Alice de Lacy

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Denbigh Castle, the birthplace of Alice de Lacy

Alice de Lacy (born December 25, 1281 in Denbigh Castle , † October 2, 1348 ), suo jure Countess of Lincoln and Salisbury , was an English noblewoman. As a wealthy heiress, she married three times but died childless.

Origin and marriage

Alice de Lacy was a daughter of Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln and Margaret Longespée, 4th Countess of Salisbury . Her father was a staunch retainer of King Edward I of England , and in the fall of 1294 she was married to Thomas of Lancaster , eldest son of Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster , younger brother of the King and Blanche d'Artois . Her husband inherited his father's property and the title of Earl of Lancaster after his father's death in 1296. After Alice's two brothers died before their father had no offspring, she was their father's only surviving child. Her husband's cousin, King Edward II , persuaded her father to disinherit potential co-heirs who had claims to the Lincoln and Salisbury Earldoms in favor of his son-in-law, and she became Countess of Salisbury and Lincoln on the death of her parents in 1310/1311. Her inheritance made her husband the most powerful magnate in England. However, he soon took over the role of his father-in-law as leader of the aristocratic opposition against his cousin Edward II. Alice played no recognizable role in this.

Abduction by Warenne and separation from Lancaster

Her husband was a member of the royal council in 1314 to prevent John de Warenne, 7th Earl of Surrey , from divorcing his wife, Joan de Bar , in order to marry his mistress Maud Nerford. Warenne, who originally supported the aristocratic opposition, was back in support of the king in 1312. On May 9, 1317, he had Alice abducted from Canford Castle and brought her to his castle at Reigate . The kidnapping is said to have carried out Richard de St Martin, a knight in the service of Warenne, whom Alice probably followed voluntarily. Warenne, however, did not enter into a relationship with her or no longer lasting relationship, but probably undertook this attack only to humiliate Lancaster and to get revenge. The result was a feud between Lancaster and Warenne that lasted until the summer of 1318 , when the latter had to give in and make an unfavorable peace. However, Alice did not return to Lancaster and henceforth lived separately from her husband. Allegedly she moved in with her lover Ebulo Lestrange , a minor baron from Shropshire in the Welsh Marches. Lestrange claimed to have been engaged to her before she married. According to him, he had had sexual intercourse with Alice even before marriage, which further damaged her reputation, but which was also another humiliation of Lancaster. Lancaster eventually became leader of an armed rebellion against the king in 1321, after which he was beheaded as a traitor in 1322. As the widow of Lancaster, after the failure of the rebellion, Alice was imprisoned in York along with her stepmother, Joan Martin , her father's widow . There, Hugh le Despenser and his father of the same name , the king's favorites, threatened to hold her responsible for the execution of her husband. According to the law of the time, she would have been in danger of being burned as a spouse murderer. Under this pressure, she was forced to accept the Despensers' demands and acknowledge an alleged £ 20,000 debt in her favor. In order to settle this enormous sum, she had to transfer her inherited rule of Denbigh in the Welsh Marches to the elder Despenser and further possessions to his son.

Second marriage

Alice was released in the summer of 1322, but through this blackmail, which King Edward II tolerated, Alice had lost most of her possessions. Parts of her legacy, including Pontefract Castle , remained in the possession of the king, who only gave her a lifelong right to use the land and the titles of Countess of Salisbury and Lincoln. From the estates she received an annual income of 500  marks . Finally he gave her more possessions back and his permission to remarry. In 1324 she married Ebulo Lestrange, for whom the marriage was also materially worthwhile because of her remaining possessions, including Lincoln Castle . Her husband took part in numerous campaigns against Scotland in the next few years and died in 1335. Alice was one of his executors and, as a widow, took a vow of chastity.

Third marriage, death and inheritance

Alice was now over fifty years old, but a relatively wealthy widow because of her estates. She was therefore kidnapped from her Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire by the knight Hugh de Freyne in late 1335 or early 1336, presumably with her consent . King Edward III was initially very upset and had Freyne and Alice arrested, but eventually he forgave them, whereupon she was able to marry Freyne in early 1336. However, he died as early as December 1336 or January 1337. After the death of her third husband, Alice did not remarry. She died childless in October 1348. She was buried at the side of Ebulo Lestrange, her second husband, in the Premonstratensian Abbey of Barlings in Lincolnshire. With her death, the title of Earl of Lincoln expired, while according to the terms of her first marriage, her father's remaining inheritance fell to Henry of Grosmont , a nephew of her first husband. Her mother's lands went to her cousin James Audley, 2nd Baron Audley . The goods, which she had received as Wittum after the death of Ebulo Lestrange, fell to his nephew Roger Lestrange, 4th Baron Strange of Knockin .

literature

  • Linda E. Mitchell: Portraits of medieval women. Family, marriage, and politics in England, 1225-1350. Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2003. ISBN 0-312-29297-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alison Weir: Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England . Pimlico, London 2006, ISBN 0-7126-4194-7 , p. 111.
  2. ↑ Alison Weir: Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England . Pimlico, London 2006, ISBN 0-7126-4194-7 , p. 111.
  3. ↑ Alison Weir: Isabella. She-Wolf of France, Queen of England . Pimlico, London 2006, ISBN 0-7126-4194-7 , p. 143.
personal data
SURNAME De Lacy, Alice
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Lacy, Alice, 4th Countess of Lincoln; De Lacy, Alice, 5th Countess of Salisbury
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobles
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1281
PLACE OF BIRTH Denbigh Castle
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 1348