memorable siege of Acre. On his return to England he was the first of his
family that took the name of Lacy, in which Pontefract Castle continued
till 1310, when Henry de Lacy, through default of male issue, left his
possessions to his daughter and heiress, Alice, who was married to Thomas,
Earl of Lancaster; and, in case of a failure of issue from that marriage,
he entailed them on the King and his heirs.

The Earl of Lancaster, it will be remembered, became embroiled with Edward
II. and his minion Gaveston, who partly through the interference of
Lancaster, was beheaded at Warwick after a siege in Scarborough Custle.
The King swore vengeance for the death of his favourite, which led this
weak sovereign into a long series of dissentions with the barons, at the
head of whom, was the Earl of Lancaster. Both parties now flew to arms,
but Lancaster soon found himself ill supported by his compeers, and
marching northward for reinforcements from the celebrated Bruce, King of
Scotland, the King in the meantime, sent the Earl of Surrey and Kent to
besiege the castle of Pontefract, which surrendered at the first summons.
Lancaster was next closely pursued by the king with great superiority of
numbers. "The earl, endeavouring to rally his troops, was taken prisoner,
with ninety-five barons and knights, and carried to the castle of
Pontefract, where he was imprisoned in a tower which Leland says he had
newly made towards the abbey," This tower was square: its wall of great
strength, being 10-1/2 feet thick; nor was there any other entrance into
the interior than by a hole or trap-door in the floor of the turret: so
that the prisoner must have been let down into this abode of darkness,
from whence there could be no possible mode of escape; the room was
twenty-five feet square. A few days after, the King being at Pontefract
ordered him to be arraigned in the hall of the castle, before a small
number of peers, among whom were the Spencers, his mortal enemies. The
earl was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered; but the punishment