IT was the Spanish philosopher George Santayana who said “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

In this country we hold history dear because it is far more glorious than our present. Once we managed an empire, now we can’t manage the NHS.

However, the teaching of history could now be under threat, with reports some university students will not be taught British history prior to the 17th century.

People’s grasp of the past is often somewhat sketchy as it is, not that educational standards are falling, as obviously they go up every year higher than the national debt.

For more and more people, their knowledge of history comes from the big screen Only a few Sassanach-haters knew who William Wallace was before Mel Gibson came over all Mad Max with a kilt in Braveheart. Most people thought Pocahontas was a South American liquer before Walt Disney rewrote the past.

Colchester’s past is fascinating, but if you ask most residents who Sir Charles Lucas was, the answer is often a little vague.

But if ever there was a tale which deserved telling on the silver screen, this is it, a bloody military episode with a siege, atrocities, torture, starvation, desecration of the dead, blackmail and bravery.

You can see it on the silver screen now. Dovercourt’s own Hollywood A-list star Clive Owen starring as Sir Charles Lucas, standing bloodied and proud and declaring: “Now rebels, do your worst.”

With those words, Sir Charles opened his shirt and was executed by firing squad. It is said grass never grew again at the spot in Colchester’s Castle Park where he fell.

His comrade, Sir George Lisle, kissed his corpse and asked the firing squad to step closer. The officer in charge said: “Sir, I warrant we will hit you”, to which Sir George replied: “I have been nearer to you, friend, when you missed me.”

He knelt and prayed, stood, and was shot. Skating over the boring bits (queue Star Wars rolling monolgue), in 1648 Royalists took up arms in support of Charles 1 against Cromwell.

Sir Charles Lucas gathered 4,000 troops near his home town of Colchester. The Parliamentarians, under Fairfax, marched to confront him and the two sides met in the area of the Maldon Road.

Three infantry charges were pushed back by the Royalists until Fairfax’s cavalry broke their flank and the men retreated behind the town’s walls.

With the port blockaded, the Parliamentarians built a series of forts surrounding the town and Sir Charles and his men were trapped, sallying forth in bloody counter attacks until they were completely encircled. Wickedness ensued. When a deal could not be struck for an exchange of prisoners, Fairfax threatened to execute one in every 15 unmarried Essex prisoners, one in every ten married men and one in five from Kent.

In one attempt to break the siege, 20 royalists were slain in one spot. Fingers were cut off the wounded and corpses to get rings and both sides were accused of murdering prisoners.

As conditions inside the besieged walls worsened, the residents, most of whom supported the Parliamentarian cause, were forced to eat cats, dogs and rats.

When some were allowed to leave, is is said the Parliamentarians fired upon them to force them back inside where they were more troublesome for the Royalists than outside. The Lucas family home, just outside the town, was burnt down and the family vault broken into.

On August 24, 1648, the Royalists lost a crucial battle near Preston and four days later the town’s gates were opened.

The common soldiers were allowed to return home, but Lucas and Lisle were immediately slain, becoming Royalist martrys.

Colchester also had to stump up £14,000 in cash to avoid being ransacked. If ever there was as an Essex movie, this is it. Forget gangsters, this is truly a tale worth telling.