‘A second king’: chivalric masculinity and the meteoric rise of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk’ (c. 1484- 1545) The ambassador Philippe De Bregilles writing to Margaret of Savoy in August 1513 stated that she, ‘is aware he is a second king and it would be well to write him a kind letter’. 1 Who was the second king, and what did it mean did it mean to be a ‘second king’? This intriguing statement describes Charles Brandon, the duke of Suffolk. It begs the question: how had Brandon come to take on such an exalted status? Was it simply the product of his impressive physique and natural abilities? Or was it a role which Brandon self-consciously created for himself? Charles Brandon was born in 1484, from a modest gentry family and owed his original position at court to his uncle, Thomas. 2 Thomas Brandon had been in favour with Henry VII from the start of his reign, an esquire of the body in 1486 and an active courtier who was involved in many of the tournaments held during Henry VII’s reign. In addition Charles’ father Sir William Brandon had been killed at Bosworth bearing Henry VII’s standard and prepared the way for his son’s status as a royal companion. 3 Charles first jousted publicly at the tournament held to celebrate Prince Arthur’s marriage to Katherine of Aragon in 1501. 4 Prince Henry often watched Brandon and his friends’ joust at Henry VII’s court during the last few years of his reign. 5 Then in 1509 Brandon fought as one of the challengers at Henry VIII’s own coronation tournament. 6 Success in the tiltyard brought reward in the 1 J. Brewer and J. Gardiner eds., The Letters and Papers (Foreign and Domestic) of the Reign of King Henry VIII (London, 1862-1920) volume I. 2171 (here after cited as LP). 2 See Oxford Dictionary of National Biography for Charles Brandon and Thomas Brandon’s entries. 3 See ODNB for the entry on William Brandon. 4 Original narrative of the 1501 tournaments found in the College of Arms, MS. 1 st M.13. 5 David Starkey, Henry: Virtuous Prince (London, 2008) depicts the young Henry watching on at the young Charles Brandon in the 1507 tournament held during his fathers reign. 6 Edward Hall, Hall's chronicle: containing the history of England, during the reign of Henry the Fourth, and the succeeding monarchs, to the end of the reign of Henry the Eighth, in which are