Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

Richard fitz Gilbert de Clare
An image of the seal of Richard de Clare.
Born	1130 Tonbridge, Kent, England
Died	20 April 1176(1176-04-20) (age 45/46) Dublin, Ireland
Resting place	Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin.
Other names	Strongbow (Arc-Fort)
Spouse(s)	Aoife Ní Diarmait
Children	Gilbert de Clare, 3rd Earl of Pembroke Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke
Parent(s)	Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke Isabel de Beaumont

Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke (of the first creation), Lord of Leinster, Justiciar of Ireland (1130 – 20 April 1176) was a Welsh-Norman lord notable for his leading role in the Norman invasion of Ireland. Like his father, Richard fitz Gilbert has since become commonly known by his nickname Strongbow (Norman French: Arc-Fort) which may be a mistranscription or mistranslation of Striguil.

Richard's cognomen Strongbow has become the name he is best known by, but it is unlikely that he was called that at the time. Cognomens of other Cambro-Norman and Norman lords were exclusively Norman-French as the nobility spoke French and, with few exceptions, official documents were written in Latin during this period. The confusion seems to have arisen when Richard's name was being translated into Latin. In the Domesday Exchequer annals between 1300 and 1304 (over 120 years after his death) it was written as "Ricardus cognomento Stranghose Comes Strugulliae (Richard known as Striguil earl of Striguil)." This chronicler erroneously has attributed Stranghose (foreign leggings) as a cognomen, where it is much more likely a variant spelling or mistranscription of Striguil, which is called Strangboge, Stranboue or Stranbohe in other transcriptions. It is in the fourteenth century that we have Richard's name finally rendered as Strongbow "Earl Richard son of Gilbert Strongbow [earl of Shropshire]."

Richard was the son of Gilbert de Clare, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Beaumont. Richard's father died in about 1148, when he was roughly 18 years old, and Richard inherited the title 'count of Strigoil' Earl of Pembroke. It is probable that this title was not recognized at Henry II's coronation in 1154. As the son of the first 'earl', he succeeded to his father's estates in 1148, but was deprived of the title by King Henry II of England in 1154 for siding with King Stephen of England against Henry’s mother, the Empress Matilda. Richard was in fact, called by his contemporaries Count Striguil, for his marcher lordship of Striguil where he had a fortress at a place now called Chepstow, in Monmouthshire on the River Wye. He saw an opportunity to reverse his bad fortune in 1168 when he met Diarmait Mac Murchada, the deposed King of Leinster.