ABSTRACT
Strongbow’s succession has traditionally been seen as running contrary to both Irish and English practice. English law held that only in the absence of male heirs could a man succeed in right of his wife, but Mac Murchada had at least one son living in 1171. It has been suggested, however, that Mac Murchada may have regularized his marriage with Aífe’s mother under canon law, thereby rendering Aífe his only legitimate offspring alive at that time. In terms of Irish tradition, it has been further suggested that a precedent of sorts for Strongbow’s succession lay in the twelfth-century phenomenon of imposing dynasts upon thrones to which they had no ancestral claim. Marrying the daughter of one’s predecessor was, moreover, a common characteristic of peaceful transfers in Irish dynastic control.
