Sir Richard La Zouche - Another Lollard Knight?

Abstract

This paper brings to light a list of seven ‘witnesses’ to two brief items in Trinity College Dublin MS 244, an important anthology of Wycliffite polemical tracts dating from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century. After a discussion of the context and function of a witness list in this manuscript, it strives to identify the individuals named, suggesting that they were members of the household of Sir Richard la Zouche, the obscure professional soldier and royal courtier of noble birth who heads the list. A detailed investigation of Zouche’s career is followed by an analysis of his testamentary will. The paper ends by addressing the question of whether he had been a member of the tightly-knit group of supporters of the early Wycliffites known as the ‘Lollard knights’.