Thomas Legge

In 1568 Legge became a member of the faculty at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he was known to be an active tutor and a proponent of the old way of thinking in religious matters.

Legge occupied many different positions at Caius, becoming commissary to the university in May 1579, and spent two separate terms, from 1587 to 1588 and 1592–1593, as the vice-chancellor.

Legge is best known for his three-act Latin tragedy of Richardus Tertius or Richard III, which was performed at St John's College in 1579.

This work is alluded to by Sir John Harington in his Brief Apologie of Poetry as a famous tragedy of this time, and is believed to be the play Cambridge men asked Lord Burghley's permission to substitute in 1592-1593 for the English comedy the queen had requested.

It is believed that this play was written based on information Legge took from Sir Thomas More's biography of Richard III.