John de Lacy, 1st Earl of Lincoln

John de Lacy (c. 1192 – 1240) was the 1st Earl of Lincoln, of the fifth creation. He was the eldest son and heir of Roger de Lacy and his wife, Maud or Matilda de Clere (not of the de Clare family).cite web | url = http://oxforddnb.com/view/article/15855?docPos=4 | title = Lacy, John de, third earl of Lincoln (c.1192–1240) | publisher = Oxford DNB | author = Nicholas Vincent | date = 2005-10 | accessdate = 2008-01-29] In 1221 he married Margaret de Lacy, daughter of Robert de Quincy and niece of Ranulph de Blondeville through her mother Hawise. Through this marriage John was in 1232 allowed to succeeded de Blondeville as earl of Lincoln. He was one of twenty-five barons charged with overseeing the observance of Magna Carta in 1215. [cite book | first = J.C. | last = Holt | authorlink = J. C. Holt | title = The Northerners: A Study in the Reign of King John | edition = | publisher = Oxford University Press | location = Oxford | year = 1992 | page = p. xxix | id = ISBN 0198203098 | url = ]

He was hereditary constable of Chester and,in the 15th year of King John, undertook the payment of 7,000 marks to the crown, in the space of four years, for livery of the lands of his inheritance, and to be discharged of all his father's debts due to the exchequer, further obligating himself by oath, that in case he should ever swerve from his allegiance, and adhere to the king's enemies, all of his possessions should devolve upon the crown, promising also, that he would not marry without the king's license. By this agreement it was arranged that the king should retain the castles of Pontefract and Dunnington, still in his own hands; and that he, the said John, should allow 40 pounds per year, for the custody of those fortresses. But the next year he had Dunnington restored to him, upon hostages. About this period he joined the baronial standard, and was one of the celebrated twenty-five barons, one of the Sureties, appointed to enforce the observance of the Magna Charta. But the next year, he obtained letters of safe conduct to come to the king to make his peace, and he had similar letters, upon the accession of Henry III., in the second year of which monarch's reign, he went with divers other noblemen into the Holy Land.

John de Lacy (Lacie), 7th Baron of Halton Castle, and hereditary constable of Chester, was one of the earliest who took up arms at the time of the Magna Charta, and was appointed to see that the new statutes were properly carried into effect and observed in the counties of York and Nottingham. He was excommunicated by the Pope. Upon the accession of King Henry III. he joined a party of noblemen and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and did good service at the siege of Damietta. In 1232 he was made Earl of Lincoln and in 1240, governor of Chester and Beeston Castles. He died July 22, 1240, and was buried at the Cisterian Abbey of Stanlaw, in co. Chester. The monk Matthew Paris, records: "On the 22nd day of July, in the year 1240, which was St. Magdalen's Day, John, Earl of Lincoln, after suffering from a long illness went the way of all flesh." He married (1) Alice, daughter of Gilbert de Aquila, but by her had no issue. She died in 1215 and, after his marked gallantry at the siege of Damietta, he married (2) Margaret Quincy only daughter and heir of Robert de Quincy, Earl of Winchester, by Hawyse, 4th sister and co-heir of Ranulph de Mechines, Earl of Chester and Lincoln , which Ranulph, by a formal charter under his seal, granted the Earldom of Lincoln, that is, so much as he could grant thereof, to the said Hawyse, "to the end that she might be countess, and that her heirs might also enjoy the earldom;" which grant was confirmed by the king, and at the especial request of the countess, this John de Lacy, constable of Chester, was created by charter, dated Northampton, November 23, 1232, Earl of Lincoln, with remainder to the heirs of his body, by his wife, the above-mentioned Margaret. In the contest which occurred during the same year, between the king and Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, Earl Marshal, Matthew Paris states that the Earl of Lincoln was brought over to the king's party, with John le Scot, Earl of Chester, by Peter de Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, for a bribe of 1,000 marks. In 1237, his lordship was one of those appointed to prohibit Oto, the pope's prelate, from establishing anything derogatory to the king's crown and dignity, in the council of prelates then assembled; and the same year he had a grant of the sheriffalty of Cheshire, being likewise constituted Governor of the castle of Chester. The earl died in 1240, leaving Margaret, his wife, surviving, who remarried William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke.

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