Lucius Cary: a sensitve and intelligent man; ahead of his times

Today I attended a talk by our brilliant local historian, Dave Stubbs about the life, times, death and memorial of the wonderful Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland (1610-1643).  Lucius was born to Sir Henry Cary and his wife Elizabeth of Burford Priory, now a Grade I listed country house now owned by Elizabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert Murdoch, together with Matthew Freud.  (My only comment is what a pity it is not owned by the National Trust).  Lucius spent his childhood here, looked after by his grandparents as his father was Lord Deputy in Ireland.  He was then educated at Cambridge and Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a BA in 1625. 

Lucius was made a Lord in1620.  Though the Cary's were an English family with no connection to Scotland, his viscountcy, Falkland, was a royal burgh in Scotland.  Letters were later issued naturalising the Viscount and his successors as Scottish subjects. 

 

The family was not without problems.  Elizabeth Cary converted to Catholicism and was disinherited.  Thus Lucius inherited the manors of Great Tew and Burford from his Grandfather.  At about the age of 21, he married Lettice Moryson.  This upset the family as she was not rich and Lucius fell out with his father.  Unable to win him over despite offering to hand over to him his estate, Lucius left England to take service in the Dutch army.  This was a common move at the time as England had no need of an army and thus little expertise.  Holland, on the other hand had been fighting Spain for decades and had developed a skillful force.  Lucius did not take to the military life however and soon returned.  He was never able to make up with his father who died in 1633 in a hunting accident. His mother sought to attract Lucius to catholicism, but his studies and reflections led him to the interpretation of religion rather by reason than by traditional authority.  

In 1634 Lucius sold the priory.  He decamped to the manor house at Great Tew in the Cotswolds.  Seeking to avoid political circles and with a thirst for knowledge he surrounded himself with like minded free thinkers. His friends were known as the 'Great Tew Circle'. This was a short but happy period of Lucius' life; the cultured circle, the proximity of the university and the attractive air and setting added to the euphoria.  His brilliant qualities and hospitality attracted the friendships of John Hales, Ben Johnson, Abraham Cowley and other philosophers, poets and thinkers.  These men were not happy to be dictated to by conventional society.  They discussed and conformed to Socinianism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socinianism) and Transylvanian Ubitarianism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitarian_Church_of_Transylvania)  Essentially they were early Dissenters; spiritual people rejecting the dogma and narrow mindedness of the established church and gospels.
Lucius said 'I am fully assured God does not require anymore than belief in scriptures and living according to it'. He was happy and contented at Great Tew, raising his family in an idyllic setting, stimulated by his circle of friends.  However, Charles I was becoming a problem.  He was pushing his luck as a monarch and extorting excessive taxes whilst living a blatantly hedonistic life.  His attempts to force the Church of Scotland to adopt high Anglican practices led to the Bishops' Wars, strengthened the position of the English and Scottish parliaments and helped precipitate his own downfall. From 1642, Charles fought the armies of the English and Scottish parliaments in the English Civil War.  As an aristocrat, Lucius was inevitably drawn in.  By now, he had reluctantly entered politcs, as MP for Newport in the Isle of Wight.  Whilst not agreeing with the King he did accept his Authority and volunteered to fight against Scotland in the Bishops' Wars.
As an MP Lucius tried to moderate the measures of the House of Commons in the interests of justice.  On the question of the church he urged, in the debate of 8 February 1641, that the interference of the clergy in secular matters, the encroachments in jurisdiction of the spiritual courts, and the imposition by authority of unnecessary ceremonies, should be prohibited.  
He was one of the peers who signed the protestation against making war on 15 June 1642.

On 5 September 1642 he carried Charles's overtures for peace to the parliament, when he Knformed the leaders of the opposition that the King consented to a thorough reformation of religion. 

Lucius fought for the Royalists at the Battle of Edgehill (23 October 1642) and at the siege of Gloucester. Both of these were lost by the King. By this time the hopelessness of the situation had completely overwhelmed Lucius. The aims and principles of neither party in the conflict werecompatible with his ideals and vision. His royalism could not suffer the substitution a parliament for the monarchy, nor his conservatism the revolutionary changes in church and state now insisted upon by parliament. The victory of either side could only bring misery; and the prolongation of the war was a prospect equally unhappy.
Lord Falkland's ideals and hopes were destroyed. The Earl of Clarendon recorded his final relapse into despair:

Sitting amongst his friends, often, after a deep silence and frequent sighs (he) would with a shrill and sad accent ingeminate the word "Peace, Peace," and would passionately profess that the very agony of the war, and the view of the calamities and desolation the kingdom did and must endure, took his sleep from him and would shortly break his heart. 

At the Siege of Gloucester Lucius had already exposed himself to risks to no avail. On the morning of the the First Battle of Newbury (see my blog post http://carrying-on-as-best-i-can.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/history-on-my-doorstep-first-battle-of.html ), he declared to his friends that "he was weary of the times and foresaw much misery to his own Country and did believe he should be out of it ere night."  During the battle Lucius rode alone out of a gap in a hedge commanded by the enemy's fire, and was immediately killed.

His body was stripped, trodden upon and mangled.  It was recovered by his manservant who recognised a mole.  The body was taken to what is now Falkland Farmhouse and then the Bear Inn on Oxford Road.  Finally Lucius was laid to rest in Great Tew, where he was buried in an unmarked grave in the village churchyard. There is an effigy of him at Burford church at his grandparents tomb. 

The Great Tew Manor House was demolished in about 1800 but outlying structures including its stables, dovecote and stone gatepiers survive.  

 

I now understand why the school my daughter attended is so named: Falkland Primary is built on the site of the Battle. The family connection  with the Falkland Islands has also been explained.  Captain John Strong, commander of the Welfare, sailed between the two principal islands in 1690 and called the passage "Falkland Channel"  after Anthony Cary, 5th Viscount Falkland, grandson of Lucius.  The island group later took its collective name from this body of water.

The Falkland Memorial, Wash Common, was erected in 1878.  The original idea was to commemorate everyone who fell at the first Battle of Newbury.  However the plan was outvoted by the Earl of Carnarvon and the members of the committee who wanted a Royalist memorial. And, so it was. The design was by local architect John Money and carved out of Cornish granite brought at great cost from a couple of Cornish quarries and crafted by a Penryn company.  

The subscription to build the memorial was run by the Newbury District Field Club, led by Walter Money (author of The Battles of Newbury, brother of the architect). The main contributor was the Earl of Carnarvon (he may even have given the land) so he had the say on the wording. 

Three hundred and seventy two years to the day after the battle, on the 20th September, 2015, the National Trust, The Battlefield Trust and Newbury Town Council unveiled a new interpretation board.  The current Lord Falkland was also present. 

The wording of the new board is intended to not only give more immediate information on the memorial but to meet the desire of local people to see a more balanced context of the fighting that took place on our local fields and to remember ALL who fought here in 1643. They were combatants in a battle which became a pivotal part of the journey towards the parliamentary democracy we enjoy today. It was an occasion when Newbury stood at the cross roads of history and we should always remember the part its fields played in such a major event.

These days I look at the monument with more awareness.  I think of the remarkable Lucius Cary and those others who died whose names and stories we will never know.