[166e] Sir Gervase Clifton was of an ancient family in Nottinghamshire, of which the members still remain settled in that county. His father, Sir Gervase Clifton, fought on the Lancastrian side at the battle of Tewkesbury, and was afterwards executed there. See Chap. VII.
[166f] Sir Robert Brackenbury was Constable of the Tower of London and Master of the Mint. He stood high in the estimation of Richard III., who employed him in several matters of importance.
[166g] Jasper (called of Hatfield) Earl of Pembroke, afterwards Duke of Bedford. See Chap. V. He, with his nephew the Earl of Richmond, commanded the main body at the battle of Bosworth.
[166h] John De Vere, thirteenth Earl of Oxford. He was the son of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford (beheaded in the first year of Edward IV.), and of Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Howard the younger, and was a staunch Lancastrian, fought on the part of Henry VI. at the battle of Barnet in 1471, afterwards held St. Michael’s Mount, on the coast of Cornwall, against Edward IV., and on its surrender was sent prisoner to the Castle of Hammes in Picardy. He was attainted in the fourteenth year of Edward IV. He afterwards escaped from Hammes and joined Henry Earl of Richmond, whom he accompanied to England in 1485, and commanded the van of Richmond’s army, consisting principally of archers, at the battle of Bosworth. After the accession to the throne of Henry VII. he was restored to his rank and possessions; was joint commander with Jasper Duke of Bedford against the Earl of Lincoln at the battle of Stoke; and also held a joint command with him of the forces sent by Henry VII. in aid of the Emperor Maximilian against the French; and was also, in the twelfth year of Henry VII. one of the chief commanders against Lord Audley and the insurgents at the battle of Blackheath. In the first year of Henry VIII. he obtained a confirmation of the office of Lord Chamberlain. He married, first, Margaret, daughter of Richard Earl of Salisbury; and, secondly, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Richard Scrope, and widow of William Viscount Beaumont, and died on the 10th of March, in the fourth of Henry VIII., without leaving any living issue, and was succeeded by his nephew, John de Vere.
[167a] Sir William Brandon was the son of Sir William Brandon, by Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Robert Wingfield, and was, with his brother Thomas Brandon, concerned in the insurrection of the Duke of Buckingham against Richard III. in 1483. Upon its miscarriage the brothers fled into Brittany. After the death of Sir William at Bosworth Field, Thomas was made one of the esquires of the body of Henry VII., and had the honour of carrying his buckler at the battle of Stoke, and about the end of his reign was made a Knight of the Garter. He died in the first year of Henry VIII., and left a son, who was created Viscount Lisle in the fifth year of Henry VIII., and afterwards raised to the dignity of Duke of Suffolk.
[167b] Sir Gilbert Talbot was the brother of John, third Earl of Shrewsbury, and uncle and guardian of George, fourth Earl of Shrewsbury, then a minor, and commanded Henry’s right wing at the battle of Bosworth.
[167c] Sir John Savage, commonly called “Sir John Savage, Junior,” of Clifton, now usually called Rock Savage, in Cheshire, was a nephew of Thomas Lord Stanley, and had the command of Henry’s left wing at the battle of Bosworth. He was made a Knight of the Garter by Henry VII., and was slain at the siege of Boulogne in 1492.—Stow’s Annals, fo. 469 and 488; Ormerod’s Cheshire, vol. i. pp. 525 and 527.
[167d] He died in 1488 without issue, leaving a brother, Sir Nicholas Byron, his heir, who was the ancestor of the late Lord Byron, the celebrated poet.
[167e] Thomas Lord Stanley. (See Chap. II.) There is a very remarkable peculiarity connected with Lord Stanley’s (and the same observation applies in some degree also to Sir William Stanley’s) defection from Richard, and with his joining the Earl of Richmond, which has never been explained, as far as I am aware, by any author. Richard thought that he could secure Lord Stanley in his interest, by conferring benefits upon him, and made him Constable of England for life, with an annuity of £100 a year payable out of the revenue of the county of Lancaster, and created him a Knight of the Garter. The reasons usually assigned by historians for Lord Stanley’s defection are, his attachment to the memory of Edward IV., and his being faithful to the young King Edward V.; the attempt believed to have been made by Richard to cause him to be destroyed at the council (when Lord Hastings was seized and beheaded) in 1483; and his being then committed to prison for a time by Richard—all which are said to have rankled in his mind; besides the influence which his wife exercised over him in favour of the Earl of Richmond, Lord Stanley having married to his second wife the Countess of Richmond, the mother of the earl. The date of Lord Stanley’s marriage with the Countess of Richmond does not appear to be stated in the Baronages, but it certainly occurred at least ten years before the reign of Richard III., because the Countess of Richmond is mentioned as being the wife of Lord Stanley in Rot. Parl. 13th Edward IV. (1473) vol. vi. fo. 77. No plan for an insurrection could be better arranged than that of the Duke of Buckingham in the first year of Richard III. (1483), yet nothing could have worse success. But if Lord Stanley and his brother had brought forward their power, and had taken an active part in it, the probability is, that Richard would at that time have been dethroned. Neither Lord Stanley nor Sir William Stanley, however, appears to have taken the slightest step, or to have been in any shape concerned in that insurrection; yet precisely the same reasons which are assigned for Lord Stanley’s defection from Richard at the battle of Bosworth, in 1485, appear equally to apply to influence him in 1483, when the Duke of Buckingham took up arms. It is very difficult to account for Lord Stanley’s then remaining quiescent, unless we may infer that there was a feeling of jealousy in his mind, and that he suspected that as the Duke of Buckingham was a more powerful nobleman than himself and was of the blood royal of England (see Chap. III. pp. 48, 49, note 4), it was possible that he might, if successful, claim the crown in his own right; or that Lord Stanley did not consider that the feeling of the noblemen and gentry against Richard, was then sufficiently ripe or decided for an insurrection; or that he was watching events, with the purpose of adhering at last to the strongest.
[168a] When Richard made his charge it should seem that he advanced from his right centre, because the ancient historians state that he “rode out of the syde of the range of his battaile” (Hall, fo. 34; Grafton, fo. 851); “rode out of the side of the range of his battel” (Holinshed, fo. 759).