Robert Brackenbury Sir Robert Brackenbury ( died 22 August 1485 ) was an English nobleman and courtier . He was a close associate of Richard III of England . Early life . His date of birth is unknown . He was a younger son of Thomas Brackenbury of Denton , County Durham , England . This was a family which had been known in Durham since the end of the 12th century . They were lords of the manors of Burne Hall , Denton and Saleby . Robert inherited Saleby ; in the immediate vicinity of Barnard Castle . Barnard Castle had passed to the Duke of Gloucester ( later Richard III ) in the right of his wife , Anne Neville in about 1474 . Richard III and Brackenbury , were therefore , close neighbours . Indeed , a tower of Barnard Castle is still called Brackenbury Tower . Royal service . Brackenbury was one of Richard III ' s close associates . He was treasurer of Richard ' s household when he was Duke of Gloucester . When King Edward died Brackenbury was almost certainly one of the Northerners who accompanied Richard to London . Shortly after Richard took the throne Brackenbury received a number of appointments , including Constable of the Tower of London . After the collapse of the Buckingham Revolt he was rewarded with large grants of land in the south - east of England forfeited by Rivers and the Cheney family and in 1484 was appointed sheriff of Kent . Brackenbury remained Constable of the Tower and on 17 July 1483 he was appointed Constable of the Tower for life . He was also given the very lucrative post of Master of the King ' s Moneys and Keeper of the Exchange , that is , Master of the Mint after the execution of William Hastings , 1st Baron Hastings , the previous incumbent . Many other honours and duties were laid on him . In March 1485 he was entrusted with Richard ' s bastard son , John of Gloucester , whom he took to Calais to become its Captain . In May he was placed in command of the defence of London . His income must have exceeded £500 per year – more than many Barons . He must have been better rewarded than all but three or four of the household . Between August 1484 and January 1485 he was knight ed . Brackenbury seems to have been a man of popularity and wide learning . The Italian poet Pietro Cameliano , dedicated one of his Latin works to him . Brackenbury and the Princes in the Tower . As Constable of the Tower of London , Brackenbury inevitably figures in any account of the fate of Richard III ' s nephews , the Princes in the Tower . For example , in Thomas More ’ s version of the life of Richard III , More says that after the coronation on 6 July 1483 and while on his way to Gloucester , Richard sent John Green to Brackenbury with written orders for Brackenbury to kill the princes . Brackenbury , says More , replied " that he would never put them to death , though he should die therefore " . So Richard then ordered Sir James Tyrrell to go to Brackenbury with a letter by which he was commanded to deliver to Sir James all the keys of the Tower for one night , " to the end he might there accomplish the King ' s pleasure " . According to St Thomas " gentle Brackenbury " , who had resisted the demands of the King , now meekly complied . Tudor invasion and death . In 1485 , when news arrived that Henry Tudor had landed in Wales he was ordered to escort Lords Hungerford and Bourchier to Leicester but en route they escaped . When Richard III marched against the invader , Brackenbury hurried himself to reach the King and arrived two days before the Battle of Bosworth Field ( 22 August 1485 ) , in which – according to Molinet and Lindsay – he had joint command of Richard ' s vanguard ; he took part in the final charge on Henry and was killed fighting beside Richard III . On 7 November 1485 , Brackenbury was posthumously attainted by Henry VII . In a document antedating Henry Tudor ' s rule , Brackenbury was charged with having " assembled to them at Leicester . . . a great host , traitorously intending , imagining and conspiring the destruction of the king ' s royal person , our sovereign liege lord " . Brackenbury ' s attainder was partly reversed in 1489 in favour of his sister ' s and bastard son , allowing them to recover the family lands but not the new grants from Richard III . Ralph , his nephew and heir male inherited Saleby .