William Brandon (standard-bearer)

For other people of the same name, see William Brandon (disambiguation).
William Brandon
Born 1456?
Died August 22, 1485(1485-08-22)
Near Ambion Hill, Market Bosworth, England
Allegiance Henry Tudor
Rank Standard-bearer, Knight
Unit House of Lancaster
Battles/wars War of the Roses: Battle of Bosworth Field
Relations

Sir William Brandon (1456 – 22 August 1485) was Henry Tudor's standard-bearer at the Battle of Bosworth Field, where he was killed by King Richard III.[1] He was the father of Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk.[2]

Contents

Family

William was son of a senior Sir William Brandon of Wangford, Suffolk and of Soham Court, Suffolk, Knight Marshal of Marshalsea (1425 - 4 March 1491) and wife (married 1462) Elizabeth Wingfield (died 28 April 1496/1497).[3] He had numerous siblings, including Sir Thomas Brandon, who fought with him at the Battle of Bosworth and later became a leading courtier and Master of the Horse of Henry VII.

Biography

In 1478 Sir John Paston wrote that "yonge William Brandon is in warde and arestyd ffor thatt he scholde have fforce ravysshyd and swyvyd an olde jentylwoman ..."[4] By that time he was already married to Elizabeth Bruyn, a widow with two sons, and according to Paston there were rumours he would be hanged for his offence. Brandon apparently escaped prosecution however because a few years later he was one of the key London connections behind the Buckingham Revolt of 1483, along with his brother Thomas and brother-in-law, Wingfield. Pardoned in March 1484, he boarded a ship at Mersea in November and sailed for France, where he was supposedly joined by his wife, who gave birth to their eldest son in Paris. He joined his brother Thomas in the relief of the Hammes fortress. According to popular myth both were knighted by Henry Tudor when he landed at Milford in 1485, however Thomas was only knighted after the Battle of Blackheath in 1497 and William was presumably only called Sir out of courtesy after his death or out of confusion with his father, the elder Sir William.[5] After Richard III unhorsed Sir John Cheney, a well-known jousting champion, Brandon was one of the few notable fatalities in Henry's army at Bosworth, having been killed by King Richard III while carrying Henry's royal standard. As such he appears in stanzas 155 and 156 in The Ballad of Bosworth Field[6]:

amongst all other Knights, remember
which were hardy, & therto wight;
Sir william Brandon was one of those,
King Heneryes Standard he kept on height,

& vanted itt with manhood & might
vntill with dints hee was dr(i)uen downe,
& dyed like an ancyent Knight,
with HENERY of England that ware the crowne.

—Bosworth Ffeilde, anonymous author

Marriage and children

Before 4 November 1475 he married Elizabeth Bruyn, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Henry Bruyn of South Ockendon, Essex, himself the son of Sir Maurice Bruyn. She was the widow of one Thomas Tyrell of Heron, Essex, who died after 3 July 1471 and whom she married before 17 February 1461/1462. She remarried William Mallery, after her second husband's death at Bosworth, but survived him only for some years. When she died on 7 March 1493/1494, their three underaged children were left orphans.[7]

Children with Elizabeth Bruyn (the actual order of birth is not known):

In addition to these he had two illegitimate daughters named Elizabeth and Katherine.[8]

References

  1. ^ Chrimes, S.B., Henry VII, (Yale University Press, 1999), .49
  2. ^ Cokayne, George (1982). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. XII/1. Gloucester England: A. Sutton. p. 454. ISBN 0904387828. 
  3. ^ Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 1, p. 682
  4. ^ John Paston's letter In: James Gairdner: The Paston Letters, A. D. 1422-1509, Volume 6, London, Chatto $ Wundis, 1904
  5. ^ H.C.G. Matthew, Brian Harrison:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, from the earliest times to the year 2000, Oxford University Press 2004, Volume 7, Entry on Thomas Brandon
  6. ^ Thomas Percy:Bishop Percy's Folio Manuscript. Ballads and Romances, ed. J.W. Hales and F.J. Furnivall, Vol. 3, London, 1868, p. 258
  7. ^ G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 Volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, pp. 357-358.
  8. ^ 'The Brandons' In: Gunn, Steven J.: Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, c. 1484-1545 Blackwell Publishing, Williston 1988, pp. 46/47