John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners (1467 – 19 March 1533) was an English soldier, statesman and translator.
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Family
John Bourchier, born about 1467, was the only son of Humphrey Bourchier (d. 1471 at the Battle of Barnet) and Elizabeth Tilney (d. 1497), the daughter and sole heir of Sir Frederick Tilney of Boston, Lincolnshire. Through his father, Bourchier was descended from King Edward III; his great-grandmother, Anne of Gloucester, was the daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, King Edward's youngest son.
By his mother's first marriage, Bourchier had two sisters, Margaret, who married firstly, John Sandys, secondly, Thomas Bryan, and thirdly, David Zouche, and Anne, who married Thomas Fiennes, 8th Baron Dacre of Gilsland.
After the death of the elder Bourchier, his widow, Elizabeth, married Thomas Howard, then Earl of Surrey, and later Duke of Norfolk. By his mother's second marriage Bourchier had ten half-siblings, Thomas Howard, Edward Howard, Edmund Howard, John Howard, Henry Howard, Charles Howard, Henry Howard, Richard Howard, Elizabeth Howard, and Muriel Howard.
Career
After his father was slain fighting on the Yorkist side at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, Bourchier became a ward of John Howard. Duke of Norfolk. As noted above, Bourchier's mother, Elizabeth, had married as her second husband Thomas Howard, the eldest son and heir of Bourchier's guardian. In 1474, Bourchier's grandfather, John Bourchier, Baron Berners, died, and Bourchier inherited the title at the age of seven.