Hugh de Lacy

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 26 Jul 1186, Durrow, Westmeath, Ireland

Notes:

Justiciar of Ireland. Major Anglo-Norman magnate. Participant in the Norman invasion of Ireland, subsequent to which Henry II granted him the lands of the Kingdom of Meath (Mide). The resulting Lordship of Meath was the most extensive seignorial liberty in Ireland.

Henry's reasons for so empowering de Lacy had as much to do with checking the power of Strongbow and the Geraldines as anything else. De Lacy and Henry were not themselves the best of friends.

"Hugh de Lacy was assassinated at Durrow on 26 July 1186. He was beheaded with an axe by Gillaganinathair Ó Miadaig of Bregmuine at the direction of In Sinnach Ua Ceithernaig, king of Tethba, perhaps to avenge the killing of the latter's son in battle against the Anglo-Normans eight years earlier. The annals of Loch Cé describe Lacy at the time of his death as 'king of Mide and Bréifne, and Airgialla', and further state that 'it was to him that the tribute of Connacht was paid' (Annals of Loch Ce?, 1.173). Roger of Howden and William of Newburgh claim that news of Lacy's death was welcomed by Henry II, while Newburgh adds that the king intended to send John back to Ireland to seize Lacy's lands and castles." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Note that there is persistent doubt whether Hugh de Lacy was in fact the son of Gilbert de Lacy as shown here, and also about the exact shape of his descent from the de Lacys of the Norman Conquest. We are following the model put forth in W. E. Wightman's 1966 volume The Lacy Family in England and Normandy 1066–1194, published by Oxford University Press. Unsurprisingly, this is also the model followed by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Hugh married Rohese de Monmouth before 1155. Rohese (daughter of Baderon de Monmouth and Rohese fitz Gilbert) was born between 1135 and 1140; died about 1180. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. (Unknown) de Lacy
2. Walter de Lacy was born about 1172; died before 24 Feb 1240.
3. Hugh de Lacy was born about 1176; died before 26 Dec 1242; was buried in Convent of the Franciscan Friars, Carrickfergus, Antrim, Ireland.

Notes:

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

"[S]on of the Roger de Lacy disinherited and banished in 1096. He had succeeded his father on the family's Norman estates of Lassy and Campeaux by 1133. He returned to England and was with King Stephen at Easter 1136, but was disappointed of any hope of recovering those of his father's extensive lands in the Welsh borders [...]

"In the civil war Lacy sided with the empress: in 1138 his kinsman Geoffrey Talbot fortified Weobley (one of Lacy's chief castles) unsuccessfully against Stephen; the two then led an army which attacked Bath. [...H]e profited from the anarchy which prevailed in the southern marches and in the end recovered most of his father's lands. [...]

"In 1158 or 1159 Lacy resigned his lands to his eldest son, Robert (who was himself succeeded by his brother Hugh de Lacy in 1162), and joined the templars. At Whitsuntide 1160 he was in France with the templars who guaranteed the peace treaty between Henry II and Louis VII. Later in 1160 or 1161 he had reached Jerusalem and he became preceptor of his order in the county of Tripoli, where in 1163 he was among the leaders of a crusader army resisting Nur-ad-Din."

Notes:

"Roger de Lacy, who rebelled against William II in 1088 and again in 1094–5, after which he was dispossessed and sent into exile, though the king allowed his brother Hugh to succeed." [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1085
• Alternate death: 27 Mar 1085, Hereford, Herefordshire, England

Notes:

From the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography:

"[A] Norman who made a great fortune for himself in the conquest of England. He and his brother Ilbert, from whom the Lacys of Pontefract were descended, shared a Norman estate centred on Lassy, from which they were named and which they held as men of the bishop of Bayeux. In England, however, they were independent operators, and Walter, who clearly already had a military reputation, was set up by King William in the southern Welsh marches alongside Earl William fitz Osbern in 1067. [...]

"On the rebellion of Roger de Breteuil in 1075, Walter de Lacy remained loyal to the king and helped ensure that the revolt failed, no doubt being additionally rewarded in the aftermath. From 1075 he was the leading baron in the region [...] A benefactor of Gloucester Abbey, he also founded and endowed the collegiate church of St Peter in Hereford. Walter died on 27 March 1085, perhaps (as later family legend had it) falling off the scaffolding while inspecting the building works at another favoured church in Hereford, St Guthlac's. He was buried in the chapter house at Gloucester Abbey."

Walter married Ermeline in 1066. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

(Unknown married Emma. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]