Brocas came from a Gascon family whose fortunes were made through service to the Kings of England, both in their native land and their new home, where they settled early in the 14th century. Bernard’s father, Sir John Brocas, who was a member of the households of Edward II and Edward III, held office under the latter as constable of Guildford castle and, in fact if not in name, as master of the King’s horse, and made Windsor castle the centre of his domestic and official life. His uncle, Master Bernard Brocas, an administrator of note, excelled as controller of Gascony and constable of Aquitaine.
In 1363 Brocas received an additional annuity of £10 from the Crown in recompense for his loss of the manor of Benham (Berkshire), which the King had by his gift; and in the same year, by Edward’s ‘special grace’, he obtained a charter of free warren in his demesne lands in Hampshire. As a ‘bachelor’ of Edward III Brocas was issued livery at the Household until the end of the reign, and continued to serve his royal master both at home and overseas. He may have fought at the battle of Najera in 1367; three years later he recovered £60 due to him for wages for himself and his men ‘in the war’, and he was again overseas in 1372. He received many other marks of patronage from the ageing monarch, notably a licence to impark Beaurepaire, which entailed the enclosure of lands belonging to the royal forest of Pamber, and, in 1373, the opportunity to exchange his annuities for the wardenship for life of the manor of Compton Basset (Wiltshire). His proximity to the King is also suggested by his appearance as a witness to a conveyance of property to Edward’s mistress, Alice Perrers. In 1376 Brocas was granted the keeping of Corfe castle and the warren of Purbeck, but, although he went to the trouble of securing this post for life, he surrendered it in May 1377 in favour of John, Lord Arundel, receiving, presumably in exchange, the castle, town and manor of Odiham at a farm of £55 a year.
Brocas remained in favour at court under Richard II, and, indeed, was referred to as a ‘King’s knight’ for the rest of his life. Ten days after the beginning of the reign he was appointed captain of Calais, and seems to have been often abroad until the spring of 1379. While at Calais he was instructed to treat for the continuation of the alliance made between Edward III and Louis, count of Flanders. He also took a prominent part in the arrangements for the release of Waleran de Luxembourg, count of St. Pol, a prisoner of war, which involved him not only in handling securities for the count’s ransom of 100,000 francs but also in negotiations for his marriage to the King’s half-sister, Maud Holand, Lady Courtenay. In 1384 Brocas was appointed keeper of Sangatte castle, the western outpost of Calais, though in the following year he joined the army with which Richard II attempted to invade Scotland. It is uncertain precisely when he was appointed chamberlain to Richard’s queen, Anne of Bohemia, for the only evidence that he ever held this post is the inscription on his tomb; but it seems likely that he succeeded Sir Richard Adderbury I in this office in about 1387. The political conflicts of the reign appear not to have troubled Brocas at all: he was commissioned to administer the oath of allegiance to the Appellants in March 1388, and employed on a committee to muster the troops of the earl of Arundel two months later; yet he remained close to Richard II: in 1391 as Richard’s attorney he took formal possession of property in Westminster, probably in connexion with the rebuilding of Westminster hall, and on 17 Aug. 1394 he was rewarded with an annuity of £40 for his good service to the late queen.
Robert Inkpen’s
† lands in Hampshire, the joint keepership of the estates of the alien priory of Hayling (which he subsequently surrendered to John, Lord Montagu, the steward of the Household, in exchange for custody of the lordship of Cranborne Chase during the minority of the earl of March), the joint keepership of the estates of Hamble priory, rent-free, and the farm of the manor of Barford St. Martin, Wiltshire. Finally, in June 1395, he secured for 200 marks a grant to himself and to Juliana, widow of his nephew Sir Edmund Missenden, of custody of the Missenden estates (of which he was already a feoffee) during the minority of the heir, his great-nephew, Bernard.
Brocas’s circle of acquaintance gathered around the Court; and his close associates included Sir Ivo Fitzwaryn, the veteran campaigner Sir Matthew Gournay, and one of the royal clerks, Master John Chitterne. Undoubtedly his most important connexion, and one which lasted for nearly all his life, was that formed with William of Wykeham, who served Edward III successively as secretary, keeper of the privy seal, and chancellor. Probably his first meetings with Wykeham had taken place at Windsor castle, for his father, like Wykeham, had been closely involved in the extensive building works there. Over the years Brocas witnessed a large number of deeds on his friend’s behalf; he was present when Wykeham was installed at Winchester in 1368; in 1377 Wykeham appointed him as chief surveyor and keeper of the parks on the episcopal estates, and on another occasion he excommunicated men who had poached in Brocas’s fish pond at Beaurepaire. Clearly, their friendship was close, yet there is no evidence that it ever led to Brocas’s participation in the bishop’s political quarrels, of which the most serious was that of 1376 with John of Gaunt. Indeed, Brocas himself seems to have been on amicable terms with Gaunt; at least, in 1380 and again in 1382 the duke instructed the keeper of his warren at Methwold (Norfolk) to allow him to hunt there when on pilgrimage to Walsingham.
During his years of service to Edward III and Richard II Brocas was building up substantial landed estates. His uncle, Master Bernard Brocas, had purchased Beaurepaire in 1353 and not long afterwards settled it on his nephew along with lands near Guildford in Surrey, including the manors of Peper Harrow and ‘Picard’s’ . Sir Bernard made Beaurepaire his seat and spent large sums on the house and park, obtaining royal licences to enclose the latter in 1369 and to enlarge it in 1370 and 1388.
Sir Edward St. John
† in 1385, he also held for life the bailiwick of the forestership of Woolmer and Alice Holt (Hampshire).
Brocas’s pilgrimages and religious foundations reveal him to have been a man of conventional piety, wealthy enough to express his devoutness in style. In 1375 he obtained a royal licence to grant lands worth £40 a year to Titchfield abbey, for prayers for Edward III as well as for himself and his wife Mary. This endowment was never completed. Instead, Brocas founded a chantry at Southwick priory, his choice no doubt being influenced by his sister, Isabel Golafre, who had become a nun there after the death of her second husband, and by Bishop Wykeham, himself a prominent benefactor of the priory. Indeed, Wykeham presided in person at the celebration of Brocas’s foundation. On a less impressive scale, Brocas also made a gift of property to Ivychurch priory (Wiltshire).
Brocas died on 20 Sept. 1395. A mark of the esteem in which he had been held by Richard II was his burial, with great pomp and expense, in the chapel of St. Edmund in Westminster abbey, close to the royal tombs. Brocas’s widow took a vow of chastity before Bishop Stafford of Exeter, and died three years later. His heir was another Sir Bernard Brocas, the offspring of his first marriage, who was to be executed in 1400 for plotting to restore Richard II.