William of Wykeham

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the 16th-century bishop, see William Wickham (bishop).

William of Wykeham
Roman Catholic
Appointed12 July 1367
Term ended27 September 1404
PredecessorWilliam Edington
SuccessorHenry Beaufort
Orders
Ordination1362
Consecration10 October 1367
by Simon Langham
Personal details
Born1320 or 1324
Died27 September 1404
Coat of armsWilliam of Wykeham's coat of arms

William of Wykeham (

Chancellor of England. He founded New College, Oxford, and New College School in 1379, and founded Winchester College in 1382. He was also the clerk of works when much of Windsor Castle
was built.

Early life

William of Wykeham (born William Longe) was the son of John Longe, a freeman from

Constable of Windsor Castle. In 1349, Wykeham was described as a chaplain when he was appointed rector of Irstead in Norfolk, a position which was in the gift of the Crown.[1]

Builder

Portrait (posthumous), showing the two colleges he founded, and his coat of arms and motto

William became secretary to the constable of Winchester Castle and in that capacity learned about building. This led to architectural work for King Edward III, for whom he reconstructed Windsor Castle whilst residing at Bear's Rails in Old Windsor.

William developed a reputation for the administration and supervision of royal building works during the reign of Edward III. By May 1356, he was clerk of the works for houses being built for the Crown at Henley on the Heath in Surrey and Easthampstead in Berkshire, and he was appointed surveyor of the long-running works to develop Windsor Castle in October 1356. He rapidly rose in royal service, and in July 1359 he was appointed chief keeper and surveyor of Windsor Castle, Leeds Castle, Dover Castle, and Hadleigh Castle, and many royal manors, including Sheen, Eltham and Langley, effectively in the office later called clerk of the king's works. He also took charge of the building works at Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

State administrator under Edward III

William's career took a turn by 1361, when he became a royal secretary, part of the administration of the royal finances, and by 1363 he was a royal councillor. He was present when the

prebends
, with an annual income exceeding £800.

William had shown considerable talent as an administrator and in June 1363 was appointed

Chancellor of England.[6] He struggled to find the funds necessary to pay the army fighting against France after conflict resumed in 1369. He lost the favour of the king, who turned to William Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer, and he resigned as Chancellor in 1371.[6]

As Edward III aged and weakened, William maintained good relationships with

Edward, the Black Prince. He remained politically important, and was one of four bishops appointed to the new royal council in May 1376 after Latimer was impeached during the Good Parliament. His friendship with the Earl of March led to a long conflict with John of Gaunt, who supported Latimer. Latimer was pardoned by king in October 1376, and William found himself charged with financial irregularities and mismanagement towards the end of the year. He was banished from court and the income from his church properties was seized in late 1376, but he was pardoned by the new king Richard II
in July 1377, weeks after Edward III died. (Richard was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, who had died in June 1376, a year before his father.)

Richard II

Under Richard II, William resumed his position as a royal councillor. Although he took the side of the Lords Appellant in their disputes with the king in 1388, he also managed to maintain good relations with the king, and served as Chancellor again from May 1389 to September 1391.

After years of supporting poor scholars at

Oxford University, he founded New College, which was granted a royal charter in 1379. He also founded a school, Winchester College, to supply New College with students, obtaining a papal bull in 1378 and a royal licence in 1382. Construction work began in Oxford in 1380, and in Winchester in 1387, under the architect William Wynford. At both colleges, William stipulated daily prayers for Richard II and his queen, William and his parents, and his former patrons, Sir Ralph Sutton, Sir John Scures, and Thomas Foxley. The funds to endow the colleges, and pay for the building works, came from William's lucrative church positions, discounting of exchequer tallies (that is, speculation on tax revenues due to the king), exporting wool, and using his influence to obtain papal approval for the acquisition of the income of the "alien priories" that belonged to monasteries in France, which were confiscated by the crown during the Hundred Years' War
. He also started the rebuilding of the nave of Winchester Cathedral in 1394.

William was concentrating on his foundation by the time Henry IV deposed Richard II in 1399, but he welcomed the new king in Winchester in 1400.

Death and legacy

William died at Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire on 27 September 1404 and was buried in his chantry chapel on the south side of the nave in Winchester Cathedral. At the time of his death, he was one of the richest men in England. Much of his wealth went into the schools he patronised, but he also contrived to leave a fortune to a nephew, whose descendants include the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family and the Longe family.

William's motto was 'Manners makyth man'.

Froissart. 'Manners Makyth Man' is also the motto of the establishments Wykeham founded, Winchester College and New College, Oxford.[7]

Citations

  1. ^ Mackenzie E. C. Walcott "William of Wykeham, His Colleges" p. 10
  2. ^ Davis, Virginia (2007). William Wykeham. London. p. 46.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ Fryde et al. 1996, p. 94
  4. ^ Fryde et al. 1996, p. 277
  5. ^ "William-of-Wykeham-in-1393-The-Only-Surviving-Household-Expenses-Account-Roll" (PDF). Winchester Cathedral. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  6. ^ a b Fryde et al. 1996, p. 86
  7. ^ a b "Winchester College, Arms". Winchester College website. Retrieved 22 November 2010.

References

Further reading

  • John, Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England. London, 1848; I, xv, xvii
  • Augusta Theodosia Drane, The Three Chancellors, or Sketches of the Lives of William of Wykeham, William of Waynflete and Sir Thomas More. London, 1882; pp. 1–112
  • Thomas Kitchin, Winchester. London, 1890.
  • Virginia Davis, William Wykeham: a life. London; New York: Hambledon Continuum, 2007
Legal offices
Preceded by
Thomas de Braose
Justice in Eyre

south of the Trent
with Peter atte Wood
1361–1367 		Succeeded by
John de la Lee
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Privy Seal
1363–1367 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Chancellor
1367–1371 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Chancellor
1389–1391 		Succeeded by
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Bishop of Winchester
1366–1404 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=William_of_Wykeham&oldid=1218538249"