The motte at Lucé is over nine hundred years old and can be found in the Orné region of Normandy, near Domfront. The place was possibly named after Lucius; an individual who held the area during the Roman occupation. The surrounding 15-18 feet wide ditch has almost disappeared. In the late 17th century the motte was measured as 180 feet diameter at its base and 90 feet at the top, with a height of 45 feet. Today it is only approx. 24 feet high. The original stronghouse was probably built in timber. The Barony of Lucé was originally owned by the de Lucé family, the head of which was Richard de Lucy between c.1130 and 1179. This included nineteen fiefs, located in the parishes of Lucé: La Baroche, Saint-Front and Avrilly. There were three main manors in Lucé: Cheviers, la Brisollière and la Chauvière. Richard de Lucy held the fief of La Baroche-sous-Lucé in 1172. Lucé was escheated under King Philip-Augustus (1165-1223) to the French Crown in 1204 when Normandy was captured and regranted to Robert de Quincy, brother of Earl Roger of Winchester before 1220. Return to historical information on the de Lucé family