By this agreement it was arranged that the king should retain the castles of Pontefract and Dunnington, still in his own hands; and that he, the said John, should allow 40 pounds per year, for the custody of those fortresses.

He was one of the earliest who took up arms at the time of Magna Carta, and was appointed to see that the new statutes were properly carried into effect and observed in the counties of York and Nottingham.

Upon the accession of King Henry III (1216-1272), he joined a party of noblemen and made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and did good service at the Siege of Damietta (1218–19).

Ranulph granted the Earldom of Lincoln to his sister Hawyse, "to the end that she might be countess, and that her heirs might also enjoy the earldom"; the grant was confirmed by the king, and at Hawyse's special request John de Lacy received royal licence to succeed de Blondeville and by charter dated at Northampton 23 November 1232, was created Earl of Lincoln, with remainder to the heirs of his body by his wife Margaret de Quincy.

[4] Margaret survived John and remarried twice, to Walter Marshal, 5th Earl of Pembroke in 1242, and c. 1252 to Richard de Wiltshire.