not be bound by them, as they were contrary to his oath and to the laws of the realm. He nevertheless exemplified the statute, and delivered it to parliament. He resigned his office on 29 Oct. He was summoned to parliament as a peer in 16 Edward III. In 1346 he accompanied the king on his expedition to France. He was in command of a large body of troops, and fought at Crecy in the first division of the army. He married Margaret, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Preyers. He founded a college at Halstead for eight priests; but it probably never contained so many, as its revenues were very small. The king granted him the right of free warren, and license to crenellate his house. He died of the plague in 1349, and was buried at Halstead.
[Rolls of Parliament, ii. 113, 127, 131; Return of Members, i. 89-126; Murimuth, 111, Eng. Hist. Soc.; Froissart, i. 151, 163 (Johnes); Foss's Judges of England, iii. 399-402; Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, i. 234-41; Stubbs's Constitutional History, ii. 387, 391; Dugdale's Baronage, ii. 126; Dugdale's Monasticon, vi. 1453.]
BOURCHIER, THOMAS (1404?–1486), cardinal, was the third son of William Bourchier, earl of Ewe, by the Lady Anne Plantagenet, second daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. His father had won the title he bore by his achievements under Henry V in France, and transmitted it to his eldest son, Henry [q. v.], who afterwards was created earl of Essex. A second son, by right of his wife, was summoned to parliament as Lord Fitzwarren. The third, Thomas, the subject of this article, was born about 1404 or 1405, and was but a child at the death of his father. A fourth, John Bourchier, was ennobled as Lord Berners [see Bourchier, John]. A daughter Eleanor married John Mowbray, third duke of Norfolk of that surname, and the fourth duke, his son, consequently speaks of the cardinal as his uncle (Paston Letters, ii. 382).
Thomas Bourchier was sent at an early age to Oxford, and took up his abode at Nevill's Inn, one of five halls or inns which occupied the site of what is now Corpus Christi College. In 1424 he obtained the prebend of Colwick, in Lichfield Cathedral, and before 1427 he was made dean of St. Martin's-le-Grand, London. He also received the prebend of West Thurrock, in the free chapel of Hastings. In 1433, though not yet of full canonical age, he was recommended for the see of Worcester, then vacant by the death of Thomas Polton. But Polton had died at Basle while attending the general council, and the pope had already nominated as his successor Thomas Brouns, dean of Salisbury. On the other hand the commons in parliament addressed the king in favour of Bourchier, putting forward, according to the royal letters, the 'nighness of blood that our well-beloved master Thomas attaineth unto us and the cunning and virtues that rest in his person.' Accordingly Brouns was translated to Rochester, and the pope cancelled his previous nomination to Worcester by an ante-dated bull in favour of Bourchier, whose nomination therefore bears date 9 March 1434. The temporalities of the see were restored to him on 15 April 1435.
Meanwhile, in 1434, Bourchier was made chancellor of the university of Oxford, a position which he held for three years, and which implies at least that he took some interest in scholarship, though we have no evidence that he himself was a distinguished scholar. Wood says that he took part in a convocation of the university as early as 1428. But we may reasonably surmise that his subsequent promotions were as much owing to high birth as to great abilities. He had not remained long in the see of Worcester when, in 1435, the bishopric of Ely fell vacant. The chapter, at the instigation of John Tiptoft, the prior, agreed to postulate Bourchier, who sent messengers to Rome to procure bulls for his translation. The bulls came, but as the government refused to ratify his election, Bourchier feared to receive them. The king's ministers wished to reward Cardinal Louis de Luxembourg, archbishop of Rouen (chancellor of France under the English king) with the revenues of the bishopric of Ely. So by an arrangement with the pope, notwithstanding the opposition of Archbishop Chichele, the bishopric was not filled up, but the archbishop of Rouen was appointed administrator of the see. But when he died in 1443, there was no further difficulty in the way of Bourchier's promotion. He was nominated by the king, elected by the chapter, and having received a bull for his translation, dated 20 Dec. 1443, he was confirmed and had the temporalities restored to him on 27 Feb. 1444.
There is little known of his life at this time beyond the story of his promotions, and what we hear of his conduct as bishop is from a very adverse critic, the historian of the monastery of Ely, who says that he was severe and exacting towards the tenants, and that he would never celebrate mass in his own cathedral except on the day of his installation, which he put off till two years after his appointment. It appears that in 1438 there was an intention of sending Bourchier,
