Robert Brackenbury
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Sir Robert Brackenbury (d. 22 August 1485) was a younger son of Thomas Brackenbury of Denton, Durham, England. This was a family which had been known in Durham since the end of the 12th century. They were lords of the manors of Burne Hall, Denton and Selaby. Robert inherited Selaby; in the immediate vicinity of Barnard Castle. Barnard Castle had passed to the Duke of Gloucester (later Richard III) in the right of his wife, Anne Neville in about 1474. Richard III and Brackenbury, were therefore, close neighbours. Indeed, a tower of Barnard Castle is still called Brackenbury Tower.
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[edit] Royal Servant
Brackenbury was one of Richard III's close associates. He was treasurer of Richard's household when he was Duke of Gloucester. When Richard took the throne Brackenbury received a number of appointments, including Constable of the Tower of London, Sheriff of Kent, and control of various royal castles and manors in the southeast of England. After the rebellion of 1483, Brackenbury was given a number of forfeited estates in the southeast.
Brackenbury seems to have been a man of popularity and wide learning. The Italian poet Pietro Cameliano, dedicated one of his Latin works to him.
[edit] The Princes in the Tower
Brackenbury figures in St Thomas More’s version of the life of Richard III. More says that after the coronation on 6 July 1483 and while on his way to Gloucester, Richard sent John Green to Brackenbury with written orders for Brackenbury to kill the Princes in the Tower. Brackenbury, says More, replied “that he would never put them to death, though he should die therefore”. So Richard then ordered Sir James Tyrrell to go to Brackenbury with a letter by which he was commanded to deliver to Sir James all the keys of the Tower for one night, "to the end he might there accomplish the King’s pleasure". According to St Thomas “gentle Brackenbury”, who had resisted the demands of the King, now meekly complied.
Brackenbury remained Constable of the Tower and on 17 July 1483 he was appointed Constable of the Tower for life. He was also given the very lucrative post of Master of the King’s Moneys and Keeper of the Exchange, that is, Master of the Mint. It had been William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings’ office. Many other honours and duties were laid on him. In March 1485 he was entrusted with Richard’s bastard son, John of Gloucester, whom he took to Calais to become its Captain. In May he was placed in command of the defence of London. His income must have exceeded £500 per year – more than many Barons. He must have been better rewarded than all but three or four of the household. Between August 1484 and January 1485 he was knighted.
[edit] Death
"Gentle Brackenbury" died at the Battle of Bosworth Field (22 August 1485), fighting beside Richard III, having previously led the contingent from London. He had had his men flog their horses to reach Richard by 20 August. Brackenbury was close behind and to the right of Richard at Bosworth. He was in the final charge on the cowering Henry Tudor. The Croyland Chronicler was wrong when he said Brackenbury fled the field without fighting. The Tudor myth of Richard the monster required that the indisputably “good guys” desert the King. That Sir Robert remained faithful is evidenced by:
1. The proclamation of the king in Council 22-23 August 1485, (re-printed in The Battle of Bosworth, by Michael Bennett – spelling modernised): "And moreover, the king ascertaineth you that Richard duke of Gloucester, late called King Richard, was slain at a place called Sandeford, within the shire of Leicester, and brought dead off the field unto the town of Leicester, and there was laid openly, that every man might see and look upon him. And also there was slain upon the same field, John late duke of Norfolk, John late earl of Lincoln, Thomas, late earl of Surrey, Francis Viscount Lovell, Sir Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers, Richard Radcliffe, knight, Robert Brackenbury, knight, with many other knights, squires and gentlemen, of whose souls God have mercy."
2. His name being included in the Act of Attainder of 7 November 1485. ‘Richard, late duke of Gloucester, calling and naming himself, by usurpation, King Richard the Third … , Robert Brackenbury, … in the first year of the reign of our sovereign lord, assembled to them at Leicester ... a great host, traitorously intending, imagining and conspiring the destruction of the king’s royal person, our sovereign liege lord.
3. The account of a Londoner in 1485 or 1486, available through a later copy, printed in R.F. Green, “Historical notes of a London citizen, 1483-1488” 1981.
"This year the earl of Richmond and Jasper, earl of Pembroke ... came forth into England and met King Richard III at Redesmore, and there was King Richard slain and the duke of Norfolk and Lord Ferrers and Brackenbury, with many other. This battle was the 22 August 1485."
[edit] Sources
- Bennett, Michael, The Battle of Bosworth
- Bunnett, R.J.A.; “Sir Robert Brackenbury”, Various Papers, RIII Society Victoria Branch Inc.
- Green,R.F.; “Historical notes of a London citizen, 1483-1488”
- Horrox, Rosemary; Richard III: A Study in Service Cambridge University Press, 1989
- Kendall, Paul Murray; Richard III, Unwin Paperbacks, London, 1973
- Lander, J.R.; The Wars of the Roses, Alan Sutton, London, 1990
- Lee, Sidney (Ed.) Dictionary of National Biography, Supplement, Vol 2, Smith Elder & Co, London, 1901
- Ross, Charles; Richard III, Methuen, London, 1981 (1988 edition)
