Alice de Lacy, 3rd Countess of Lincoln

Alice de Lacy, suo jure 4th Countess of Lincoln, suo jure 5th Countess of Salisbury (25 December 1281 – 2 October 1348) was an English peeress, descendant of both English and Welsh royalty.

Life Born on Christmas Day 1281 at Denbigh Castle, Alice was the only daughter and heir of Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln and Margaret Longespée, Countess of Salisbury suo jure (in her own right). Her mother Margaret was the granddaughter of the prince of North Wales, Llywelyn ab Iorwerth, and the great-granddaughter and ultimate heir of one of the illegitimate sons of Henry II of England, William Longespée (Longsword), whose nickname became his surname.

Tragic accidents resulted in the deaths of Alice's two brothers in childhood. Edmund drowned in a well at Denbigh Castle and John fell to his death from a parapet at Pontefract Castle. This made Alice the heir presumptive to two earldoms, one from her father and one from her mother, which she would inherit if her parents had no further children. With Alice belonging to such an influential and wealthy family, King Edward I arranged for her betrothal "in her 9th year" to his nephew, Thomas of Lancaster, himself heir to the earldoms of Lancaster, Leicester and Derby. They were married on 28 October 1294, when Alice was 13 years old and Thomas about 16.

By this time, the probability of Alice's parents begetting a male heir had considerably diminished, and the marriage settlement reflects the strong probability that Alice would be one of the great heiresses of the land. The bulk of her vast inheritance from her father, which included the Earldom of Lincoln and many other estates, was to go to Thomas, with reversion to Thomas's heirs. In other words, even if Alice and Thomas had no children together, her estate would devolve upon her husband's heirs rather than upon her blood relatives. Also, if Alice outlived Thomas, then on her own death, her father's inheritance would pass to Thomas's heirs as her father had come to an agreement with the King that, should Alice have no children, her father's Earldom of Lincoln would pass into the royal family on her death. The marriage was not successful. The couple had no children, and they lived quite separate lives. Alice mostly lived alone in her castle of Pickering, Yorkshire, while Thomas took a host of mistresses and fathered at least two illegitimate children. or simply because she was there at the time of Alice's arrest.

Hugh de Freyne didn't live very long to enjoy her vast inheritance as he died in December 1336 or early 1337, and she returned to her vow of chastity.

Second imprisonment

On 4 May 1337 Alice complained that she had been imprisoned yet again. Eubulus's nephew and heir Roger le Strange (who would succeed on Alice's death to such property as Eubulus had held in his own right), together with Sir John de Lacy of Lacyes (Alice's illegitimate half-brother), and others, broke into her castle of Bolingbroke, imprisoned her there, took away 20 of her horses, carried away her goods, and assaulted her men and servants. The quarrel was made up with Roger before long, and on 20 June 1337, Alice obtained licence to grant to Roger her life estate in some manors that had been granted by the King jointly to Alice and Eubulus.

Alice is referred to in documents of Edward II's reign (during the time of her marriage to Thomas, her first widowhood, and the early years of her marriage to Eubulus) as Lady Alice, or Alice de Lacy, Countess of Lincoln. In later life, she called herself Countess of Lincoln or Widow of Eubulus Lestrange. Alice lived until the age of 66 in October 1348 and was buried next to her beloved Eubulus at Barlings Abbey. A few months before her death, Alice's nephew-by-marriage from her first marriage to Thomas of Lancaster, Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, appeared as a petitioner on Alice's behalf in a legal action (an oyer and terminer) about vandalism to one of the estates. His actions, however, were not without personal motive as by her first marriage settlement he was the heir to the remaining lands that she held from her father's estate, and the legal action was about vandalism to and poaching from one of the estates that he was to inherit. Nevertheless, historian Linda Mitchell believes that his assumption of responsibility on Alice's behalf can be seen "as a mark of respect for the woman wronged so shamefully by his family." For the last 10 years of her life, after the death of de Freyne, Alice also appears to have had the support of Edward III in the commissions of oyer and terminers that Alice requested during this time seem to have been promptly appointed and thoroughly investigated.

Death

Alice died childless at Barlings Abbey in 1348. Her Earldom of Lincoln became extinct upon her death. By the terms of her first marriage settlement, her remaining lands from her father's inheritance went to her nephew-by-marriage Henry of Grosmont, 1st Duke of Lancaster, and the remaining lands from her mother's inheritance were inherited by James de Audley, her Longespee cousin through his paternal line, who also happened to be her stepmother and father's widow Joan Martin's son from her second marriage. However, weighed against the extensive manors which Alice had once possessed in right of her inheritance as Countess of Lincoln and of Salisbury, she had comparatively little to leave after her death. Many of her lands had been forfeited to the Crown in 1322 and 1323, and for those lands that were restored, she had accepted a life interest. Other grants of lands from the King jointly to Alice and her second husband, Eubulus le Strange, she held a life estate in after Eubulus' death, and these went to Eubulus' heir, his nephew Roger le Strange.