Elizabeth Chadwick’s William Marshal series brings to life one of the most extraordinary careers in medieval history. William Marshal rose from near-obscurity as the younger son of a minor lord to become the most powerful man in England: tournament champion, royal counsellor, Earl of Pembroke, and ultimately regent of the realm. The Archbishop of Canterbury called him the greatest knight that ever lived shortly after his death in 1219, and the description still stands.
Chadwick tells this story across six novels spanning three generations of the Marshal family, from William’s father John to William himself to his daughter Mahelt. The books are meticulous in their research, deeply immersive in their period detail, and emotionally rich in a way that distinguishes Chadwick from more plot-driven writers in the genre. If you want to understand what medieval England actually felt like from the inside, these are among the best novels written about the period.
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Quick Series Facts
| Author | Elizabeth Chadwick |
| Number of Books | 6 novels (series complete) |
| First Book | The Greatest Knight (2005) |
| Latest Book | Templar Silks (2018) |
| Setting | England, France, Ireland, the Holy Land, 1152 to 1219 |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
Reading Order: Which Order Should You Use?
This series has two different valid reading sequences and it is worth understanding both before you start.
Publication order begins with The Greatest Knight (2005), which drops you straight into William Marshal’s life as a young knight at the court of Henry II. This is the order Chadwick wrote in and the order most readers recommend for newcomers.
Chronological order begins with A Place Beyond Courage (2007), the prequel following William’s father John FitzGilbert Marshal during the Anarchy. If you prefer to understand the family’s roots before following William, this works well, but it is a slightly slower opening to the series.
Most readers suggest starting with The Greatest Knight in publication order. The prequel A Place Beyond Courage is better appreciated once you know William and want to understand where he came from.
William Marshal Books in Publication Order
1. The Greatest Knight (2005)
Setting: England and France, 1166 to 1194
The novel that launched the series, and for most readers the best entry point. William Marshal is introduced as a young, penniless knight with no inheritance and few prospects. When he saves Eleanor of Aquitaine from a robbery, he is appointed tutor and companion to her son, Henry the Young King. The position thrusts William into the heart of the Plantagenet court: its tournaments, its infidelities, its brutal factional politics.
The book follows William across nearly three decades, through his friendship with the Young King, his time as tournament champion across France, his pilgrimage to Jerusalem after Henry’s death, and his eventual marriage to the wealthy heiress Isabel de Clare, which transforms him into one of the great magnates of England. Chadwick handles this sweep with confidence, making a life that could easily become an episodic catalogue feel like a coherent emotional journey.
2. The Scarlet Lion (2006)
Setting: England, France, and Ireland, 1194 to 1219
The second William Marshal novel picks up in middle age, as William navigates the reigns of Richard I and then the catastrophic King John. Where The Greatest Knight is about becoming, The Scarlet Lion is about enduring: how a man of honour survives a king he cannot fully serve and cannot safely oppose.
The book covers the years of Magna Carta, the First Barons’ War, and William’s extraordinary final chapter as regent of England after John’s death, when he led the royalist forces to victory over the French at the Battle of Lincoln in 1217 at the age of approximately seventy. The conclusion is one of the most satisfying endings in the series, doing full justice to a life that kept producing remarkable things right to the end.
3. A Place Beyond Courage (2007)
Setting: England, 1130s to 1160s
A prequel following William Marshal’s father, John FitzGilbert Marshal, royal marshal to King Henry I and later to King Stephen and Empress Maud during the Anarchy. John Marshal is a harder, more morally ambiguous figure than his son: a man who uses people ruthlessly and is capable of genuine cruelty, but who also possesses a fierce determination and political intelligence that allowed him to survive and profit in one of the most dangerous periods in English history.
The book includes the famous incident in which John offered his young son William as a hostage to King Stephen and refused to yield the castle, calculating (correctly) that Stephen would not execute the child. William appears only as a small boy here, which makes it a prequel in the deepest sense: you see the foundations of the family’s character before the man himself takes the stage.
4. The Time of Singing (2008)
Setting: England and Ireland, 1165 to 1200
Published in the US as For the King’s Favor, this novel steps away from William Marshal to tell the story of Roger Bigod and Ida de Tosney, a young woman who was royal mistress to Henry II before becoming Roger’s wife. William Marshal appears in this book but is not the protagonist; the novel is more accurately described as a companion to the William Marshal sequence than a direct continuation.
Ida’s story is compelling in its own right. Taken into Henry’s household as a young girl, she bears him a son before being given in marriage to the ambitious Roger Bigod, whose growing power and the complications of their past create ongoing tensions. The book gives a vivid portrait of court life seen from a woman’s perspective, and of the impossible position of women caught between powerful men.
5. To Defy a King (2010)
Setting: England, 1204 to 1219
Returns to the Marshal family through the story of Mahelt Marshal, William and Isabel’s daughter. When King John turns against William Marshal and takes Mahelt’s brothers as hostages, Mahelt’s world shatters. She is married off to Hugh Bigod (son of Roger and Ida from The Time of Singing), and must navigate a world where her father’s political difficulties put everyone she loves at risk.
This is one of the series’ most emotionally intense novels. Mahelt is a fully realised protagonist in her own right, fierce and capable, and her perspective on the events surrounding Magna Carta and the First Barons’ War gives the sequence a final human dimension that the more public-facing earlier novels could not provide.
6. Templar Silks (2018)
Setting: The Holy Land, France, and England, 1183 to 1186
A standalone novel set during William Marshal’s pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the vow he fulfilled after the death of Henry the Young King. The pilgrimage episode is mentioned in The Greatest Knight but never dramatised; Templar Silks fills in that gap with a complete story, following William through the Crusader States at a pivotal and dangerous moment, years before their fall to Saladin in 1187.
This novel functions as a deep dive for readers who are already invested in William and want more. It can technically be read independently, but it is most rewarding for those who know the full arc of William’s life through the earlier books.
Chronological Reading Order
For readers who prefer to follow the family story in historical order:
- A Place Beyond Courage (2007) — John FitzGilbert Marshal, 1130s to 1160s
- The Greatest Knight (2005) — William Marshal, early career, 1166 to 1194
- Templar Silks (2018) — William’s pilgrimage, 1183 to 1186 (overlaps with above)
- The Scarlet Lion (2006) — William Marshal, 1194 to 1219
- The Time of Singing (2008) — Roger Bigod and Ida de Tosney, 1165 to 1200 (overlaps)
- To Defy a King (2010) — Mahelt Marshal, 1204 to 1219
Our recommendation: Start with The Greatest Knight in publication order. Read A Place Beyond Courage after Book 2 as enrichment. Templar Silks works best after The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion. The Time of Singing and To Defy a King can be read any time after The Scarlet Lion.
About the William Marshal Series
Series Overview
William Marshal (c. 1147 to 1219) was the son of a minor English lord who rose through tournament victory, royal service, and an advantageous marriage to become one of the most powerful magnates in England. He served five kings: Henry II, Henry the Young King (who died before becoming sole king), Richard I, John, and Henry III. He helped negotiate Magna Carta in 1215. After John’s death, he served as regent for the nine-year-old Henry III and, at approximately seventy years old, led the royalist army to victory at the Battle of Lincoln in 1217, effectively ending the First Barons’ War and saving England from French conquest.
He is the subject of the only surviving contemporary biography of a medieval knight: a 19,000-line poem commissioned by his eldest son after his death, known as the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal. Elizabeth Chadwick drew extensively on this source, as well as on her own research with a living history society whose members include professional historians and archaeologists.
The historical facts of William’s life are so remarkable that Chadwick did not need to invent much. A man who was offered to a king as a hostage at age five, became the undefeated champion of the European tournament circuit, served as tutor to a royal heir, journeyed to Jerusalem, married one of the richest heiresses in England, outlasted four monarchs, and saved his country from foreign conquest at the age of seventy is not a character who requires fictional embellishment. Chadwick’s achievement is in making him human rather than merely legendary.
What Makes the Series Special
Unmatched historical depth. Chadwick’s research is exceptional even by the high standards of the genre. She works with reenactment societies, consults with historians and archaeologists, and has hands-on familiarity with medieval material culture that gives her writing a physical specificity most historical novelists cannot match. You come to understand what a tournament actually felt like, how a castle household was organised, what travel in twelfth-century England required.
Women given full weight. Isabel de Clare, Mahelt Marshal, and Ida de Tosney are as fully realised as the male protagonists. Chadwick has a particular gift for depicting the political and personal constraints facing medieval women without making them anachronistically modern in their responses.
The long arc of a real life. The series covers William from young adulthood to old age, across sixty years of English history. Few series manage this kind of span without losing coherence. Chadwick keeps William recognisable throughout: the same essential character adapted to changing circumstances, grown rather than transformed.
A neglected period. Twelfth and early thirteenth century England is considerably less visited in historical fiction than the Tudor period, which gives the series a freshness that readers who are saturated with Henrys and Elizabeths will appreciate. The Plantagenet world is vivid and violent and driven by a code of honour that Chadwick renders legible without sentimentalising.
Where to Start
New to the Series?
Start here: The Greatest Knight (2005)
This is the entry point Chadwick intended and the one most readers recommend. It introduces William at the beginning of his adult career and gives you the foundation you need for everything that follows. It is also among the most accessible of the six novels: tightly paced, with a strong central relationship (William and the Young King) anchoring the early sections.
Can You Start Elsewhere?
A Place Beyond Courage works as a starting point if you want to begin at the true chronological beginning of the family story. It is a slightly slower novel than The Greatest Knight, but it is deeply satisfying for readers who like their historical fiction rooted in deep period context.
The Scarlet Lion is sometimes read as a standalone by readers who already know the broad outlines of William Marshal’s life, since it covers the more famous later period. However, the emotional weight of William’s final years is considerably greater if you have read The Greatest Knight first.
We strongly recommend against starting with Templar Silks. It is a prequel written for established fans of the series and will not give you an adequate introduction to William or his world.
About the Author: Elizabeth Chadwick
Elizabeth Chadwick is a British historical novelist who has been publishing since 1991. She is widely regarded as one of the finest writers of medieval historical fiction currently working, with a reputation for research that rivals academic historians. Her debut novel, The Wild Hunt, was shortlisted for the Georgette Heyer Historical Novel Prize in 1991.
Chadwick lives near Nottingham and writes almost exclusively about medieval England. Alongside the William Marshal series, she has written an Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy (beginning with A Queen’s Choice in 2014), the Wild Hunt and Bigod series, and numerous standalone medieval novels. She is a member of a living history society and regularly practices medieval crafts and combat techniques as part of her research process.
Her other notable series include a trilogy about Eleanor of Aquitaine and standalone novels covering figures from Countess Mathilde (daughter of William the Conqueror) to Katherine Swynford (mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt). She is a New York Times bestselling author.
More by Elizabeth Chadwick:
Historical Context: The Plantagenet World
The William Marshal novels are set across one of the most turbulent stretches of English medieval history, from the end of the Anarchy (the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Maud) through the reigns of Henry II, the Young King, Richard I, John, and the minority of Henry III.
This is the world that produced the common law, Magna Carta, and the beginnings of Parliament. It is also the world of the Crusades, of the tournament as a pan-European institution, and of a French-speaking aristocracy gradually becoming English. Henry II was one of the most capable administrators England ever had, but his reign was consumed by the rebellions of his sons, aided by his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine. Richard I was a brilliant soldier who spent almost his entire reign outside England. John was a capable administrator whose paranoid cruelties destroyed his relationship with the barons and nearly cost the Plantagenet dynasty its throne.
William Marshal navigated all of this with remarkable consistency of character. He was not simply loyal to whichever king was paying him; he maintained a genuine code of honour that occasionally put him in direct conflict with royal commands. His decision to refuse an order from King John that he found dishonourable, and his willingness to accept the consequences, is one of the moral centres of the series.
The period Chadwick covers also saw the development of the tournament from a chaotic mass cavalry engagement to a more formalised joust. William Marshal’s career as a tournament champion is central to The Greatest Knight and gives modern readers a fascinating window into an institution that shaped medieval aristocratic culture.
Learn more: Best Medieval Historical Fiction and Medieval Europe Historical Fiction Hub
Similar Series You’ll Love
If you enjoy the William Marshal series, these offer comparable pleasures:
1. Kingsbridge Series by Ken Follett
The Pillars of the Earth is set in the same twelfth-century England as the early William Marshal novels, covering the period of the Anarchy. Like Chadwick, Follett is interested in the physical texture of medieval life, though his canvas is broader and his approach more explicitly novelistic.
2. The Last Kingdom Series by Bernard Cornwell
Set three centuries earlier in the Viking-age England of Alfred the Great, The Last Kingdom shares the William Marshal novels’ interest in a single warrior-figure navigating the politics of a fractured kingdom. The military detail and the moral framework of service and loyalty are closely comparable.
3. Sharon Kay Penman’s Medieval Novels
Sharon Kay Penman writes about the same Plantagenet world as Chadwick, including Devil’s Brood (Henry II and his rebellious sons) and Here Be Dragons (Llewelyn the Great of Wales). Penman and Chadwick are direct contemporaries in the medieval fiction space and share many readers.
4. Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
Cornwell’s Arthurian trilogy imagines the world of fifth-century Britain through the eyes of Derfel, one of Arthur’s warriors. The moral universe, with its competing loyalties and the weight of service to a flawed but great leader, is closely related to Chadwick’s treatment of William Marshal.
5. Elizabeth Chadwick’s Eleanor of Aquitaine Trilogy
For readers who want to stay in Chadwick’s world but have finished the Marshal novels, her Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy covers the same period from a different perspective. Eleanor herself appears in the William Marshal books; these novels give her the full treatment.
Adaptations
The William Marshal series has not been adapted for television or film. Given the extraordinary drama of the historical material, it is a natural candidate for adaptation, and there is ongoing reader interest in seeing it produced. As of 2026, no confirmed production is in development.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many books are in the William Marshal series?
There are six novels in Elizabeth Chadwick’s William Marshal series: The Greatest Knight (2005), The Scarlet Lion (2006), A Place Beyond Courage (2007), The Time of Singing (2008), To Defy a King (2010), and Templar Silks (2018). The series is complete.
In what order should I read the William Marshal series?
Publication order is the recommended starting point. Begin with The Greatest Knight (2005), then The Scarlet Lion (2006). After that, read A Place Beyond Courage (the prequel about William’s father) and Templar Silks (the Jerusalem pilgrimage) in whichever order you prefer. The Time of Singing and To Defy a King complete the sequence covering the next generation.
What is the best book in the William Marshal series?
Most readers cite The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion as the standout pair. The Greatest Knight is the most widely recommended starting point and introduction to William’s character. The Scarlet Lion is often considered the more emotionally powerful of the two, covering William’s later years and the extraordinary final chapter of his career.
Who was William Marshal in real life?
William Marshal (c. 1147 to 1219) was an English knight who served five kings. He rose from near-obscurity to become Earl of Pembroke and, after King John’s death, regent of England for the young Henry III. He was undefeated in tournaments across Europe, took part in the Magna Carta negotiations, and led the royalist army to victory at the Battle of Lincoln in 1217 at approximately seventy years old. The Archbishop of Canterbury called him the greatest knight that ever lived.
Is the William Marshal series historically accurate?
Very much so. Chadwick’s research is exceptionally thorough. She works with living history societies, consults with professional historians, and draws on medieval primary sources including the thirteenth-century biographical poem Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal. The core events of William’s life are well documented; Chadwick’s invention is in the interior lives and private scenes, not the historical record.
Do the William Marshal books need to be read in order?
The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion work best read in sequence, as they cover William’s life in two halves. A Place Beyond Courage is a prequel and can be read at any point, though it gains resonance after you know William. Templar Silks should be read after The Greatest Knight. The Time of Singing and To Defy a King are more standalone in feel but benefit from knowledge of the earlier novels.
What time period does the series cover?
The series covers England, France, Ireland, and the Holy Land from approximately the 1130s to 1219. The core William Marshal novels (The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion) cover his adult career from approximately 1166 to 1219. The prequel A Place Beyond Courage goes back to the Anarchy of the 1130s.
Is the William Marshal series appropriate for all readers?
The books contain the violence of medieval combat, including tournaments and battle. There is romance and some sexuality, handled tastefully. The books are adult historical fiction rather than explicit, and are appropriate for older teenagers as well as adults.
Will there be more books in the William Marshal series?
The series is considered complete with six novels. Elizabeth Chadwick continues to write about medieval England, with new novels forthcoming, but no additional William Marshal book has been announced.
Are the William Marshal books available in audiobook?
Yes. All six novels are available in audiobook format. UK and US editions exist, and some titles have different names in the two markets (The Time of Singing is published as For the King’s Favor in the United States).
Conclusion: Your William Marshal Reading Journey
The William Marshal series is one of the outstanding achievements in medieval historical fiction. It takes a figure who deserves to be far better known, a man whose life story genuinely rivals anything in legend, and renders him as a fully human presence: not a statue of chivalry but a real person with a sense of humour, private fears, and a marriage that deepened over decades.
Elizabeth Chadwick has spent thirty years establishing herself as the preeminent novelist of medieval England, and this series represents the peak of her achievement. The combination of meticulous research, emotional intelligence, and a genuinely compelling central figure gives the books a staying power that lighter medieval fiction cannot match.
Start with The Greatest Knight. Give William’s voice a chapter to establish itself. If you find yourself wanting to follow a penniless young knight into the tournament circuit of twelfth-century France, you will likely be reading all six novels before you know it.
Ready to begin? Start with The Greatest Knight on Amazon.
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- Elizabeth Chadwick: Complete Guide to Books & Series
- Sharon Kay Penman: Complete Guide to Books & Series
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- Bernard Cornwell: Complete Guide to Books & Series
- Kingsbridge Series Reading Order
- The Last Kingdom Reading Order
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