Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Lacy, Edmund
LACY, EDMUND (1370?1455), bishop of Exeter, born probably about 1370, was son of Stephen Lacy and his wife Sibilla, who were buried in the conventual church of the Carmelites at Gloucester. Edmund was probably a native of that city, and was educated at Oxford, where he graduated D.D. In 1398 he was master of University College, and is said to have presided over that society for five years (Wood, Hist. and Ant. ii. 59). On 4 Jan. 1400-1 he appears as canon of Windsor. He was installed prebendary of Hereford Cathedral on 25 Sept. 1412, and in 1414 also held the prebend of Nassington in Lincoln Cathedral. On 12 May 1409 he was sent as envoy to France, and on 22 May 1413 he was appointed agent to the papal court. In Henry V's reign he was dean of the chapel royal, and accompanied the king to Agincourt in 1415 (Nicolas, Agincourt, p. 389). On 8 Feb. 1416-17 he was granted, custody of the temporalities of the bishopric of Hereford; the pope assented to his election on 3 March, and Henry V was present at his consecration on 18 April. In 1420 he was translated to Exeter, the temporalities were restored on 31 Oct., and he was installed on 29 March 1421. In that year he preached before Henry V at Westminster (Walsingham, Hist. Angl. ii. 337). He was one of Henry V's executors, but seems to have taken little part in politics in the following reign, though he is mentioned in a political satire about 1450 (Bentley, Excerpta Historica, p. 162). He was bishop of Exeter for thirty-five years. In 1434 he was excused attendance at parliament on account of his bodily infirmities, but twenty years later he was fined eighty marks for not being present. He died at Chudleigh on 18 Sept. 1455, and was buried on the north side of the choir in Exeter Cathedral. His tomb, which still remains, was long the resort of pilgrims. His will, proved on 8 Oct. 1455, is lost, but his register, covering more than seventeen hundred pages, remains. He gave various books to his chapter, and made other benefactions to the diocese. His 'Liber Pontificalis' was edited from an original fifteenth-century manuscript (the title-page says fourteenth century) by Ralph Barnes and published in 1847 (Exeter, 8vo).
[Preface to Lacy's Liber Pontificalis; Oliver's Bishops of Exeter; Rymer's Fœdera, ix. 404, 422, 450; Beckington Corresp. (Rolls Ser.); Nicolas's Ordinances of the Privy Council; Rolls of Parliament; Ramsay's Lancaster and York, ii. 193; Le Neve's Fasti Eccl., ed. Hardy, passim; Godwin's De Præsulibus Anglise; Stubbs's Reg. Sacrum.]