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A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE

King Stephen immediately restored the honours of Pontefract and Clitheroe to Ilbert de Lacy, son of Robert,[1] and pardoned his men all forfeitures committed after the death of King Henry until the king's coronation, and especially of the forfeiture for the murder of Maltravers.[2] Ilbert was a staunch supporter of King Stephen, and is found in frequent attendance upon him. At Easter, in 1136, he attested at Westminster a royal charter confirming the bishopric of Bath to Robert, bishop elect,[3] and the same year he attested the royal charter to Winchester and the second charter of liberties granted by the king at Oxford,[4] and another to Cluny Abbey dated at Winchester.[5] He was one of the leaders of the English at the battle of the Standard, fought near Northallerton on 22 August, 1138, where his younger brother was slain, the only life lost amongst the English knights.[6] He fought for his sovereign at the battle of Lincoln in February, 1141,[7] where it would seem that he was either slain or taken captive and died in captivity, for there is no further chronicle of his acts. He married Alice, daughter of Walter de Gaunt, the founder of Bridlington Abbey, by whom he had no issue. She married, secondly, Roger de Mowbray, and gave to Pontefract Priory a carucate of land in Ingoldmells, with which she had been endowed by her first husband.[8] Ilbert's next heir was his brother Henry, but the latter did not at once succeed to his brother's fief. Possibly he was under age at the time of Ilbert's death. The honour of Pontefract is said to have been conferred by Stephen upon William de Roumare,[9] who had then recently been created earl of Lincoln;[10] but the statement must be entirely discredited, and is probably due to confusion with Gilbert de Gaunt—created earl of Lincoln by King Stephen in 1147, apparently during the lifetime of the other earl—who laid claim to the honour of Pontefract against Henry de Lacy, who, however, seems to have been then old enough and powerful enough to resort to force for the recovery or defence of his inheritance.[11] The contention between the two claimants was waged without apparent interference by the king, and eventually ended in favour of de Lacy, but not until the priory of Pontefract had been laid in ruins.[12] Possibly de Lacy at this time obtained

  1. ↑ Chron. of Stephen (Rolls Ser.), iii. 140; Surtees Soc. xliv. 64-5, 119.
  2. ↑ Duchy of Lanc. Misc. Ptf. i. No. 36, m. 1.
  3. ↑ Madox, Hist. of the Exch. i. 14.
  4. ↑ Ric. of Hexham (Rolls Ser.), 150; Round, Geof. of Mandeville, 263.
  5. ↑ Round, Cal. of Docts., France, 509.
  6. ↑ Ailred of Rievaux, 182; Matth. Paris, Chron. majora (Rolls Ser.), i. 258, 260; Hoveden (ibid.), i. 196.
  7. ↑ Ord. Vitalis, Hist. Eccl. xiii. c. xliii.
  8. ↑ Chartul. of Pontefract (York. Rec. Soc.), 527.
  9. ↑ The authority for this statement is Yorke's Union of Honour, where it is stated that Stephen gave the earl in 1141 the manor of 'Chirchecon' (Kirketon, i.e. Tickhill), the castle of Gainsborough (rectius Conisborough), and the castle of Pontefract. So far as the first two places are concerned the statement is correct, as an abstract of this grant—in which Kirkton and Gainsborough are mentioned—remains on record. But as regards Pontefract Castle, the same record, by its failure to make any mention of that place or castle, entirely refutes the statement. Dep. Keeper's 31st Rep. App. i. 1.
  10. ↑ Round, Geof. de Mandeville, 271.
  11. ↑ Gilbert de Gaunt married Roesia, daughter of Richard fitz Gilbert, styled 'de Clare,' and sister of the half-blood to William de Roumare, earl of Lincoln, the date of whose death is very uncertain, but apparently occurred some years after Gilbert de Gaunt had been created earl of Lincoln. The fact that Alice de Gaunt, relict of Ilbert de Lacy, was sister of Gilbert, and at this time held one-third of the de Lacy estates in dower, in some measure may account for her brother's designs upon the honour of Pontefract.
  12. ↑ Chartul. of Pontefract (Yorks. Rec. Soc.), 49. Gilbert de Gaunt, under sentence of excommunication, covenanted to pay the monks of Pontefract 6 librates of rent yearly in consideration of the great injuries which he had caused to them during the war between him and Henry de Lacy. Ibid. 520-1. The gift of 1 carucate of land in Ingoldmells by Alice de Gaunt, relict of Ilbert de Lacy, for which she had the consent of Henry de Lacy (ibid. 527), and the gift of Alice de Rumelli of a carucate in Broughton in Craven (ibid. 476), were probably made in consideration of the injury suffered by the monks of Pontefract at this time.

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