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This book examines the rise and fall of the aristocratic Lacy family in England, Ireland, Wales and Normandy. As one of the first truly transnational studies of individual medieval aristocrats, it provides a fresh look at lordship and the interplay between aristocracy and crown from 1166 to 1241. Hugh de Lacy (†1186), traded on his military usefulness to King Henry II of England in Wales and Normandy to gain a speculative grant of the ancient Irish kingdom of Mide (Meath). Hugh was remarkably successful in Ireland, where he was able to thwart the juvenile ambitions of the future King John to increase his powers there. Hugh was hailed by native commentators as ‘lord of the foreigners of Ireland’ and even ‘king of Ireland’. In this study his near-legendary life is firmly grounded in the realities of Anglo-Irish politics. The political career of Hugh’s less famous son and heir, Walter de Lacy (†1241), is in turn illuminated by surviving royal records and his own acta. Walter was one of the major actors in the Irish Sea province under Kings Richard I, John and Henry III, and his relationship with each king provides a unique insight into the nature of their reigns. Over the course of fifty-two years, Walter helped to shape the course of Anglo-Irish history. That history is recast in light of the transnational perspective of its chief participants. This book is a major contribution to current debates over the structure of medieval European society.
2 ‘Lord of the Foreigners of Ireland’: 1177–86 T he year 1177 marks a turning point in the career of Hugh de Lacy; the year’s events had a profound effect on the strength and character of his lordship in England, Ireland, Wales and Normandy. The change is evident in the highly symbolic resolution to Hugh de Lacy’s dispute with the bishop of Hereford over one knight’s fee at Holme Lacy. This was a very local, English, dispute between two of the most powerful landholders in Herefordshire, and had rumbled on for over a decade. However, on 3 June 1177, Hugh
’ territorial portfolio extended by then into four realms: England, Ireland, Wales and Normandy. This chapter explores the early career of Hugh de Lacy, who utilised his service to King Henry II in England, Normandy and Wales to embark upon a spectacular Irish endeavour. The Lacy lordship of Meath is writ large in Irish historiography, but its contemporary importance to Hugh in 1172 has yet to be fully investigated. Hugh was already then a transnational aristocrat, with lands in three other realms. In a period when seigniorial administration was in its infancy, any attention
7 The dangers of transnational lordship: 1222–41 T he reign of King John cast a long shadow. His rule provided the context, and his administrative appointees the personnel, for his son’s Minority government. It was also in this later period that some of his policies began to bear fruit. As argued in Chapter 4, King John’s removal of John de Courcy and promotion of Hugh de Lacy as earl of Ulster in 1205 seem to have been done to counterbalance Earl William Marshal’s control of the southern Irish Sea littoral. The elder Marshal’s good relations with the Lacys at
which Hugh de Lacy built his relationship with King Henry II, through his position as custos of Dublin in 1172 and defender of Verneuil in 1173, and the way he extended his profile in Ireland following his royal commission in 1177. Because his perceived fidelity to Henry II was the basis for his advancement, it was also the link that his rivals sought to challenge. Contemporaries report that Hugh de Lacy was recalled from Ireland several times owing to King Henry’s anxiety at his growing stature. However, none of these eclipses lasted longer than a few (winter) months
remained the same. What also emerges is that the basis of change was 238 lordship in four realms not time, cultural mores or political philosophy, but rather the particular imperatives of the region in question. Conquest was by its very nature based on violence and intimidation, and the speculative grant of the lordship of Meath in 1172 demanded that Hugh de Lacy forcibly subjugate or eject the native population before he could control the region. At the same time, Hugh worked to extend his authority in England and Normandy, but within the framework of local conditions
’ of Henry II and Richard I, when security had made baronial dominance a necessary evil for the Crown to allow. The example of the elder Hugh de Lacy could not have been far from John’s mind, considering how much he suffered from it. However, by inserting William de Briouze between himself and the barons of northern Munster, John forfeited his direct connection with many of his own grantees in the region. All those whose lands were subsumed by the honor of Limerick were no longer tenants-in-chief, being instead downgraded to Briouze’s sub-tenants. At a stroke
3 Divided allegiance: 1189–99 A number of factors combine to deprive us of sources for the history of the Lacy family for the period following Hugh de Lacy’s death. The minority of Hugh’s son and heir, Walter, presents the first problem. It had taken quite some time and an ambitious venture in Ireland for contemporary writers to take notice of Hugh de Lacy, and, just when he had become a regular object of their attention, his unexpected death delivered his inheritance into wardship. The magisterial figure who could rival Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, high king of
the warfare involving Geoffrey de Marisco in Leinster and Munster in the summer 1207, the annals of Loch Cé report under 1208 a ‘great war … between the sons of Hugh de Lacy [the elder], and Meiler, and Geoffrey de Marisco’,32 and one set of Dublin-based Latin annals records ‘a great massacre at Thurles in Munster upon the men of the Irish justiciar by Sir Geoffrey de Marisco’.33 As seen above, in 1204, King John’s confiscation of the lordship of Ulster seems to have been justified by John de Courcy’s failure to appear before the king’s judicial committee (which
unparalleled opportunities their situation presented. The case of the Lacys is an interesting one, ideally suited to close examination. Because their rise to prominence from the late twelfth century was to last only two generations, the study of the family at the height of its power may be focused more intensely upon the political careers of Hugh de Lacy (d. 1186) and his son, Walter (d. 1241), in England, Ireland, Wales and Normandy. What is more, because of their pertinence to certain aspects of British and (especially) Irish history, an assumption of familiarity has grown