Thomas Bourchier

1404?-1486. Archbishop of Canterbury from 1455. Educated at Oxford, where he lived in Nevill's Inn, he was ordained and eventually, not of full canonical age, received the see of Worcester in 1434. That same year he became chancellor of Oxford, a post he held three years. In 1444 he moved to the bishopric of Ely, and eleven years later, after the death of John Kempe, he was promoted to Canterbury. For a short time he acted as lord chancellor, with his brother Henry as lord treasurer. In 1457 he took part in the deprivation of Reginald Pecock,* bishop of Chichester, for supposed heresy. Inevitably he was involved in the struggles between the Houses of Lancaster and York, and he became such a decided Yorkist that he crowned Edward IV and his queen. Pope Paul made him a cardinal in 1467, but his red hat did not arrive until 1473. Not long before his death he officiated at the marriage of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, thus joining the red with the white rose.