Roger (Lacy) de Lacy (abt. 1165 - 1211)

Born about 1165 in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 1 Oct 1211 at about age 46 in Pontefract, Yorkshire, England [uncertain]

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Biography

Party per pale gules and azure, three garbs or.^[1]

Roger was the son of John, Constable of Chester, whose mother, Aubrey (or Albreda) had succeeded to the estate of her cousin, Robert de Lacy, who died s.p. in 1195. In 1194, Aubrey gave the honour of Pontefract to her grandson, the said Roger, who thereupon took the name of Lacy. (Ref: GeneaJourney.com)

"Roger was one of King John's messengers sent with letters patent of safe conduct, to summon the King of Scotland to do homage to the King of England at Lincoln, and he was also one of the witnesses to the act of homage, being named first among the barons by Roger Hoveden, a contemporary and neighbouring historian. He continued to be a trusty and honoured servant, and in May 1201, on the recommencement of hostilities, was sent by the king with a hundred knights to defend Normandy against the men of Poitou.

"The murder of the unhappy prince Arthur followed shortly, and led to an almost general insurrection in John's Norman provinces. Castle after castle fell; but Roger de Lacy who had been made governor of the strong fortress of Chateau Gaillard, also called Buttevant, which the late King Richard had built in 1198 on an island at the mouth of the Seine, defended himself stoutly and stood there a very obstinate and famous siege, only giving way when short of food, and deserted by his king, whose letter practically giving the garrison permission to surrender if reduced to extremities is preserved in Duchesne (1059).

"This fortress was the last which held out against the arms of Philip, and after enduring with great bravery a siege of six months, Roger deeming it more honourable to die by the sword than by famine, made a vigorous sally, and slew a great number of the besiegers; but, being overpowered by numbers, he was made prisoner. As a prisoner of war he was, however treated with great respect, temporarily allowed his liberty on parole in Paris, and ultimately liberated on payment of 6,000 marks as a ransom. After his return he was made sheriff of Yorkshire and Cumberland, which offices he filled for five years, having been, is 1203, favoured with a letter from the King, directing the tenants to receive him as their Lord. In the scutage, 2 John, he answered for 471 Knight's fees, and later in the reign, besides others which he held in wardship, he was charged for 471 for his own lands, and 20 for those of Laval, which, as we have already mentioned, he had been permitted to resume, and which were, in 1205, confirmed to him by Charter, of which an ancient transcript exists in the Record Office under the title of "Grant to Roger de Lacy, Constable of Chester, of the Manor of Snaith, in Yorkshire, a fair at Clitheroe, in Lancashire, and all the lands of Guy de la Valle in England."

"This Lord seems to have been a brave determined man; and a very singular exploit is recorded of him. Hugh Lupus, the first Earl of Chester, had granted a Charter for a fair to the Monks of St. Werburgh's Abbey, in Chester, with a privilege that no frequenter of the fair should be there apprehended for theft or any other offence unless it had been committed during the fair. This privilege naturally made Chester Fair the resort of thieves and vagabonds from all parts of the kingdom; and on one occasion Ranulph, third Earl of Chester, having entered Wales, was compelled to shut himself up in a fortified place, where, being closely besieged, he sent to Roger the Constable, who forthwith marched to his relief at the head of a concourse collected from the fair, of minstrels and loose characters of all descriptions. These constituted such a numerous body that the besiegers, mistaking them for soldiers, at once raised the siege; and for the seasonable service thus rendered to him the Earl conferred upon Roger and his heirs the patronage of all the Chester minstrels, a patronage which the Constable transferred to his steward, Dutton, whose family, in the lineal descent, enjoy to this day, whatever may be the honour attachable to such a "privilege.""^[2]

Name

Roger de Lacy

Birth

Halton, Cheshire and of Widnes, Lancashire, England^[3]

Marriage

Wife: Maud (Matilda) de CLARE^[4]

Child: John de LACY

Child: Roger De Lacy

Death

1 October 1211^[5]

Sources

1. ↑ Suzanne Lewis & Corpus Christi College (University of Cambridge), 'The art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica majora' Appendix 2, Page 448. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987); digital image: (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_sXBdNsDxJ_cC/page/447/mode/2up?q).
2. ↑ Richard Holmes, 'Pontefract: Its Name, Its Lords, and Its Castle. A Concise History' (Pontefract: printed by the author, 1878); digital image: (https://archive.org/details/pontefractitsna00holmgoog/page/n58/mode/2up)
3. ↑ Richardson: page 464
4. ↑ Richardson: page 464
5. ↑ Richardson: page 465

See also:

• Richardson, Douglas. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, (2011) Royal Ancestry series, 2nd edition, 4 vols., ed. Kimball G. Everingham, (Salt Lake City, Utah: the author, 2011), volume III, page 464-465 , Roger de Lacy.
• Harleian Society. The Visitation of Cheshire in the Year 1580, The Publicatons of The Harleian Society (London: The Society, 1882) Vol. 18, Page 6: The Visitation of a Part of Cheshire, A.D. 1533
• Hulton, W.A. ed., The Coucher Book or Cartulary of Whalley Abbey. Vol. I, Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester (Printed for The Chetham Society, 1846) Vol. 10

• Page 2-3: "Roger, seventh baron of Halton, and constable of Cheshire, vir magnificus et bellicosus (English:a majestic and warlike man), surnamed by the Welsh, 'Hell'. On the death of his kinsman, Robert de Lasey, A.D. 1194, he assumed the surname of Lasey; ..."

• Cawley, Charles. Medieval Lands, database online, entry for Roger de Lacy and Matilda de Clare, accessed 3 June 2014, Copyright: "This data may be used for personal study only. Commercial reproduction is strictly prohibited."
• Baildon, W. Paley. Baildon and the Baildons, Volume 1, page 351 for a handy pedigree diagram.
• Reports and Papers of the Architectural and Archaeological Societies of the Counties of Lincoln and Northampton (Savill and Edwards, London, 1852-3) Vol. 2, Page 92
• John fitz Geoffrey, entry in the database Medieval Lands: A prosopography of medieval European noble and royal families by Charles Cawley © Foundation for Medieval Genealogy, 2000-2017.