Thomas Lucy

Sir Thomas Lucy (24 April 1532 – 7 July 1600) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1571 and 1585. He was a magistrate in Warwickshire, but is best known for his links to William Shakespeare. As a Protestant activist he came into conflict with Shakespeare's Catholic relatives, and there are stories that the young Shakespeare himself had clashes with him.

Thomas Lucy was the eldest son and heir of William Lucy (d.1551) of Charlecote near Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, and Anne Fermer, the daughter of Richard Fermer of Easton Neston, Northamptonshire. His paternal grandparents were Sir Thomas Lucy (d.1525) and Anne Empson, the daughter of Richard Empson, one of Henry VII's chief ministers. The family were descended from the Norman de Lucys.

Lucy rebuilt the house of Charlecote Park in red brick in 1558. In 1565 he was knighted by the queen's favourite, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester. In 1571, Lucy was elected Member of Parliament for Warwickshire.Queen Elizabeth herself visited Charlecote Park in 1572.

Lucy was a loyal supporter of Queen Elizabeth and an ardent Protestant. John Foxe, who had witnessed the persecution of Protestants under Queen Mary, had been briefly a tutor in the Lucy household in around 1547. Following the plot by John Somerville against the life of Queen Elizabeth in 1582, and the arrest of Edward Arden as a conspirator, Lucy raided homes of the Arden family to whom Shakespeare was related. Lucy also arrested and interrogated Catholic families in the area after the missionary activities of the Jesuit, Edmund Campion. In 1584 there was a dispute between Ananias Nason, one of Lucy's servants, and Hamnet Sadler, a friend of Shakespeare. Lucy arbitrated in the matter. Lucy was re-elected MP for Warwickshire in 1585.

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