This piece is taken from the Panel “The Sheaf of Corn: the distaff descent”.

Aoife, daughter of Mor O’ Toole and Dermot King of Leinster was a fourteen a beautiful girl. Though she had an older sister,  it was the pretty blonde child who as taken with her parents to meet Henry II  in Aquitaine in 1167. The Angevin King gave permission to his vassal Richard Fitzgilbert de Clare to assist Dermot in his struggle in Leinster. Part of the deal was that the widower Richard (Strongbow) should not only have the Irish King’s daughter Aoife in marriage, but the the Kingship of Leinster on Dermot’ death.

So it came to pass, Aoife was married to the fifty-five year old Strongbow in Waterford in 1170, thus starting a dynasty which ran mainly on the distaff side for several generations.

This piece shows the Troubadours whose love songs were first heard by Dermot in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine.