John Marshal

John FitzGilbert the Marshal held his castles through the Anarchy, changing sides with a hard man's timing, and gave the age one of its imperishable stories: besieged at Newbury and told that King Stephen would hang his hostage son if he did not yield, he answered that he still had the hammer and anvils to forge better sons. The boy the king did not hang was William Marshal, who became the greatest knight in Christendom and regent of England. This family descends from both the father who made the boast and the son who survived it.