Charles Lucas

Last updated

Sir
Charles Lucas
Lord Charles lucas.jpg
Sir Charles Lucas
Personal details
Born1613
Colchester, Essex
Died28 August 1648(1648-08-28) (aged 35)
Colchester, Essex
Resting placeSt. Giles's Church, Colchester (now St. Giles Masonic Centre)
NationalityEnglish
Alma mater Christ's College, Cambridge
Military service
AllegianceRoyal Standard of England (1603-1689).svg Royalists
Rank Lieutenant General
Battles/wars

Sir Charles Lucas, 1613 to 28 August 1648, was a professional soldier from Essex, who served as a Royalist cavalry leader during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Taken prisoner at the end of the First English Civil War in March 1646, he was released after swearing not to fight against Parliament again, an oath he broke when the Second English Civil War began in 1648. As a result, he was executed following his capture at the Siege of Colchester in August 1648, and became a Royalist martyr after the 1660 Stuart Restoration.

Contents

Royalist statesman and historian Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, described Lucas as "rough, proud, uncultivated and morose", but "a gallant man to look upon and follow". [1] A brave and capable cavalry commander with a reputation for bad temper and ruthlessness, he is chiefly remembered for the manner of his death. [2]

Personal details

Charles Lucas was born in Colchester, Essex in 1613, youngest son of Sir Thomas Lucas (1573–1625) and his wife Elizabeth (died 1647). One of eight children, the eldest brother Thomas (1598–1649) was technically illegitimate, and so the second brother John (1606–1671) inherited the family estates. [2] Lucas also had five sisters, Mary (1608–1646), wife of Sir Peter Killigrew (1593–1668), Anne (1614–?), Elizabeth (1612–1691), who married Sir William Walter (1604–1675), and Catherine (1605–1702), wife of Sir Edmund Pye (1607–1673). [3] His youngest sister Margaret (1623–1673), was a prolific author and scientist who in 1645 married William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle (1593–1676), Royalist commander in Northern England from 1642 to 1644. [4]

Career

As a young man, Lucas served under his brother John in the Eighty Years War, and during the 1639 to 1640 Bishops' Wars commanded a troop of cavalry in the army of Charles I, being knighted in 1639. When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, Lucas joined the Royalist army, and was wounded at the Battle of Powick Bridge, the first major engagement of the conflict. [2]

Early in 1643, Lucas raised a regiment of horse, with which he defeated Middleton at Padbury on 1 July. In January 1644, he commanded the forces attacking Nottingham, and soon afterwards, on the recommendation of Prince Rupert, he was made lieutenant-general of the Duke of Newcastle's Northern army. When Newcastle was shut up in York, Lucas and the cavalry remained in the open country, and when Rupert's relieving army crossed the hills into Yorkshire he was quickly joined by Newcastle's squadrons. [2]

At Marston Moor in July 1644, Lucas swept Sir Thomas Fairfax's horse from the field, but the battle was a decisive Parliamentarian victory and he was captured during the fighting. Exchanged for Parliamentary prisoners during the winter, in December 1645 he defended Berkeley Castle against forces led by Thomas Rainsborough. The garrison surrendered after being granted free passage to the nearest Royalist territory, and Lucas became lieutenant-general of the remnants of the Royalist cavalry. In March 1646, he was captured once again at Stow-on-the-Wold, the last major battle of the First Civil War. [5]

Lucas was released after promising not to bear arms against Parliament again, and in March 1648 compounded for the return of his estates after swearing an oath of loyalty. [2] When the Second English Civil War began in May 1648, he ignored both agreements and took a prominent part in the seizure of Colchester; following a three-month siege, the town surrendered on 28 August 1648. [5]

Execution & burial

Lucas and Lisle monument, Colchester Castle Colchester Castle - Lucas and Lisle monument.JPG
Lucas and Lisle monument, Colchester Castle

On 20 June 1648, Parliament had declared all those who took part in the Second Civil War were guilty of high treason. When Colchester capitulated, the Royalist commanders, including Lucas, Lord Norwich, Sir Arthur Capel, Henry Hastings, Sir George Lisle and Bernard Gascoigne were obliged to "render themselves to mercy", while the rest of the garrison were given "quarter". These terms had specific and well-known military meanings; prisoners granted "quarter" were guaranteed their lives, "mercy" left it to the discretion of the victorious commander. [2] The ferocity of the siege meant many senior officers of the New Model Army were in no mood to pardon those they considered responsible for a second and unnecessary round of bloodshed. This was especially true of Royalists like Lucas who had already been pardoned once before. [6]

As members of the nobility, Norwich, Hastings and Capel were sent to the Tower of London for trial; [7] Capel was executed in March 1649, while Norwich and Hastings were exiled. Lucas, Lisle and Gascoigne were condemned to death by a court martial, a sentence Henry Ireton justified by reference to the ruling by Parliament in June. Although Lucas knew he had broken the terms of his parole and did not expect mercy a second time, he argued that he had acted as "a true subject to my king and the laws of the kingdom" and "fought with a commission from those that were my sovereigns, and from that commission I must justify my action". [1] His fate was sealed when two soldiers who had previously served in the Parliamentarian garrison of Stinchcombe, Gloucestershire gave evidence that after their surrender in 1645, Lucas had ordered the execution of over 20 men. [6] [lower-alpha 1]

Since Gascoigne, or Bernardo Guasconi, was from Florence, he was reprieved by Parliament, which was wary of antagonising a foreign power, but Lucas and Lisle were executed by firing squad on 28 August 1648 in the castle yard at Colchester, and interred in the Lucas family vault within St. Giles's Church. [1] Twelve years later, on 7 June 1661, the two men were reburied in an elaborate ceremony, and a stone placed by John Lucas, 1st Baron Lucas on their tombs. The inscription stated they were "by the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax in cold blood barbarously murdered", although in reality Fairfax had acted legally and in accordance with the terms of the capitulation. [2]

Contemporary reputation

Lucas was reputed to be one of the best cavalry leaders in the king's army. Even Clarendon, who claimed he was "rough, proud, uncultivated, morose" and intolerable off the battlefield, also described him as "very brave in his person, and in a day of battle a gallant man to look upon and follow". [8] According to his sister, Lucas "naturally had a practical genius to the warlike arts, as natural poets have to poetry, but his life was cut off before he could arrive at the true perfection thereof". He left a Treatise of the Arts of War, but being written in cipher it was never published. [9] To his military gifts Lucas added a devotion to the king's cause, which he sometimes expressed in singularly high-flown and poetical language. [10]

Notes

  1. Known as the "Stinchcombe Quarter", other sources attribute this action to Prince Rupert of the Rhine

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Marston Moor</span> 1644 battle of the First English Civil War

The Battle of Marston Moor was fought on 2 July 1644, during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1639–1653. The combined forces of the English Parliamentarians under Lord Fairfax and the Earl of Manchester and the Scottish Covenanters under the Earl of Leven defeated the Royalists commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine and the Marquess of Newcastle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Naseby</span> Decisive battle of the First English Civil War

The Battle of Naseby took place on 14 June 1645 during the First English Civil War, near the village of Naseby in Northamptonshire. The Parliamentarian New Model Army, commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell, destroyed the main Royalist army under Charles I and Prince Rupert. Defeat ended any real hope of Royalist victory, although Charles did not finally surrender until May 1646.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Fairfax</span> English politician and general (1612–1671)

Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, also known as Sir Thomas Fairfax, was an English politician, general and Parliamentary commander-in-chief during the English Civil War. An adept and talented commander, Fairfax led Parliament to many victories, notably the crucial Battle of Naseby, becoming effectively military ruler of England, but was eventually overshadowed by his subordinate Oliver Cromwell, who was more politically adept and radical in action against Charles I. Fairfax became unhappy with Cromwell's policy and publicly refused to take part in Charles's show trial. Eventually he resigned, leaving Cromwell to control the country. Because of this, and also his honourable battlefield conduct and his active role in the Restoration of the monarchy after Cromwell's death, he was exempted from the retribution exacted on many other leaders of the revolution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Ireton</span> English politician (1611–1651)

Henry Ireton was an English general in the Parliamentarian army during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and the son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell. He died of disease outside Limerick in November 1651.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle</span> 17th-century English soldier, courtier, and arts patron

William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle upon Tyne, KG, KB, PC, who after 1665 styled himself as Prince William Cavendish, was an English courtier and supporter of the arts. He was a renowned horse breeder, as well as being patron of the playwright Ben Jonson, and the intellectual group known as the Welbeck Circle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron</span> English parliamentary general (1584–1648)

Ferdinando Fairfax, 2nd Lord Fairfax of Cameron was an English nobleman and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1614 and 1648. He was a commander in the Parliamentary army in the English Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Waller</span> English soldier and politician (d. 1668)

Sir William Waller JP was an English soldier and politician, who commanded Parliamentarian armies during the First English Civil War. Elected MP for Andover to the Long Parliament in 1640, Waller relinquished his military positions under the Self-denying Ordinance in 1645. Although deeply religious and a devout Puritan, he belonged to the moderate Presbyterian faction, who opposed the involvement of the New Model Army in politics post 1646. As a result, he was one of the Eleven Members excluded by the army in July 1647, then again by Pride's Purge in December 1648 for refusing to support the Trial of Charles I, and his subsequent execution in January 1649.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ironside (cavalry)</span>

The Ironsides were troopers in the Parliamentarian cavalry formed by English political leader Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century, during the English Civil War. The name came from "Old Ironsides", one of Cromwell's nicknames.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second English Civil War</span> Part of Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1648)

The Second English Civil War took place between February and August 1648 in England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639–1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 1641–1653 Irish Confederate Wars, the 1639–1640 Bishops' Wars, and the 1649–1653 Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First English Civil War</span> First of the English Civil Wars (1642–1646)

The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646. It is part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which also include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo-Scottish war (1650–1652) and the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. Historians calculate some 15% to 20% of all adult males in England and Wales served in the military between 1639 and 1653, while around 4% of the total population died from war-related cause, versus 2.23% in World War I. These figures illustrate the impact of the conflict on society in general, and the bitterness it engendered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough</span>

Henry Hastings, 1st Baron Loughborough, 28 September 1610 to 10 January 1667, was the younger son of Henry Hastings, 5th Earl of Huntingdon, one of the most powerful landowners in Leicestershire. He fought with the Royalist army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and narrowly escaped execution after being captured at Colchester in 1648. He spent the next twelve years with the Stuart court in exile, and became a leading member of the Sealed Knot, a body set up to co-ordinate Royalist plots against The Protectorate. Hastings returned home after the 1660 Stuart Restoration, and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire in 1661, a position he retained until his death in January 1667.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Adwalton Moor</span> Battle that took place in 1643 during the First English Civil War

The Battle of Adwalton Moor occurred on 30 June 1643 at Adwalton, West Yorkshire, during the First English Civil War. In the battle, the Royalists loyal to King Charles led by the Earl of Newcastle soundly defeated the Parliamentarians commanded by Lord Fairfax.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Rossiter</span> English Parliamentarian soldier and politician (1619-1683)

Sir Edward Rossiter was an English landowner, soldier and politician from Lincolnshire. He fought with the Parliamentarian army in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and sat as an MP at various times between 1646 and 1660.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham</span> English politician

Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell, of Hadham Hall and Cassiobury House, Watford, both in Hertfordshire, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 until 1641 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Capell. He supported the Royalist cause in the Civil War and was executed on the orders of parliament in 1649.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Langport</span> Battle during the First English Civil War

The Battle of Langport took place on 10 July 1645 during the First English Civil War, near Langport in Somerset. Following its success at Naseby in June, the New Model Army under Sir Thomas Fairfax destroyed the last Royalist field army, led by Lord Goring. Parliamentarian victory allowed them to besiege the Royalist port of Bristol, which surrendered in September.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lisle (Royalist)</span>

Sir George Lisle was a professional soldier from London who briefly served in the later stages of the Eighty and Thirty Years War, then fought for the Royalists during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Captured at Colchester in August 1648, he was condemned to death by a Parliamentarian court martial and executed by firing squad along with his colleague Charles Lucas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siege of Colchester</span> A siege that occurred during the Second English Civil War

The siege of Colchester occurred in the summer of 1648 when the Second English Civil War reignited in several areas of Britain. Colchester found itself in the thick of the unrest when a Royalist army on its way through East Anglia to raise support for the King, was attacked by Lord-General Thomas Fairfax at the head of a Parliamentary force. The Parliamentarians' initial attack forced the Royalist army to retreat behind the town's walls, but they were unable to bring about victory, so they settled down to a siege. Despite the horrors of the siege, the Royalists resisted for eleven weeks and only surrendered following the defeat of the Royalist army in the North of England at the Battle of Preston (1648).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Lucas (Royalist)</span>

Sir Thomas Lucas, was a professional soldier from Lexden, just outside Colchester in Essex, England, who served with the Dutch States Army in the Eighty Years War and later fought in the Irish Confederate Wars.

George Porter (1622?–1683) was a royalist army officer of the First English Civil War.

The Storming of Shelford House was a confrontation of the English Civil War that took place from 1 to 3 November 1645. The Parliamentarian force of Colonel-General Sydnam Poyntz attacked the Royalist outpost of Shelford House, which was one of a group of strongholds defending the strategically important town of Newark-on-Trent. The house, owned by Philip Stanhope, 1st Earl of Chesterfield and controlled by his son Sir Philip Stanhope, and made up of mostly Catholic soldiers, was overwhelmed by the Parliamentarian force after calls for submission were turned down by Stanhope. The majority of the defenders were killed in the resulting sack by the Parliamentarians, commanded by Colonel John Hutchinson, and the house was then burned to the ground. Stanhope died soon afterwards from injuries he sustained in the attack.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Firth 1893, p. 230.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Donagan 2004.
  3. "Family of Sir Thomas (1573–1625)". Lucasfamily.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  4. Cavendish 1886, pp. 283–284.
  5. 1 2 Anonymous 1911, p. 93.
  6. 1 2 Gentles 1992, p. 257.
  7. Gentles 1992, p. 256.
  8. Firth 1893 , p. 230 cites Clarendon Rebellion, xi. 108.
  9. Firth 1893 , p. 230 cites Life of Newcastle, ed. Firth, p. 282.
  10. Firth 1893 , p. 231 cites Warburton, Prince Rupert, ii. 370; Vicars, God's Ark. p. 399.

Sources

Further reading