The Earldom was created for a fourth time in 1217 for Ranulph de Blondeville. He had no issue. In April 1231, with the consent of the King, before his death he passed the Earldom to his sister Hawise of Chester, and she was formally invested by King Henry III in October 1232. Royal consent was needed for this, because the Earldom would otherwise have reverted to the crown in the absence of a legitimate male heir. She in turn passed the Earldom, again with the consent of the King, jointly to her daughter Margaret de Quincy (d.1266), who thereby became "suo jure" 2nd Countess of Lincoln, and to the latter's husband (Hawise's son-in-law) John de Lacy (c. 1192-1240) 8th Baron of Halton, 8th Hereditary Constable of Chester and feudal baron of Pontefract. They were formally invested by Henry III in November 1232. There is doubt as to whether their son Edmund de Lacy (1230-1258) became Earl of Lincoln, as he predeceased his mother, but not his father. "The Complete Peerage" gives him as the 3rd Earl, but notes that "he does not appear to have been formally invested with the earldom, presumably because his mother outlived him". Edmund's son Henry de Lacy, 4th Earl of Lincoln, married Margaret Longespée. Their daughter Alice de Lacy, 5th Countess inherited the earldom and married Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster. She had no children and thus on Alice's death in 1348 the earldom became extinct.