A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



Philip of France's campaign in 1202-3, when Normandy was lost by the 

 English and Philip became supreme in Maine, Anjou, and Touraine, the 

 constable of Chester was stoutly resisting a siege in the castle of Chateau 

 Gaillard. After a strenuous resistance lasting nearly twelve months, during 

 which the garrison were reduced to the necessity of eating horseflesh, the 

 constable and his garrison, as a final effort, made a sortie, but were eventually 

 taken prisoners with much difficulty on 6 March, I2O4- 1 Matthew Paris 

 relates that the French king, in recognition of the constable's gallant defence, 

 put him in free custody. 8 



King John, having lent the constable 1,000 for his ransom, 8 sent word 

 on 3 May to the constable's knights and free tenants to raise money for 

 repayment,* but Roger being presently liberated in exchange for Savari de 

 Mauleon, the king appropriated the ransom. 6 In reward for his services 

 Lacy was appointed sheriff of Yorkshire and Cumberland at Michaelmas 

 following, which offices he held until 1209," in which year he also acted as 

 a justice before whom fines were levied. 7 He was in constant attendance 

 upon or in communication with the king, as proved by the rolls, 8 and upon 

 terms of familiarity and friendship, as shown by entries on the Prasstita Roll 

 of sums of 4OJ. and 2s. lost by the king to the constable whilst playing 'ad 

 tabulas,' i.e. shovel-board, at Freemantle, on Sunday, 29 January, 1211.' In 

 the autumn of 1210 he seems to have led an expedition against the Welsh. 10 

 Dr. Whitaker and Mr. Ormerod repeat from the Historia Laceiorum several 

 improbable stories relating to him. 11 Roger confirmed his father's gifts to 

 Stanlaw Abbey, 12 and added of his own gift the church of Rochdale and six 

 oxgangs of land there of the Lacy inheritance which had descended to him 

 through his grandmother." Within his fee of Widnes he gave the manor of 

 Little Woolton to the same abbey. 1 * He also enfeoffed Robert de Flaynsburgh 

 in io oxgangs of land within the liberty of Rochdale in marriage with the 

 daughter of Robert de Liversedge, and Gilbert de Lacy, of Cromwellbothum, 

 in the same extent of land there, in marriage with Agnes, daughter of John 

 de Hipperholme. 16 His death occurred on i October, 1211, after a pro- 

 tracted illness, during which he was invested with the monastic habit in the 

 abbey of Stanlaw, where his remains were buried. 18 Accordingly, we find 

 that at Midsummer, 1212, when the great inquest of service was taken, his 

 lordships of Penwortham, Clitheroe, and Widnes were in the king's hands. 17 



1 Matth. Paris, Chron. majora (Rolls Ser.), ii. 89, 101. * Ibid. ii. IOI. 



8 Close R. (Rec. Com.), i. \b ; Rot. de liberate, 103. 



* Pat. R. (Rec. Com.), i. 41*. 



5 Ibid. 73^. A graphic description of these events will be found in Norgate's England under the Angevin 

 Kings, ii. 411, 417-23. A letter from John to the constable of Chester begs him to hold the castle to the 

 uttermost. Rymer, Faedera, (Rec. Com.), i. 90. 



6 Dep. Keeper's Thirty-fnt Rep. App. 276, 363. 



7 Fines (Rec. Com.), i. Ixv. 



8 Close, Pat. Chart, and Liberate R. (Rec. Com.), passim. 



Rot. de Prtestit. (Rec. Com.), 238. 10 Ibid. 229. 



1 Hist, of W 'bailey (ed. 1876), i. 241 ; Ormerod, Hist. ofChes. (ed. Helsby), i. 695^; Man. Angl. vi. 315^. 



2 Coucher ofWhalley, Chetham Soc. 1 6. 



3 Ibid. 135; Inq. 0/1212, Lanes, and Ches. Rec. Soc., xlviii. 40. 



* Coucher ofWhalley, 804 ; Inq. 0/1212, 41 . 

 6 Lanes. Inq. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 38-9. 



16 Cott. MS. Titus F. iii. 244^, 258. His epitaph is recorded in Cott. MS. Cleop. C. 3, f. 325*. See 

 Man. Angl. v. 648. 



l ? Lanes. Inq. Rec. Soc. xlviii. 34-38. 



3 02 



