Sir Thomas Lucy (24 April 15327 July 1600) 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 stories that the young Shakespeare himself had clashes with him.

Early life

Thomas Lucy was the eldest son and heir of William Lucy (died 1551) of Charlecote near

Stratford-on-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-wes ...

, Warwickshire, and Anne Fermer, the daughter of Richard Fermer of

Easton Neston Easton Neston is situated in south Northamptonshire, England. Though the village of Easton Neston which was inhabited until around 1500 is now gone, the parish retains the name. At the 2011 Census the population of the civil parish remained le ...

, Northamptonshire. His paternal grandparents were Sir Thomas Lucy (died 1525) and Elizabeth Empson, the daughter of Richard Empson, one of Henry VII's chief ministers. The family were descended from the

Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 *Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature *Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 1066 ...

de Lucy family. On his father's death, Lucy inherited Sherborne and Hampton Lucy in addition to the house of Charlecote Park, which was rebuilt for him in red brick by John of Padua, known as John Thorpe, about 1558. Through his marriage he also inherited Sutton Park in Worcestershire. In 1565, he was knighted by the queen's favourite,

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, (24 June 1532 – 4 September 1588) was an English statesman and the favourite of Elizabeth I from her accession until his death. He was a suitor for the queen's hand for many years. Dudley's youth was ov ...

, at the queen's behest. In 1571, Lucy was elected Member of Parliament for Warwickshire.

Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth, Queen Elisabeth or Elizabeth the Queen may refer to: Queens regnant * Elizabeth I (1533–1603; ), Queen of England and Ireland * Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022 ...

herself visited Charlecote Park in 1572.

Protestant activist

Lucy was a loyal supporter of

and an ardent Protestant.

John Foxe John Foxe (1516/1517 – 18 April 1587), an English historian and martyrologist, was the author of '' Actes and Monuments'' (otherwise ''Foxe's Book of Martyrs''), telling of Christian martyrs throughout Western history, but particularly the su ...

, who had witnessed the

persecution of Protestants Anti-Protestantism is bias, hatred or distrust against some or all branches of Protestantism and/or its List of Christian denominations#Protestantism, followers. Anti-Protestantism dates back to before the Protestant Reformation itself, as va ...

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 Edward Arden (c. 1542–1583) 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 ...

as a conspirator, Lucy raided homes of the

Arden family The Arden family is an English gentry family that can be traced back in the male line back to Anglo-Saxon landholders who managed to maintain status after the 1066 invasion of England by the Normans of France. The family takes its name from the Fo ...

to whom Shakespeare was related. Lucy also arrested and interrogated Catholic families in the area after the missionary activities of the

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

, Edmund Campion.PBS Shakespeare players
/ref> 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, and in 1586 he became high sheriff of the county. He often appeared at

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

and as commissioner of musters for the county. As a justice of the peace, he showed great zeal against Catholics and took his share in the arrest of

in 1583.

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.Russell A. Fraser, ''Shakespeare: a life in art'', Transaction Publishers, 2007, p. 72. 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.Terry A. Gray
"The Lost Years"
Palomar College. 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.

Poaching

Another story, first recorded by Richard Davies in the late 17th century, is that the young Shakespeare was involved in poaching from Lucy's estate. Lucy was at the time noted for his effort in preservation of

game A game is a structured form of play (activity), play, usually undertaken for enjoyment, entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Many games are also considered to be work (such as professional players of spectator s ...

, for which he had introduced a bill into Parliament in 1585. Davies wrote, "Shakespeare was much given to all unluckiness in stealing venison and

rabbits Rabbits, also known as bunnies or bunny rabbits, are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also contains the hares) of the order Lagomorpha (which also contains the pikas). ''Oryctolagus cuniculus'' includes the European rabbit specie ...

, particularly from Sir –– Lucy who oft had him whipped and sometimes imprisoned and at last mad 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:

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 Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literature ...

period, appearing in many illustrations and paintings. In 1834 Walter Savage Landor published ''Citation and Examination of William Shakespeare'', one of his "

Imaginary Conversations ''Imaginary Conversations'' is Walter Savage Landor's most celebrated prose work. Begun in 1823, sections were constantly revised and were ultimately published in a series of five volumes. The conversations were in the tradition of dialogues with ...

", which is presented as the record of Shakespeare's examination by Lucy. Lucy is portrayed as a "mildly pretentious" figure, "longing for the good old days when classes knew their place". The story has been objected to on the grounds that there were no deer being kept in Charlecote until after Shakespeare's death. Edmond Malone wrote that Lucy did not own a park at this time and that it would have been illegal to keep deer outside a licensed deer park. John Semple Smart and

Edgar Innes Fripp Edgar Innes Fripp (27 November 1861 – 9 November 1931) was a Unitarian minister and English antiquarian who specialized in Shakespearean research in the archives of Stratford-upon-Avon, and the father of the artist Paul Fripp. Life Born ...

also tried to disprove the story by arguing that Lucy could not have kept deer in the 1580s. Samuel Schoenbaum, however, noted that Lucy had a "free warren", which would have supported rabbits, hares, pheasants and other birds, along with larger animals—which could have included roe-deer.

Justice Shallow as satire of Lucy

Shakespeare is sometimes thought to have satirised Lucy with the character of

Justice Shallow Robert Shallow is a fictional character who appears in Shakespeare's plays '' Henry IV, Part 2'' and '' The Merry Wives of Windsor''. He is a wealthy landowner and Justice of the Peace in Gloucestershire, who at the time of ''The Merry Wives of ...

, who appears in '' Henry IV, Part 2'' and ''

The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...

''. The latter play seems 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". The theory dates back to c. 1688–1700, as part of Davies's comments that Lucy "oft had him whipped and sometimes imprisoned". He goes on, "his revenge is so great that he ucyis his Justice Clodpate .e. Shallow and calls him a great man and that in allusion to his name bore three louses rampant for his Arms". Samuel Schoenbaum says that a direct parody of Lucy is unlikely. Schoenbaum asks why Shakespeare would risk offending "well placed friends of a man who had done the state some service". The fact that the evidence for the alleged parody of Lucy is confined to the ''Merry Wives'' suggests that the character was not invented with Lucy in mind. Certainly "Lucy was, in physical form, social condition and personality, nothing like Shallow" as described in ''Henry IV, Part 2''.

Leslie Hotson John Leslie Hotson, (16 August 1897 – 16 November 1992) was a scholar of Elizabethan literary puzzles. Biography He was born at Delhi, Ontario, on 16 August 1897. He studied at Harvard University, where he obtained a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. He we ...

argues that the satire in ''Merry Wives'' is not directed at Lucy, but at William Gardiner, a corrupt Justice of the Peace whose coat of arms also contained luces, though Shakespeare may have remembered the luces/louses pun from anti-Lucy jokes in Stratford.

, ''Shakespeare Versus Shallow'', Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1931, p. 87. Shakespeare had come into conflict with Gardiner during the latter's attempts to close the

Swan Theatre The Swan was a theatre in Southwark, London, England, built in 1595 on top of a previously standing structure, during the first half of William Shakespeare's career. It was the fifth in the series of large public playhouses of London, aft ...

Family

Lucy married Joyce Acton, daughter of Thomas Acton of Sutton, Worcestershire. Their daughter Anne married Sir Edward Aston of

Tixall Tixall is a small village and civil parish in the Stafford district, 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. The populat ...

. She was the mother of the diplomat

Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar Walter Aston, 1st Lord Aston of Forfar (baptised 9 July 1584 – 13 August 1639) was an English courtier and diplomat. Life Aston was born in Staffordshire, England, about 1584; he was a son of Sir Edward Aston of Tixall and his second wife Ann ...

. 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.

Notes

References

* *''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'', article on Thomas Lucy (1532–1600). {{DEFAULTSORT:Lucy, Thomas 1532 births 1600 deaths English Anglicans English lawyers English MPs 1559 English MPs 1571 English MPs 1584–1585 English knights English justices of the peace Knights Bachelor 16th-century English lawyers