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WOW2: December's Trailblazing Women and Events in Our History: 12-24 through 12-31, 2022 [1]

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Date: 2022-12-24

December 25, 1281 – Alice de Lacy born, suo jure (in her own right) Countess of Lincoln and of Salisbury; her two brothers died in childhood accidents, leaving Alice as the sole heir to two Earldoms, one from each parent. King Edward I arranged her betrothal to his nephew, Thomas of Lancaster when she was 9 years old. They were married when she was 12 or 13 years old. By the terms of their marriage settlement the bulk of her great inheritance from her father, which included the Earldom of Lincoln and many other estates, was to go to Thomas, with reversion to Thomas's heirs. In other words, during his lifetime Thomas had control of Alice's inheritance from her father. If Alice outlived Thomas, and had control of her father's inheritance returned to her on his death, then on her own death her father's inheritance would pass to Thomas's heirs. Her father also came to an agreement with the King that should Alice have no children, her father's Earldom of Lincoln would pass into the royal family on her death. But the marriage was not successful – they lived separate lives, and had no children. When her parents died, Thomas inherited all her lands, and controlled her inheritance from her mother, making him the richest and most powerful man in England. In the spring of 1317 Alice was abducted from her manor of Canford, Dorset, by some of the household Knights of John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, and taken to the Warenne stronghold of Castle Reigate. The disreputable Warenne is thought to have carried out the abduction in order to humiliate Thomas of Lancaster, who had helped block Warenne's divorce, and persuaded the Bishop of Chichester to prosecute Warenne for his adultery with his mistress, resulting in Warenne's excommunication in 1316. After Alice was abducted, her husband Thomas then waged a private war on Warenne, but never once asked for Alice's return. Thomas also thought King Edward II, his cousin, had been involved in the planning of the abduction. It is not known when Alice was released, and her whereabouts from 1317 to 1322 are uncertain. Thomas of Lancaster was captured at Boroughbridge after the failure of his rebellion against the King. On 22 March 1322 he was executed for treason. With Thomas gone, Alice should have had control of the vast inheritances from both of her parents for the first time. Thomas's estates were forfeited to the Crown, but that could not legally include the estates that he controlled by right of his wife and that were her inheritance. But the King had Alice arrested and imprisoned at York, under threat of execution. Alice surrendered into the King's hands a great part of the lands which she had inherited from her father, in order to secure the confirmation of some portion of these possessions to herself. She was then permitted to hold some of her estates in life tenure by the king's "special grace.” In addition, she had to pay a staggering indemnity of £20,000 to the Crown, in order to secure her release from prison, be allowed to remarry if she chose, and to gain control of what lands and income remained of her inheritance. She lost the Earldom of Salisbury to the Crown, but the Earldom of Lincoln was restored to her. But she was placed under virtual house arrest for “her own protection” and even more of her lands were stripped from her, and her abductor was given a life grant of many of them. When Edward II was deposed, his wife Isabella took for herself some of the estates that had been taken from Alice. In 1331, Edward III restored some of Alice’s forfeited lands to her, but only for her life. Even when Alice married Eubulus le Strange, at age 42, which made it unlikely they would have children, the King made certain that Eubulus could not claim them by right of his wife. After Eubulus died in 1335, Alice genuinely mourned him, and took a vow of chastity. But even after all that had been taken from her, she was still a rich woman, and she was abducted a second time at the age of 54, by Hugh de Freyne, Baron Freyne, who raped her, and forced her to marry him. But the marriage had not been licensed by the King, so Sheriffs were sent to take the lands, goods, and chattels into the King’s hands. Hugh probably paid a fine, because the lands were restored to his control in 1336, but he died less than a year later. Alice was imprisoned again shortly after that by Roger le Strange, the nephew and heir of Eubulus, and Sir John de Lacy of Lacyes (Alice’s illegitimate half-brother.) Eventually, she made a deal with Roger, and was released. She died at age 66 in 1348, and was buried next to Eubulus. Her Earldom of Lincoln became extinct upon her death. Her remaining lands from her father went to the nephew of her first husband. Most of her lands reverted to the Crown upon her death, and what was left went to Roger le Strange.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/12/24/2143396/-WOW2-December-s-Trailblazing-Women-and-Events-in-Our-History-12-24-through-12-31-2022

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