it against the French through months of siege and just refused to give it up. Now, Lincoln Castle itself was really vital. It was positioned at the crossroads of ancient Roman roads that controlled the flow of men and supplies, basically going up and across the entire country. So the French targeting this place was really smart from a strategic level. They knew if they could control this, it would be a choke point for basically all the logistics for the English. Capturing it would just be devastating and potentially could destroy the entire country. And William knew this. Like, yeah, London is important, but this specific choke point, if we lose this, it's done. So he needed to act fast. He gathered his forces at the town of Newark, and he approximately had like, 400 knights, 250 crossbow men, and a supporting infantry force. But the French at Lincoln outnumbered them nonetheless. William, at 70 years old, puts on his armor, which his squires reportedly had to actually help him into, and he himself, now as an old man, led the charge. According to his biographers, he insisted on being the first into the city. Even in his old age, he was still determined to be the fiercest knight, to be the baddest mfer in the whole squad. And he wanted to be the leader that he always was in his youth. His crossbow men seized the city gates and positioned themselves on rooftops, raining fire down on the French infantry. And they were really caught kind of stuck in these, like, narrow medieval streets below them. And his knights drove through the chaos, creating paths for more foot soldiers. And then the French command, Thomas, Count of perche, was offered the chance to surrender, and he refused. He died in the fighting just shortly after. Now, the second battle of Lincoln, later kind of, you know, ironically called the Lincoln fair by chroniclers because the looting and the chaos that followed the royalist victory was very decisive. Many of the rebel barons were then captured. And three months later, a French fleet attempting to bring reinforcements was then defeated at the battle of Sandwich. Which is very funny and making me hungry. Right? I mean, that's like, the actual name of the battle that, like, kind of destroys the french is like, hey, we're gonna bring in some stuff. And it's at literally the battle of sandwich that they lose everything. And they're famous for baguettes. Kind of a great name for a restaurant. Like, how is that not like a shop? Like, Battle of sandwich. The Battle of Sandwich. And it's like a bunch of different sandwiches. And, like, they have French, French sandwiches, they have English sandwiches. Food eating contests. You ever been to that place, the Earl of Sandwich? No. It's like a great little, like, road stop sandwich place. That's, like, amazing. You should take me sometime. If you ever drive in Florida, you should check out the Earl of sandwich. Anyway, let's get back to it. Okay. Now, Louis of France, he had all his military positions and all these holds that he thought that he had in England effectively collapsed one after another. After this, Louis signed what they call the treaty of Lambeth in September of 1217, and. And he kind of just, you know, sauntered back to France, defeated. Some historians argue that the battle of Lincoln was among the most consequential battles ever fought on English soil. It's possible that if this one castle goes down, they lose all these trade routes. The French already have London. That England possibly could have just ceased to exist. They might have just all become French. Ugh. Now they say that if Louis had won that day, it's plausible that literally it just would have been done. England would have just had a French king on the throne, and, you know, the barren coalition that had Forced. The Magna Carta would have just been fragmented. The Charter, right, like this literal charter that was, like, holding together. I mean, it basically kind of set the precedent for all of constitutional monarchies and then, you know, constitutional democracies after that, all of that might have just been abandoned and entirely erased. The chain of, like, constitutional thinking that kings actually had to answer to the people in any way that led from the Magna Carta might have just been completely thrown out. I mean, the Magna Carta, basically, you can draw a direct line straight to the English Bill of Rights that then leads directly to the American Constitution and then literally to the Declaration of Independence, to the principle that it's literally the idea that rulers must be subject to law. And it all hinges at this one battle at Lincoln Castle. I mean, think about that. It's a crazy thought that, like, this one guy that wins this one battle changes all of the Western history, kind of all of, like world history in a way. So now England is officially saved. The French are kind of booted out. And William Marshal, yet again reissues the Magna Carta one final time on November in 1217, once again under his own seal. And this time it was permanent. And it set England up for a new future that just weeks before was almost completely lost. William now is governing a kingdom that was slowly kind of getting back to normal. He was respected by his former enemies as well as his allies. King Philip II of France, who legit spent decades fighting against him, reportedly called him the most loyal man I have ever known, even across the lines of war. His reputation for being an honest, noble man, for keeping his word and just being just like an all around good dude, was apparently the thing that people remember the most about him. But at this point, his health was declining, and by early 1219, it was very clear to everyone around him that he was slowly dying. And now, for the first time since his pilgrimage all those years ago, William returned to that chest. Remember the chest that he got back from the Holy Land, and he put something inside of it. It. Well, he had his servants bring it out. And inside, folded and perfectly preserved after more than 30 years, were two lengths of fine silk cloth that he had carried home from Jerusalem, given to him by the Knights Templar. He unfolded them carefully and showed them to his assembled knights and to his son. And he said, and this comes directly from the biography and from the different accounts of men who were actually there, that he had kept these cloths for 30 years, brought back from the Holy Land, and saved them precisely for this moment. He wanted them draped over his body when he was laid into the earth. And that had always been his plan and God's plan. And then something that he had kept completely secretive for decades. Not a soul knew this. Not the king that he was serving, not his wife, not his own son, no one. He told them that in the Holy Land he made a vow that he had given himself body and burial to the Knights Templar. In the Templar tradition, you died in the care of the Templar. Wherever you happen to be, they received you into the Order. Now, shortly before he died, he called the young king who had he, who basically he had been governing for three years and his entire council rounded to him. And he offered his last piece of advice. His biographer records him telling King Henry iii, he says this, I pray God that if I have ever done anything pleasing to him, he will give you the grace to be a gentleman. If it should happen that you follow the example of some evil ancestor, I pray God not to grant you a long life. He also admitted with characteristic honesty that he could not defend himself from death. William Marshall died on May 14, 1219, at his manor at Caversham. He was approximately 72 years old. And so William Marshall was formally invested into the Order of the Temple. A Templar mantle, a white cloak with the Red Cross, was placed over him. And he reportedly had a mantle made in secret a year before, and he was basically just holding onto it for this exact moment. He was carried into the Temple Church in London, the magnificent round church built by the Knights Templar, deliberately modeled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the very church that he had visited decades before when he carried a dead king's cloak to the Holy City. And the very church where he made this sacred vow, his effigy still lies there today. It even survived the fire that heavily damaged the church in 1941. It survived eight centuries. If you go to London right now, if you book a flight, you can go, you can still find him. A stone knight, hands folded, lying in the round nave that his order built. He kept every vow. He served five kings. He died wearing the cross of the organization that he had admired since the very day he walked through Jerusalem. And yet, even after all this, here's the craziest part about William Marshall's legacy, the part that we've kind of been holding on to throughout this entire story. Shortly after his death, his son commissioned a biography about him, a poem written in the vernacular French of the era, and it's called the l' Histoire de Guillaume le Martial, the History of William the Marshal and it runs to be approximately like 19,214 lines long. This biography, as far as scholars can determine, is the only surviving cradle to grave biography of a medieval person who was not a king or a saint that was also written close to the time of their life. That genre of secular individual biography essentially wasn't a thing in that period. Like think like the biography of, like Rockefeller, Steve Jobs, like that just didn't exist. It's extremely unique and there is no other document like it in existence. Now, we should be clear about a few things that are in the listoire and what it is and what it isn't. It was commissioned by William's own son, written to celebrate his father and his dad's life and really defend his reputation against critics at the royal court who were questioning the, you know, questioning William Marshall's legacy in the 1220s. And it is, in other words, an authorized biography with some political purpose. So modern historians like David Crouch, who I mentioned before, his 2002 scholarly biography, is the definitive modern treatment of William Marshall. And he's done a lot of careful work of separating the legend from that document. And much of what the histoire says actually checks out. Some of it is clearly, you know, kind of polished up for effect. But the truth, as usual, kind of lies somewhere in between. The sole surviving manuscript of this specific poem was rediscovered in the 1860s. It was spotted at a Sotheby's collection by a French scholar named Paul Mayer and was eventually acquired by the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, where it still is to this day. Now, wildly enough, without the chance sighting at an auction by a guy that knew what it was. It's possible that the most detailed source that we have on William Marshall might have just been sold off and put into some rich Russian oligarch's basement or something. Now, French historian Georges Dubay called the poem infinitely precious. The memory of chivalry in the almost pure state. Another historian, this guy John Baldwin, has written that much of our understanding of 12th century chivalry is essentially derived from the life and biography of William Marshall. The man didn't just live through one of the most consequential periods in English history, slash world history. He defined how the world would understand what a knight even is in the first place, and still. Bet you didn't think this was possible. William's mark on the world is more than just how history remembers him. So get this. His daughter, Isabel Marshall, married into the de Clare family, whose descendants connected to a bloodline that would produce this guy named Robert The Bruce, the man who won Scottish independence at Bannockburn in 1314. And that same year, by no coincidence, Jacques de Molay, the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who we did a whole episode on. You should check that out. He was burned at the stake in Paris in the very same order that William had died wearing 95 years earlier. History has a strange way of kind of weaving together the threads of very consequential people. And William Marshal is no small part of that tapestry. I mean, without him, the. You could say the entirety of the Western world would just be different, maybe not better, maybe not worse. It would definitely be a different story. Now, in conclusion, William Marshall was a regular dude, born into nothing. He inherited literally nothing. He was nearly killed as a child by the king whose own soldiers were preparing a rope and discarded by his own father, who called him disposable. And he built a fortune by legit capturing men in mock battle scenes across France as, like, the official, like, first UFC fighter ever. He served kings who were sometimes not even worthy of his loyalty. He married brilliantly, he governed carefully, and he fought when he had to and negotiated and any other time, and somehow navigated one of the most turbulent centuries in all of English history without ever breaking an oath, damaging his reputation, was even loved and admired by his very enemies. But William's story isn't just about personal greatness. It's about what he protected when no one else could. I mean, think about the Magna Carta and what it actually was in 1216. It wasn't the revered document that we learned about in history class. It was this failed agreement from a disgraced king that was annulled by a Pope and basically just abandoned by everyone that signed it and immediately just discarded. And in the hands of anyone other than William Marshall, it probably would have just been a tiny little footnote in history. Like, oh, yeah, this is when they tried to check the kings and it didn't work. But now, that document, ensuring a limitation of royal power is one of the most pivotal points in the history of constitutional law. The principle established by the Magna Carta, that power is not absolute, that rulers are accountable, and that even a king can't just act with impunity and do whatever he wants, became the foundation of every constitutional democracy that follows. The English Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Every one of these documents ensuring protection and equality and human rights is the literary error of what William Marshall accomplished in 12:15. And that's not a lesson that's dated Medieval times. I mean, when he was laid in temple church, they placed a stone effigy over him that has outlasted everything. The kings that he served, the kingdoms he defended, even the order whose cross he died bearing. And in a world of broken promises and oaths that just conveniently get forgotten, William Marshall is there and stood the test of time. The legendary knight, the man who outlived every king he served, saw the Holy Land, brought England back to the glory that we know on the brink of French occupation, and ultimately inspired a future of institutional accountability, humility and leadership and loyalty is on the shoulders of one man. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the life and story of William Marshall. I mean, what a beast. Like, what a legendary dude, right? I mean, like, truly one of the craziest lives ever. And you know what? I'm sure there's people that are going to say, oh, dude, this was obviously written in a biography about his kid. We know that. This was obviously propaganda. I don't want to hear it, because I would rather believe an awesome story that inspires me and gets me fired up to be a good guy than to get caught up in your nihilistic BS that, like, oh, nothing good can ever happen. Happen. William Marshall was that dude, right? He's also the epitome of the. I thought I was out, and they pulled me back in. That's what I'm saying, right? Like, he's just like. Like, I'm trying to think, like, who's that character? Like, in a movie, like, where they're like, the greatest guy ever, and he's like, you know what? You guys got it. And they call him up. They're like, boss, we need one more favor. They should have just let him run it the whole time. Right? But he wasn't of nobility. You have the successors. You got the egos, you got the moms. You got the whole thing where no one wants to actually give it to the good guys. But William Marshall made it work. And not only was he savvy and, like, smart and good politically, he was also just legit a beast. Yeah, like, imagine if, like, Jon Jones was also, like, one of, like, the best political navigators of all time, but also, like, the greatest dude ever and, like, held up. The Constitution was like, hey, guys, remember this? That you'd be like, you're. You're Superman. Could you imagine an old guy being put into a body of armor? Also that probably peeing straight into it. 100. And you could hear it, too, on the metal. You would listen. You'd be like, what is that noise? And be like, I think it's a river. Yeah, rain's coming. Yeah, we're near the rain, I think. I mean, just like. I mean, unbelievable. Chris, is anything you learned? Are you. Are you fired up right now? I'm gonna get killed for this. But I didn't know this was the origin of the Magna Carta. Neither did I. Yeah. Until I was doing research on it. I was like, yeah, the Magna Carta. They put it in place, and it said the kings were under, like, you know, rules. Yeah. But I didn't know that it was put in place, discarded immediately by this dumbass. And then saved by William Marshall. And then saved again by William Marshall after he took England back from the French and then was like, hey, guys, here are the rules. Don't be a dumbass. Be a good guy. Lead your people well. And the French get out of here. Yeah. Like, he literally was just, like, strong. Like, willed his way into, like, saving England was just like, guys, just let me die. Like, I don't want to be doing this forever. Like, what are we talking about? Yeah. I mean, and. And I also like this. I like that his son admired his dad. You know what I mean? Like, think about King Henry ii, who in this very story is the King of England. And immediately his sons are trying to do a rebellion. They're trying to take the throne. They're trying to kill their own dad to take power. Yeah. And it seems like William Marshall's kid was like, nah, my daddy was like, that, dude, he's the man. And I'm gonna Commission this entire 12,000 line French poem to honor him because he's the best. So I also think his son deserves the flowers here as well. And then they find that poem in a bookstore at an auction. Yeah. A Sotheby's auction. They're like, oh, what is this? Crazy wild, right? So all that to say, be a good man, love your family, try to be as honorable as you can be. Think of William Marshall when you're in times of, you know, trying to stand for what's right and what's convenient. And if you can't do that, that honor your parents. I love that his kid was like, you know what? My dad's that dude. And I'm actually going to stand for my dad and, like, speak highly of him. We forget so much of our own family history. I don't even really know anything about my great grandparents. And maybe they're awesome. Maybe I should forget them. I don't know. But at the very Least it'd be nice if someone told me they were like, hey, your ancestors are awesome, and they, like, did the right thing and so can you. I think it's kind of inspiring. Absolutely. I don't know, Andrew, what do you think? Anything you learned? Guess we're kind of getting a little aggressive with the age gap. 17. That's a good point. That is a good point. Look, it's a different time, all right? This wasn't about love or lust. It was about combining empires. You know, I mean, it's a little crazy, but I mean, I think in like, most states in America. 17. You can get married at 17. From what my friend tells me. 17 in a day, Christos and a day. This. This is why. This is why the. A lot of the comments, which a fun fact, by the way. I will read the AI summary of our episodes and we'll be like, people loved the episode. The feedback is good. You know, you have a beautiful community of. Cancer is ruining the show, and a lot of people. And then the AI thing will be like a lot of people mentioning Christos. I wonder if it affects our views. I wonder if the AI is like, oh, this is a controversial video. Like, they need to figure out some content stuff and, you know, Chris is actually ruining the show. We should do some kind of have the commenters just be like, totally a joke. Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe if you're gonna. If you're gonna, you know, take a shot at Christos. Absolutely. I mean, nothing's funer to me than, you know, the entire Internet bagging up on Christos. I find it very charming. Patreon does a very good job of. They're amazing at it. I mean, goodness, these guys are like professional roasters. But let me just say, maybe just put in there, be like, haha, just kidding, I actually love them. Or just, you know, big up Christos just for the algorithm, see if it helps. I don't know. Anyway, is that what William Marshall would do? William Marshall would actually defend Christos honor. He'd give me my own show. He would give you your own show. He would actually put you in this chair and say, you know what? That's right. I'm gonna go off and die in the Irish countryside. Yeah, Christos. Got it. My dream. Anyway, what do you guys think? I'm not a historian, so if there's anything I missed or overlooked here, by all means, please don't hesitate to correct me in the comments. I read all of them. YouTube, Spotify, all that, and I have wonderful news. If you're interested in, like, some of the religious stuff that we talked about in here. Like, of course, we talked about, you know, some of the Crusades and kind of what the Crusades were. I guess that's more history. But we talked about, of course, like, you know, the Church of England being under Catholic control and later that changes, you know, through the Reformation and King Henry viii. Well, we talk about a lot of this stuff at religion camp. That's where we talk about everything that's going to happen. Where do people go when they die? What does everyone believe on this big, giant blue planet. And if you like current events and going through, you know, crazy Knight Templar history and occult stuff. Well, great news. We have Camp Yagna. That's where we talk about everything that's going on right now and going on crazy rabbit wormholes, basically, through anything that I get hooked on that week. And if you just like rocking with the history revival, great news. You are always welcome here at history camp. Remember to check out patreon.com camp gagnon. You can join the inner sanctum, get close to the fire and gather where we all come together. And of course, you can come see me live. Markagnonlive.com Come on the road, shake my hand. Come see one excellent hour of standup comedy. And I would love to say what's up to you. Everyone that I've met on the road has been truly awesome, and I'm grateful you guys are supporting my dreams. Anyway, God bless you all. Thank you so much. And I will see you in the future to talk about the past.