Richard de Luci (or Lucy; 1089 – 14 July 1179) was first noted as
High Sheriff of Essex, after which he was made Chief
Justiciar of England.
Biography
His mother was Aveline, the niece and heiress of William Goth. In the charter for
Sées Cathedral
Sées Cathedral (french: Basilique Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Sées) is a Roman Catholic church and national monument of France in Sées (formerly also Séez) in Normandy. It is the seat of the Bishop of Séez.
The cathedral was declared a basi ...
in February 1130–31
Henry I refers to Richard de Luci and his mother, Aveline. His brother,
Walter de Luci, was abbot of
Battle Abbey
Battle Abbey is a partially ruined Benedictine abbey in Battle, East Sussex, England. The abbey was built on the site of the Battle of Hastings and dedicated to St Martin of Tours. It is a Scheduled Monument.
The Grade I listed site is no ...
.
[Knowles ''The Monastic Order in England'' p. 589]
An early reference to the
de Luci family refers to the render by
Henry I of the Lordship of
Diss
Diss or DISS may refer to:
*Diss, Alberta, a place in Canada
*Diss, Norfolk, a market town in England, United Kingdom
**Diss railway station
**Diss Rugby Club
** Diss Town F.C.
*Diss grass, a Mediterranean grass
*Diss (music), a song whose primary ...
,
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...
to Richard de Luci, Governor of
Falaise,
Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
, after defending it with great valour and heroic conduct when besieged by
Geoffrey, Earl of Anjou.
In 1153–4 de Luci was granted
Chipping Ongar
Chipping Ongar () is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ongar, in the Epping Forest District of the county of Essex, England. It is located east of Epping, southeast of Harlow and northwest of Brentwood. In 2020 t ...
,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...
by William, son of
King Stephen and his wife,
Maud of Boulogne. He may have built the motte and bailey
Ongar Castle, although it is also attributed to
Eustace II Count of Boulogne (c1015 – c1087). Richard de Luci was appointed
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of both Essex and
Hertfordshire for 1156.
When
Henry II came to the throne in 1154, de Luci was made Chief
Justiciar of England jointly with
Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester. When de Beaumont died in 1168, de Luci continued to hold the office in his own right.
[Powicke ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 69] One of the members of his household was
Roger fitzReinfrid, the brother of
Walter de Coutances. Roger became a royal judge and later donated land to
Lesnes Abbey in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, which had been founded by de Luci.
[Keats-Rohan ''Domesday Descendants'' p. 942]
He resigned his office between September 1178 and Easter of 1179,
[ and retired to Lesnes Abbey, where, three months later on 14 July 1179, he died and was buried.
De Luci's wife, Rohese, who is named in several documents, was possibly a sister of Faramus de Boulogne.][Richardson, D. (2011) ''Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study ...'' p. 202 (vi]
Google
Rohese and Faramus were children of William de Boulogne who was the son of Geoffrey fitz Eustace (son of Eustace II, Count of Boulogne
Eustace II, (), also known as Eustace aux Grenons ("Eustace with long moustaches"),Heather J. Tanner, 'Eustace (II), count of Boulogne (d. c.1087)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. was Count of Boulogne fro ...
) and Beatrice, daughter of Norman magnate Geoffrey de Mandeville.
Notes
References
* ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''
* Powicke, F. Maurice and E. B. Fryde ''Handbook of British Chronology'' 2nd. ed. London:Royal Historical Society 1961
*
External links
The Lucy & Lucey Family net
*
* Knowles, Dom David ''The Monastic Order in England: From the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council'' Second Edition Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976 reprint
{{DEFAULTSORT:Luci, Richard De
1089 births
1179 deaths
People from Epping Forest District
Anglo-Normans
Justiciars of England
High Sheriffs of Essex
High Sheriffs of Hertfordshire
People from Chipping Ongar