Margaret de Quincy, Countess of Lincoln

Female 1206 - 1266  (~ 60 years)


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  • Name Margaret de Quincy 
    Suffix Countess of Lincoln 
    Born ca 1206  England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Female 
    Died Mar 1266  Hampstead, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Buried Church of The Hospitallers, Clerkenwell, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Notes 
    • Wikipedia
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_de_Quincy,_Countess_of_Lincoln

      She was a wealthy English noblewoman and heiress having inherited in her own right the Earldom of Lincoln and honours of Bolingbroke from her mother Hawise of Chester. Following the death of her second husband, Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke, she received her dower right as his widow of a third of the extensive earldom of Pembroke. Margaret has been described as "one of the two towering female figures of the mid-13th century".

      Margaret was born in about 1206, the daughter and only child of Robert de Quincy and Hawise of Chester, herself the co-heiress of her uncle Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester. Hawise became Countess of Chester in her own right in April 1231 when her brother resigned the title in her favor.

      Her paternal grandfather, Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester was one of the 25 sureties of the Magna Carta; as a result he was excommunicated by the Church in December 1215. Two years later her father died after having been accidentally poisoned through medicine prepared by a Cistercian monk.

      On 23 November 1232, Margaret and her husband John de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract were formally invested by King Henry III as Countess and Earl of Lincoln. Her mother, Hawise of Chester, was formally invested as 1st Countess of Lincoln on 27 October 1232 the day after her uncle's death. Hawise of Chester received permission from King Henry III to grant the Earldom of Lincoln jointly to Margaret and her husband John, and less than a month later a second formal investiture took place, but this time for Margaret and her husband John de Lacy. Margaret became 2nd Countess of Lincoln in her own right and John de Lacy became 2nd Earl of Lincoln by right of his wife.

      In 1238, Margaret and her husband paid King Henry the large sum of 5,000 pounds to obtain his agreement to the marriage of their daughter Maud to Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Earl of Gloucester.

      On 22 July 1240 her first husband John de Lacy died. Although he was nominally succeeded by their only son Edmund de Lacy (c.1227-1258) for titles and lands that included Baron of Pontefract, Baron of Halton, and Constable of Chester, Margaret at first controlled the estates in lieu of her son who was still in a minor and being brought up at the court of Henry III and Eleanor of Provence. Edmund was allowed to succeed to his titles and estates at the age of 18. Edmund was also Margaret's heir to the Earldom of Lincoln and also her other extensive estates that included the third of the Earldom of Pembroke that she had inherited from her second husband in 1248. Edmund was never able to become Earl of Lincoln, however, as he predeceased his mother by eight years.

      Sometime before 21 June 1221, Margaret married as his second wife, her first husband John de Lacy of Pontefract. The purpose of the alliance was to bring the rich Lincoln and Bolingbroke inheritance of her mother to the de Lacy family. John and Margaret together had two children:

      1. Maud de Lacy (25 January 1223-1287/10 March 1289), married in 1238 Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Hertford, 2nd Earl of Gloucester, by whom she had seven children.

      2. Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract (died 2 June 1258), married in 1247 Alasia of Saluzzo, daughter of Manfredo III of Saluzzo, by whom he had three children, including Henry de Lacy, 3rd Earl of Lincoln.

      She married secondly on 6 January 1242, Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke, Lord of Striguil, Lord of Leinster, Earl Marshal of England, one of the ten children of William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke and Isabel de Clare, 4th Countess of Pembroke. This marriage did not produce any children; therefore when he died at Goodrich Castle on 24 November 1245, Margaret inherited a third of the Earldom of Pembroke as well as the properties and lordship of Kildare. This brought her into direct conflict with her own daughter, Maud, whose husband was by virtue of his mother Isabel Marshal one of the co-heirs of the Pembroke earldom.

      Margaret was a careful overseer of her property and tenants, and gracious in her dealings with her son's children, neighbours and tenants. Margaret died in March 1266 at Hampstead. Her death was recorded in the Annals of Worcester and in the Annals of Winchester. She was buried in the Church of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell.
    Person ID I36119  Master File
    Last Modified 21 Sep 2016 

    Father Robert de Quincy,   d. ca 1217, London, England Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Mother Hawise of Chester, 1st Countess of Lincoln,   b. ca 1180, Chester, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. Between 6 Jun 1241 and 3 May 1243, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 61 years) 
    Family ID F14896  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln,   b. ca 1192, Lincoln Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 22 Jul 1240, Cheshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 48 years) 
    Children 
     1. Maude de Lacy, Countess of Hertford and Gloucester,   b. 25 Jan 1223, Lincoln Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 10 Mar 1289, Lincoln Lincolnshire, England Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 66 years)
    Last Modified 16 Sep 2016 
    Family ID F14894  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart