The daughters of Irish Chieftains and Norman knights had been espoused before the momentous union between Aoife Mac Murrough and Strongbow, but rarely with so much at stake or with such far reaching consequences.

This panel demonstrates how much cultural and material heft attended these two marriages of Aoife and that of her daughter Isabel. At the top of the panel Aoife is seen accepting Richard as her husband, thus legitimising his claim to the province of Leinster. Below is seen the wedding of Isabel and William at Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey, flanked by William's two friends Gilbert Pipart and Engerrand de Abernon.

To the marriage William brings but one small property, Cartmel in Lancashire, given to him by Henry II on William's returns from the crusades. William's flag floats over the abbey he had built there, in memory of his mother. Then from left to right, are portrayed the vast estates of his young bride. The Welsh properties, the castle of Chepstow on the Wye and the fortress of Goodrich were inherited from her father of whom she was the sole heir. The province of Leinster fell to her through her mother, Aoife, and in France several manorial estates, Orbec near Lisieux and another in Dieppe became hers through her
Gifford ancestors.

Despite their age differences - Isabel was just eighteen and William nearly fifty - their union was long and very happy. Their five daughters inherited their combined estates, the five sons dying without issue. The fate of Leinster might very well have been different if one of the male children had established a family line.

The upper border show the antecedents of the couple, William's Viking blood and Isabel's Celtic background.

The lower border shows the Marshal cortege arriving from London to Stoke d'Abernon for the wedding. His gifts to his bride and the wedding itself were paid for by Sir Engerrand and the honeymoon was spent on that kind man's property. Stoke d'Abernon is now known, as a result, as the first historical honeymoon destination in England.

On the other side of the lower border Isabel is carried in a litter from the White Tower of London which had been her home, to meet her destiny with this famous knight - errant.