Charles Lucas
Sir Charles Lucas | |
---|---|
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.
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
Career
As a young man, Lucas served under his brother John in the
Early in 1643, Lucas raised a regiment of horse, with which he defeated Middleton at
At
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
On 20 June 1648, Parliament had declared all those who took part in the Second Civil War were guilty of
As members of the nobility, Norwich, Hastings and Capel were sent to the
Since Gascoigne, or Bernardo Guasconi, was from
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
- ^ Known as the "Stinchcombe Quarter", other sources attribute this action to Prince Rupert of the Rhine
References
- ^ a b c Firth 1893, p. 230.
- ^ a b c d e f g Donagan 2004.
- ^ "Family of Sir Thomas (1573–1625)". Lucasfamily.uk. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
- ^ Cavendish 1886, pp. 283–284.
- ^ a b Anonymous 1911, p. 93.
- ^ a b Gentles 1992, p. 257.
- ^ Gentles 1992, p. 256.
- ^ Firth 1893, p. 230 cites Clarendon Rebellion, xi. 108.
- ^ Firth 1893, p. 230 cites Life of Newcastle, ed. Firth, p. 282.
- ^ Firth 1893, p. 231 cites Warburton, Prince Rupert, ii. 370; Vicars, God's Ark. p. 399.
Sources
- public domain: Anonymous (1911). "Lucas, Sir Charles". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 93. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Cavendish, Margaret (1886). Firth, Charles Harding (ed.). The Life of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, to which is Added the True Relation of My Birth, Breeding and Life. JC Nimmo.
- Donagan, Barbara (2004). "Lucas, Sir Charles (1612/13–1648)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17123. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Gentles, Ian (1992). The New Model Army in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1645-1653. Blackwell. ISBN 978-0631158691.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Firth, Charles Harding (1893). "Lucas, Charles (d.1648)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 34. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 229–231. contains a bibliography of:
- Lloyd's Memoirs of Excellent Personages, 1668, contains a Lives of the Lucases
- Heath's New Book of Loyal English Martyrs contains a Lives of the Lucases
- Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey, A Memoir of the Life of Sir Charles Lucas, 4to, was privately printed in 1845.
- The Life of William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, Firth (ed). 1886, App. pp. 363–369; contains an account of Lucas
- Morant's History of Colchester, 1789, has an account of the family of Lucas, with a pedigree
- Morant's History of Essex, 1758, has an account of the family of Lucas, with a pedigree
- Warburton's Prince Rupert in the Fairfax Papers, contains the Letters of Sir Charles Lucas
- Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Rep. pt. ii., contains the Letters of Sir Charles Lucas
Further reading
- David Appleby (1996), Our Fall Our Fame: The Life and Times of Sir Charles Lucas (1613–1648), Newtown: Jacobus Publications, ISBN 978-1-898621-45-4.