Charles Lucas

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". A brave and capable cavalry commander with a reputation for bad temper and ruthlessness, he is chiefly remembered for the manner of his death. 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. 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). 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. 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.