1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lucy, Richard de

LUCY, RICHARD DE (d. 1179), called the “loyal,” chief justiciar of England, appears in the latter part of Stephen’s reign as sheriff and justiciar of the county of Essex. He became, on the accession of Henry II., chief justiciar conjointly with Robert de Beaumont, earl of Leicester; and after the death of the latter (1168) held the office without a colleague for twelve years. The chief servant and intimate of the king he was among the first of the royal party to incur excommunication in the Becket controversy. In 1173 he played an important part in suppressing the rebellion of the English barons, and commanded the royalists at the battle of Fornham. He resigned the justiciarship in 1179, though pressed by the king to continue in office, and retired to Lesues Abbey in Kent, which he had founded and where he died. Lucy’s son, Godfrey de Lucy (d. 1204), was bishop of Winchester from 1189 to his death in September 1204; he took a prominent part in public affairs during the reigns of Henry II., Richard I. and John.

See J. H. Round, Geoffrey de Mandeville (1892); Sir J. H. Ramsay, Angevin Empire (1903); and W. Stubbs, Constitutional History, vol. i.