The Norman occupation of Ireland through the eyes of the young woman given in marriage to the invader.
A first person account of the events leading up to and after the arrival of Richard DeClare (aka Strongbow) in Ireland. The quest to find a champion for her father, the long wait for his arrival, the arrival of Henry II and Hugh DeLacy, the deaths of her father, of Strongbow and of her son, life as a widow in medieval Wales.
Excerpt
It was a hot and humid night in late summer and I could not sleep. As I lay there, my sleeping cloak clinging to my damp skin, I could not silence the voices. Neither those in my head nor those that came to me from beyond the curtain. I could not understand why so many of my father’s former friends had turned against him, why they had joined with our enemies to take our land and steal our cattle. I had no idea what was to become of us. The future filled me with dread.
There was one thing of which I could be certain: the future would be nothing like the life we had lived until the week of my thirteenth birthday. That was when it all began: before then we were the most powerful family in the region with equally powerful friends in neighbouring provinces. My older brothers and sisters had married into those families and it seemed that my father was destined to become High King.
Then the raids began. My mother said that it was all the fault of a man called O’Rourke who was king of a distant province called Brefni.
“There’s no need for you to worry, Aoife,” she had said. “Your father will find a way to make things alright again.”
Professional Reviews
Unless she was a queen ...
Seldom was a medieval female written about. Frank Parker has done an excellent job on Strongbow's wife.This is a story that I will read multiple times.
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