The village of Charlecote was granted to Walter de Charlecote by Henry de Montfort in the reign of Richard I. In the year 1216 William de Charlecote, son of the original owner, assumed the name of Lucy, by which the family has ever since been known. The present house, which was erected by Sir Thomas Lucy in 1558, probably occupies much the same site as that of the older mansion. With the exception of the dining–room and library, which were added in 1833, Charlecote remains to–day practically as it was in the Elizabethan age. It is approached from the road through an ancient gate–house, one of the most beautiful and well–preserved specimens of Elizabethan architecture still extant, the upper story of which is supposed to have anciently been used as a banqueting–room.
The house itself is also of red brick with stone dressings, and in the ground plan is very much of the shape of the letter E. The mansion, which is in a beautiful state of preservation throughout, contains the great Hall, a very handsome chamber with a fine bay window, in which are the family arms blazoned in the upper part, and a large number of family portraits by noted artists of different periods, including, amongst others, some fine examples of the work of Cornelis Janssens, Dahl Kneller, De Manara, and Lely. The dining–room, which has a fine panelled plaster ceiling of Elizabethan design, also contains some admirable pictures, and from its windows are charming views of the Avon and the Wellesbourne Brook, and the famous and stately avenue of lime trees.
Charlecote has witnessed several historic scenes, the chief of which are the visit of Queen Elizabeth to Sir Thomas Lucy when on her way from Warwick to Compton Wynyates, August 24, 1572, and the presence in the park of the Scottish Army on its way northward from Hereford on September 9, 1745. Just two hundred years before which date John Fox, the noted martyrologist, came as a guest to Charlecote and remained there for some considerable period. In this house one has an almost unique example of the higher type of purely domestic architecture of the Elizabethan age, preserved with a success which makes it possible for those who visit it to realise in a measure the needs and ambitions of those spacious days when Elizabeth honoured so many of her noble or distinguished subjects with visits.
Index
Æthelflæd, [9], [11], [44], [104]
Alfred the Great and Warwickshire, [11]
Ancient manor–houses, [174–201]