John Bussy

Who was John Bussy?

Sir John Bussy of Hougham in Lincolnshire was a Member of Parliament representing Lincolnshire or Rutland eleven times from 1383 to 1398 as a Knight of the Shire. He was also Speaker of the House of Commons at the three Parliaments between 1393 and 1398, during which he supported the policies of king Richard II. He was most famous for orchestrating the abdication of parliament's power to an eighteen-man subcommittee in order to concentrate power in the hands of the king's supporters.

Executed after the fall of Richard, in later centuries Bussy acquired an unsavoury reputation as one of the king's three corrupt councillors "Bushy, Bagot and Green". He appears in this role in William Shakespeare's play Richard II, as "Bushy".