Aoiffe (Eva) OF LEINSTER (1145-1188)

Individual Events and Attributes

Marriage

Individual Note

Aoife MacMurrough (1145–1188, Irish: Aoife Ní Diarmait), also known by later historians as Eva of Leinster, was the daughter of Dermot MacMurrough (Irish: Diarmait MacMurchada), King of Leinster, and his wife Mor O'Toole (c.1114-1191).[1]

On the 29 August 1170, following the Norman invasion of Ireland that her father had requested, she married Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, better known as Strongbow, the leader of the Norman invasion force, in Christchurch Cathedral, Waterford. She had been promised to Strongbow by her father who had visited England to ask for an invasion army. He was not allowed to give his daughter away, as under Early Irish Law Aoife had the choice of whom she married, but she had to agree to an arranged marriage.[clarification needed]

Under Anglo-Norman law, this gave Strongbow succession rights to the Kingdom of Leinster. Under Irish Brehon law, the marriage gave her a life interest only, after which any land would normally revert to male cousins; but Brehon law also recognised a transfer of "swordland" following a conquest. Aoife conducted battles on behalf of her husband and is sometimes known as Red Eva (Irish: Aoife Rua). She had two sons with her husband Richard de Clare, and within several generations her descendants included much of the nobility of northwestern Europe, including Robert the Bruce and Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall who was elected King of the Romans in 1257.[2]

Aoife is the ancestor of many Kings of England by a number of lines of descent, such as that of her granddaughter Eva Marshal, whose daughter Maude married Roger de Mortimer. They are ancestors of the Kings of England from Edward IV onwards (with the exception of Henry VII). Another line of descent is that of a daughter of Maude, Katherine Mortimer, married Thomas de Beauchamp 11th Earl of Warwick, and they were ancestors of the Earls of Warwick and also of the Edward IV and most subsequent Kings of England.

Through further lines she is the ancestor of the Scottish Kings Robert the Bruce (and his descendants) and John Balliol, and of Irish magnates such as the Earls of Kildare, Ormond and Desmond.

Children of Aoife MacMurrough and Richard de Clare (Strongbow):

- Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke, 1172 - 1240; m. Aug 1189, Sir William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke, Lord Marshal, son of John Fitz Gilbert, Marshal (Marechal) of England, and Sibylla of Salisbury.

- Gilbert de Striguil (Chepstow), 3rd Earl of Pembroke, 1173-1185; Inherited title from father but died as a minor. The title then went to his sister's husband on marriage.

- Joan de Clare, 1175 - ?; m. Godfrey Gamage, son of William De Gamages and Elizabeth De Miners.

NOTES:

1 http://www.gurganus.org/ourfamily/browse.cfm?pid=902

2 http://www.genealogics.org/descend.php?personID=I00106202&tree=LEO Eva's descendants

SOURCES:

O Croinin, Daibhi (1995) Early Medieval Ireland 400-1200 London: Longman Press; p. 281

Salmonson, Jessica Amanda.(1991) The Encyclopedia of Amazons. Paragon House. Page 160. ISBN 1-55778-420-5

Weis, Frederick Lewis Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700, Lines: 66-26, 175-7, 261-30²

Sources