Strongbow

Strongbow, nickname of Richard fitz Gilbert, alias Richard de Clare (d. 1176), who succeeded his father as earl of Pembroke in 1148 but was deprived of the comital title and earldom by Henry II on his accession as king of England in 1154. Diarmait Mac Murchada, exiled king of Leinster, recruited him in south Wales to fight on his behalf in Ireland. In August 1170 Strongbow landed with an army near Waterford, captured the city, and shortly afterwards was married to Mac Murchada's daughter Aífe. Strongbow went on to take Dublin and fought alongside Mac Murchada until the latter's death around May 1171, when he succeeded him as lord of Leinster. King Henry II threatened to confiscate Strongbow's landholdings in his dominions unless he agreed to recognize the English king as overlord of his Irish acquisitions. In autumn 1171 Henry mounted an expedition to Ireland and reached an accommodation whereby he agreed to recognize Strongbow as lord of Leinster and earl of Strigoil (a title taken from Strongbow's castle at Chepstow), but still refused to restore to him the earldom of Pembroke. Until his death in 1176 Strongbow waged war to secure the settlement of Leinster with tenants drawn from his English and Welsh estates. By his wife Aífe he had a son, Gilbert (d. after 1185), and a daughter, Isabella. In 1189 Isabella married William Marshal, who succeeded to the lordship of Leinster in right of his wife, and recovered the earldom of Pembroke in 1199.

Marie Therese Flanagan