Its origins lie in the grant of a large, compact set of landholdings in Yorkshire, made between the Norman conquest of England in 1066 and the completion of the Domesday Survey in 1086.
An expansive set of landholdings spanning sixty parishes and six wapentakes in Yorkshire, the honour was created primarily to serve a strategic, defensive function in a potentially hostile frontier zone.
[n 1] After the Norman conquest of England which commenced in 1066, William the Conqueror gave Lacy a large fief in the English county of Yorkshire, which formed the basis of the honour.
[2] The exact date of the honour's foundation is unclear; the historian W. E. Wightman suggested it was soon before 1086, but more recent studies (including those by the historian Sarah Rose) support the thesis that the first grants to Lacy may have taken place in the 1070s and were supplemented thereafter, finally with the royal manor of Tanshelf, which may have been granted shortly before the Domesday Survey (1086).
[2] In the historian David Carpenter's words, the fief "formed a compact block stretching from Elland and Golcar ... to Brayton ..., from Grimston Grange and Thorner ... to Hunshelf Hall ... surrounding the [royal manor of] Wakefield".
[11] His English estates were confiscated by the king and the honour of Pontefract was granted to Hugh de Laval, who the historian Janet Burton describes as "a Norman baron of secondary status".
[16] Ilbert II disappears from the historical record around 1141; his brother Henry de Lacy succeeded him in the honour of Pontefract.
The dispute was resolved through armed conflict, with Lacy retaining possession of the honour and Gant paying compensation to Prior of Pontefract for leaving the priory in ruins.
[17][18][n 4] After Henry II succeeded to the throne in 1154, he confirmed Lacy's possession and pardoned the family for supporting Stephen during The Anarchy.
In 1205, after Guy had taken up arms against him, King John granted the Laval share to Roger de Lacy, thus reuniting the whole of the honour.
In 1294, he regranted a life interest in the honour to himself, but this time with remainder to Edmund's son, Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, who had married Lacy's daughter and heiress, Alice.