Lucius Cary
born c. 1610, Burford Priory, Oxfordshire, England
died September 20, 1643, Newbury, Berkshire
English royalist who attempted to exercise a moderating
influence in the struggles that preceded the English Civil
Wars (1642–51) between the royalists and the
Parliamentarians. He is remembered chiefly as a prominent
figure in the History of the Rebellion by his close friend
Edward Hyde (afterward Earl of Clarendon).
The son of Sir Henry Cary, lord deputy of Ireland from 1622
to 1629, Cary succeeded his father as Viscount Falkland in
1633. At his manor at Great Tew, near Burford Priory,
Falkland surrounded himself with some of the most learned
men of his age.
As a member of the Long Parliament, which convened in
November 1640, Falkland at first took an active part in the
opposition to the policies of King Charles I, going so far
as to support the impeachment of the king’s chief minister,
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford. At the same time, he
sought a compromise between the Anglican, or royalist, and
the Puritan factions in Parliament. When the Puritans
obtained control of the House of Commons, he broke with
Parliament and on Jan. 1, 1642, became Charles I’s secretary
of state. He saw limited action in the Civil Wars but fell
into despair when it became evident the conflict would not
end quickly. According to Hyde, Falkland then welcomed death
on the battlefield. He was killed in the Battle of Newbury
in September 1643.
