Bernard Brocas (rebel)
Sir Bernard Brocas or Barnard Brocas (died 5 February 1400) was an English landowner and knight who was executed for his part in the Epiphany Rising.[1]
He was the eldest son of Sir Bernard Brocas (1330–1395) of Clewer, now part of Windsor, in Berkshire. He was married at a young age to Joan, the daughter of Sir Thomas Middleton (or Gilbert Banbury of Holybourne). They lived at Beaurepaire at Sherborne St John in Hampshire and had six children.
His father was a close friend of the Black Prince and the younger Bernard would have been acquainted as a child with the future Richard II. By 1390 he had entered the king's service and been knighted. In 1395 he inherited his father's estates but remained living in Beaurepaire. He also inherited the hereditary office of Master of the King's Buckhounds.
In 1400, after King Richard had been deposed by Henry IV, Brocas joined in a conspiracy known as the Epiphany Rising to kill King Henry and restore Richard to the throne. The plot was foiled when details were leaked and the conspirators were chased westwards from Windsor Castle by an armed force. Brocas was captured in Cirencester and sent to the Tower of London. He was tried for treason, with three others, by Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel and condemned to death. He was beheaded at Tyburn (or possibly Cheapside) on 5 February 1400, and buried in the Franciscan Friary Church in London.
King Henry allowed the family estate to be inherited by Brocas' eldest son William, a future MP and High Sheriff for Hampshire.
References
- ↑ Harry Speight Upper Wharfedale: Being a Complete Account of the History, ... - Page 175 1900 "His name appears in the Compotys for 1447 as first counsellor to that lord — Sir Barnard Brocas, who married Agnes Vavasour, and from whom she was divorced, but had issue, Sir Barnard Brocas, who was attainted and executed in 1399, ..."
