NameSir John "Lord Berners" Bourchier
Birthabt 1415, Little Eaton, Essex, England
Death16 May 1474, Abbey, Chertsey, Surrey, England
Spouses
Birthabt 1418, West Horsley, Surrey, England
Death18 Dec 1475
MotherPhilippa Dalyngruge (~1398-1421)
Marriageabt 1441
ChildrenHumphrey (~1444-1471)
Notes for Sir John "Lord Berners" Bourchier
John BOURCHIER [Baron Berners]
Bourchier, John, Lord Berners

24Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners.
Tudor prose owes its foundations to three men of affairs who took to literature late in life. Next to Caxton and Malory stands Sir John Bourchier, Lord Berners. Like Malory, he was an active soldier, but, unlike him, a well-known and prosperous man, a politician and courtier. He belonged to the influential Bourchier clan, Yorkists till the death of Edward IV, and had earned and experienced the gratitude of Henry VII. But he had the less good fortune to attract the favour of Henry VIII, and, late in life, suffered from that monarch’s customary harshness. It was partly to solace his anxieties while captain of Calais, as well as “to eschew idleness, the mother of all the vices,” that he executed the series of translations which secure to him the credit of a remarkable three fold achievement. Berners was the first to introduce to our literature the subsequently famous figure of Oberon, the fairy king; he was the first to attempt in English the ornate prose style which shortly became fashionable; and he gave to historians at once a new source-book and a new model in his famous rendering of the Chronicles of Froissart.

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3John Bourchier, 1st Baron Berners, KG (died May 1474) was an English peer.
Bourchier was the fourth son of William Bourchier, 1st Count of Eu, and his wife Anne of Woodstock, Countess of Buckingham, daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester. Henry Bourchier, 1st Earl of Essex, and William Bourchier, 9th Baron FitzWarin jure uxoris, were his elder brothers. He was knighted in 1426 and in 1455 he was summoned to the House of Lords as John Bourchier de Berners, which created the title of Baron Berners. In 1459 he was further honoured when he was made a Knight of the Garter. He also served as Constable of Windsor Castle from 1461 to 1474.
Lord Berners married Margery, daughter of Sir Richard Berners. He died in May 1474 and was succeeded in the barony by his grandson John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners, his son Sir Humphrey Bourchier having been killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471. Margery, Lady Berners, died in 1475. His daughter Joan Bourchier married Henry Nevill (d. 26 July 1469), son of George Nevill, 1st Baron Latymer and Lady Elizabeth Beauchamp, and had issue.
Notes for Margery (Margaret) (Spouse 1)
i. Joan BOURCHIER.
ii. Humphrey BOURCHIER [Sir Knight](15) was born about 1444 in Of, Halstead, Essex, England. He died on 14 Apr 1471 in Battle Of, Barnet, Hertfordshire, England. He has Ancestral File number 8XPT-JK.
iii. Elizabeth BOURCHIER [Baroness Welles](15) was born about 1446 in Of, Halstead, Essex, England. She died after 2 Oct 1470. She was christened in Also Of, Berners, Ross & Cromarty, Scotland. She was buried in White Friars. She has Ancestral File number 9F98-K5.
iv. Thomas BOURCHIER [Sir Knight](15) was born about 1448 in Of, Halstead, Essex, England. He died after 3 Sep 1512. He has Ancestral File number 9F98-LB.
Born: Abt 1398 Place: Of, Bodiam, Sussex, England
Died: 2 Oct 1421 Place:
Buried: Bef 1421/1422 Place:
Father: Walter DALLINGRIDGE (AFN:9FXS-NT)
Mother: Margaret CHAMOND (AFN:9FXS-P1)
Last Modified 1 Jan 2011Created 8 Mar 2016 using Reunion for Macintosh