Thomas Lucy
Encyclopedia
Sir Thomas Lucy was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons
in 1571 and 1585. He was a magistrate
in Warwickshire
, but is best known for his links to William Shakespeare
. As a Protestant activist he came into conflict with Shakespeare's Catholic relatives, and there are unconfirmed stories that the young Shakespeare himself had clashes with him.
Lucy was son of William Lucy of Charlecote near Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire
and his wife Anne Fermer daughter of Richard Fermer of East Neston, Northamptonshire. The family were descended from the Norman de Lucy
s.
Lucy rebuilt the house of Charlecote Park
in red brick in 1558. In 1565 he was knighted by the queen's favourite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
. In 1571, Lucy was elected Member of Parliament
for Warwickshire
. Queen Elizabeth herself visited Charlecote Park in 1572.
. John Foxe
, who had witnessed the persecution of protestants under Queen Mary, had been briefly a tutor
in the Lucy household in around 1547. Following the plot by John Somerville
against the life of Queen Elizabeth in 1582, and the arrest of Edward Arden
as a conspirator, Lucy raided homes of the Arden family
to whom Shakespeare was related. Lucy also arrested and interrogated Catholic
families in the area after the missionary activities of the Jesuit, Edmund Campion
. In 1584 there was a dispute between Ananias Nason, one of Lucy's servants, and Hamnet Sadler, a friend of Shakespeare. Lucy arbitrated in the matter. Lucy was re-elected MP for Warwickshire in 1585.
A parliament member, a justice of peace,
At home a poor scarecrow, at London an ass,
If lousy is Lucy as some folks miscall it
Then Lucy is lousy whatever befall it.
Edmond Malone
noted a different ballad seemingly ridiculing Lucy's marriage, which was still being sung in Stratford c. 1687-90 when Joshua Barnes
heard it and wrote it down. There is no evidence that Shakespeare wrote either ballad.
Another story, first recorded by Richard Davies in the late 17th century, is that the young man was involved in poaching from Lucy's estate. Davies wrote, "Shakespeare was much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and rabbits, particularly from Sir ----- Lucy who oft had him whipped and sometimes imprisoned and at last mad[e] him fly his native country to his great advancement." The story was also related by Shakespeare's first biographer, Nicholas Rowe
who links it to the ballad,
There are no surviving legal records to prove or disprove the poaching incident, or the ballad incident. The poaching story became popular in the Victorian period, appearing in many illustrations and paintings.
Shakespeare is sometimes thought to have satirised Lucy with the character of Justice Shallow, who appears in Henry IV, Part 2
and The Merry Wives of Windsor
. The latter play appears to contain jokes about Lucy's name similar to the "lousy" ballad, when Shallow and his dim-witted relative Slender discuss the "luces" (pike) in their coat of arms, which unintentionally becomes literally lice-ridden when this is misinterpreted as a "dozen white louses". Lucy's coat of arms contained "luces".
. She was the mother of the diplomat Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar
. Lucy's son, also called Thomas, married twice and had many children. In 1600, there was a major local scandal involving one of Lucy's granddaughters, who eloped with one of the family servants. Lucy died in the midst of this humiliating incident. His son inherited the estate. His grandson Thomas was also an MP for Warwickshire.
House of Commons of England
The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of Great Britain...
in 1571 and 1585. He was a magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, but is best known for his links to William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
. As a Protestant activist he came into conflict with Shakespeare's Catholic relatives, and there are unconfirmed stories that the young Shakespeare himself had clashes with him.
Early life
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
and his wife Anne Fermer daughter of Richard Fermer of East Neston, Northamptonshire. The family were descended from the Norman de Lucy
De Lucy
de Lucy or de Luci is the surname of an old Norman noble family originating from Lucé in Normandy, one of the great baronial Anglo-Norman families which became rooted in England after the Norman conquest. The first records are about Adrian de Luci who went into England after William the Conqueror...
s.
Lucy rebuilt the house of Charlecote Park
Charlecote Park
Charlecote Park is a grand 16th century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon in Wellesbourne, about east of Stratford-upon-Avon and south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public...
in red brick in 1558. In 1565 he was knighted by the queen's favourite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
. In 1571, Lucy was elected Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Warwickshire
Warwickshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Warwickshire was a parliamentary constituency in the Warwickshire in England. It returned two Members of Parliament , traditionall known as knights of the shire, to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the bloc vote system.-Boundaries and franchise:The...
. Queen Elizabeth herself visited Charlecote Park in 1572.
Protestant activist
Lucy was a loyal supporter of Queen Elizabeth and an ardent protestantProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
, who had witnessed the persecution of protestants under Queen Mary, had been briefly a tutor
Tutor
A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...
in the Lucy household in around 1547. Following the plot by John Somerville
John Somerville (conspirator)
John Somerville was a conspirator against the life of Elizabeth I of England.His plan was discovered before he became a serious threat. His co-conspirator was William Parry. His father-in-law, Edward Arden was also arrested, found guilty by Christopher Wray and executed for the plot. Somerville...
against the life of Queen Elizabeth in 1582, and the arrest of Edward Arden
Edward Arden
Edward Arden was an English nobleman and head of the Arden family, who became a Catholic martyr.Arden lived in Park Hall, Castle Bromwich, an estate near modern-day Birmingham. He was a recusant Catholic and kept a priest, Hugh Hall, at his house disguised as a gardener...
as a conspirator, Lucy raided homes of the Arden family
Arden family
The Arden family is, according to an article by James Lees-Milne in the 18th edition of Burke's Peerage/Burke's Landed Gentry, volume 1, one of only three families in England that can trace its lineage in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon times...
to whom Shakespeare was related. Lucy also arrested and interrogated Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
families in the area after the missionary activities of the Jesuit, Edmund Campion
Edmund Campion
Saint Edmund Campion, S.J. was an English Roman Catholic martyr and Jesuit priest. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Protestant England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason by a kangaroo court, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn...
. In 1584 there was a dispute between Ananias Nason, one of Lucy's servants, and Hamnet Sadler, a friend of Shakespeare. Lucy arbitrated in the matter. Lucy was re-elected MP for Warwickshire in 1585.
Shakespeare
According to tradition the young Shakespeare wrote a lampoon of Lucy at some point in the mid 1580s. This either led to an attempt to prosecute him or to his prudent departure from the area. There are versions of a local ballad mocking Lucy's name and another suggesting his wife was unfaithful. Both were written down by collectors in the late 17th century. The former turns "Lucy" into "lousy",A parliament member, a justice of peace,
At home a poor scarecrow, at London an ass,
If lousy is Lucy as some folks miscall it
Then Lucy is lousy whatever befall it.
Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone
Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and then more congenial literary pursuits. He went to London, where he...
noted a different ballad seemingly ridiculing Lucy's marriage, which was still being sung in Stratford c. 1687-90 when Joshua Barnes
Joshua Barnes
Joshua Barnes , was an English scholar.He was born in London, the son of Edward Barnes, a merchant taylor.Educated at Christ's Hospital and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he was in 1695 chosen Regius Professor of Greek, a language which he wrote and spoke with the utmost facility.One of his first...
heard it and wrote it down. There is no evidence that Shakespeare wrote either ballad.
Another story, first recorded by Richard Davies in the late 17th century, is that the young man was involved in poaching from Lucy's estate. Davies wrote, "Shakespeare was much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and rabbits, particularly from Sir ----- Lucy who oft had him whipped and sometimes imprisoned and at last mad[e] him fly his native country to his great advancement." The story was also related by Shakespeare's first biographer, Nicholas Rowe
Nicholas Rowe
Nicholas Rowe may refer to:*Nicholas Rowe , English dramatist and Poet Laureate*James N. Rowe, James Nicholas "Nick" Rowe, , American military officer and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War...
who links it to the ballad,
For this he was prosecuted by that Gentleman, as he thought, somewhat too severely; and in order to revenge that ill Usage, he made a Ballad upon him. And tho' this, probably the first Essay of his Poetry, be lost, yet it is said to have been so very bitter, that it redoubled the Prosecution against him to that degree, that he was oblig'd to leave his Business and Family in Warwickshire, for some time, and shelter himself in London.
There are no surviving legal records to prove or disprove the poaching incident, or the ballad incident. The poaching story became popular in the Victorian period, appearing in many illustrations and paintings.
Shakespeare is sometimes thought to have satirised Lucy with the character of Justice Shallow, who appears in Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2
Henry IV, Part 2 is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written between 1596 and 1599. It is the third part of a tetralogy, preceded by Richard II and Henry IV, Part 1 and succeeded by Henry V.-Sources:...
and The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
. The latter play appears to contain jokes about Lucy's name similar to the "lousy" ballad, when Shallow and his dim-witted relative Slender discuss the "luces" (pike) in their coat of arms, which unintentionally becomes literally lice-ridden when this is misinterpreted as a "dozen white louses". Lucy's coat of arms contained "luces".
Family
Lucy married Joyce Acton, daughter of Thomas Acton of Sutton, Worcestershire. Their daughter Anne married Sir Edward Aston of TixallTixall
Tixall is a small village and former civil parish in the English county of Staffordshire lying on the western side of the Trent valley between Rugeley and Stone, Staffordshire and roughly 4 miles east of Stafford...
. She was the mother of the diplomat Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar
Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar
Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar was born in Staffordshire, England, about 1584, a son of Sir Edward Aston of Tixall and Anne Lucy of Charlecote Park....
. Lucy's son, also called Thomas, married twice and had many children. In 1600, there was a major local scandal involving one of Lucy's granddaughters, who eloped with one of the family servants. Lucy died in the midst of this humiliating incident. His son inherited the estate. His grandson Thomas was also an MP for Warwickshire.