Background
She married Robert, 4th Earl of Leicester known as "fitz Parnel" (d 1204), son and heir of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Petronilla de Grandmesnil, in or soon after 1196.
She married Robert, 4th Earl of Leicester known as "fitz Parnel" (d 1204), son and heir of Robert de Beaumont, 3rd Earl of Leicester and Petronilla de Grandmesnil, in or soon after 1196.
William de Braose had been one of King John"s closest associates, but soon after Countess Loretta was widowed, her father began to rapidly lose favour with the king. Disfavour grew into a vendetta against the de Braose family and associates. When negotiations failed, the king declared William de Braose an outlaw.
John reacted by confiscating land, imprisoning suspects & their family members in the years 1209-1211.
Loretta"s lands were confiscated. Loretta returned to England sometime between her father"s death in 1211 and her official declaration that she had remained single, issued in December
1214. Her lands were restored to her, and she held them at least four years.
In 1221, she had become a recluse or anchoress at Hackington, just north of Canterbury in Kent. Archbishop Stephen Langton approved all the arrangements for her seclusion.
She lived there for at least forty-five years and died on 4 March 1266 or 1267. In 1265 Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester, Loretta"s great-nephew by marriage, held King Henry III captive as a result of a successful baronial rebellion.
The earl wrote to "the recluse of Hackington" in the king"s name for information regarding the rights and liberties of the stewardship of England, customarily held by the earls of Leicester, three months before his death at the Battle of Evesham in August, 1265.