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Sir Charles Lucas

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR CHARLES LUCAS (d. 1648), English soldier, was the son of Sir Thomas Lucas of Colchester, Essex. As a young man he saw service in the Netherlands under the command of his brother, and in the "Bishops' War" he commanded a troop of horse in King Charles I.'s army. In 1639 he was made a knight. At the outbreak of the Civil War Lucas naturally took the king's side, and at the first cavalry fight, Powick Bridge, he was wounded. Early in 1643 he raised a regiment of horse, with which he defeated Middleton at Padbury on July 1st. In January 1644 he commanded the forces attacking Nottingham, and soon afterwards, on Prince Rupert's recommendation, he was made lieutenant-general 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 Marston Moor Lucas swept Fairfax's Yorkshire horse before him, but later in the day he was taken prisoner. Exchanged during the winter, he defended Berkeley Castle for a short time against Rainsborough, but was soon in the field again. As lieutenant-general of all the horse he accompanied Lord Astley in the last campaign of the first war, and, taken prisoner at Stow-on-the-Wold, he engaged not to bear arms against parliament in the future. This parole he must be held to have broken when he took a prominent part in the seizure of Colchester in 1648. That place was soon invested, and finally fell, after a desperate resistance, to Fairfax's army. The superior officers had to surrender "at mercy," and Lucas and Sir George Lisle were immediately tried by court martial and sentenced to death. The two Royalists were shot the same evening in the Castle of Colchester.

See Lloyd, Memoirs of Excellent Personages (1669)

and Earl de Grey, A Memoir of the Life of Sir Charles Lucas (1845).