Claude Thomas Bourchier was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
On 20 November1854 at Sebastopol, Crimea, Lieutenant Bourchier, with another lieutenant (William James Montgomery Cuninghame) was with a party detailed to drive the Russians from same rifle pits. Advancing on the pits after dark they launched a surprise attack and drove the Russian riflemen from their cover, but in the fierce fighting which ensued the officer in command of the party was killed. The two lieutenants, however, maintained their advantage, withstood all attacks from the enemy during the night and held the position until relieved next day.
Bourchier's short term of office as chancellor coincided with the start of the Wars of the Roses, and at first he was not a strong partisan, although he lost his position as chancellor when Richard, Duke of York, was deprived of power in October 1456.
In 1457 Bourchier took the chief part in the trial of Reginald Pecock, bishop of Chichester, for heresy; in 1467 he was created a cardinal; and in 1475 he was one of the four arbitrators appointed to arrange the details of the treaty of Picquigny between England and France.
After the death of Edward IV in 1483 Bourchier persuaded the queen to allow her younger son, Richard, Duke of York, to share his brother's residence in the Tower of London; and although he had sworn to be faithful to Edward V before his father's death, he crowned Richard III in July 1483.
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