SIR BERNARD BROCAS, SECOND HEREDITARY MASTER. 15 



ensuing year (1369) the cost only amounted to 45^. 7-s. 4f?. 

 — viz., for Sir Bernard's wages, the wages of Suchwyke and 

 Popham, the " berners," and Hayn the huntsman, the food of 

 24 running dogs and 6 greyhounds, less the food of 15 running- 

 dogs and the wages of one huntsman during the 40 days of 

 Lent, etc. Without going into full details, we may take it 

 generally that from the year 1370 to 1373 these payments to 

 Sir Bernard Brocas by the Sheriffs of Sussex amounted, on 

 an average, to about 50/. a year, at which the charge of the 

 pack may be said to have been established henceforward, until 

 it was finally discontinued in the reign of Queen Anne. 



During the remainder of the reign of Edward III., it is to 

 be presumed, Sir Bernard performed the duties appertaining 

 to the office of Master of the Royal Buckhounds, and on the 

 accession of Richard II. he obtained from that king the con- 

 firmation of the appointment, which he held until his death, 

 which took place in 1395, when he was succeeded by his son 

 and heir, 



Sir Bernard Brocas, Knight, who married Joan, daughter 

 and heiress of Gilbert Banbury, Esq. He was the second 

 Hereditary Master of the Royal Buckhounds, Lord Chamberlain 

 to Anne, Queen-Consort of Richard II., and a faithful adherent 

 to the deposed sovereign, which allegiance cost him his life ; 

 for, being concerned in a conspiracy with the Lord John 

 Holland and others, at Reading, he took up arms with them 

 and sought to raise forces. He was, with others, arrested by 

 the people of Reading (partisans of Boiingbroke), and confined 

 in the Abbey there. From this restraint the loyal prisoners 

 attempted to escape by setting fire to some of the houses in 

 that town ; but this expedient failed, and the discovery so 

 enraged the townspeople, " that they drew out and executed 

 several of them instantly." But Sir Bernard Brocas was 

 reserved for a more public execution ; he was brought to 

 London, and, as William of Worcester records in his " Annals," 

 was hung and beheaded at Westminster (suspensus et dicapita- 

 tus apud West^nonasterium), in January 1400, His mangled 

 corpse was buried in the chapel of St. Edmund, in Westminster 



