out of Ulster by the Mac Lochlainn family; one of his
sons was killed in the fighting before he regained his
position. Hugh died at Carrickfergus late in 1242, a
year after his brother Walter.
Walter left no surviving male heirs, and the lordship
of Meath was partitioned between his surviving grand-
daughters: Matilda, who married Geoffrey de Geneville,
and Margaret, who married John de Verdon. A cadet
branch, the de Lacys of Rathwire (possibly descended
from a brother of the first Hugh) carried on the name
in much-reduced circumstances. In 1309, a Hugh de
Lacy was constable of Rinndown Castle in County
Roscommon, but he must have resented the loss of the
de Lacy patrimony, and with his brothers Walter and
Amaury took advantage of Edward Bruce’s invasion
to conspire against the de Verdons. Accused of treason
in 1315, they incredibly managed to convince a jury
of their innocence, but in 1317 were forced to flee with
the Scots army to Carrickfergus. The following year a
number of the family died with Bruce at Faughart. The
survivors fled to Scotland and their lands were confis-
cated, although a partial recovery was secured during
Edward III’s reign.
References and Further Reading
Duffy, Seán (ed). Robert the Bruce’s Irish Wars: The Invasions
of Ireland 1306–1329(2002).
Graham, B.J. “Anglo-Norman Settlement in County Meath.” Pro-
ceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 75(1975): C, 223–248.
Otway-Ruthven, J. “The Partition of the de Verdon Lands in
Ireland in 1332.” In J.R.S.A.I. 48(1967):
Potterton, Michael. “The Archaeology and History of Medieval
Trim, County Meath.” Ph.D. diss., The National University
of Ireland, Maynooth, 2003.
Wightman, W.E. The Lacy Family in England and Normandy
1066–1194. 1966.
See alsoCourcy, John de; Geneville, Geoffrey de;
John; Lacy, Hugh de; Marshal; Verdon, de
LACY, HUGH DE
Hugh de Lacy (d. 1186) was born into the Hereford
branch of the Lacy family, powerful landholders on
the Welsh marches. He succeeded his father as Fourth
Baron Lacy some time in the early 1160s, and cam-
paigned in north Wales in the late 1160s. In October
1171, Hugh accompanied King Henry II to Ireland
and was granted the former kingdom of Mide (for
fifty knights’ service), as well as custody of Dublin
city and castle; it was intended that his authority
would balance the growing power of Richard de Clare
(Strongbow) and probably also curb the capacity of
the high king, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair, to resist
English settlement.
Following Henry’s return to England, Hugh set
about consolidating his new lordship. At a meeting
with Tigernán Ua Ruairc, king of Bréifne, at the Hill
of Ward in Co. Meath a violent quarrel broke out in
which Ua Ruairc was slain. Each side accused the other
of bad faith over the incident, but the removal of Ua
Ruairc could not have hurt Hugh’s position in Meath.
He returned to England before Christmas, and the fol-
lowing year was on campaign in Normandy in defense
of King Henry during the rebellions of his sons in
alliance with the king of France.
On his return to Ireland he was very active in secur-
ing his lands, building fortifications, and bringing in
settlers from his English and Welsh estates. Such was
his energy and ability that in 1177 he was appointed
justiciar of Ireland. He chose Trim as his chief manor
in Meath, where an earthen ringwork castle was soon
succeeded by a stone keep. The “Song of Dermot and
the Earl” gives a list of the chief men who settled as
Hugh’s vassals. One of them, Gilbert de Nugent, married
Hugh’s sister Roesia. Hugh also acquired a reputation
for fair dealing with the native Irish, and encouraged
them to remain as tenants under his lordship.
Hugh’s first wife, Rose de Monmouth, had died by
1180, and in this year he married a daughter of Ruaidrí
Ua Conchobair. But this marriage (undertaken without
King Henry’s permission) to the daughter of the last
high king gave some the impression that Hugh had
regal ambitions of his own. Such accusations were no
doubt exaggerated, but Hugh was deprived of Dublin
and recalled to England in 1181. He managed to reas-
sure Henry of his loyalty, but when he was reinstated
as justiciar the following year a royal clerk, Robert of
Shrewsbury, was appointed to oversee his activities.
When Henry’s young son Johncame to Ireland as the
colony’s new lord, some commentators blamed Hugh
for sabotaging the expedition, claiming he would not
let the Irish pay tribute to John. Again the rumors
against Hugh were probably overstated, but his power
in Ireland by this time was unrivalled and he may well
have felt reluctant to hand over his hard-won authority
to a young and untested lord.
Hugh was beheaded in 1186 at Durrow by an agent
of An tSionnach Ua Catharnaig; English chroniclers
recorded that the English king was overjoyed at his
death. But although it aroused royal jealousy, Hugh’s
success was instrumental in firmly establishing the
new colony. His chief heirs from his first marriage
were Walter, who succeeded him as lord of Meath, and
Hugh, who subsequently overthrew John de Courcy
and was belted earl of Ulster by King John. From his
marriage to Ua Conchobair’s daughter he had a son,
William Gorm de Lacy. A postmortem dispute over
the burial rights to Hugh’s body (not recovered from
the Irish until 1195) led to his head being buried inLACY, DE