The_Dunedan

John Marshall: A partisan of the Empress Maud during the reign and wars of King Stephen of England, Marshall was once trapped in the belfry of a burning church at the abbey of Wherwell. He and an unknown knight fled the fire by sealing themselves in the tower, hoping to wait out a pitched battle being fought in the abbey's grounds and lower themselves down on the bell-rope to escape the fire once the worst of the fighting was over.

At one point, Marshall leaned out of a tower window, and was promptly splashed in the face by molten lead running off the church's roof. While he and his companion were protected from the worst of the heat by the stone tower, the rising hot air from the burning wooden church had begun to melt the leaden water-proofing on top of the belfrey. Marshall's right eye was melted away, and he suffered massive burns on his face and shoulders.

Amazingly enough, he remained conscious and was lowered down by the bell-rope as planned. Even more incredible, he allegedly remained conscious and alert during the forty-mile ride back to his Manor.

The "Gesta Stephani," a chronicle of the period, also relates an instance in which Marshall, besieged by Stephen's forces, offered his son as a hostage while he attempted to call for aid, as the rules of war allowed at the time. Marshall swore to surrender the castle if aid did not arrive within three weeks; refusal on his part would have meant his 7-year-old son's hanging. Aid never came, and Stephen reminded Marshall of his oath. Marshall refused to surrender and, when Stephen reminded him of his son, Marshall replied "I have the hammer and tongs to make more sons." Stephen could not bring himself to hang the boy, and Marshall's family eventually gave Europe some of the finest soldiers of the Medieval age.