John Marshal (died 1165)

Following Henry’s death in 1135, John swore fealty to King Stephen and was granted the castles of Marlborough and Ludgershall, Wiltshire during this time.

On the same year, king Stephen tried to appoint a breton governor in Wiltshire, causing the disfavour of both John and the Salisburys.

While covering her retreat from Winchester, John was forced to take refuge from the enemies at Wherwell Abbey.

The attackers set fire to the building, and John was seriously injured by dripping lead from the melting roof, to the point that his pursuers thought him dead.

Although he was splashed, burnt, and lost an eye, John was not dead and he stumbled back home to Marlborough on foot, in a 25 miles long march.

[4] In the mid 1140s (surely after the siege of Winchester and probably starting in 1145), John entered in conflict with Patrick of Salisbury in a matter of local power.

Patrick launched a series of aggressive sieges, which John resisted; the first mentioned’s eventual success might explain Matilda’s decision to make him an earl.

In 1158, King Henry II (which had succeeded Stephen) revoked John's possession of Marlborough castle, maybe considering him as a danger, but didn't deprive him of his role of marshal.

[3] John had previously argued with Theobald of Bec (Thomas Becket's predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury) that one of the archbishopric's estates belonged to him by hereditary right.

Adelina was subsequently remarried to Stephen de Gay, maternal uncle of Earl Robert of Gloucester.

When John (II) died, King Richard the Lionheart gave the title to his brother, the well-known William Marshal.