Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface and acknowledgments / Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

William Marshal in exile / David Crouch.

Kells and its priory / Miriam Clyne.

Kells Priory, c.1500: a fortified monastic house / Daniel Tietzsch-Tyler.

William Marshall's great tower at Pembroke, Wales: a view from Ireland / Ben Murtagh.

William Marshal's castle at Kilkenny in about 1395: a new reconstruction / Daniel Tietzsch-Tyler.

William Marshal's charter to Kilkenny, 1207: background, dating and witnesses / John Bradley and Ben Murtagh.

Monastery and manor: William Marshal's settlement strategy in Co. Wexford / Billy Colfer.

Pons Novus, villa Willielmi Marescalli: New Ross, a town of William Marshal / Cóilín Ó Drisceoil.

The wife's tale: Isabel Marshal and Ireland / Gillian Kenny.

"This richly illustrated collection of essays examines for the first time the important Irish career of one of the most famous personalities of medieval Europe, William Marshal (c.1146-1219). The Marshal, with his wife Isabel de Clare, transformed the lordship of Leinster by the sword but also through the establishment of castles, churches, towns, and strategic infrastructure, as well as the institution of a new administrative framework that stabilised the Anglo-Norman colony. The essays in this book, by leading historians and archaeologists, present the Marshal in a new light--one that differs substantially from his better known persona as the 'greatest knight that ever lived' and a 'flower of chivalry.'" - Book cover