Charles Lucas - Biography

Biography

Lucas was the son of Sir Thomas Lucas of Colchester, Essex. As a young man Lucas served in the Netherlands under the command of his brother, and in the "Bishops' Wars" he commanded Cheesea troop of horses in King Charles I's army. In 1639 he was knighted. At the outbreak of the First English Civil War, Lucas naturally took the king's side, and at the first cavalry engagement, the Battle of Powick Bridge, he was wounded.

Early in 1643 Lucas raised a regiment of horse, with which he defeated Middleton at Padbury on 1 July. In January 1645 he commanded the forces attacking Nottingham, and soon afterwards, on Prince Rupert's recommendation, 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 mountains into Yorkshire he was quickly joined by Newcastle's squadrons.

At the Battle of Marston Moor Lucas swept Fairfax's Yorkshire horse before him, but later in the day he was taken prisoner, in a battle won decisively by Parliament. Exchanged for Parliamentary prisoners during the winter, he defended Berkeley Castle for a short time against Thomas Rainsborough, but was soon back in the field. As lieutenant-general of all the horse, he accompanied Lord Astley in the last campaign of the first war and, taken prisoner again at Stow-on-the-Wold, he agreed not to bear arms against Parliament in the future.

During the Second English Civil War he broke this parole when he took a prominent part in the seizure of Colchester in 1648. After a three month siege, the town surrendered to Fairfax on 28 August.

When Colchester capitulated the superior officers were obliged to "render themselves to mercy", and Lucas was condemned to death by a court-martial. The sentence was the result of the exasperation felt by the puritan officers against the authors of the second civil war, but can neither be regarded as a breach of the capitulation, nor be specially attributed to Fairfax. Parliament by its votes of 20 June 1648 had declared all who took part in the new civil war guilty of high treason, and Ireton used this argument to justify the sentence. "I am no traitor", answered Lucas, "but a true subject to my king and the laws of the kingdom. … I do plead before you all the laws of this kingdom. I have fought with a commission from those that were my sovereigns, and from that commission I must justify my action". Lucas and his fellow-prisoner, Sir George Lisle, were shot on 28 August in the castle yard at Colchester, and buried in the vault of the Lucas family in the north aisle of St. Giles's Church, Colchester.

Twelve years later, on 7 June 1661, the funeral of Lucas and Lisle was solemnly celebrated by the town of Colchester, and a stone was placed by Lord Lucas on their tomb, with an inscription stating that they were, "by the command of Sir Thomas Fairfax, in cold blood barbarously murdered". By way of reparation, Lucas was awarded a posthumous peerage in 1666.