"She [Ela] had founded Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire, in 1232, became a nun there in 1238 (taking her vows on Christmas Day). Two years later she became its Abbess, living there for the next twenty years until her death in 1261. This caused big problems for her inheritance. For while she was still alive she remained Countess even though living in the Abbey, and the King would not permit her son to become Earl. Her son is said to have gone to Rome in 1247 to petition the Pope to gain the title, without success. The same applied to her grandson, and it was only after Ela's death that the titles came to her great-granddaughter Margaret, already married for four years to Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln."