My latest sparkypus.com post…
The last charge of King Richard III. It is possible that it was during this charge that Sir Robert Brackenbury fell, alongside his king. Painting by artist Graham Turner
**********SIR THOMAS MORE , A MAN FOR ALL REASONS: SAINT OR SINNER?
‘Of all Richard III’s Northern Lieutenants few were more closely
associated with the defence of his crown and his realm than was Robert
Brakenbury. None rose from more modest beginnings — and none has come
down to us with a name less tarnished’. So wrote the late historian, W E Hampton, in his article for the Ricardian Bulletin.
The name Robert Brackenbury of Selaby (b? – d.1485) is well known to those familiar with the times known to us as the Wars of the Roses but unfortunately not for the right reason. He is one of the individuals that Sir Thomas More mentioned in his History of Richard III – a scurrilous and damaging attack on the king – which frankly bears similarities to a daft novelette with Richard emerging as something akin to a Pantomime baddie but nevertheless not to be missed if you are in need of a laugh or two. Compared to others Sir Robert escaped More’s malignant and spiteful pen rather lightly. According to More, he, as Constable of the Tower, refused to obey the order of the murderous king to exterminate his two nephews, Edward V and Richard Duke of York, at that time, to all intents and purposes, still living at the Tower. He was merely accused of supplying the priest that, alone and unaided, dug up and removed the corpses of the murdered boys from deep in the ground beneath a great heap of stones to somewhere else more appropriate – a place that was conveniently forgotten when the priest promptly expired – probably from exhaustion. …
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