II. Probably because of Gilbert de Clare’s support for
Stephen, Henry refused to confirm Richard’s right to his
father’s lands and title, though he was able to keep some
of his property.
In 1168, Dermot MacMurchada, king of Leinster
in Ireland, was deposed and came to England seeking
assistance from Henry II. Henry was already involved
in a struggle to keep his territories in France but gave
permission for Dermot to seek help from among the
English barons. Dermot at once approached Richard de
Clare and offered him his daughter Aoife in marriage as
well as succession to the Leinster throne. Clare agreed
and set about forming an army, the first contingent of
which he sent to Ireland in May 1169. This force met
with the soldiers Dermot had gathered and went on
to capture the city of Wexford. A year later, in August
1170, they were reinforced by Clare, who brought over
another 200 foot soldiers and 1,000 archers. Under his
leadership, this army then took Waterford (28 August
1170), where Clare and Aoife were married. The army
then moved north to besiege Dublin, which soon fell
to them.
Henry II, probably suspicious of Clare’s success
or anxious to assert his authority, then issued an order
that Clare and his soldiers were to return to England by
Easter (28 March) 1171 or their lands would be forfeit.
Clare did not obey the order, and when Dermot Mac-
Murchada died in May 1171, he declared himself king
of Leinster. Outraged by this action, three Irish chief-
tains joined forces to besiege Dublin but were repulsed.
On the advice of his uncle, Clare then returned to En-
gland to make his peace with Henry, to whom he gave
up Dublin and other major cities. Henry, in turn, ac-
knowledged Clare’s right to hold the other Irish lands he
had taken and also granted him the title of earl—though
not the earldom of Pembroke.
In October 1171, Henry landed at Waterford in
Ireland with an army, large enough to persuade many of
the Irish chieftains to swear allegiance to him, and went
north to occupy Dublin. Once established there, he put
his own followers in command of the major English
garrisons in Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin, thereby
ensuring Clare would be unable to win them back by
force. In April 1173, however, Henry’s sons raised a re-
bellion against their father in France, and Henry called
on Clare to fight for his cause. Clare defended Gisors in
Normandy and took part in the relief of Verneuil in Au-
gust. At Rouen, Henry rewarded Clare by naming him
governor of Ireland and giving him the city of Wexford.
In 1174, there was a major uprising by Irish chiefs
that led to Clare’s forces being evicted from the county
of Limerick, but this was soon regained. In 1176, other
uprisings took place, and it was during this campaign
that de Clare died of an infection of his foot on 20 April- He was buried in the Holy Trinity church in
Dublin. His son Gilbert died childless about 1189, but
Henry II ensured that Clare’s daughter Isabel retained
her father’s landholdings in England and Wales. When
she married William Marshal in 1189, the king made
her husband earl of Pembroke, the title which he had
long refused her father.
Richard FitzGilbert de Clare played a vital role in
the survival of the Crown under the Normans as well as
the first English invasion of Ireland, an event that still has
repercussions to this day. The noted early English histo-
rian Giraldus Cambrensis (ca. 1146–ca. 1223), known
as Gerald of Wales, wrote in his famed work Expugnatio
Hibernica (The conquest of Ireland): “In war Strongbow
was more of a leader than a soldier... When he took up
his position in the midst of battle, he stood firm as an im-
movable standard around which his men could re-group
and take refuge. In war he remained steadfast and reliable
in good fortune and bad alike.”
References: Altchscul, Michael, A Baronial Family in Me-
dieval England: The Clares, 1217–1314 (Baltimore, Md.:
The Johns Hopkins Press, 1965); Barnard, Francis Pier-
repont, Strongbow’s Conquest of Ireland (New York: G. P.
Putnam’s Sons, 1888); Cambrensis, Giraldus, Expugnatio
Hibernica: The Conquest of Ireland by Giraldus Cambrensis,
translated by A. B. Scott and F. X. Martin. (Dublin, Ire-
land: The Royal Irish Academy, 1978).Clark, Mark Wayne (1896–1984) American
general
Mark Wayne Clark was born on 1 May 1896 at the Mad-
ison Barracks in Sackets Harbor, New York, where his
father, a military officer, was serving in the United States
Army. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at
West Point in 1917 and was assigned to the army’s 5th
Division. Sent to France as a member of the American
Expeditionary Force (AEF), the American component
in the First World War, he was wounded in battle on his clARk, mARk wAyne