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Margaret de Lacy and the Hospital of St John at Aconbury, Herefordshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

H. J. NICHOLSON
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Abstract

On 10 October 1216, eight days before his death, King John sent instructions to Walter de Lacy, sheriff of Hereford, by letters patent:

Know that for the sake of God we have conceded to Margaret de Lacy three carucates of land to be assarted and cultivated in our forest of Aconbury, to build there a certain religious house for the souls of William de Braose her father, Matilda her mother and William her brother. And we instruct you to assign those three carucates of land in the aforesaid forest to the same Margaret.

For the historian of King John, this concession indicates that the king was at last prepared to restore to his favour the Braoses and the Lacys, Welsh Marcher lords and barons of Ireland, who had spectacularly fallen from favour in 1208. Yet for the historian of the military orders and of monastic orders in general, it marks the beginning of a relationship between a patron and a religious house which gives a valuable insight into how that relationship could go badly wrong.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , October 1999 , pp. 629 - 651
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The first version of this paper was read at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds in July 1994. A much revised version was presented to the University of Wales Cardiff History Seminar on 17 April 1996. I am indebted to my colleagues, especially Professor Peter Coss and Drs Garthine Walker, Padma Anagol and Bill Aird for comments and suggestions then made. I am also very grateful for the help I received while researching this paper from A. M. Wherry, County Archivist at Hereford Record Office, and A. N. Taylor, Deputy Diocesan Secretary for Hereford Diocese; also from R. J. H. Hill, Senior Librarian of Hereford City Library, and Hilary White, Sites and Monuments Record Officer for Hereford and Worcester.