79 
of the birth of a daughter he gave the advowson of Whalley 
to the monks of Stanlaw. Henry de Laci, now Lord of 
Ros and Rewynok, as well as Constable of Chester, and Earl 
of Salisbury and of Lincoln, lived a strenuous life, being 
always in motion, in armour or otherwise. 
His personal appearance seems to have been that of a 
well-built energetic man, less tall than the “ long-shanks ” 
king, and in his later life he probably became stout, for a 
bitter enemy, Piers Gaveston, once called him “ burst belly.” 
But Hemingburgh describes him as “ courteous, handsome 
and active.” Seldom had he leisure for domestic ease, whether 
at Clitheroe Castle or at his chief northern home, Pontefract 
Castle, or at Denbigh, Lincoln, or his mansion by the Hole- 
bourne (Holborn) near the city of London. His capacity 
for work must have been great. As Trokelowe records, “ he 
was active in war and ripe in counsel.” Moreover, his bene- 
factions came from no grudging hand. Yet he was not 
without domestic sorrow, his eldest boy being drowned at 
Denbigh Castle, and his other son killed by a fall from a 
window at Pontefract Castle. 
During a period of peace de Laci acted in various national 
arbitrations. In 1293 or 1294 he secured a royal charter 
granting him market and fair rights in the locality of his 
manor house at Ightenhill — though the site was later changed 
to Burnley proper — and in some other manors. In 1294-5 
he was engaged in Gascony and in Wales, and again in Gas- 
cony in 1296, where, on the death of Earl Edmund, he was 
chosen as commander “ by the voice of the whole army.” 
Having given land at Whalley to the monks of Stanlaw, 
a number of them took possession in 1296, in order to found 
an Abbey there, to which De Lacy was a great contributor, 
though the older Abbey of Salley (Sawley) was favoured 
by him also. 
How often the great Earl visited his Lancashire stronghold 
is unknown. But even when his appointed representatives 
attended a Court Baron at the castle or at his Ightenhill 
Manor or elsewhere, to receive suit and service, the country- 
side for miles around must have seemed animated as men 
trooped over the hills — superior ones on horseback and 
humbler men on foot — from Blackburn and Rochdale, the 
Forests of Rossendale and Trawden, from Accrington and 
Colne, Padiham and Tottington, to render their accounts 
and make their complaints. 
