Berkhamsted Castle was taken prisoner at the Battle of Poitiers. When the Black Prince fell ill following his campaigning in France, he retired to Berkhamsted and died there in 1376. Richard II inherited Berkamsted Castle in 1377; initially the use of it was given to his favourite, Robert de Vere and, after de Vere's fall from power and exile in 1388, to John Holland. Henry IV lived in the castle after he deposed Richard in 1400, and he used the property to detain rival applicants to the throne. During this period Geoffrey Chaucer, later famous for his "Canterbury Tales", oversaw renovation work
Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract his mother Margaret de Quincy and on her death would have inherited the Earldom of Lincoln that vested in her. (His father had only been Earl by rights of his wife.) As he predeceased his mother he never became the Earl of Lincoln. He was an important landholder in northern England, with a strategic manor at Stanbury which was important for east-west communication, and as Lord of the Honour of Pontefract he possessed Pontefract Castle. He was brought up at the royal court of Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence, and made a 'Savoyard' marriage to one of