Lucy, Richard de

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Lucy, Richard de (d. 1179). Justiciar. De Lucy was one of the chief props of Henry II's reign. He came from the knightly class. He originally supported Stephen and by the treaty of Winchester of 1153, which arranged the succession, he was put in charge of the Tower. He was joint justiciar with the earl of Leicester until 1168 and sole justiciar until 1178. He supported the king against Thomas Becket, who excommunicated him in 1166 and again in 1169 as ‘a promoter of royal tyranny’. In the great crisis of Henry's reign in 1173–4, when the king was campaigning against rebels on the continent, de Lucy was the mainstay at home, driving back William the Lion of Scotland and defeating the rebel earl of Leicester at Fornham St Genevieve. He held the office of justiciar for well over twenty years and was known as ‘the loyal’.

J. A. Cannon

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