Walter de Lacy (c. 1172 – 1241) was lord of Meath in Ireland. He was also a substantial landowner in Weobley, Herefordshire, in Ludlow, Shropshire, in Ewyas Lacy in the Welsh Marches, and several lands in Normandy. He was the eldest son of Hugh de Lacy, a leading Cambro-Norman baron in the Norman invasion of Ireland, and Rohese of Monmouth.
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Life
With his father he built Trim Castle (Irish: 'Caisletheán Bhaile Atha Troim) in Trim, County Meath.
During the revolt of Prince John "lackland", Lord of Ireland, against his brother, King Richard "the lionheart", in 1193–94, Walter de Lacy joined with John de Courcy to support Richard. De Lacy apprehended some knights loyal to John along with Peter Pipard, John's justiciar in Ireland.
De Lacy did homage to Richard for his lands in Ireland in 1194, receiving his lordship of Meath. After mounting the throne of England in 1199, Prince John wrote to his justiciar in Ireland to complain that de Courcy and de Lacy had destroyed his land of Ireland. Walter had made John his enemy.
In 1203, John granted custody of the city of Limerick to de Lacy's father-in-law, William de Braose, 4th Lord of Bramber. As de Braose was an absentee, de Lacy served as de Braose's deputy in Limerick.
In 1206–07, de Lacy became involved in a conflict with Meiler Fitzhenry, Justiciar of Ireland, and de Lacy's feudal tenants for lands in Meath; Fitzhenry had seized Limerick. King John summoned de Lacy to appear before him in England in April 1207. After de Lacy's brother Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster, had taken Fitzhenry prisoner, John in March 1208 acquiesced in giving Walter de Lacy a new charter for his lands in Meath. Upon his return to Ireland later in 1208, de Lacy may have acted as Justiciar of Ireland in lieu of the deposed Meiler Fitzhenry. By this time, John had begun his infamous persecution of de Lacy's father-in-law, de Braose, who fled to Ireland.
