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by his son-in-law, William Marshall, husband to Strongbow’s only daughter Isabel. Strong- bow’s death has been attributed to ‘an ulcer in the foot, through the miracles of Brigid and Columcille, whose churches he had destroyed,’ it was said.
News of his death was communicated to Raymond le Gros by his wife Basilia, Strong- bow’s sister, in the form of the following communication ‘that her great tooth, which had long pained her so much, had at last fallen out.’ In 1245, the Marshall family became extinct and Strongbow’s territory was divided between the Geraldines and the Butlers. Strongbow is buried in Christ Church, Dublin, a building he helped to rebuild, and his tomb may be viewed there.
Hugh de Lacy, a man described by Giraldus as being of “low stature, somewhat de- formed, with a repulsive face and dark sunken eyes” eventually conquered the Kingdom of Meath and extended his inluence westward across the Shannon. He was killed in county Ofaly, in 1186 at the height of his power, slain by one O’Meyey, who cut of his head with a blow of a battle-axe while he was engaged in the building of a castle on the site of St. Columkille’s monastery of Durrow, which he had earlier levelled. Buried in St. Thomas’ Abbey, Dublin, by 1241 his male heirs had become extinct and his lordship passed into other hands.
In 1177 Henry granted parts of the territories of Munster to the Geraldines, the Fitzger- alds, and other Norman barons, after which a long and protracted struggle followed. Be-