Hugh or Aedh, son of Cathal Crobhderg. The Anglo-Irish under the justiciar, Henry of London, archbishop of Dublin, were forced to come to terms, and in consequence William Marshal the younger was sent over to Ireland in June 1224. Marshal took Trim, which was held by William de Lacy [see under Lacy, Hugh de, d. 1186)], and sent William Grace to relieve Carrickfergus, which was besieged by Hugh de Lacy. Hugh's fleet attempted without success to oppose Grace, and the siege was then raised. Marshal meantime had captured William de Lacy and his crannog of O'Reilly (ib. i. 500–2). Eventually Hugh made an agreement with Marshal under which he surrendered and was sent over to England (Sweetman, i. 1219). Hugh de Lacy there received absolution from the sentence of excommunication which had been passed on him by the pope's command, but could not obtain the royal pardon (Ann. Mon. iii. 91; Cal. Rot. Claus. i. 549 b). On 12 May 1226 Walter de Lacy received charge of all Hugh's lands in Ulster, to hold them for three years (Sweetman, i. 1371–4). However, on 20 April 1227 Hugh was at length restored to possession of his castles and lands (Cal. Rot. Claus. ii. 182 b).
After this Hugh de Lacy appears as a supporter of the royal authority in Ireland. In 1228 he was summoned for the French war with four knights, being more than were demanded of any Anglo-Irish noble except his brother Walter (Shirley, i. 358). On the coming of Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke [q. v.], into Ireland, Hugh de Lacy supported Maurice Fitzgerald, the royal justiciar, against the earl, and was present at the conference between the earl-marshal and his opponents at the Curragh, and the earl's defeat on 1 April 1234. Afterwards Hugh was summoned to England to advise the king, and he was subsequently thanked by Henry for his services (ib. i. 437, 478; Sweetman, i. 2113). In 1235 he took part in the great raid of Richard de Burgh (d. 1243) [q. v.] into Connaught. In the same year Alan of Galloway, who had married Hugh's daughter in 1228 (Chron. Lanercost, p. 40), died, leaving three daughters by a former wife and a bastard son, Thomas, who endeavoured to seize his father's lands. In April 1236 Hugh gathered a great army from Ireland and the Isle of Man, and joined Thomas in his rebellion. But Alexander II of Scotland soon compelled them to come to terms (Matt. Paris, iii. 364–6; Fordun, Scotichronicon, iii. 753). On 25 April 1237 Hugh was summoned to England to advise the king (Sweetman, i. 2384). In 1238 some of Hugh's followers killed an Irish chieftain, whereupon Donnell MacLoughlin, chief of Cenel Owen took up arms and drove Hugh out of Ulster. Hugh returned with FitzMaurice the justiciar at harvest time, and after expelling MacLoughlin gave Tyrone to Brian O'Neill. In 1239 MacLoughlin recovered his lordship, but was speedily expelled once more. It was probably a later phase of this struggle which caused the great dissensions against Hugh in Ulster in 1240 (Four Masters, iii. 301 n.)
Hugh died at Carrickfergus at the end of 1242 or beginning of 1243 (Matt. Paris, iv. 232; Sweetman, i. 2616; he was certainly dead before 25 April 1243). He was buried in the church of the Dominican friars at Carrickfergus (Book of Howth, p. 124). Matthew Paris calls him ‘a most renowned warrior, and the glorious conqueror of a great part of Ireland’ (iv. 232). As Hugh was certainly the most turbulent, so also he was perhaps the most powerful of all the Anglo-Irish nobles of his age. The careers of himself, his father and brother, illustrate well the course of the English conquest of Ireland, and the peculiar difficulties which the royal authority had to encounter through the excessive power granted to or acquired by the chiefs of the English settlement. The grant of Ulster to Hugh included all authority except that of episcopal investiture, and Hugh held it exempt and separate from every county, having his own court and chancery (Sweetman, i. 260, 263; Carew MSS. v. 450). The earldom of Ulster of this creation came to an end at Hugh's death, for he left no male heir; and the allegation that a daughter of his married Walter de Burgh, and conveyed to her husband her father's rights in the earldom, is incorrect [see under Burgh, Walter de].
Hugh married Emmeline (sometimes called Leceline), daughter of Walter de Redelesford. She was alive as late as November 1267, but died before 1278 (Sweetman, ii. 834; Calendarium Genealogicum, i. 256). Besides the daughter who married Alan of Galloway, Hugh had another daughter, who married Miles MacCostelloe (Four Masters, iii. 349). One of his daughters was called Roysya (Carew MSS. v. 412). He had two sons, Walter and Roger, who were alive in 1226 (Sweetman, i. 1372). A son of his was killed during the war with MacLoughlin in 1238 (Four Masters, iii. 239 n.) There is no evidence as to whether these children were illegitimate or not; the ‘Dunstable Annals’ allege that in 1225 Hugh had abandoned his wife, and was living with an adulteress (Ann. Mon. iii. 91).
Hugh is said to have given the monks of St. Taurin a cell at Ruskey, near Carlingford.
