Thomas Usk (died 4 March 1388) was appointed the under-
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
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
by
Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...
in 1387. His service in this role was brief and he was hanged in the following year.
His life
Born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, Usk was a petty bureaucrat, scrivener, and author.
The Westminster Chronicle
An important historical document for the reign of Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Pr ...
records his inglorious death.
Author of ''The Testament of Love'' and Contemporary of Chaucer
Born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, he is the author of ''The Testament of Love,'' which was once thought to be by
Geoffrey Chaucer. Usk was a Collector of Customs from 1381 to 1384, when
Geoffrey Chaucer was the Comptroller of Customs.
If they were not familiar with each other, Usk at least was familiar with Chaucer's poetry. In ''The Testament of Love,'' the god of Love praises "mine own true servant, the noble philosophical poet in English" who had written a poem on
Troilus
Troilus ( or ; grc, Τρωΐλος, Troïlos; la, Troilus) is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's '' Iliad,'' composed in the late 8th century BCE.
In Greek ...
(i.e. Chaucer).
Informant
Usk had been servant to
John Northampton when the latter was
Lord Mayor of London
The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
from 1381 to 1383. In 1384, he was arrested and released in exchange for informing against Northampton, for he had no desire, he said, to be "a stinking martyr." This earned him the enmity of the party led by the
Duke of Gloucester
Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curre ...
.
Imprisonment, appeal and execution
When Gloucester's party gained power through the
Merciless Parliament Usk was prosecuted in 1388 and sentenced to be drawn, hanged, and beheaded, with his head put up over
Newgate
Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to M ...
.
''The Testament of Love'' is an
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory ...
prose work written in prison to seek aid.
Walter Skeat found that the initial letters of the sections formed an acrostic saying, "MARGARET OF VIRTU HAVE MERCI ON TSKNVI." Properly decoded, the last word is "THINUSK," or "thin
Usk."
Usk had been a
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestantism, proto-Protestant Christianity, Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initial ...
, but he was brought back to the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
while in prison. He was hanged at Tyburn in March 1388, and after his body was taken down it was decapitated after thirty strokes of the axe.
Works
''The Testament of Love''Ed. by R. Allen Shoaf. TEAMS Middle English Text Series.
Notes
References
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The Westminster Chronicle
An important historical document for the reign of Richard II
Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Pr ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Usk, Thomas
Lollards
Writers from London
1388 deaths
14th-century English writers
Executed people from London
People executed under the Plantagenets by decapitation
14th-century executions by England
Year of birth unknown