Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Hugh de Lacy

Male - 1185


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  • Name Hugh de Lacy 
    Birth of Meath, Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Death 25 Jul 1185  [2
    Alternate death 26 Jul 1186  Durrow, Westmeath, Ireland Find all individuals with events at this location  [3, 4, 5
    Person ID I3850  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of AP, Ancestor of DDB, Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of DK, Ancestor of EK, Ancestor of GFS, Ancestor of JMF, Ancestor of JTS, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of LDN, Ancestor of LMW
    Last Modified 6 Jan 2018 

    Father Gilbert de Lacy   d. Aft 1163, The Near East Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2501  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Rohese de Monmouth,   b. Between 1135 and 1140   d. Abt 1180 (Age ~ 45 years) 
    Marriage Bef 1155  [6
    Children 
    +1. (Unknown) de Lacy
    +2. Walter de Lacy,   b. Abt 1172   d. Bef 24 Feb 1240 (Age ~ 68 years)
     3. Hugh de Lacy,   b. Abt 1176   d. Bef 26 Dec 1242 (Age ~ 66 years)
    Family ID F434  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 16 Jun 2018 

  • 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.

  • Sources 
    1. [S72] Chris Phillips, Some Corrections and Additions to The Complete Peerage.

    2. [S789] The Wallop Family and Their Ancestry by Vernon James Watney. Oxford, 1928.

    3. [S76] The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004-ongoing.

    4. [S145] Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700 by Frederick Lewis Weis and Walter Lee Sheppard, Jr. 8th edition, William R. Beall & Kaleen E. Beall, eds. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, 2006, 2008., year only.

    5. [S1182] John P. Ravilious, 30 Sep 2002, post to soc.genealogy.medieval., year only.

    6. [S160] Wikipedia.