Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
William Marshal's Wife: Isabel de Clare, Woman of Influence

William Marshal's Wife: Isabel de Clare, Woman of Influence

Hickey, Julia A.

Hardcover

Biographies GeneralHistorical FiguresBritish History

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1399043277
ISBN13: 9781399043274
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Published: Apr 27 2024
Pages: 232
Language: English
The real story of Isabel de Clare, William Marshal's wife, a powerful woman who was a key figure in the history of Ireland, England, Wales and Normandy.

Isabel de Clare, the descendant of kings, dukes and freebooters, was one of the wealthiest heiresses in Henry II's kingdom thanks to the ambitions of her father Richard, Strongbow, de Clare and his marriage to Aoife, daughter of the last king of Leinster. Nature gave her beauty and intelligence. Destiny made her a key figure in the history of Ireland, England, Wales and Normandy. Isabel's role as a daughter, wife, mother and countess in her own right is the story of medieval aristocratic women and the power that they could wield.

Married to a complete stranger when she was just eighteen on the orders of Richard the Lionheart, she found love in the arms of William Marshal - known as the greatest knight who ever lived. Together they established powerbases in Ireland and in Wales, beat off their foes; negotiated the perils of serving King John; and built a powerful kinship network. Marshal declared, 'I have no claim to anything save through her.' She was a peerless wife and remarkable woman who played the political game alongside her husband serving successive Plantagenet monarchs, consolidating and extending her inheritance as well as giving birth to ten children.

Like her mother before her and her brood of Marshall daughters after her, she was a prize, not a pawn, who knew how to balance her role as a wife and mother alongside the brutal politics of the period.

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