Dame Margaret Lucy

Biography

Margaret FitzLewis, daughter of Lewis John and Anne Montacute,was born circa 1439 at of West Horndon, Dunton, Ingrave, & Bishop's Ockendon in Cranham, Essex, England.1. Margaret FitzLewis died on 4 August 1466; Buried at West Horndon, Essex.1,3,4,6. Her brass effigy calls her “Margaret Wake”.

She married

1. Sir William Lucy, Sheriff of Herefordshire, Justice of the Peace for Buckinghamshire & Northamptonshire, Captain of Vernon Castle (Eure), son of Sir Walter Lucy and Eleanor l' Archedekne, before 6 October 1453; No issue. Date is probably wrong. The year is clearly wrong and should be 1455 or later.1,2,3,4,5,6
2. John Stafford, MP. killed in the Yorkist ranks at the battle of Towton in the following March, 1461. (Liaison - probably not married.)
3. Thomas Danvers. Fiancé; he sued for his promised marriage. “ Next she was courted by a rich lawyer Thomas Danvers, servant to Bishop Waynflete, her brother Sir Henry Lewis first acting as go-between in January/February 1463, about the time that he himself was pardoned and restored in blood.”
4. Thomas (not John) Wake, son of Thomas Wake, Esq. and Agnes Lovell, circa 1463; They had 1 son (John).1,2,3,4,5,6

Children

1. John Wake. S & h. Born 1466.

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Rev. H.L. Elliot (1898) "Fitz Lewes, of West Horndon, and the brasses at Ingrave" Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society vol.4 New Series. Page 39-40. < Archive.Org >

In Ingrave Church are two stones, with effigies in brass, brought from the old Church of West Horndon. The descriptions of these memorials, which follow, may be compared with those given on p. 254 of Vol. v., N.8., of these Transactions.

Margaret Fitz Lewes, who is commemorated on the slab which is placed on the South side of the Sacrarium, was, as we gather from the fragment of the inscription which still remains, another daughter of Anne Montacute. Sir Lewes John had two children of this name, and it seems unlikely that they should both have been by the same mother. The Margaret then, whose monumental stone is figxured on the opposite page, was probably the youngest daughter of the Knight. Neither her name nor her marriages are recorded in the pedigrees ; but from the arrangement of the shields on the brass, we conclude that she married three times. On her monument she is represented turning to the dexter, wearing a wired head-dress, a close fitting tunic, and over it a mantle fastened with cords, which hang down in front, and terminate about the middle of the body in tassels. The hands are in the posture of prayer, and at her feet is a small dog. The matrices of a motto in front of the mouth, and of an inscription plate under the figure, remain. An inscription also ran round the margin of the stone, but only a small portion of the brass fillet has been preserved. There are four shields, one at each comer of the slab : viz.. A, for her paternal coat ; and B, C, D, presumably for her three husbands.

A — [Sa.] a chevron between three trefoils slipped arg. Pitz LeweSy impaling, Quarterly,
1. and 4. Arg. three fusils conjoined in fess [gu.] Mantacute,
2. and 3. Or a double-headed eagle displayed [vert armed gu.] Monthermer}
B — [Gru.] crusily and three lucies haurient or. Lucy^ impaling, Fiiz Lewes. For the first husband.
C — Or two bars [gu.] in chief three [torteaux.] Wake^ impaling, Fiiz Lewes. For the second husband.
D — [Az.] a cross arg. between twenty crosses crosslet or. Goshalm, impaling, Fiiz Lewes. For the third husband.
…

Page 41-43. < Archive.Org >

The first husband of Margaret Fitz Lewes was Sir William Lucy, a member of an ancient Northamptonshire family. Margaret was his second wife, and must have been more than, thirty years his junior. A charter, dated 6th Oct., 32 Hen. VI. (1453), probably gives, approximately, the date of this marriage. By this dbarter William Lucy, and Margaret his wife, were seised of the third part of the manor of Luton, in Bedfordshire ; of the manor of Newenton, in Kent ; of the manors of Woodham Mortimer, and Howebrigge Hall in Great Oakley, in Essex ; of the manors of Gadesden, and Wiggington, in Hertfordshire ; of the manors of Dallington, Wapenham, and Slapton, in Northamptonshire ; of the manors of Oodeiych, and Nether Homme, in Worcestershire ; and of the manor of Elerky, in Cornwall. Sir William Lucy had no issue, and upon the death of his wife, who survived him, the said third part descended to Elizabeth, wife of John Earl of Worcester, as kinswoman and heir of the said William, being the daughter and heir of Alianore, sister and one of the heirs of the said William Lucy ; and to William Yaux, kinsman and heir of William, being the son and heir of Matilda, another of the sisters and heirs of the said William Lucy.^ These family oomiexions will be more easily seen by reference to the following brief pedigree, which is partly taken from Baker's Hist, of Northants, I., 120 :—

Judging from the arrangement of the shields on the stone, Margaret married, secondly, a member of the family of Wake, whose christian name has not yet been traced. He was, no doubt, a cadet of the Wakes of Ellsworth, Northants, and of Clevedon, Somerset. There is, however, no mark of cadency on the third shield of the stone. This shows Wake impaling FHtz Lewes, and the heraldic record is confirmed by the Inquisitio p.m. which states that at the time of Margaret's death, on the 4th Aug. 1466, John Wake, aged 12 weeks, was her sori and heir. This implies, first, that her second husband predeceased her, and secondly, that he died within the preceding twelve months.

Notwithstanding this, the charges on the fourth shield, and its position on the monumental stone, indicate that, within a few weeks of her death, she contracted a third marriage with a member of the family of Goshalm. I am unable to produce any proof of this marriage except the evidence of the brass; but, if the armorials retain their original position, — ^and there is nothing to suggest that their order has been changed — we may, I think, safely conclude that such a marriage took place.

From Brad Verity (Nov 2, 2013) at https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/7g__mErVKHs/m/...

Here is what historian Michael Hicks says, in full, about Margaret Fitzlewis Lucy, in his 2003 book 'Edward V: The Prince in the Tower', pp. 34-37. I've already posted what he says about Margaret (aka Elizabeth) Plantagenet Lumley, and what he says about the non-existent (as it turns out) mistress of Edward IV, Elizabeth Lucy. The material in parentheses () are Hicks's footnotes. The material in brackets [] are my own comments:

When Margaret [Fitz Lewis] died on 4 August 1466, still only about thirty and apparently at her family’s home at Horndon in Essex, she left an infant son twelve weeks old (and her heir) called John Wake, presumably conceived about August 1465. Although her magnificent brass at Ingrave (Essex) calls her Margaret Wake, neither writs nor inquisitions post-mortem call her other than Margaret late the wife of Sir William Lucy, so she may not have been confirmed as married to Thomas Wake. His heir Roger Wake, already adult in 1476, was his son by an earlier marriage (GEC viii. 263; PRO C140/20/6/1-16; CPR 1467-77, 598; W.E. Hampton, Monuments of the Wars of the Roses (Upminster, 1979), no. 76; W.E. Hampton, ‘Roger Wake of Blisworth’, Richard III: Crown & People, ed. J. Petre (1985), 160 n5).

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Origins

Rev. H.L. Elliot (1898) "Fitz Lewes, of West Horndon, and the brasses at Ingrave" Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society vol.4 New Series. Page 35. < Archive.Org >

"Sir Lewes John, in his Will, makes provision for the following children : Lewes, Henry, John, Philip, Edmond, Margaret, Elizabeth, Alice, and another Margaret. In this document all the sons are called by the surname of Fitz Lewes, and were probably the first of the family to bear it.”

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Source: Detail: brass commemorating Margaret Fitz-Lewis, ca. 1450. Photo: John Salmon < link >

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References

1. https://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p4778.htm... cites
   1. [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 107-108.
   2. [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 335.
   3. [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 66.
   4. [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. I, p. 258-259.
   5. [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 199.
   6. [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 659.
   7. [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 334-335.
   8. [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. III, p. 197-198.
2. WikiTree contributors, "Margaret (FitzLewes) Lucy (abt.1439-1466)," WikiTree: The Free Family Tree, (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/FitzLewes-4 : accessed 01 February 2024).
3. “Woman’s lover kills husband with axe! William Lucy,his wife Margaret and the king.” (Posted on May 7, 2017) < thehistoryjar.com > cites
   1. Carson, Annette. (2008) Richard III: The Maligned King Stroud: The History Press
4. Payling, S.J. Widows and the Wars of the Roses: The Turbulent Marital History of Edward IV’s Putative Mistress, Margaret, daughter of Sir Lewis John of West Hornden Essex. in Clark, Linda (ed.) (2015) The Fifteenth Century: Essays Presented to Michael Hicks Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer
5. Plantagenet Ancestry: A Study In Colonial And Medieval Families, 2nd Edition
6. https://www.stnicholascenter.org/gazetteer/1033?photo=6 Detail: brass commemorating Margaret Fitz-Lewis, ca. 1450 Photo: John Salmon
7. “The battle of Northampton and the strange death of Sir William Lucy MP.” < History of Parliament blog > Her eventful life ended on 4 August 1466 at the age of only about 28, and the probability is that she died of complications arising from childbirth. A son, John, had been born to her and Wake only three months before she died. A brass to her memory survives in the church of Ingrave in Essex. She may also have a unique claim to fame as the wife of two MPs, the second of whom was responsible for the death of the first.
8. D. Spencer Hines wrote on Sep 22, 2017, 2:44:56 PM https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/cWaxPrtIB8A/m/... “Margaret FitzLewis, Dame Lucy & Prince George?” … Hicks then goes on to make the compelling case that Edward IV's mistress (before his marriage to Elizabeth Woodville) was Margaret Fitzlewis, who had married Sir William Lucy in 1453, and was widowed in 1460. Her subsequent history is checkered, with rejected suitors and a murdered second husband, Thomas Wake. [??] …
9. https://groups.google.com/g/soc.genealogy.medieval/c/cWaxPrtIB8A/m/... Michael Hicks' theory that Dame Margaret (Fitzlewis) Lucy was the mistress of Edward IV of England who bore him the daughter that he married off to Thomas Lumley, is not likely to ever be able to be proved. But, for me at least, it has enough aspects which fit together nicely with the known chronology, that I find it worthwhile to present it in my database as the most plausible scenario.