An invitation to dinner

The tomb of Richard 'Strongbow' de Clare

In 1282 Art and Murtaugh Mac Murrough, two Irish lords of Leinster, went back into revolt. This was despite the best efforts of their kinsman Roger Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, who had tried to negotiate with them on behalf of the king, Edward I.

The reasons for this latest revolt are unclear, but the response of the English government at Dublin was drastic. The justiciar hired a man named Henry Pencoyt, also called Henry FitzRhys, to assassinate the brothers.

Henry was lord of Killahurler, descended from one of the Welsh settler families that had come over to Ireland during Strongbow's invasion in 1171. He was paid £300 in English sterling to do the deed, a very handsome fee, and we also know how he did it.

Art and Murtaugh were invited to dinner at Henry's house in Arklow, a port town south of Dublin. During the night, while they were sleeping, they were killed in their beds. Then their heads were cut off and paraded about Leinster.

This provoked an unseemly squabble. Head-taking was a common practice in Ireland (and, to an extent, in Wales), and part of legal process. The justiciar, Stephen Fulbourne, got himself into trouble by levying a customary fine of 'head-money' on the men of Leinster: this was due for the heads of convicted felons, but Art and Murtaugh had been in the king's peace when they were killed.

Their kinsman, Norfolk – by now thoroughly embarrassed by the whole affair – refused to pay on the grounds that the heads had not been 'approved' by the lord and men of his liberty of Carlow. This meant they had not been viewed and identified by the community.

Attached is a pic of Strongbow's tomb.