Thomas Bourchier (cardinal)

For the sixteenth-century English martyologist, see Thomas Bourchier (Franciscan).

His Eminence Thomas Bourchier
Cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of All England
1909 stained glass depiction in Sevenoaks Church, Kent, of Thomas Bourchier, wearing a cardinal's hat. His residence of Knole House, which he built, was situated opposite the church
Appointed	23 April 1454
Installed	26 January 1455
Term ended	30 March 1486
Predecessor	John Kemp
Successor	John Morton
Orders
Ordination	1433
Consecration	15 May 1435
Created Cardinal	18 September 1467
Rank	Cardinal priest
Personal details
Born	c. 1404
Died	30 March 1486 Knole House
Buried	Canterbury Cathedral
Nationality	English
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Coat of arms

Thomas Bourchier (c. 1404 – 30 March 1486) was a medieval English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor of England.

Origins

Bourchier was a younger son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu (d. 1420) by his wife Anne of Gloucester, a daughter of Thomas of Woodstock (1355–1397), youngest son of King Edward III. One of his brothers was Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex (d. 1483), and his great-nephew was John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, the translator of Froissart. Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham was his half-brother.

Education

He was educated at the University of Oxford, after which he entered the church and obtained rapid promotion.

Career

After holding some minor appointments he was consecrated Bishop of Worcester on 15 May 1434. In the same year of 1434 he was Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and in 1443 was appointed Bishop of Ely. In April 1454 he was made Archbishop of Canterbury, and became Lord Chancellor of England in March 1455.

Tomb of Thomas Bourchier in Canterbury Cathedral

Bourchier's short term of office as chancellor coincided with the start of the Wars of the Roses, and at first he was not a strong partisan, although he lost his position as chancellor when Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, was deprived of power in October 1456. In 1458 he helped to reconcile the contending parties, but when the war was renewed in 1459 he had become a decided Yorkist. He crowned Duke Richard's son Edward Plantagenet, 4th Duke of York as King Edward IV in June 1461, and four years later he crowned Edward's queen, Elizabeth Woodville.

In 1457 Bourchier took the chief part in the trial for heresy of Reginald Pecock, Bishop of Chichester. In 1473 he was created a cardinal, not after some delay as this honour had been sought for him by King Edward IV in 1465. In 1475 he was one of the four arbitrators appointed to arrange the details of the Treaty of Picquigny between England and France. After the death of King Edward IV in 1483 Bourchier persuaded the queen to allow her younger infant son, Richard of Shrewsbury, 1st Duke of York, to join his elder infant brother King Edward V in his (supposedly protective) residence in the Tower of London. Both were later presumed murdered by King Richard III as the Princes in the Tower. Although Bourchier had sworn, before his father's death, to be faithful to King Edward V, he nevertheless crowned King Richard III in July 1483. He was, however, in no way implicated in the murder of the two young princes, and moreover was probably a participant in the conspiracies against King Richard.

The third English king crowned by Bourchier was King Henry VII (1485–1509), whom he also married to Elizabeth of York in January 1486.

Death and burial

Bourchier died on 30 March 1486 at the palatial residence he had transformed, Knole House, near Sevenoaks in Kent, and was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, where his monument can be found.

Ancestry

Family of Thomas Bourchier (cardinal)

16. John Bourchier               8. Robert Bourchier                       17. Helen Colchester               4. Sir William Bourchier                             18. Thomas Prayers               9. Margaret Prayers                       19. Margaret de Essex               2. William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu                                   20. Thomas de Louvaine               10. Sir John de Louvaine                       21. Joan de Basing               5. Alianore de Lovayne                             22. Sir Thomas Weston               11. Margaret Weston                       23. ??               1. Thomas Bourchier                                         24. Edward II of England               12. Edward III of England                       25. Isabella of France               6. Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester                             26. William I, Count of Hainaut               13. Philippa of Hainault                       27. Joan of Valois               3. Anne of Gloucester                                   28. William de Bohun, 1st Earl of Northampton               14. Humphrey de Bohun, 7th Earl of Hereford                       29. Elizabeth de Badlesmere               7. Eleanor de Bohun                             30. Richard Fitzalan, 10th Earl of Arundel               15. Joan Fitzalan                       31. Eleanor of Lancaster

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

External links

• Biography: Thomas Bourchier

Academic offices
Preceded by Gilbert Kymer	Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1433–1437	Succeeded by John Carpenter
Political offices
Preceded by The Earl of Salisbury	Lord Chancellor 1455–1456	Succeeded by William Waynflete
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Thomas Brunce	Bishop of Worcester 1434–1443	Succeeded by John Carpenter
Preceded by Lewis of Luxembourg	Bishop of Ely 1443–1454	Succeeded by William Grey
Preceded by John Kemp	Archbishop of Canterbury 1454–1486	Succeeded by John Morton
Preceded by Dénes Szécsi	Cardinal priest of San Ciriaco alle Terme Diocleziane 1467–1486	Succeeded by Bernardino Lunati