Extracted from the "Brasses of of Westminster Abbey, JSN Wright" "Also worthy of note is the brass fillet inscription on the tomb of Sir Bernard Brocas, who died in the yr 1396. The inscription reads: Hic jacet Bernardus Brocas miles TT quondam camerarius Anna Regine Anglie cujus anime propitietur Deus"

There are delightful engravings of animals and birds between the words and the style of the inscription is close to that on the Langham knights and de Bohun memorials. Sir Bernard was one of the favorite knights of the Black Prince and he fought with him at Crecy and Poietiers. After the peace of Bretigny he and other members of his family were employed in the settlement of Aquitaine, where Sir Bernard became constable. He was a friend of William of Wykeham, attending his enthronment at Winchester and being appointed 'chief surveyor and sovereign warden of our parks .....throughout our bishopric'. Immediately after the death of Edward III, Brocas was made Captain of Calais, but did not hold the post for long. He was always busy on military and diplomatic missions and he represented Hampshire in ten parliaments.

When Richard II married Anne of Bohemia, Brocas became the queen's Chamberlain, as the inscription on his tomb tells us. He married three times and there are brasses to other members of his family at Sherborne St. John in Hampshire. (Source Mill Stephenson, op.cit, p. 164) his tomb is in St. Edmund's chapel, just by the Bourchier monument. The earliest monumental brass in England dates from the yr 1277. The Victoria and Albert Musem holds brass rubbings of all these brass memorials.

From "Westminster Abby, An Official Guide" about the Brocas Tomb: Sir Bernard Brocas died 1396. The man commemorated is the father of the Sir Bernard who was executed in the year 1400 for conspiring to reinstate Richard II.

The inscription now above the tomb is of the 18th centry and erroneous. The head rests on a helmet surmounted by his crest, a crowned Moor's head. The story of his cutting off the King of Morocco's head, mentioned by Addison, is a legend of later days. This Sir Bernard Brocas, like his son, held office at the Court of Richard II. He became Hereditary Master of the Royal Buckhounds in right of his wife, the daughter and heiress of Sir John de Roche. The monument was painted all over about the middle of the 18th centry, and the recumbent giture is probably a restoration. The brass inscription (as documented is original and fine.}