Ireland Under the Normans

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The untimely death of Richard of Striguil was a heavy blow to the prospects of the Anglo-Norman colony, which, in Leinster at least, was beginning to settle down to peaceful progress and orderly rule. It left the king without a representative in Ireland, and the great fief of Leinster without a lord. The Countess Eva, daughter of King Dermot, had borne only one child to the earl, a daughter named Isabel, and she, an infant of not more than five years of age, was heiress to the earl's vast fief. The valuable feudal incidents of the wardship and marriage of this heiress now accrued to the king as dominus, and it was important for him at once to secure his rights.