We know a lot about Alice de Lacy’s life, but so far, it raises more questions than answers.
Having spent the summer of my Masters dissertation on John of Gaunt and his wives (which, by the way, was pure bliss), I decided earlier this year that I needed to do something different, partly because I was getting too close to JoG (how could you not?), and partly in the hopes that researching other Lancastrian marriages would raise new questions I could bring back to JoG and friends later. I decided to focus on Thomas of Lancaster and his wife Alice de Lacy, which was a fabulous decision because they had some serious drama going on. I knew that Thomas had been executed for treason in 1322 by Edward II, and originally planned to look at his wife from that angle – how does a woman react to a traitorous husband? Turns out, Alice had more going on than just that.
Alice was born in 1281, the daughter of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, and Margaret Longespee, countess of Salisbury. By the 1290s, she was their only surviving child, and thus heiress to both earldoms, making her quite the catch on the marriage market. She was betrothed to Thomas of Lancaster by 1292 and they married in 1294, when Alice was 13 and Thomas 16. Their marriage agreement dictated that, no matter what happened to Alice, her earldoms would become a permanent part of the house of Lancaster, a huge win for Thomas.
We then hear little of Alice until 1317. In that year, she was abducted by John, the earl of Warenne, who was possibly working on the orders of King Edward II. Scholars have mostly seen this as a political move on Warenne and the king’s parts, an attempt to harm Alice’s husband Thomas, an increasingly-dangerously outspoken opponent of Ed II’s policies. It’s not really clear what the result of the abduction was, or whether Alice ever returned to live with Thomas, He was executed a few years later. Many of Alice’s estates were confiscated along with Thomas’s, and she was pressured into signing other lands over to Ed II and royal favourites.
A few years after Thomas’s death, Alice married again to the remarkably-named Ebulo Lestrange (who, yes, sounds like he should be a Harry Potter character). This marriage lasted ten years, until Ebulo died in 1335. The next year, Alice was abducted again, by Sir Hugh de Frene, whom she then married. He died the next year, in 1336. She died in 1348, possibly from plague, though she was in her 60s, which was quite old for the time. Alice was buried in Barling Abbey, next to Ebulo. She had no children. Thanks to the strict marriage settlement that had been agreed more than fifty years previously, all her lands and titles went to the house of Lancaster.
It all seems like a lot of information, but for me, it raises a lot of questions, and sadly, I doubt I’ll get answers to all of them.
For instance, what was the nature of Alice’s relationship with Thomas? Historians have stated, pretty much across the board (by ‘across the board’ here I mean, ‘the three or four people who have ever considered this’) that they were unhappy. Probably this is based on the fact that Alice was abducted and it’s been claimed that Thomas did nothing to get her back. This is a bit unfair, as Thomas used the incident to start a private feud with Warenne that distracted him considerably from his opposition to Ed II, which probably was the point all along. I’ll probably get more into the ‘abduction’ of Alice de Lacy in another post, but it’s also unclear whether Alice was complicit in her own abduction, or if it happened against her will.
Alice was born in 1281, the daughter of Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, and Margaret Longespee, countess of Salisbury. By the 1290s, she was their only surviving child, and thus heiress to both earldoms, making her quite the catch on the marriage market. She was betrothed to Thomas of Lancaster by 1292 and they married in 1294, when Alice was 13 and Thomas 16. Their marriage agreement dictated that, no matter what happened to Alice, her earldoms would become a permanent part of the house of Lancaster, a huge win for Thomas.
We then hear little of Alice until 1317. In that year, she was abducted by John, the earl of Warenne, who was possibly working on the orders of King Edward II. Scholars have mostly seen this as a political move on Warenne and the king’s parts, an attempt to harm Alice’s husband Thomas, an increasingly-dangerously outspoken opponent of Ed II’s policies. It’s not really clear what the result of the abduction was, or whether Alice ever returned to live with Thomas, He was executed a few years later. Many of Alice’s estates were confiscated along with Thomas’s, and she was pressured into signing other lands over to Ed II and royal favourites.
A few years after Thomas’s death, Alice married again to the remarkably-named Ebulo Lestrange (who, yes, sounds like he should be a Harry Potter character). This marriage lasted ten years, until Ebulo died in 1335. The next year, Alice was abducted again, by Sir Hugh de Frene, whom she then married. He died the next year, in 1336. She died in 1348, possibly from plague, though she was in her 60s, which was quite old for the time. Alice was buried in Barling Abbey, next to Ebulo. She had no children. Thanks to the strict marriage settlement that had been agreed more than fifty years previously, all her lands and titles went to the house of Lancaster.
It all seems like a lot of information, but for me, it raises a lot of questions, and sadly, I doubt I’ll get answers to all of them.
For instance, what was the nature of Alice’s relationship with Thomas? Historians have stated, pretty much across the board (by ‘across the board’ here I mean, ‘the three or four people who have ever considered this’) that they were unhappy. Probably this is based on the fact that Alice was abducted and it’s been claimed that Thomas did nothing to get her back. This is a bit unfair, as Thomas used the incident to start a private feud with Warenne that distracted him considerably from his opposition to Ed II, which probably was the point all along. I’ll probably get more into the ‘abduction’ of Alice de Lacy in another post, but it’s also unclear whether Alice was complicit in her own abduction, or if it happened against her will.
TNA: DL 28/1/13, m. 1
I’m also curious about the nature of their relationship after her abduction. It’s unclear whether Thomas and Alice remained married afterwards, though I’ve found no record of an annulment (divorce wasn’t a thing at this point). I’m particularly intrigued by this reference I came across a couple days ago in an account of Thomas’s wardrobe expenditures of 1318-19 that refers to sending letters to the ‘Countess of Lincoln’ (Comitesse Linc'). Alice was countess of Lincoln at this point, but I would expect her to be called ‘the lord’s wife’ or ‘the countess of Lancaster’. Referring to her as countess of Lincoln, a title she had personal claim to, rather than the more prestigious countess of Lancaster, a title she claimed by marriage, certainly suggests that she and Thomas considered themselves separated.
I’d like to know a little more about Thomas and Alice’s relationship before the abduction as well, though this might be quite problematic. The one thing that I have to go on at this point is that she was clearly infertile. She had no children with any of her husbands and Thomas, at least, had an illegitimate child, so it would have been clear that the problem lay with Alice. Accepted thinking on the subject would suggest this was a source of tension in their relationship, since the major goal of aristocratic marriage was producing legitimate heirs. I’m not so sure though – the major goal of this marriage seems to have been acquiring Alice’s earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury, which was accomplished. Thomas’s brother Henry produced a lot of children (6 daughters and 1 son), who generally made excellent marriages, suggesting that it was common knowledge that the Lancastrian line would go through Henry, not Thomas. If that was the case, maybe Alice and Thomas had no reason to be unhappy. I don’t know.
Stay tuned for more about Alice – I’m far from done with her.
Stay tuned for more about Alice – I’m far from done with her.
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