FEUDAL BARONAGE 



he lost his English fief and departed the realm. The chronicles throw no 

 light upon the causes of his banishment, although his supposed attitude on 

 the occasion of duke Robert's rebellion in 1102 suggests that his sympathies 

 lay with the duke against his sovereign. Perhaps the events which passed 

 in Normandy between the seizure and imprisonment of Robert of Belesme in 

 November, 1 1 12, and the insurrection of Villerai and other lords of Belesme 

 and Ponthieu, which terminated with the fall of the castle of Belesme in May, 

 1 1 14, may account for de Lacy's fall. Whatever the causes it is certain that 

 this event happened shortly before the date of the Lindsey survey, which was 

 made between 1 1 15 and 1 1 18, for in that record we find Hugh de Laval in 

 possession of the extensive estates which Ilbert de Lacy had held under Odo, 

 bishop of Bayeux, or in chief, at the compilation of Domesday.^ The date of 

 Robert's death is unknown. By Maud his wife, who survived until after 

 1 1 50,' he had issue Ilbert, Henry, a third son who was slain at the battle of 

 the Standard, and a daughter Albreda, married in or before 1 1 30 to Robert 

 de Lisours,* from which marriage descended the later line of Lacy. In or 

 before the year 1 120 Hugh de Laval made great gifts of lands and churches 

 in his honour of Pontefract to the priory founded there by his predecessors, 

 adding thereto the church of Slaidburn in Bowland, and in ' Cheshire ' the 

 church of Whalley, the chapel of his castle of Clitheroe with tithes of the 

 demesne of the castle, the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Clitheroe, and 

 the churches of Colne and Burnley.* His bestowal upon the canons of 

 Nostell^ of many churches and much land within his honour of Pontefract 

 was effected about the same time as the gifts to Pontefract, being confirmed 

 by Henry I,, together with the earlier gifts of Robert de Lacy and many of 

 his chief feudatories,^ by a charter said to have been dated on 4th of the Ides of 

 January (10) 1121.^ Hugh de Laval died shortly before Michaelmas, 11 30, 

 at which time Richard Guiz owed two war-horses for confirmation of land 

 in Yorkshire given to him by the said Hugh,* and William Maltravers a 

 thousand marks for Hugh's lands for fifteen years, and one hundred pounds for 

 the marriage of his widow and her dower after the lapse of the said term.' 

 Maltravers appears to have withheld the church of Whalley from the monks 

 of Pontefract and to have stayed their action to recover the same by the 

 grant of a mark yearly, so long as he might hold the honour of Pontefract.^" 

 This was for no long time, for as soon as the death of Henry I. was known, 

 Maltravers was mortally wounded by the hand of one of his own knights, 

 Pain by name, and having taken the monastic habit died three days later." 



1 Lindsey Survey, edit. Greenstreet, passim. ^ Chartul. of Pontefract (Yorks. Rec. Soc), 469. 



* Pipe R. 31 Hen. I. (Rec. Com.), 8. The reference to Albreda as the sister of Ilbert de Lacy points to 

 the death of Robert de Lacy having occurred previously. 



* Chartul. of Pontefi-act (Yorks Rec. Soc), i. 21. The position of Richard, bishop of Hereford (consecrated 

 16 January, 1 120), last amongst the witnesses, suggests that this charter via expedited at a date very near the 

 bishop's consecration. 



6 Mon. Angl. vi. 92^. * Ibid. 92. 



7 Ibid. 90. The possessions of the canons of Nostell were also confirmed by Pope Calixtus II. in the 

 first year of his pontificate (11 19-20). The charter attributed to Robert de Lacy I. by the editors of the 

 Monasticon, and by them described as the charter of foundation, belongs to Robert, the la«t of the old line of 

 de Lacy, who died in 1193. Many writers of histories (cf Hunter, Doncaster, ii. 201-2) and compilers of 

 chartularies have wrought great confusion by mistaking the charters of the later Ilbert and Robert for those 

 of the Ilbert of Domesday and of his son. 



8 Pipe R. 31 Hen. I. (Rec. Com.), 34. » Ibid. 

 ^0 Chartul. of Pontefract (Yorks. Rec. Soc), 535. 



11 Chron. of Stephen, Ric. of Hexham (Rolls Ser.), 140. 



