Biography
In 1478 Sir John Paston wrote that "yonge William Brandon is in warde and arestyd ffor thatt he scholde have fforce ravysshyd and swyvyd an olde jentylwoman ..." By that time he was already married to Elizabeth Bruyn, a widow with two sons, and according to Paston there were rumours he would be hanged for his offence. Brandon apparently escaped prosecution however because a few years later he was one of the key London connections behind the Buckingham Revolt of 1483, along with his brother Thomas and brother-in-law, Wingfield. Pardoned in March 1484, he boarded a ship at Mersea in November and sailed for France, where he was supposedly joined by his wife, who gave birth to their eldest son in Paris. He joined his brother Thomas in the relief of the Hammes fortress. According to popular myth both were knighted by Henry Tudor when he landed at Milford in 1485, however Thomas was only knighted after the Battle of Blackheath in 1497 and William was presumably only called Sir out of courtesy after his death or out of confusion with his father, the elder Sir William. After Richard III unhorsed Sir John Cheney, a well-known jousting champion, Brandon was one of the few notable fatalities in Henry's army at Bosworth, having been killed by King Richard III while carrying Henry's royal standard. As such he appears in stanzas 155 and 156 in The Ballad of Bosworth Field:
amongst all other Knights, remember
which were hardy, & therto wight;
Sir william Brandon was one of those,
King Heneryes Standard he kept on height,
& vanted itt with manhood & might
vntill with dints hee was dr(i)uen downe,
& dyed like an ancyent Knight,
with HENERY of England that ware the crowne.
Read more about this topic: William Brandon (standard-bearer)
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