New Light on the “Lunacy” of Sir George Buc

Abstract

This essay presents new information from a manuscript newsletter of John Castle about the final year of Sir George Buc (1560–1622), historian of Richard III and Master of the Revels: his oft-noted “madness” was manifest as manuscript-based investigation of rabbinic sources that led to his denial of Jesus as Messiah. Such was the gravest form of apostasy in early Stuart England, and if legally pursued would likely have led to Buc’s execution. The official verdict of “lunacy” thus spared Buc’s life and conveniently spared the court the embarrassment of such a figure at its heart. Such a judgment was consistent with broader tendencies to treat various strains of heterodoxy as “madness.” The essay also considers this reported conversion in the context of more general interest in Hebraic sources in the 1610s and 1620s (and the attendant fears of “Judaizing”). The account of Buc’s situation is credible, in light of the general reliability of its source (Castle was a deputy clerk of the Privy Seal) and Buc’s well-known tendency to contrarian scholarly positions, as most famously evident in his history of King Richard III.