Alice LACY

   General Notes:

Divorced Abt 1318 KQGB.

BOOKS
Kings and Queens of Great Britain, Genealogical Chart, Anne Taute and Romilly Squire, Taute, 1990: "Alice, Daughter of Henry De Lacy Earl of Lincoln, Mar Thomas 2nd Earl of Lancaster and Leicester, Divorced c1318, Died 1348."

A History of the Plantagenets, Vol III, The Three Edwards, Thomas B Costain, 1958, Doubleday & Co
p184: "To make matters worse, [Lancaster] found himself involved at this time in a private war. He had married Alice, the handsome twelve-year-old daughter of Henry de Lacy, and through her had inherited the earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury. It was not a happy marriage. They had no children, and the good earl indulged himself in one illicit romance after another. About the time he began to realize that holding the reins of power was not an unmixed advantage, the lady ran away from their castle at Caneford in Dorset. There was one trait in Lancaster's character that everyoneknew: he would pursue a personal grudge with unrelenting bitterness to the end of his days. His wife's defection roused him to unusual fury and he accused the Earl of Warenne of carrying her off. Warenne denied this but he did acknowledge thathe had assisted the lady in making her escape. Lancaster refused to believe him and proceeded to burn the Warenne lands. He even seized the earl's castle at Knaresborough.
"It turned out later that Warenne had told the truth. The lady disappeared from sight, but when Lancaster died she emerged from hiding and married the man she had loved all the time. He was a landless squire, lame moreover, named Ebulo le Strange. It is not likely that the runaway countess lived happily ever after. The path of one who stooped low enough to marry a mere squire was almost certain to be a thorny one."

Political History of England 1216-1377, Vol III, T F Tout, AMS Press, 1905,
p224: "...In the same way Edward's young nephew, Thomas of Lancaster, ruled over the three earldoms of Lancaster, Derby, and Leicester, and by his marriage to the daughter and heiress of Henry Lacy, was destined to add to his immense estates the additional earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury..." p273: "...Lancaster had long been at variance with his wife, Alice Lacy. On May 9, 1317, the Countess of Lancaster ran away from him, with the active help of Warenne and by the secret contrivance of the king. Private war at once broke out between the two earls..."

   Events:

1. Divorce; Abt 1318.

   Marriage Information:

Alice married Earl Thomas LANCASTER, son of Earl Edmund LANCASTER and Princess Blanche Artois FRANCE. (Earl Thomas LANCASTER was born in 1276 and died on 17 Mar 1322 in Pontefract, Yorkshire, England.) The cause of his death was executed.

   Marriage Information:

Alice also married Ebulo Le STRANGE.