Richard Lyons (Warden of the Mint)

Common card · No. 466389

Sir Richard Lyons (1310 – 14 June 1381) was a City of London merchant, shipowner, and landowner who held a monopoly on the sale of sweet wine in London until he was impeached by the Good Parliament in 1376. He was an alderman, a member of the Worshipful Company of Vintners, and both sheriff of London and member of parliament for Essex. He was killed by Wat Tyler during the Peasants' Revolt. Lyons was a lifelong friend of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer and of Chaucer’s father, who was a fellow vintner. Lyons employed Geoffrey Chaucer who repeatedly certified to the Exchequer, in 1374 and 1375, that no fraud was committed by Lyons. Lyons was also a lifelong friend of John of Gaunt.

Read on Wikipedia