G.B. England. London. William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1146 or 1147 – 1219), also called William the Marshal (Norman French: Williame le Mareschal; Anglo-Norman: Guillaume le Marechal), was an English (or Anglo-Norman) soldier and statesman. He served four kings – Henry II, Richard I, John (he was one of the 25 barons who witnessed King John apply his seal to the Magna Carta in 1215), and Henry III – and rose from obscurity to become a regent of England for the last of the four kings, and so one of the most powerful men in Europe. Before him, the hereditary title of Marshal designated head of household security for the king of England; by the time he died, people throughout Europe (not just England) referred to him simply as the Marshal. He received the title of 1st Earl of Pembroke through marriage during the second creation of the Pembroke Earldom. His effigy is in the Temple Church in London but the face is now so disfigured that a copy has been made showing what his features once looked like. 2015