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Birth:          ABT 1206 Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England
Death:          Mar 1266 Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England
Burial:         Mar 1266 Hospitallers, Clerkenwell, Middlesex, England

Notes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_de_Quincy,_Countess_of_Lincoln
Margaret de Quincy, 2nd Countess of Lincoln suo jure (c. 1206 – March 1266) 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, received a 
dower from the estates of her first husband, and acquired a dower third from the 
extensive earldom of Pembroke following the death of her second husband, Walter 
Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke. Her first husband was John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of 
Lincoln, by whom she had two children. He was created 2nd Earl of Lincoln by right of 
his marriage to Margaret. Margaret has been described as "one of the two towering 
female figures of the mid-13th century".[1]
Family[edit]

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 suo jure Countess of Chester in April 1231 when her 
brother resigned the title in her favour.

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.[2]

Life[edit]

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. In April 1231 
her maternal uncle Ranulf de Blondeville, 1st Earl of Lincoln had made an inter vivos 
gift, after receiving dispensation from the crown, of the Earldom of Lincoln to her 
mother Hawise. Her uncle granted her mother the title by a formal charter under his 
seal which was confirmed by King Henry III. Her mother was formally invested as suo 
jure 1st Countess of Lincoln on 27 October 1232 the day after her uncle's death. 
Likewise her mother 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 suo jure (in her own 
right) and John de Lacy became 2nd Earl of Lincoln by right of his wife. (John de Lacy 
is mistakenly called the 1st Earl of Lincoln in many references.)

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 his minority 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.

As the widowed Countess of Lincoln suo jure, Margaret was brought into contact with 
some of the most important people in the county of Lincolnshire. Among these 
included Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, the most significant intellectual in 
England at the time who recognised Margaret's position as Countess of Lincoln to be 
legitimate and important, and he viewed Margaret as both patron and peer. He 
dedicated Les Reules Seynt Robert, his treatise on estate and household 
management, to her.[3]

Marriages and issue[edit]

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.[4] John's first 
marriage to Alice de l'Aigle had not produced issue; although John and Margaret 
together had two children:
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.
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, like those of his four brothers, 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. Her dower third 
outweighed any of the individual holdings of the 13 different co-heirs of the five 
Marshal sisters which meant she would end up controlling more of the earldom of 
Pembroke and lordship of Leinster than any of the other co-heirs; 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.[5] As a result of 
her quarrels with her daughter, Margaret preferred her grandson Henry de Lacy who 
would become the 3rd Earl of Lincoln on reaching majority (21) in 1272. She and her 
Italian daughter-in-law Alasia of Saluzzo shared in the wardship of Henry who was 
Margaret's heir, and the relationship between the two women appeared to have been 
cordial.[6]

Death and legacy[edit]

Margaret was a careful overseer of her property and tenants, and gracious in her 
dealings with her son's children, neighbours and tenants.[7] She received two papal 
dispensations in 1251, the first to erect a portable altar; the other so that she could 
hear mass in the Cistercian monastery.[8] Margaret died in March 1266[9][10] at 
Hampstead. Her death was recorded in the Annals of Worcester and in the Annals of 
Winchester.[9] She was buried in the Church of the Hospitallers in Clerkenwell.[9]

Margaret was described as "one of the two towering female figures of the mid-13th 
century"; the other being Ela, Countess of Salisbury.[11]

Parents
DE QUINCY Robert (ABT 1186 - Aug 1257)
DE MESCHINES Hawise (1180 - AFT 6 Jun 1241)

Siblings
DE QUINCY Margaret (ABT 1206 - Mar 1266)

Marriage To DE LACY John (ABT 1192 - 22 Jul 1240)
    m. BEF 21 Jun 1221 

Notes

Parents
DE LACY Roger (ABT 1176 - 1 Oct 1211)
DE CLERE Maud (Matilda) ()

Children by DE LACY John ABT 1192 - 22 Jul 1240
DE LACY Maud (25 Jan 1223 - 10 Mar 1289)

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