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BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
FROM THE

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A.791 68 6/3/99

 

 

 
Cornell University Libra

DA 237.W98M68

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WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM.
 

WINCHESTER PRINTED BY WARREN AND SON, HIGH STREET.
LIFE OF OP py

WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM,

SOMETIME BISHOP OF ITINCHESTER,

AND LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF FNGLAND;
WITH APPENDICES

BY

GEORGE HERBERT MOBERLY, M.A.

(late Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. )

Winchester:
WARREN & SON, PRINTERS & PUBLISHERS, HIGH STREET.

London:
CASTLE & LAMB, 133, SALISBURY SQUARE, FLEET STREET.

MDCCCLXXNVIL
@

M

| 120 rights reserved.
A.7416%
TO
ONE OF THE GREATEST OF LIVING WYKEHAMISTS,
Roundell, Larl of Selborne,
TWICE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND,
THIS LIFE OF OUR COMMON Founder,

BY WHOM WE ARE ALL “LINKED IN BANDS OF BROTHERHOOD,”
WHO, BESIDES BEING BISHOP OF WINCHESTER, WAS ALSO
TWICE LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND,

IS, WITH THE MOST LOVING RESPECT,

DUTIFULLY INSCRIBED.
CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. WYKEHAM’S YOUTH—A.D. 1324—1347
Il. WYKEHAM IN SECULAR OFFICES—A.D. 1348—1368
Ill. WYKEHAM AND THE POPES—A.D. 1357—1368 -
IV. WYKEHAM’S FIRST CHANCELLORSHIP—A.D. 1 367—1371
Vv. WYKEHAM’S EARLY EPISCOPATE—A.D. 1367—1376
VI. WYKEHAM IN DISGRACE—A.D. 1376, 1377
VII. WYKEHAM ON STATE COMMISSIONS—A.D. 1377—1389
VIII. WYKEHAM AND CHURCH DOCTRINE—A.D. 137I—1396
IX. WYKEHAM AND HIS COLLEGES—A.D. 1377—1396 -
X. WYKEHAM’S SECOND CHANCELLORSHIP—A.D. 1389—1391
XI. WYKEHAM AS A BISHOP—A.D. 1367—1404 -
XII WYKEHAM’S LAST YEARS—A.D. 1394—I404
APPENDIX
A  WYKEHAM’S ALLEGED NOBILITY OF BIRTH
B WYKEHAM’S COLLATERAL RELATIONS
C WYKEHAM’S RETURN TO THE BISHOP OF LONDON
ID AYLWARD’S MS. LIFE OF WYKEHAM -

E  HEATH’S MS. LIFE OF WYKEHAM -

INDEX

PAGE

13
31
68
87
110
151i
167
189
213
231

248

271
279
283
287
293

311
PREFACE.

| OWE the Wykehamical public some apology for the
present attempt to write the life of their Founder,
seeing that this has been done many times in the five
centuries which have elapsed since he lived. But many
as have been his biographers, there is but one life of
Wykeham which is at the same time exhaustive and
critical, that by Dr. Robert Lowth, afterwards bishop
of London. This formed the first real ‘epoch in the
knowledge of the subject, and really left nothing to be
desired. But this appeared more than a hundred years
ago; and meanwhile our knowledge of the general
history of England, with which Wykeham had such
special relations, has grown rapidly by the publication
of such authorities as aré contained in the Series
published by the Master of the Rolls, and of such
critical histories as that of the Constitution by bishop
Stubbs, of Chester: a work to which I am deeply
indebted, more than, I fear, would appear to be the
case by the frequency of the references to his volumes
in my notes.
It seemed to me, therefore, worth while to undertake
a reconstruction of the life of Wykeham, from the

vantage-ground gained by the additional knowledge of
x Preface.

 

the last hundred years. And having once undertaken
it, my interest in and love for the subject of the Memoir,
which I could not help feeling as a loyal Wykehamist,
grew so intense that I was unable to leave it till it was
finished. Finished therefore it now is, yet still so
incomplete that I would gladly detain it for further
revision, if I did not think it the better course to publish
at once, and hope to benefit by the criticism of others,
which can hardly fail, in spite of my earnest care to
be exact, to point out many errors in my story. Such
corrections, I need hardly say, I shall gladly welcome.

But first I must say a few words on the previous
lives of Wykeham, and on the special authorities for
this one.

The first two lives of Wykeham are what I publish
in my Appendix (D and E) by the kind permission of
the Governing Body of Winchester College. They never
have been published before zz extenso, though frequent
reference has been made to their contents, by Lowth
and others.

I. The first of them is supposed by Lowth, and
seemingly with reason, to be by Dr. Thomas Aylward,
one of Wykeham’s executors, and to have been written
soon after his death. It is found in a small quarto
volume, which apparently belonged to Wykeham himself,
containing notes as to the value of bishoprics and

Churches. Warden Chaundler of Winchester! committed

1 Lowth, p. xx.
Preface. xi

 

it for safety to bishop Waynflete, Wykeham’s next
successor but one in the see of Winchester; thence it
passed apparently into private hands. “On the second
folio of the Index of this book are the words ‘E libris
P. Edge, who probably compiled the Index; and on
the last folio verso of the book is the name ‘James
Aston. These are the names, I presume, of former
owners of it, and in times much later than William of
Wykeham.”! How it got back to the college does not
appear; for a note signed S. G. 1779 (Warden Samuel
Gauntlett) saying that it was delivered to the college
in 1419, refers apparently to another volume. It is an
encomium on Wykeham, written in the turgid style
usual at the time, but full of precious facts, and of
small details which prove the author to have been an
intimate personal friend of the subject of the biography.
I refer to it as “MS. Aylward”; Lowth as “MS. Coll.
Wint.”

II. Next comes the “Libellus seu tractatus de pro-
sapia, vita, et gestis venerabilis patris et domini, domini
Willelmi de Wykeham nuper episcopi Wynton.” This is
dated at the end A.D. 1424; and the contents prove that
the author was a fellow either of Winchester or of New
College: as he dedicates his work “vobis, carissimi socii,
qui communiter vivitis in collegiis beate Marie, per

eundem patrem Oxonia et Wyntonie fundatis.” Martin

' Quoted from MS. note on the reverse of the first flyleaf to the book, in the
hand-writing of the late Rev. W. H. Gunner, sub-librarian of Winchester College.
xii Preface.

 

refers to this work as written by a member of one of Wyke-
ham’s colleges, whose name he Latinizes as “ Heresius.”
But Lowth says! “No one of that name was ever fellow
of either of the colleges, if we may trust the registers. He
probably means Robert Heete, who was admitted scholar
of Winchester College in the year 1401, succeeded to New
College in 1407, became fellow of Winchester College in
1420, and died in 1432."2 The MS. is a work of greater
pretension and length than MS. Aylward, and has long
been the main authority for certain facts and dates in
the life of Wykeham. I refer to it as “MS. Heath.” It
is bound into an old volume consisting of Miscellanea, on
the flyleaf of which are written some genealogical notes of
Wykeham’s family. Lowth cites it as “ Vetus Registrum.”
There is also a “Brevis Chronica de ortu, vita, et gestis
nobilibus reverendi domini Willelmi de Wykeham,” which
is simply an excerpt from the above, printed, from a MS.
at New College, by Wharton in his Axglia Sacra, and
there (wrongly) ascribed to Warden Chaundler.

These are literally all that we have of contemporary
biographies : the rest are compilations from these, from the
histories of the time, and from documents at Winchester.
Such are the biographies by Axon, Harpsfield, and Martin.
Martin’s Life of Wykeham however (published post-
humously 1597, and republished by Warden Nicholas,

Ip. xv.

?So Lowth, ib. But in the Winchester College Register I find ‘‘ Robert Heete,
of Woodstock,” said to have died on the ‘‘penult. die Feb. 6 Hen. 6,”" which
would be 1428,
Preface. xiii

 

1690) merits a longer notice, as it at least appears to give
facts outside the limited range of its authorities. But its
facts are of a very doubtful order. What else can we say of
a biography which puts into Wykeham’s mouth elaborate
answers to the charges made against him in 1376, and
recounts a second arraignment of him on the same charges
at the beginning of the new reign? We cannot after this
accept as true any fact given on Martin’s authority alone.

We come now to the compilation by Bishop Lowth, of
which I use and quote the second edition, published in
1759. It is sufficient to say of this really great life of
Wykeham that it was the first which was worthy of its
subject, and that it holds the field still, and will continue to
do so. The places where I have differed from it are
few, and only those where the subsequent discovery of
authorities has thrown fresh light upon the subject under
discussion. An Appendix follows the volume, consisting
of seventeen pieces justificatives, which are among the most
important evidences, and which I have only ventured to
supplement in my own Appendix.

Of more modern lives, two have been of use to me:
(i) the chapter on the life of Wykeham at the beginning
of Mackenzie Walcott’s “Wykeham and his Colleges,”
published in 1853. He has compiled diligently from
all sources, but his work is disfigured and rendered
useless as a trustworthy authority by the utmost
inaccuracy. I have hardly ever ventured to rely upon

his statements unverified ; but I wish to acknowledge
xiv Preface.

 

my debt to him as a guide to original authorities.
(ii) The first chapter of “Wykehamica” by my friend
the Rev. H. C. Adams, published in 1878, which contains
a spirited sketch of the life of Wykeham, and several
new facts about him.

Thus much as to biographies: now as to other
documents which help to fill in the biography.

1. Here the first place must be given to Wykeham’s
Episcopal Register, a first-rate authority in splendid
preservation (described p. 88 of my text), now kept in
the Cathedral at Winchester, but to which I have
enjoyed unlimited access by the kindness of the Bishop
of Winchester and the courtesy of his Registrar, C.
Wooldridge, Esq.

2. The “Chronicon Angliz,” written by a monk of
St. Alban’s Abbey, edited in the Rolls series by Edward
Edwards, Esq. In “Lowth’s Preface,” pp. xxiii-xxv,
will be found the description of MS. Harl. 6217, which
he took to be “a translation from the Latin of an earlier
age” (p. xxiv). It was really the translation of a short
fragment of this “Chronicon Angliz,” which is also the
source of a great many details given by Walsingham,
especially on the subject of Wykeham’s disgrace. For
an estimate of its value see p. 145 of the text. Two
interesting English fragments, both of some authority,
but apparently by authors who took opposite views of
the events which they relate, are given in the Appendix

to the Introduction of this volume.
Preface. XV

 

3. “MS. Harl. 6960” in the British Museum contains.
excerpts from the patent rolls in the Tower by Dr.
Hutton, which are invaluable as giving dates and facts.
bearing upon Wykeham’s ante-episcopal preferments.

4. “MS. New Coll.” which I saw through the kindness
of Warden Sewell, contains the whole history of the
St. Cross litigation, and Wykeham’s Injunctions to the
Priory of St. Swithun, and Abbeys of Hyde, Merton,,
Romsey, Wherwell, and Southwark.

5. Of course, nothing historical can be done without.
frequent reference to the Parliamentary Rolls, to Rymer’s.
“Foedera,” the Statutes at large, the “ Abbreviatio Rotu-
lorum Originalium,” and Dugdale’s “ Monasticon.” Besides
them, I have gained great help from Sir Harris Nicolas’
“Proceedings of the Privy Council,” and Shirley’s “Fasciculi
Zizaniorum”; and for antiquarian notices of Winchester’
and its neighbourhood I am greatly indebted to the 1845
volume of the “Proceedings of the Archzological
Institute,’ and to Woodward’s “ History of Hampshire.”
I have already acknowledged my indebtedness to Bishop
Stubbs’ “Constitutional History.”
| Nothing has given me greater trouble than the ortho-
graphy of names, whether of persons or places. In the end
I have decided to give the names of places acccording to
the received modern spelling, and such names of persons
as are also the names of places (and they are the greater
number of personal names) according to the received

modern spelling of the place-names. But one notable
Xvi Preface.

 

exception I have made to this rule. I have left the name
of my hero, Wykeham, in the well-known spelling which
was usually his own, and not modernized it according to
the spelling of the place-name, Wickham, as I have in other
instances. It seemed to me that though my rule was good to
ensure the uniformity of the spelling of other names, that of
this name could hardly be disturbed without a sort of pro-
fanation. Yet of course this name is spelt all sorts of ways
in the original documents—Wykeham, Wicham, Wykkam,
Wikehame, etc.—and Frenchified into Wican by Froissart.

There are two autograph letters of Wykeham’s in the
British Museum, to be found among the Additional
Charters, numbered 15,421, 15,422. There are no dates
in them beyond those of the month and day: but I should
guess 15,422 to be the earliest. It is dated from Canter-
bury, 3rd June [1363 ?], and is written on the queen’s behalf
to some unknown person, taking the part of Harmesthorpe,
her Secretary [see p. 45 2] in a dispute about preferment
with Walter Skirlaw, afterwards bishop of Durham. 1 5,451
is dated from Westminster, 30th October [1364-6], and is
written under the king’s Privy Seal to the Governor of
‘Calais, ordering the transfer of the hostages at Calais into
England. There is also an autograph letter in the pos-
‘session of the Warden of New College, upon which see
note below,

Into the controversy as to Wykeham’s pretended
nobility of birth I have not entered in- the text further
than to indicate my own opinion upon it. But I have

gone into the question in Appendix A.
Preface. XVii

 

It remains to thank the Wardens of Winchester and
New College for their kindness in furthering my researches,
and T. F. Kirby, Esq., the Bursar of Winchester College,
for the facilities of copying the two MS. lives of Wykeham
which he has given me.

I have not attempted to estimate Wykeham’s character
further than by a few words at the end. This I have done
of purpose, believing that he was one of those humble
souls whose characters are but to be gathered from their
works. He was one of those to whom the opportunity
was granted of doing a really great work for future
generations. That opportunity he used, how well his
colleges testify. His work, therefore, is his best encomium ;
we may use his own words, and say “Operibus credite,”

or—in its true and best sense—

“MANNERS MAKYTH MAN.”

SWANAGE,
February 2gth, 1887.
NOTE UPON THE FRONTISPIECE.

HE kindness of Warden Sewell enables me to publish

in facsimile an autograph letter of William of Wyke-

ham, with which I have become acquainted too late for

incorporation with my narrative. It was bought by New
College at a sale of Sir E. Dering, February 7th, 1863.

It is a hasty letter, written just before his departure
from Sheen, to John lord Cobham, the same who after-
wards was a colleague on the commission of regency which
drew down the vengeance of Richard II. It tells Cobham
that he need not go or send to Paris, as had no doubt
been arranged; for Wykeham has agreed with Simon
Bochel to send messengers to meet the pope wherever
he may be found, and to pay him the sum of which lord
Cobham knows.

The following is the text of the letter :—

“Trescher sire, Veulliez savoir que yce dymenge ie
envoiay par Caval le vallet Symond Bochel, qui vint a moi
a Shene ou ie lui parlay de l’eschange dont vous savez; et
yce Lundy il envoit un vallet dens Parys, et lui ad charge
qu'il y soit ove toute la haste qu’il purra, pour la dite
cause; et le dit Symond ou Bartholomeu Spifanie son
piere envoierent dens leur compaignons quel part que la
pope sera de vous faire prestement paier la somme dont
estait parle entre nous; issint qu'il non busoigne mie que
vous aillez ne envoiez dens Parys pour celle cause, car
seurement vous trouverez le dit paiement devant vous en
les mains de ditz compaignons quel lieu que le pape sera
trouve. Trescher sire, Lui seint espirit vous veulle garder
en sanitee.
Note upon the Frontispiece. xix

 

“Escri a Shene en grande haste yce Lundy, sur mon
departir.
WILLIAM DE WIKEHAME.

“A mon trescher amy Johan Seigneur de Cobehame.”

We can probably identify the very day on which this
was written. In Rymer there is a commission given to
lord Cobham to take an extension of leave to the duke
of Bourbon, who was a prisoner on parole, dated Sunday,
20th of December, 1366. On the same day, it seems,
Wykeham had a visit from Caval Paff, a trusted servant
of Simon Bochel ; and agreed with his master to send a
certain sum in bills of exchange to the pope, who they
expected would by this time have set off from Avignon
to Rome. The next day Wykeham, in haste, because he
is on the point of departure from Sheen, writes a private
letter to Cobham, telling him not to go to Paris, for his
business is being done by other hands. This it is which
has happened to survive ; and if this account of it be true,
its date is Monday, 21st of December, 1366.

The stamp on the outside cover of the book is taken
from the painted window in Bradford Peverell Church, near
Dorchester, described in note 2 to p. 288.

1It was ‘‘Kaval Paff, attourne Simon Bochel, marchant de Lak,” who paid
30,000 crowns, the first instalment of the duke of Bourbon's ransom, to king
Edward. See note on p. 61.
DIRECTIONS TO
Facsimile of Autograph Letter -
Map of Winchester
Pedigree of Wykeham

BINDER.

Frontispiece.

to face p. 233.

a”

272.
CHAPTER 1.

WYKEHAM’S YOUTH.
A.D. 1324—1347.

HE fourteenth century—with the latter half of which

this biography will be mainly concerned—was a time

of great, though silent, social changes: changes which

prepared the way for those sudden and startling revolutions
which amazed Western Europe in the next two centuries.

The feudal system, which (at least in England) had
always been more complete in theory than in practice, was
losing its influence. National wars had strained it to its
utmost; and now the customs of the new chivalry were
giving it its death blow. For the feudal system had aimed
at centralization; chivalry was a individualizing force,
where each man was independent of his neighbours.
Classes soon fell apart, when no longer united by the grasp
of a social code. It came to be no longer a matter of
course that the tenant should be the follower of his lord,
and the villein the follower of the tenant.

And villenage itself was decaying. By direct manu-
mission, by greater freedom of travel, by permission to
merge their tenure into copyhold, the number of villeins
throughout England had perceptibly decreased. And this
too was the time when the greatest spring was made
towards general knowledge. Not a hundred years had
passed since Western Europe had been flooded with
sectaries who, sprung from the lowest depths of the people,
presumed to doubt the doctrines authoritatively delivered

B

Charact
the 14tl
century.

Growth
social e:

and of
knowled
The Church,
the bridge be-
tween classes.

a

2 William of Wykeham.

 

to them by the Church. The lower orders—or the most
forward individuals among them—had begun to think for
themselves. A wave of republicanism ,swept over the
countries. The rising of the Jacquerie in France, that of
the Whitehoods in Flanders under the Artaveldts, were
followed at no long interval by the revolts in England
under Tyler and Cade. And these class dissensions were
made the more deadly by the fact of religious disunion ;
which disunion first took shape‘ within, the lifetime of the
man whose life we are now to study, in the popular
adhesion to the doctrines of Wiclif.

A certain degree of approximation between the different
classes of society is now observable ; and it was the Church
which formed the readiest bridge between them. The
great class of what would in Saxon times have been called
corls was nearly—too nearly for the health of society—a
self-contained class. Barons, knights, and esquires: these
formed the class of what we should call gentlemen. That
it should be recruited from the class of the churls by
fortune of war was comparatively rare. But it was from
the upper ranks of the churls that the Church was fed; and
churchmen who rose to name and fame hardly ever failed
to found a family, though they had no heirs of their body
to inherit their property. So much was this the case, that
Holinshed says that “it was the fashion in those days from
a learned spiritual man to take away the father’s surname
(were it never so worshipful), and give him for it the name
of the town he was born in,’—as if he were founding a new
family. In Wykeham’s case “the father’s surname” has
been a matter of much controversy ; but at least the place
of his birth is undisputed. He was born at the village of
Wickham in South Hants.)

1 Aylward, 1; Heath, 1.
Wykeham's Youth. 3

 

Wickham! is a village now tenanted by more than a
thousand inhabitants, lying halfway between Fareham on
the south and Bishop’s Waltham on thé north, three miles
and a half from them both: It lies itself in a thin bed of
sand and clay, which makes it prolific of oakwood and very
picturesque ; but within a mile to the northward stretch
the chalk downs, the most characteristic feature of Hamp-
shire scenery, while at the same distance to the south rises
Portsdown, an isolated ridge of chalk, intercepting the view
of Portsmouth Harbour and the sea beyond. Wickham
itself is on a small stream called the Aire, the same which
waters the Meons higher up its course, before it has left
the chalk; and it is about a mile south-east of the tidal
stream known as the Hamble.

About three miles from Wickham is Southwick Priory.
Henry I had founded this priory for Augustinian canons at
Porchester, close to the castle ; but owing to the encroach-
ments of the sea, it had been removed to Southwick in the
time of Henry II.2 In 1322—two years before Wykeham’s
birth—one Edmund Sutton, a person of some local dis-
tinction, left part of his manor of Sutton Scotney, near
Micheldever, for the use of Southwick Priory, by means of
an alienation to Walter Barton, the rector of Wickham.’
In this Priory, thus belonging to his native place, it was
that Wykeham afterwards endowed a chantry of five
priests to pray for the souls of his parents.*

His parents’ Christian names were John and Sibill.
John is called “Long” by an anonymous writer in the

. Wickham is among the commonest of dissyllabic local names in England,
being compounded of the two Saxon words, ‘'wic" a creek, and ‘‘ham” a home.
The ‘'creek" is sometimes the creek of a river; in this case it is doubtless the
creek of the sea formed by the Hamble. .

? The prior of Wykeham’s youth was a John Gloucester, who ruled from 1334
to 1349, when he was succeeded by Richard Bramdean.

3 Woodward's History of Hampshire, vol. ii, p. 226. 4 Aylward, 6.

Wykeha
birthplac

and par
his mother
well-born,

4 William of Wykeham.

 

same volume in which Heath’s Life of Wykeham is found)
We may suspect, from the fact that Wykeham himself was
a tall man” that this was a nickname given to him because
of his unusual stature; especially if we are to believe an
equally anonymous annotator of a New College MS., of
seemingly later date, who says that “his grandfather’s
name was Wykeham.” This however may mean nothing
but that his grandfather was a native of the same village
Wickham. But we find, on the same authority, that a
brother of John Long’s called himself by the name of
Henry “Aas,” a name also written As, Ays, Ace. Here
we seem to have come to a family name of some standing:
for Aas is neither the name of a place (like most of the
middle-class surnames in England at that day) nor that of
a trade, nor is it derivable from any Christian name; it
apparently is a Dutch name,‘ and probably belonged to a
family who originally had been Frisian settlers, as many of
the south country families had been.

His mother Sibill is accredited with noble descent. She
was grand-daughter of a certain Amice, daughter of the
lord of Stratton,’ who herself married a William Stratton,
and had three sons and three daughters, Alice, Gillian, and
Eleanor. Alice married William Bowade, and was the
mother of Sibill, the wife of John Long.

‘MS. at beginning of Vetus Registrum.
?“Eratenimis..  . . excelsi corporis statura decoratus."—Martin, p 21.

3 Richard Ace was a burgess of Southampton ; his son, John Ace, was rector of
Brown ( andover in 1337. An Ase de Ludlow was king's bailiff at Southampton in
1331, A John Fitz-Aas was lord of a manor at Basingstoke early in Henry III's
reign.

Aas" in Dutch is said to mean “body,” either living or dead. For other
pe names compare Hoese, Husee (=Hussey), a house, and the Wiltshire
“ Huish.”

© "Stratton juxta Selborne,”—MS. in V. R. ‘This must be East Stratton, near
Micheldever. I suspect that this singular description of it indicates that the author
writes from Selborne ; perhaps was a monk at the Priory.

6 Martin (p. 130) says that John Long lived to be upwards of eighty, and that
Dame Alice was blind before her death, and was visited every day by Wykeham,
peers from Bishop's Waltham, But Martin is a poor authority for matters of
‘act.
Wykeham’s Youth. 5

 

Though his mother had gentle blood in her veins, yet
she and her husband were both poor.! In fact the “gentle”
Sibill had allied herself with an upright and honourable
man, but one of the middle class, or class of yeomen.

All the names in Wykeham’s genealogy would lead us
to this conclusion. Of the twenty-three surnames men-
tioned in the pedigree, fifteen, including Wykeham itself,
are the names of English places, while only two are French
in their origin. This of itself is an indication.of the rank
in society which the family was entitled to hold.? But it is
to be observed that all the fifteen local names are substantial
names of places for the most part known, and belonging to
the south of England; there are none of the names of
plebeian rank, such as were common at this time in every
manor in England,—Brook, Lane, Hall, Field, Wood, etc..

Wykeham was born in 1324; which year is determined
from that of his death, when he is said to have been eighty
full years old. He died September 27th, 1404; and con-
sequently his birth must have taken place before September
27th, 1324. He is further said to have been born in the
eighteenth year of the reign of Edward II, which reign
began on July 8th, 1307. Consequently we’ shall not be
wrong in dating his birth in the year 1324, and between
July 8th and September 27th.

His early years were apparently spent at Wickham:
we have absolutely no notice of them.‘ We may probably
infer that his earliest benefattor was a Sir Ralph Sutton,®

1 Parentes vero ejus licet honesti generis opibus tamen non affluebant.""—Heath ii.
2 See the question discussed at length in Appendix A.

3 ‘*Octogenarius complete." —Heath, 14.

4 It is said by Stow in his Chronzcles that ‘‘one Maistre Wodale of Wickham

brought up William of Wickham at school.” This is probably only a confusion,
the result of the fact of the later connexion of the Uvedales with Wickham.

5 This I gather from the fact that at Winchester and New College Wykeham
ordered seven daily masses to be said in the Chapels, one of which was ‘‘ specially”
for the soul of Sir Ralph Sutton, while the next was equally ‘‘ specially’ for, the
souls of Sir John Scures and Thomas Foxley.—S¢atutes, New College, § 42;
Winchester, § 29.

his fath
middle

Wykeh
birth, 3

His ear
benefac
aR

To the Priory
School at
Winchester,

6 William of Wykeham.

 

who is otherwise unknown: he may possibly have been
one of the Suttons of Sutton Scotney, who as we have
already seen had endowed Southwick Priory not long
before. His next benefactor appears to have been Sir John
Scures, the lord of the manor of Wickham, and Sheriff of
Hampshire ; who, finding him a sharp lad, put him to
school at Winchester at his own cost.1 Martin says that
he sent him with his own sons, and those of other gentle-
men, to a learned Frenchman to learn grammar.?

It is thus possible that Sir John Scures only selected
for Wykeham and his youthful companions what we should
call a private tutor of eminence. But it is more probable
that he paid for the boy’s tuition at the school belonging
to the Priory of St. Swithun, which was called the High
School, or the Great Grammar School.

This School: had been famous since the beginning of the
ninth century; its teachers had been well chosen, and it
had educated famous men. It stood’ to the west of the

1 Not Sir Nicholas Uvedale, to whom this patronage of Wykeham is attributed
by Martin, and everyone since. See ‘‘Notes of the Family of Uvedale,”’ by
Granville Leveson-Gower, in Surrey Archeological Collections, iii, p. 74:—‘'I have
discarded as unworthy of credit the story related by Hutchins and others of his
(Sir Peter Uvedale’s] having been the first and great benefactor of William of
Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, and having introduced him to Sir Nicholas
Uvedale, the constable of Winchester Castle, by whom he was made known to
King Edward III. In the first place, I cannot find that any Sir N. Uvedale was
ever constable of Winchester Castle, though I have somewhere seen that one of that
name was constable of Windsor Castle; and secondly, the Uvedales were not
connected with Wickham in Hants, from which place William of Wickham is
supposed to have come, until the marriage of John Uvedale in 1381 with the heiress.
of Scures, the ancient lords of the manor of Wickham.” I cannot find the name of
Nicholas Uvedale till the first half of the sixteenth century, when a person so named.
was Headmaster of Eton and afterwards of Westminster. He died in 1557, and
Martin’s life was published in 1597. Martin therefore probably made a double
confusion. He thought that the lords of the manor of Wickham had been Uvedales,
as they were in his time (and till 1662); and he attributed to this particular Uvedale
ae name of Nicholas, the most famous name in the family of the generation before

e wrote.

2 Martin, p. 17; compare Heath, 2

3 The words of Aylward, ‘in loco illo quo literarum studium Wynton fre-
quentare et hospitari consueverat,” have misled Lowth (p. 196) into thinking that the
school was on the actual spot where he afterwards built the College. But Aylward’s
words need not mean this; he is only contrasting Winchester with Oxford, and giving
Wykeham’'s reasons for fixing upon these two cities for his colleges—Winchester,
because of his early education there; Oxford, because of the University.—Aylw. 3.
Wykeham s Youth. 7

 

Cathedral, outside the Close wall, a little to the south of
the Minster Gate: that is about halfway up the street then
called Minster Street, but now known as Symonds’ Street.
Bishop Henry de Blois had directed that a daily allowance
of food should be given to thirteen poor scholars of the
Great Grammar School from his newly founded Hospital
of St. Cross.”

Here he is said to have studied grammar. Grammar
was an elastic word at that time; and Martin says that he
was not content with this, but learnt too geometry, French,
arithmetic, and dialectic,—a complete secular education for
those days.* This is much the same course recommended
by those who called themselves “ Brothers of the Mystery
of Masonry,” or Freemasons. Their course embraced seven
sciences: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arithmetic, geometry,
music, astronomy. But of these they insisted most on
geometry, “the science of which is called Masonry.” What-
ever may have been Wykeham’s progress in his other
studies, he appears from the results to have been altogether
captivated by this. We do not know who were his teachers,
nor how far they were initiated, or capable of initiating
him, into the secret lore of architecture. But such lore
certainly existed, and was taught to successive generations
by word of mouth, and not written down for vulgar use.
It was Wykeham’s special addiction to this fascinating art
which made his fortune.

That in addition to his school life at Winchester
Wykeham ever studied at Oxford, is the invention of his

! Woodward's History of Hants, i, p. 200, notes that it is ‘‘now the garden of
v. M. Deane, Esq.”

2 “ Each of them had a loaf of coarse bread of five marks’ weight, three quarts of
imall beer, a sufficient quantity of soup or a mess of pulse, one herring or two
dilchards, or two eggs, or one farthing’s worth of cheese.'"—Lowth, p. 77.

3“ Grammaticis imbuendum."'—Martin, p. 17.

4“ Literis secularibus parvulus primitivis scientiis traditur imbuendus.""—Heath, 2.

to study
grammar.

Never at
Oxford.
& William of Wykeham.

 

later biographers. The story is given circumstantially by
Martin, who even gives the names of his tutors in the
different arts. But his earlier biographers know nothing of
it. Chaundler says of him that he never occupied himself
with speculative philosophy, but that his knowledge lay in
practical matters: he never went through the schools of
Art, or Theology, or Civil or Canon Law. And this is
tantamount to saying that he never studied at Oxford.
For Oxford was wholly given up at this time to the study
of speculative philosophy, a philosophy which it required
the talent of a Thomas Aquinas or a Duns Scotus to render
profitable. The last generation had seen a revival of what
was called Nominalism in Oxford. Till now the great
Schoolmen had all been Realists, or had believed in the real
existence of universal ideas. But now William Ockham
had revived the Nominalist theory, that such ideas were
nothing but names useful for the classification of individual
objects. This was not only an unpopular system in philo-
sophy, it was also accounted a heresy in religion: for the
Transubstantiation of the elements in the Eucharist was
an idea wholly due to the Realist philosophy: and the
Ockhamites and Scotists proceeded to most unphilosophical
lengths in their fury against each other. Lowth! argues that
Wykeham sustained no loss by not having been steeped in
such disputations in his youth.

It is difficult to prove a negative, but it is at least clear
that Wykeham, if he ever was at Oxford, did not proceed
to his Master’s degree. To be entitled to be addressed as
“Magister” was an honourable distinction, and one that
contemporaries never forgot to bestow. But we never find
him called “ Master William of Wykeham” during his ante-
episcopal career, but always “Sir William of Wykeham.”
The addition of “Dominus,” or “Sir,” was not nearly

‘Lowth, p. 16.
Wykeham’s Youth. 9

 

so honourable as that of “ Magister,” or “Master”:! so
amusingly opposed were the ideas then current to those of
the present day.

What, then, was the next stage in Wykeham’s career
after he had passed through his school-days? Sir John
Scures, his patron, took him to Winchester Castle, and
made him his Secretary.” He is said to have excelled in
neatness of writing, as well as in eloquence of speaking.
And his architectural acquirements must have been of great
use. As Sheriff of Hampshire, Sir John was Constable or
Governor of Winchester Castle, and had the other castles of
the county under his charge. These must have needed
occasional repair, and hence it is scarcely a conjecture that
the first essay of young Wykeham must thus have been made
in military architecture. We do not know the precise date
of his taking service with Sir John.* It could hardly have
been as early as 1338, by which year he would have been
fourteen years old. This was the year of the declaration of
war with France, when the resources of the countries on the
south coast was strained to the utmost. Already the year
before Portsmouth had been burned by a French fleet, in
spite of the vicinity of Porchester Castle ; and again, in the
autumn of this year, Southampton was attacked and its
inhabitants massacred by the French. Southampton was
avenged next day by a rising of the men of Hants and
Sussex, who chased the French from the coast; and Sir

1 “Such priests as have the addition of ‘Sir’ before their Christian names were
men not graduated in the University, being in Orders, but not in Degrees ; whilst
others, entitled ‘ Masters,’ had commenced in the arts."—Fuller’s Church History,
Bk. VI, § v, ro.

_ 7 Unde vice tabellionis cuidam armigero constabulario scilicet castri Winton-
iensis adzerebat.’’"— Heath, 2.
3 «« Nemo illa eetate scripsit limatius, nemo locutus est ornatius.”—Martin, p. 20.
4 Martin (p. 20) gives it as three years before he became Secretary to Edingdon.
This would point to 1343 at the earliest; but probably this is but rhetorical. A
more reliable date, though a vaguer one, is given by Heath: ‘' postquam animi
matmitatem adesset.””

5 Froissart, i. 37; Woodward's History of Hampshire, ii, p. 233.

Secretar
Jobn Set
Frequents the
‘« Pekismass ”
in the
Cathedral.

Io William of Wykeham.

 

John Scures, the Sheriff, at once (in 1338) set about the re-
pairing of Porchester Castle, and put it in a thorough state
of readiness for defence, acting therein for the Constable of
the Castle, Richard Earl of Arundel,! who was with the
King in Flanders. But the country was reduced to great
poverty, owing to the French raids upon Southampton and
Portsmouth.?

Only one habit of Wykeham’s during these years is
specified, but that not without its Wearing on the future
calling to which his life was to be dedicated. He is said
at this time to have been in the habit of frequenting the
Cathedral, and hearing mass therein ; and especially we are
told of his devotion to the Blessed Virgin, whose image
stood against a column half way down the nave on its south
side. Before this he used to kneel every morning, and
listen to the mass said by one Richard Pekis, one of the
brethren of St. Swithun’s priory, which evidently was a
popular service, as it is said to have been “ vulgarly called
Pekismass.” 4

In 1340, Sir John Scures ceased to be Sheriff of Hants,*
and was succeeded by Sir Robert Daundely. Young
Wykeham does not appear to have been shifted too, but to
have kept his position at the Castle. He seems to have
been at work there till 1346, when the King’s treasurer,
William Edingdon, was consecrated to the bishopric ®
instead of the blind old Bishop Orlton. Wykeham, who,
probably, by this time had become well-known in Win-

'Hartshorne’s Porchester Castle, p. 41, in ‘Proceedings of Archeological
Institute,’ Winchester volume, 1845.

2 Woodward, ii, p. 234. 3 Aylward, 5; Heath, 2.

4 Aylward, 5.—Pekis’ name occurs as an acolyte in an extant list of the brethren
of St. Swithun’s, dated 1325,

5 Woodward, ii, p. 74, z.—This year was passed a statute directing the annual
appointment of sheriffs. This would naturally be followed by the resignation of all
the existing sheriffs. Sir John Scures had been Sheriff of Hampshire since 1321.

6 On February atst.
Wykeham s Youth. Ir

 

chester as a youth of some capacity, was singled out ‘for
employment by Bishop Edingdon.!

Whoever introduced him to Edingdon, Edingdon soon
introduced him to royalty itself. King Edward had set
sail from Southampton with more than 30,000 English
in the July of 1346. He had gained the battle of Creci in
August, and had formed the siege of Calais immediately
after. The city surrendered, after a twelve months’ siege,
in August, 1347; the King, expelling the French inhabi-
tants who refused an oath of allegiance to himself, came to
England with the intention of bringing English burghers to
replace them. He landed with his Queen at Sandwich on
the 12th of October, after having been met on his return
voyage by a violent storm which destroyed many ships and
men.” Instead of going at once to London, they visited
Porchester, Southampton, and Winchester Castles. At the
last of them he met young Wykeham, and was pleased with
his look. Hearing a good report of him from his old
favourite Bishop Edingdon, he brought him to Windsor
and gave him employment there.’

The general purpose of Edingdon’s recommendation is
plain: for Wykeham was a rising architect, and the king
was seeking for such men everywhere, having magnificent
architectural designs afoot, as will be detailed in the next
chapter. It may therefore be taken for granted that it was
Wykeham’s early promise in this particular art which
recommended him to the king.

1 Daundely, or his successor as Constable of Winchester Castle, may have made
the introduction. Lowth reports (p. 14) a story that Uvedale had done it, but see
note on p. 6.

2? The Chronicon Anglie (extracts from which are given in continuation of a
copy of Higden, presented to Winchester College by Wykeham himself) relates
quaintly the king’s disgust. ‘‘ Unde beatee Virgini conquestus est dicens, O beata
Maria, domina mea, quid est et quid portendit, quod tendendo usque Franciam
aura grata potior, arridet mare, et cuncta mihi prospera eveniunt ; sed in redeundo
usque Angliam infortunia nimis adversa mihisuccedunt.” I have given the quotation
according to the Winchester MS.

3 Harpsfield cit. Martin, p. 21.

Employe
Bp. Edin

and by h
introduce
the king,

who tran
him to
Windsor

as a risin,
architect,
2 Wiliam of Wykeham.

 

The king’s visit to Winchester was in October, 1347.
He apparently stayed in England, residing chiefly at
Windsor, till December, 1348, when he again crossed the
Channel to defend Dover against a treacherous attack
made by the French in spite of the truce. Between these
two limits therefore we must place Wykeham’s permanent
transference from Winchester to Windsor. Thus there is
no reason to distrust Martin’s account,! who tells us that
the king took him with him to Windsor after staying for a
short time at Winchester; nor Heath’s,? who dates the
change of residence when Wykeham was twenty-two or
twenty-three years of age, which might well be in the
autumn of 1347. He was not to return to Winchester
until he came to it as Bishop Edingdon’s successor, just
twenty years later.

1 Martin, p. 21, ‘‘ Wintonid pauco post Windesoriam rex petit: eum Wicamus
comitatur.”"’

eh Biennio vel triennio elapso post annum scilicet cetatis suze vicesimum trans-
latus est in curiam Domini regis."—Heath, 3. He would have been twenty-three
in the summer of 1347.
CHAPTER II.

WYKEHAM IN SECULAR OFFICES.
A.D. 1348—1368.

HEN Wykeham was brought to Windsor at the end

Order of
Garter p

of 1347, the king was intent on the execution of a jected by

scheme which had occupied his mind for some years—the
establishment of the Order of the Garter.

Edward the Third’s reign had begun beneath a cloud ;
but the cloud had soon passed away, and the sun had shone
brilliantly ever since. He was just fourteen years of age
when he had been put on the throne by his mother
Isabella and her paramour Mortimer on his father’s
deposition. Exactly a year later he had married Philippa,
daughter of William, count of Hainault. He married her,
says Froissart, out of love to her father; that she proved a
worthy consort to him is shewn by the fact that the good
fortune of his reign was so remarkably coincident with
Philippa’s life. After her death the cloud of misfortune in
which his reign had begun again settled heavily upon him.

No epithet so truly describes him during the early
portion of his reign as “magnificent.” He was young,
handsome, and daring. He made successful wars both on
Scotland and France. He was romantic, and like the
Arthur of old British romance he surrounded himself with
brave knights. It was the age of chivalrous daring; an
age which often sacrificed the real advantages of military
organization to the acquisition of renown by individuals.
Especially was this the case when the King of England

king,
and ‘ Round
Table” built
for it at
Windsor,
1344-47.

I4 William of Wykeham.

 

was in the field; and the fashion set by the king was
imitated down to the lowest of his knights. War—even a
national war like that of England with France—was
regarded more as a theatre on which to display feats of
knightly courtesy and prowess than as in serious earnest.
And this theatrical war had an appropriate chronicler in
the person of the Sieur Jehan de Froissart. Froissart was
a Frenchman, but he writes with no antipathy of nation;
he was as much at home in the English court as he was in
the French. But wherever he can hear of a brave and
knightly deed of arms, he delights to record it; and his
chronicle is in consequence a repertory of individual deeds
of chivalry, rather than a trustworthy and well-digested
history of the time in question.

And Edward was a magnificent king also in other
respects. He was a patron of literature, as is shewn by his
fostering care bestowed upon Chaucer and Froissart. He
was a patron of art; and impressed from all the counties
of England painters and sculptors to decorate his court.
Especially he delighted in building; his palaces were one
after another rebuilt, and his castles put into a state of
defence. For the first thirty years of his reign he was
building the chapel of St. Stephen at Westminster ; for
Windsor he had a more comprehensive design.

Windsor was his birthplace, and already the fairest of
his castles. It had been chosen as a royal residence by
William the Conqueror, and rebuilt by his son Henry I;
but Edward was not content with it as he found it. The
conception which he had in his mind seems to have been to
rival the glories of king Arthur with his Round Table of
famous Knights. He would found an Order to reward
individual merit in warlike deeds ; and Windsor should be
to his new Order what Winchester was said to have been
to Arthur’s Knights. This idea fell in exactly with the
Wykeham in Secular Offices. Is

 

taste of the age, which, as before observed, exaggerated the
regard paid to feats of individual prowess in the field.
And it also had a political end in view. It was the age
of mercenary warriors, or (as they called themselves) free
lances, attaching themselves to first one banner and then
another, for pay. In Italy especially, this system of
condottiert, as they were there called, grew to the pro-
portions of a national scourge. If Edward could attach
the leaders of such companies to himself by admitting them
into an Order of Knighthood, they would not so readily
pass to the service of another leader. Thus arose the
Order of the Garter; and the resources of the kingdom
were taxed to provide for it a worthy home at Windsor.
To the east of the royal apartments Edward designed to
add what should be called the Round Table, in memory of
king Arthur—a huge circular keep, a hundred feet in
diameter, surrounded by an outwork fifty feet distant from its
boundary wall, in all making the building two hundred feet
from side to side. This keep was probably begun in 1344,
for in that year the Exchequer records begin to show that
extraordinary works were undertaken at Windsor.) Sums
are paid out that year to make the bridges strong enough
to bear the weight of materials for building the Round
Table; and for many years after this the sums expended
continue in the same proportion. Walsingham states that
they were at first £100 per week, ze. £1500 of present
Money; but that this expenditure, owing to the heavy
drain upon the king of his French war, was afterwards cut
down to £20 per week, which now would be equivalent to
4300.

The Round Table, as it was called, was probably finished
by the time the king returned from Calais, in October, 1347;

1 See too Chr. Angl., p. 17, which dates it 1344.
Order of the
Garter estab-

lished, 1348-50.

ir First plague,
1349.

16 William of Wykeham.

 

and then for the first time his conception of the Order of
the Garter is put into execution. The accounts of his Great
Wardrobe, lately published, show exactly at this time a new
device. “After this,) and in the next year, we meet with
entries, of a streamer powdered with blue garters; of a
cloak, tunic, hood, and two jupons for the king, all powdered
with garters ; of a bed for the king, powdered with garters,
having this motto, ‘Hon sott guz mal y pense ;* of twelve
blue garters embroidered with silver and gold, and having
the same motto. ... Here we have in 1348 all the elements,
required for the constitution of the Order. It already
existed, at least in an inchoate state. In 1350—we have
no documents for the intermediate year—it had been fully
established ; for we then find the king, in company with
the Knights of the Order, keeping the Feast of St. George
at Windsor, on April 23rd.”

Meanwhile England was overshadowed by the first
visitation of the Black Death. This terrible scourge, which
we can trace in its progress from Eastern Asia westward to
Europe, at last, after slaying its thousands on the continent,
visited England with incredible severity. It began at
Southampton, it carried off half Winchester, it more than
decimated London; all the towns suffered in proportion,
the cattle in the country caught the infection and died.
Nine-tenths of the clergy are said to have fallen victims to
it. If this be true, the lower clergy must have suffered out
of proportion to the bishops, of whom only two died during
the months of its ravages.

This severe visitation may well have turned young
Wykeham’s mind to more serious thoughts than those of
building castles ; and it is in 1349 that we first have docu-

' Lingard, iii, p. 205, 7.

? This motto was taken from an incident which happened (according to the-
popular story) in August, 1342.—Froissart, i, 89.
Wykeham in Secular Offices. I7

 

entary evidence of his having assumed the first tonsure.
is true that he probably had undergone this first tonsure
tlier. He may very probably have been tonsured while
the Priory School at Winchester. His statutes for his
m foundation at Winchester insist that every scholar
all receive the first tonsure at the age of sixteen. It took
erefore very much the same place which Confirmation
kes at the schools of the present day, and was far from
mmitting all its recipients to a clerical career.

The requirements for the first tonsure were not high.
one were to receive it who had not been confirmed, and
ao had not learnt the rudiments of the Faith, as well as to
ad and to write; nor any, of whom there was reason to
»ubt whether they had chosen this kind of life to avoid
dgments in secular courts rather than to yield a faithful
orship to God.

Nevertheless, this first tonsure made a manaclerk ; and
ough it was possible that he might never even intend to
oceed to Orders, either Minor or Sacred, still this was the
‘e to be undergone by all who did aspire to those Orders.
it in Wykeham’s case, probably, there was something
sides this. Probably he had made known his intention
proceeding, in time, to the higher Orders; in fact, was
ider promise so to proceed. We cannot help connecting
is intention with what we have already heard of his
votion to the Blessed Virgin in Winchester Minster. It
obvious that had he chosen a lay life, all the honours
uich the king’s favour could bestow lay before him. But
has chosen a clerical life, and from the first his choice is
sognized and acknowledged: all the more readily, perhaps,
cause it enabled the king to provide with chnrch benefices
-a man whom it soon became difficult otherwise to pay,
equately to the magnitude and multiplicity of the secular
wk which he expected him to undertake.

Wykeham
tonsured earl
King’s chap-
Jain, and rector
of Irstead,

1349.

I8 William of Wykeham.

 

Thus the rectory of Irstead, near Ludham, in the
diocese of Norwich, and county of Norfolk, fell vacant in
1349. It was in the gift of the rich abbey of St. Benedict of
Hulme; the abbot Robert Aylsham, who should have pre-
sented, died also July 4th. The king did not give his assent
to the appointment! of another abbot for six weeks (till
August 20th); and the new abbot, William Hatch, was
not fully instituted for another period of six weeks (till
September 25th). But meanwhile the king by letters
patent directs, within a week of abbot Aylsham’s death
(July 12th), that “his Chaplain William de Wykham”?®
should be presented to the Church at Irstead. It is the
king’s thus calling him his Chaplain which seems to prove
that he was at least in the first tonsure.

This was a benefice with cure of souls. By the Canons,
no doubt, the admission of any but a priest to a cure of
souls was irregular. But it was done quite commonly at
this time in England. And here the Popes had set a bad
example. Their dispensations over-rode the Canons, and
authorized the presentation even. of persons not in their
first tonsure. Bishops had followed their example, and, if
they had not gone so far as this, had presented persons not
yet in priests’ Orders ; often under the pressure of patrons,
whose rights, as representing the family which originally
endowed the benefice, were felt then to be equitably
stronger than now, and to amount to an actual claim on
the endowments. And so it was not at all an unheard-of
thing for king Edward to present to a living, of which
he had the gift for this turn, the young architect, who was
only in the first tonsure, whose name had, probably, not at
this time been heard of beyond Windsor, and who had
no intention of leaving Windsor to reside at Irstead.

' Monasticon, iii, p. 65. ? Walcott, p. 9 (citing MS, Harl. 6959, f, 27):
Wykeham in Secular Offices. 19

 

Meanwhile, he was busy with secular matters. In 1350,
1e king made him guardian of the manor of Rochford in
[ampshire, until the heir of Sir William Botreaux should
ome of age! Rochford lies on the left bank of the Hamp-
uire Avon, half way between Fordingbridge and Ringwood;
ad young William Botreaux was in 1350 thirteen years of
ze, so that the land must have been for eight years in
/ykeham’s guardianship. Henry Sturmy of Elvecham
spointed him his attorney to deliver seisin of certain lands
» Bishop Edingdon of Winchester, on October 12th, 1352;
ho again appointed him two months after, December roth,
) receive seisin for him.?

In the meantime, the king had begun in 1350 to
onvert the ancient “ Domus regis,” to the west of the new
eep at Windsor, into a College for the accommodation of
is new Order of the Garter.2 This was the work for which,
1 Ashmole’s words, “he appointed several Surveyors, whom
e assigned to press hewers of stone, carpenters, and such
ther artificers as were thought useful and necessary ; and
lso to provide stone, timber, and other materials, and
arriages for them. Among these Surveyors, we find
>membered John Peyntour, Richard de Rochelle, William
e Hurle, William de Herland, Robert de Bernham, and
ome others.” *

Young Wykeham was in the course of time to have

place among these Surveyors: but not yet. The king
robably employed him in subordinate offices at first.
m the roth of May, 1356, the king appointed him by
‘tters patent, for his faithfulness and circumspection, clerk
fall his works on the manors of Henley and Easthamp-
ead, where he seems, from the terms employed, to have
een carrying on extensive operations.®

' Abbrev. Rot. Origin., ii, p. 209. 2? Lowth, p. 14%.
3 Cockerell, p. 3. 4 Ashmole, p. 135. 5 MS. Harl. 6960, f. 28 4.

Secular
employments
Surveyor of
Works at
Windsor
Castle, 1356

20 William of Wykeham.

 

On the 2oth of August, the same year, he paid £2. 115.
for the keep of the king’s eight dogs at Windsor ;! and in
1357, power to sell all the king’s draught horses in Windsor
Forest, except twelve of the best, was committed to him
and two others.”

On the 30th of October, 1356, he was appointed as
Surveyor of the works at Windsor Castle, and like powers
given him with the other Surveyors, with a salary of one
shilling a day while he stayed at Windsor, two when he ..
travelled on business, and three shillings a week for his
clerk ;3 and on receiving this appointment, he surrendered
what he had before held—the custody of the land at Eton,
Old and New Windsor, and several other manors.*

On November 14th, 1357, the king gave him by letters
patent, “for his good service already paid to us and here-
after to be paid,” a shilling a day from the exchequer
besides his wages, “until the said William be peacefully
promoted by us in some competent ecclesiastical benefice.”®
So glaringly did Edward use the wealth of the Church to
enable him to pay secular services. But this gift opens upa
long story of papal resistance to the preferments which were
showered upon him, which shall be detailed in the next
chapter. For the present we will confine ourselves to secular
matters, and look at Wykeham in the four capacities of a,
land agent, an architect, a judge, and a: minister of the
crown.

He must now, as one of the Surveyors employed at
Windsor Castle, have made the acquaintance, if he had not
before done so, of Thomas Foxley. Thomas Foxley, of
Bramsell, or Bramshill, in North Hampshire, had been con-

' Walcott, p. 13.
2 ‘Omnia jumenta et equitium regis." —Abbrev. Rot. Origin., ii, p. 244.

+ Ashmole, p. 135. ‘Walcott, p. 12. 5 MS.Harl. 6960, f. 35.
Wykeham in Secular Offices. 2r

 

nt to reside at Windsor since 1328,! as Constable of the
astle, leaving his son Sir John in possession of his
iternal estate of Bramshill, Whether formed originally
: Bramshill or at Windsor, his intimacy with Wykeham
ypears to have been great. He is one of the early
snefactors for whose soul Wykeham orders daily masses
1 be said both at New College and at Winchester ;* and
s son Sir John left on his death, in 1378, a gold ring set
ith a sapphire to Wykeham, and directed his executors to
: guided by his advice

When he had been an ordinary Surveyor almost three
‘ars, he was further promoted (July roth, 1359) to be
hief Warden and Surveyor of the royal castles of
Tindsor, Leeds, Dover, and Hadleigh, and of all the king’s
anors, and parks pertaining to the same castles and
anors. The same letters patent give him powers to
point and dismiss all workmen, buy necessaries for
pairs, provide carpenters, masons, and other artificers,
one, timber, etc.; and in the said manors to hold courts
et and other courts, pleas of trespass and misdemeanour,

enquire of the king’s rights, and all things pertaining
ereunto.*

This was a great promotion; and it proved to be the
rning point of Wykeham’s career. It is now that he
twns upon general history. The St. Alban’s chronicler
Ils us that the king “made Sir William de Wikham, a
‘udent and discreet man, the surveyor of the work.” §

1Sir J. Cope’s Bramshill, p. 7. 2 Stat. Oxf. § 42, Wint. § 29.

3Sir J. Cope says that part of the old portion of Bramshill House greatly
embles in its architecture the domestic portion of Windsor Castle. May not
xley have employed Wykeham to build at Bramshill, in one of his absences in
unpshire as land agent, and then have recommended him to the king as Surveyor
works at Windsor ?—Szr J. Cope's ‘‘Bramshill,” p. 7.

* Ashmole, p. 128. Harl. MS. 6960, f. 39. Abbrev. Rot. Origin., ii, p. 257.

5 Chron. Angl. p. 41. Also in 1359, the king gave to him and two others the
‘veyorship of Old Windsor Forest, with power to gather rents and look to trees.—
brev. Rot. Origin. ii, p. 252.

Chief Surveyc
of sundry
castles, 1359.
Builds new
wing for royal
apartments at
Windsor,

1360-69.

22 William of Wykeham.

 

His appointment as Chief Surveyor was soon followed
by further architectural undertakings at Windsor. By
Wykeham’s advice the king pulled down all the building
to the east of the new keep or Round Table, and built
there another ward or bailey, to accommodate himself and
his court, who were to leave the apartments they had
hitherto occupied to the Knights of the Garter. This work
was wholly designed and executed under Wykeham’s
immediate superintendence. It is the first considerable
work bearing the impress of his mind, and will remind the
observer in its general disposition of his later works at
Oxford and Winchester.

The arrangements for impressing workmen for this great.
work were doubtless made by Wykeham himself. Writs
were issued in the king’s name,! bearing date the 14th
April, 1360, directed to the Sheriffs of London and twelve
of the adjoining counties, ordering them to send between
them to Windsor three hundred and sixty of their best
diggers and stone-hewers, by the Sunday after St. George’s
Day (April 23rd), to be employed at the king’s wages as
long as was necessary. The Sheriffs were to take security
from the workmen that they would not depart from Windsor
without the leave of William of Wykeham, who was further
to collect the securities, and deposit them in the Court of
Chancery. Failing the performance of this, the Sheriffs
were to be fined a hundred pounds a-piece.

These precautions did not prevent many of the workmen
thus impressed from leaving Windsor, and accepting other
employment at higher wages. Fresh writs were therefore
issued in 1362 to prohibit all persons from so employing
them; and to direct that the runaways be committed to
Newgate, and their names returned to the Court of
Chancery.

‘ Ashmole, p. 129.
Wykeham in Secular Offices. 23

 

But in 1361 the plague was repeated, less viru-
lently, it is true, but more fatally to the upper classes.
During the nine months following August, 1361, as many
as twenty-two lay peers and four Bishops died in England}
At Windsor it was particularly destructive. Wykeham’s
great friend, the Constable Foxley, probably died of it;
at all events he died this year. Its ravages were so great
that new writs had to be issued on the 30th of March, 1362,
to the Sheriffs of seven counties which were outside the
former circle, directing them to furnish three hundred and
two able and skilful masons and stone-diggers by the
Sunday after Easter at furthest, under a penalty of two
hundred pounds a-piece—an enormous sum, and twice the
former penalty.

The general plan of the building which these workmen
were executing was as follows:—To the east of the round
keep was a square plateau, with a precipitous side to the
north. Around three sides of this were built curtain walls
with apartments behind them, the keep itself closing in the
fourth or west side. The entrance gate to the whole castle
was at the western end of the south side of this square ; but
the king’s palace was a block of buildings adjoining the
north wall. You entered the castle gate, and crossed a
spacious court to the palace gate, which again was at the
south-west of the palace. To your left as you entered—
and therefore to the west, and thus defended both by the
proximity of the keep and by the precipice on the north—
was the square of the king’s and queen’s apartments, built
round a court called the Brick Court, where probably
Wykeham exercised his skill for the first time in working
this material, which had recently been imported from

ol One duke, two earls, and nineteen barons are said by Sir H..Nicolas to have
died within the months of the plague. And this list is not necessarily exhaustive,
as sometimes no date is given for a peer’s death.—See Nicolas’ Historzcal Peerage.

Second plague,
1361; death of
Foxley.
Wykeham's
influence with
the king.

24. William of Wykeham.

 

Flanders, the native country of queen Philippa. To your
right as you entered lay the hall and chapel, forming a
long continuous range of building, divided by a partition
wall, exactly as at Wykeham’s two colleges at Oxford and
Winchester ; while a transverse range connected them with
the apartments to the north, and thus separated the
enclosed space into two oblong courts, called respectively
the Horn and the Kitchen Court.

By 1363 these buildings were ready for glazing ;1 and
then Henry Stamerne and John, Brampton were employed
to buy glass in all parts of the kingdom, wherever it was to
be sold ; and to impress twelve glaziers and bring them to
Windsor, to be employed within the castle. The expendi-
ture of this year amounted to 43,802, which is equivalent
to more than £55,000 of our present money. For six years
more the works appear, by the expenditure incurred, to
have continued ; but with 1369 all serious building work
seems to have been concluded.

It cannot be doubted that this completion of Windsor
Castle gave Wykeham great influence with the king. It
laid the foundation of his paramount success at court—a
success which reminds us of the sudden rise of Piers
Gaveston in the reign of the king’s father. He is reported
by a late tradition? to have inscribed on an inner wall at
Windsor these words, “This made Wickam.” It is said to
have been a common practice with architects thus to mark
their works.* But the words, the tradition goes on, were
repeated to the king as if by them the glory due to the
master was being assumed by the servant. The king
objected to the inscription; but Wykeham defended it on
the ground that the true meaning of the words was not that
Wykeham had made the castle, but that the castle had

' Ashmole, p, 129. 2 Cockerell, p. 4.
’ Parker's Antig. Brit. Eccles., cit. Lowth, p. 22, 7. * Cockerell, p. 4, 7. 2
Wykeham in Secular Offices. 25

 

made Wykeham.!_ Whether the story is true or not, (and
if it be true it throws light on the relations of easy
familiarity in which Wykeham stood towards the king), at
least this interpretation is as true to the facts of the case as
the other. It was the building of the royal residence for
Edward which made the fortunes of the architect.

In 1361, he gave the design for the building of Queen-
borough Castle, in the Isle of Sheppey, at the mouth of the
Medway and the Swale. This, which was called Queen-
borough in honour of queen Philippa, was considered a
triumph of architectural skill over the difficulties of an
awkward situation. But with the change in the style of
warfare, its usefulness was over. When cannon supplanted
arrows, it was found to be at too great a distance from the
sea to be useful, and it was demolished by an Order of the
Commonwealth in 1650. Very little trace of it now remains,
but what can be made out is sufficient, when compared with
an old plan of the castle,” to indicate its original design.

The keep was an irregular circle, something like a rose
with five petals, of about 200 feet diameter. Within it lay
a large circular courtyard of 150 feet diameter, with a well
near the centre. There were five small circular towers
for defence, with a square tower surmounting the one
entrance ; between them were high raised platforms, of
a sufficient elevation to permit the defenders to discharge
their arrows effectively over the low ground of the island.
The ground floor of the keep was parcelled into twelve
rooms; the upper storeys contained forty more. At a
distance averaging ten yards from the outer wall of the
keep, was a circular moat, drawn with geometrical precision,
and 48 feet in width; and beyond this again seems to

1 If we compare with this Wykeham's famous motto, ‘‘Manners makyth man,”
it will seem more probable that ‘‘ Wykeham” was intended to be the object and not
the subject in the inscription. But compare Collins’ A/storical Peerage viii, p. 118.

? Hollar’s plan, Grose, iii, p. 90, cit. Cockerell, p. 6.

Builds Queen-
borough Castle,
1361-67.
Warden of
forests and
manors,

Witness to
ratification of
Peace of
Bretigni, 1360.

26 William of Wykeham.

 

have existed at one time an outer wall, with its gateway to
the south-east defended by two circular towers, the only
bridge across the moat and entrance to the keep being
on the north-east and west. This great work was not
completed till 1367, the year of Wykeham’s advancement to
the episcopate.

We have thrown together all the notices of Wykeham as
an architect: but it must not be forgotten that he was
employed in other capacities as well.

Thus his appointment to the Chief Surveyorship at
Windsor had involved judicial powers in the manors of
which he was made Warden. He must by this time have
acquired considerable experience in territorial law—expe-
rience which stood him in good stead when he was
appointed Chancellor. Thus, in 1361, the king committed!
to him and Peter Atwood the wardenship of the “ Forest on
this side Trent,” that is, of the Forest of Arden, which
extended from the Avon northwards to the Trent. This
wardenship he kept till he became Bishop of Winchester.

In 13642 the manor of Hacconby in Lincolnshire was
committed to him to superintend till the heir of Robert
Tiffur came of age, which he did in 1369. And on the 21st
of January, 1365, he had given to him the charge of the
lands in Cambridgeshire and Bucks, which Sir Richard le
Vache, a privy councillor, had left to his son Philip le Vache.

We have next to contemplate Wykeham in a political
character. In October, 1360, he was one of the six who
were witnesses to the ratification of the Peace of Bretigni
at Calais.

The English armies had not been so successful in
France of late as they had been formerly. The two first
periods of French war in this reign had been marked by
the two signal English victories of Creci and Poitiers. At

‘ Abbrev. Rot. Origin. ii, p. 263. 7 id. p. 287. 3 MS. Harl. 6960, f. 75.
Wykeham in Secular Offices. 27

 

the opening of hostilities in 1346, Edward laid claim to the
sovereignty of the whole of France, in right of his mother
Isabella, the daughter of king Philip the Fair. The
victory of Creci and the successful siege of Calais put him
into a position to conclude an armistice on terms very
favourable to himself, which was prolonged at intervals for
several years. But in 1353 Edward, probably seeing that
the subjugation of the whole kingdom was a hopeless task,
offered to cede his claim to the sovereignty of the whole,
and to conclude a permanent peace on condition of being
recognised as sovereign of the district which he already
held as tenant in chief. John, who had succeeded Philip VI
as king, refused, and thereupon followed the second period
of the war from 1355 to 1357. Again the English were
successful, chiefly owing to the generalship of the Prince of
Wales at Poitiers in September, 1356, where he captured
the French king and his son. An enormous ransom for
their king was now added to Edward’s other demands; the
French refused, and Edward for the third time prepared to
invade France in November, 1359, with an army larger and
better appointed than ever before. He pushed through as
far as Rheims, to which he laid ineffectual siege for seven
weeks, after which he penetrated into Burgundy. Now
began his reverses. His huge host dwindled under the
affliction of famine (notwithstanding the vastness of his
commissariat), while the enemy revenged themselves by a
massacre at Winchelsea, which was taken by a French fleet
in March, 1360. Edward was returning down the Seine,
and at the end of the same month challenged Paris to
submit; but in a few days more he was retreating, or rather
fleeing with all precipitation, into Bretagne. The army
met with a terrible thunderstorm near Chartres; men and
horses perished in greater numbers than on the most
sanguinary field of battle; and Edward, struck with
28 William of Wykeham.

 

remorse, vowed to the Virgin that, he would at once con-
clude a peace. He was then at Bretigni, near Chartres ;
there peace was concluded on May 8th, and signed by the
commissioners of both parties. After a delay of nearly
three months, the treaty was solemnly ratified at Calais.
“The counsellors and lawyers of the king of England,”
says Froissart, “drew up a paper called the Charter of
Peace, with great deliberation and much prudence.”! We
have no proof that Wykeham was one of them; but the
presumption is, from his presence at Calais, that he acted
as one of Edward’s legal advisers.

The terms of the treaty gave Edward more than he
could have hoped to obtain after the late disastrous cam-
paign ; but the French were as tired of the war as he, and
were glad to be rid of English armies upon any terms.
The stipulations were that Edward should renounce his
right to the French crown, and to all his conquests except
Calais and Guisnes, and reserve to himself only Poitou and
Guienne, with the county of Ponthieu; and that the king
of France should renounce the sovereignty of these latter
counties to Edward. A sum of three million crowns of
gold (or £1,125,000 of our present money) was to be paid
as a ransom for king John; and twenty-five French barons,
sixteen of the prisoners taken at Poitiers, and forty-two of
the richest burghers in France were to be detained as
hostages till it was paid.

The treaty, thus concluded, was solemnly ratified on
October 24th, 1360. The kings knelt together on the steps
of the altar in the Church of St. Nicholas at Calais, while
the papal envoy, Audoin, abbot of Clugni, after celebrating
the mass of the Holy Ghost, extended to them the paten
with the Host, attended by Bishop Edingdon of Winchester
and the Bishop of Boulogne, who held the missal between

1 Froissart, i, 212,
Wykeham in Secular Offices. 29

 

them. Audoin recounted the articles of the treaty, after
which John and Edward severally placed one hand on the
Host and the other on the Gospels, and swore to observe
the treaty faithfully. The principals were followed by
twenty-four French and twenty-seven English barons, who
took the same oath. This act was witnessed by Wykeham,
together with five others.

In the course of 1364, we find Wykeham acting as a
Minister of the Crown. On May sth he was appointed
Keeper of the Privy Seal by Bishop Langham, then
Chancellor ; and in June he is addressed by Pope Urban V
as Secretary to the King! He had been, probably, for
some time a privy councillor, and such was his intimacy
with the king that he is said afterwards to have been at
this time “chief of the Privy Council, and governor of the
Great Council.”

At the same time with these honours, his purse was
liberally provided for. On the 14th March, 1365, the king
by letters patent confers on him twenty shillings a day
“in consideration of divers offices touching on private
businesses, with which we have specially burdened him, and
in the execution and expedition of which he has borne
excessive labours and expenses, and will be bound to bear
more each day ;” to be paid out of his exchequer as from
June roth, 1363, “as long as he bears the above mentioned
offices and burdens, notwithstanding that he is dwelling
in our actual household.”*

On May 2oth, 1365, he acts as a Commissioner to settle
the terms of a long truce with Scotland. King David, the
son of Robert Bruce, had been captured at the battle of
Nevil’s Cross in 1346, been detained three years in captivity,

! William of Wykeham, keeper of the Privy Seal, paid to the king sums amount-

ing to £9678, which had been paid for the King of France’s ransom.—/ssue Leoll
of Brantingham, p. xlii: date 1367.

2MS. Harl. 6960, f. 72.

Keeper of the
Privy Seal and
king's secre-
tary, 1364.

Commissioner
to treat with
Scotland, 1365.
Froissart’s
testimony to his
influence.

gO ‘William of Wykeham.

 

and only released upon consenting to pay a large sum
for his ransom. This he found himself unable to raise;
and after fruitless and interminable discussions, a commis-
sion was appointed in May, 1365, consisting of the
Chancellor (bishop Langham of Ely), the Treasurer (bishop
Barnet of Bath and Wells), the Earl of Arundel, and Wyke-
ham, the Privy Seal, to settle the amount of the instalments
by which he should pay the remainder of his ransom,! and
the duration of the truce between England and Scotland.

Thus, it seems that Wykeham by this time has climbed
to the highest offices of state, and thoroughly ingratiated
himself with his master, king Edward. And the fact
which thus appears is borne witness to by the chroniclers of
that time. “At this time,’? says Froissart, “there reigned
a priest in England called Sir William de Wican, and this
Sir William de Wican was so much in favour with the
king of England, that by him everything was done, and
without him they did nothing.” And Malverne connects
together the events reviewed in this chapter as cause and
effect. “Looking how to please the king and gain his
goodwill, he procured the building of the said Windsor
Castle in such a style as one sees it now, and shortly after
constructed a new castle in the Isle of Sheppey by the sea,
and there fixed a market, though the place was ill situated
for building. On which account, the lord king enriched
him with many good and fat benefits, and soon after made
him keeper of his Privy Seal.” Doubtless, there is a certain
amount of truth even in such a juxtaposition as this. In
the sense in which he himself inscribed the word on the
wall at Windsor, “ This made Wickam.”

‘In the Introduction to Brantingham's /ssve Roll is a notice, dated 1367, of
“£4,000 paid to the King, in gold nobles on behalf of Scotland for ransom of
Robert [sic] de Bruys ; present, the Lord William of Wykeham. "'—p. xlii.

? Froissart, i, 249.
CHAPTER II.

WYKEHAM AND THE POPES.
A.D. 1357—1368.

E are accustomed to think of Edward III as the king
who gained splendid successes in urging his title to
the French throne. But this is not his best title to be
remembered with gratitude by Englishmen. All through
his reign he was heading the national Church in a persistent
warfare against the encroaching claims of the Roman see.
And he was the first king of England who identified him-
self with the national Church all through his reign; so that
he may be said to have begun the resistance to the Roman
claims of supremacy, which culminated in the rupture
under Henry VIII two hundred years later. We are now
to consider the part which Wykeham played in the develop-
ment of this resistance.

The Church of England was beginning in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries to assert her position as a national
Church. But this was hardly dreamt of before. England
had originally been converted from Rome, and her Church
had owed, and paid, to Rome the allegiance of a dutiful child.
Moreover she had been converted by monks, and to the
monastic system she owed most of her famous men at first.
The ninth century had seen the downfall of the predomin-
ance of the monasteries, since they were the chief sufferers
at the hands of the Danes; and the clergy who were
secular, that is, unconnected with monasteries, and so non-

Edward III
heads the na-
tional Church
against the
Roman claims.
Missing Page
Missing Page
First statute of
Provisors,
EGts

and of Preemu-
nire, 1353.

34 William of Wykehau.

 

presentees to provided benefices to enter, and his subjects
to admit them. This sealed the compact between the
king and the Church; henceforth they were to have but
one object, and that was the emancipation of the Church
from the evils under which it groaned.

Of course, there were two parties, now as ever, in the
English Church itself: there were the partisans of the
papacy, as well as the national reformers. But the papal
partisans were unpopular for the moment. For the papal
court was at Avignon, undergoing its seventy years captivity,
during which it was at the will and beck of the kings of
France. But England was at war with France, and it
seemed intolerable that English clergy should be taxed that
the money might go into France. The chief supporters,
therefore, of the pope were the regular clergy—the monks
and friars—whose vows bound them in an especial manner
to uphold the Head of the Church. Hence we can under-
stand Edward’s preference for the secular over the regular
clergy, and for those who would take the national side
in the matters at issue between him and the pope.

The king’s ordinance of 1343 passed into a law in 1351,
a law which is known as the first statute of Provisors. It
enacted that in case the pope collated to any archbishopric,
bishopric, dignity, or other benefice, in disturbance of free
elections or presentations, the patronage of such benefice
was to be forfeited to the crown, and the king was to
dispose of the benefice for one turn. And if any person
should procure reservations or provisions from the pope

then the said provisors, their procurators and
notaries, were to be arrested, and—being convicted—to be
imprisoned till they had satisfied the fine imposed on them
to the king and the party aggrieved.

Another step in the same direction was made two years
afterwards (1353) in the statute of “Pramunire.” This
Wykeham and the Popes. 35

 

enacts that any of the king’s lieges who shall lodge a
plea against any in courts not within the realm, or on
matters whereon the king’s courts give judgment, shall
have two months’ warning given them to appear in the
king’s courts to answer their contempt; and if they do not
appear at the proper time, then they, their proctors and
attorneys, shall be straightway put out of the king’s
protection, their lands, goods and chattels be forfeited to
the king, and their persons imprisoned during the king’s
pleasure.
' These two statutes—both passed while Wykeham was
working in a subordinate capacity at Windsor—were the
first of their kind. It was, probably, before he had any-
thing to do with legislation ; before he even possessed the
confidence of the king. But they indicate the tendency of
the court when he was yet a young aspirant to office, and
they are forecasts of the greater statutes on the same
subjects passed by his own ministry forty years later.
Meanwhile, Wykeham was to play a personal part in
the controversy between the king and the pope. Of
course, he was on the side of the king: it could hardly
have been otherwise. The king was his benefactor, who
was ever loading him with new favours. The pope, though
the head of the Church of which he was a clerk, was a
foreign potentate, ever encroaching on national rights.
Wykeham did not so much make his position for himself, as
find himself thrust into it by the force of circumstances.
The Constitutions of Clarendon had declared in 1164
that “when an archbishopric or bishopric, or abbey or
priory in the lordship of the king be vacant, it ought to be
in his hand, and he shall receive from it all rents and profits
as belonging to the lord.” This the kings had interpreted
into a right to present to all benefices in the gift of such

1 Stubbs, iii, p. 33.

Wykeham
takes a personal
part in the
controversy.
Bishop of Ely
quarrels with
the king,

36 William of Wykeham.

 

bishopric or abbey, which fell vacant before it was filled up.
One of the most effectual means, therefore, of warfare
against popes who were filling England with clerks provided
by themselves, was to claim and exercise this right, and to
multiply and prolong the occasions for the exercise of it.

Thus Wykeham had been already, as was mentioned
before, appointed to the rectory of Irstead in 1349, in the
vacancy after the death of the abbot of Hulme, who should
have presented had he been living. This was the only
Church preferment which he obtained for eight years. But
in November 14th, 1357, we have seen that he had received
the grant of a daily sum from the exchequer, until he
should be peacefully promoted by the king to some
ecclesiastical benefice.

The occurrence of the word “ peacefully” in the letters
patent, probably, has much significance. It means that the
king looked forward to open war between the papal and
royal courts. Innocent VI, the reigning pope, was a strict
reformer, and compelled residence in France, where he could
command it. He had no reason to favour England,
whose dominions approached uncomfortably near his own
residence at Avignon, and whose hosts were some times
actually seen beneath its walls.!

One of his chief partisans in England was Thomas Lisle,
bishop of Ely, and the bishop of Ely had quarrelled with
the king very soon after his appointment. From the
first he had been on the papal side, not the national. The
brethren of the Ely Monastery had chosen another man,
but the pope set him aside to appoint Lisle, prior of the
Order of Preachers, and his own penitentiary. Lisle was a
hot-tempered man; but for some years all things went
smoothly. Then, he quarrelled with Blanche, Lady Wake,
the king’s cousin, about their rights to contiguous manors,

' Milman, v, p. 377.
Wykeham and the Popes. 37

 

and was cast in the suit which he brought against her. He
indignantly forced himself into the king’s presence, and
told him that his royal power was being abused to hinder
the fair administration of the law. Unfortunately, a short
time after, a retainer of Lady Wake’s was murdered by the
bishop’s chamberlain. The sister of the murdered man
joined Lady Wake in appealing to the king, who submitted
the cause for trial to the Justices of the King’s Bench. The
bishop was found guilty, not of having instigated the
murder, but of having knowingly harboured the murderer
after the fact, and sentenced to forfeit the temporals of his
see, which were accordingly confiscated by the king.

The bishop appealed to archbishop Islip of Canterbury,
to admit him to purge himself by oath of the charge laid
against him. The archbishop advised him first to make his
peace with the king. But this the bishop refused to do,
and instead fled beyond sea, and laid his cause before
the pope at Avignon. He crossed the channel on the 19th
of November, 13571—only five days, it will be observed,
after the letters patent to Wykeham talking about “ peaceful
preferment ;’—and eleven days after (on the 30th), the
king gave to Wykeham, out of the temporalities of the
see, the rich living of Pulham.?

Arrived at Avignon, Lisle lost no time in laying his
cause before Innocent VI. The pope cited the parties
to appear for judgment: and when they did not appear,
excommunicated them. The papal decrees were still obeyed
rigorously by a certain party in England: the bones of
one of these excommunicated persons, who had died and
been buried, were dragged from his grave, and ignominiously
cast into a horsepond ; while another sought and obtained
absolution from the papal excommunication.®

' Wharton's Anglia Sacra, vol. i, p. 660. He gives the year as 1356; but cf.
marginal note, and p. 652, note f.

2MS. Harl. 6960, f. 35. 3 Ang. Sacr.i, pp. 44, 45.

who deprives
him of his
temporals,

and gives
Wykeham the
rectory of
Pulham,

Bishop Lisle
complains to
the pope, who
cites the parties
to appear,
and prosecutes
Wykeham for
wrongful occu-
pancy of
Pulham:

but dies, June,
1361: on which
the king
presents
Wykeham
again to
Pulham.

ge William of Wykeham.

 

The king’s anger was roused. He issued a commission
to certain justices to enquire who were the culprits who
had published the papal decrees, and fined and imprisoned
those who were found guilty. It was an unfortunate
moment for two papal emissaries to be found in England,
with papal injunctions to English bishops upon them.
They were arrested, and thrown into Newgate, where they
died, it was said, of harsh treatment.’

Thus war to the knife was proclaimed between the
pope and the bishop on the one side, and the king and
national party on the other. In such a state of things, it is
not surprising that bishop Lisle should have commenced a
prosecution of Wykeham for having taken possession of
the living of Pulham, without rightful presentation ; for if
the temporals had been wrongfully seized, Pulham was
still his to give away. When the king heard of this, he
gave Wykeham (under date of the 16th of April, 1359)
a grant of money. He observes that he has not yet
provided suitably for William of’ Wykeham, clerk, and
therefore gives him 420 a year, besides the sums he receives
for offices at Windsor and elsewhere, until he comes into
peaceful possession of Pulham Church, which he holds by
the king’s collation, but as to which he is being prosecuted
in the Roman Court: or, until he be provided with some
other benefice of the value of at least a hundred marks
a year.*

This is incidentally useful as showing what the value of
Pulham was. It was, no doubt, at least 100 marks—de,
460. 15s.—an enormous sum in those days.

The next scene we have is, probably, some time later.
The exasperation caused by the measures of war on both
sides had had time to cool. Proctors were sent to Avignon
to consult on terms of peace by the king; the bishop

1 Anglia Sacra, vol. i, p. 661. 2MS. Harl. 6960, f. 39.
Wykeham aud the Popes. 39

 

was expecting to be again able to come to England. But
before everything could be arranged, on June 23rd, 1361, he
died at Avignon! And seventeen days after—not more
than enough for the transmission of the news—on July roth,
the king repeats the collation of Wykeham to the Church
of “ Pulham, in the vacancy of the bishopric of Ely.”?

The details of this story well illustrate the manners, and
show how keen were the party feelings of the time. We
catch from them a glimpse of the lengths to which the
papal and national church parties were prepared to go,
when they were both headed by men who knew their own
minds, and were resolved on carrying out their own
measures.

But Wykeham, however in this matter he had let his
name. be used, may well have felt uneasy at appearing
in such an unfavourable light at Rome. He consented to
the gift of July 1oth, whereby the king sealed, as it were,
his triumph over his adversary; but in the next month
(August 2oth), he voluntarily resigned the living, procuring
that it should be given instead to Andrew Stratford.

We have carried on the story of the Pulham controversy
to the end, in order not to distract the reader’s mind by
introducing other subjects. But, meanwhile, Wykeham, as
early as 1358, had become a marked man. He had let
himself be thrust into a most uncomfortable position ; but
he had, probably, done it of his own choice. Henceforth,
he would be known at Avignon as the king’s clerk who,
without any orders but the first tonsure, had occupied
by the king’s gift a living rightfully in the gift of the bishop
of Ely, and been prosecuted for it in the papal court; nay,
who had refused to give it up, and had been successful
in his refusal.

1 Ang. Sacr. i, p. 662. . ?MS. Harl. 6960, f. 50.
3 MS. Harl. 1960, f. 50; quoted by Walcott, p. 10.

Wykeham
resignsPulham,
Aug. 1361.
The king
appoints
Stretton to
bishopric of
Lichfield,

but the pope
declines to
confirm him,

The king gives
Wykeham the
prebend of
Flixton,
March, 1359.

go William of Wykeham.

 

During the first burst of the resentment of the papalists
against Wykeham, Roger de Northburgh, bishop of Lich-
field and Coventry, died at the end of 1358.1 Northburgh
had been originally a nominee of the papal see, and had all
his life shown the strongest attachment to it: he had
occupied the see for thirty-eight years, and had probably
filled the diocese with papalists like himself. The king
lost no time in filling the bishopric; prince Edward
asked for the appointment for his chaplain Dr. Robert
Stretton, and Stretton was at once elected and confirmed.
Perhaps the king had hoped that the appointment would
be acceptable to the pope, as Stretton had been one of the
Auditors of the Rota at the papal court. But Innocent
heard a bad report of Stretton’s learning : and he refused to
give leave for his consecration, unless he would first come
to Avignon, and undergo an examination. Stretton sub-
mitted, and came; but although he was fortified by letters
of request from Edward to the pope, he was found wanting
by the papal examiners, and rejected “propter defectum
literature.” But the king insisted on the appointment ;
for the delay in filling the see only enabled him to keep and
enjoy the temporals of it. :

And now, on March Ist, 1359, the king appoints
Wykeham‘ to the prebend of Flixton in Lichfield Cathedral,
which happened to be vacated during the vacancy of the
see. We may fancy the indignation of a papalist dean and
chapter, called upon thus to suffer the intrusion of a man
who was at that moment being prosecuted at Avignon.
Stretton had obeyed the pope’s citation, and gone obediently
to Avignon for examination ; but Wykeham had set at

' November 22nd. Beresford's Diocesan History of Lichfield, p. 143.

? Birchington in Angl. Sacr.i, p. 44. 3 Whitlock in Angi. Sacr. i, p. 449-
‘MS. Harl. 6960, f. 38.
Wykeham and the Popes. 4I

 

nought the pope’s jurisdiction, and was even now sheltering
himself behind the prerogative of the king. They, there-
fore, demurred to his appointment, and seem to have
protested against it, and probably sent an account of their
protest to Avignon. At all events, the guardian of the
spirituals of the see, Hugh Hopwas, who according
to custom had been appointed by the archbishop of Canter-
bury for the express purpose of instituting to vacant
benefices, took no notice of the king’s letters patent. There
is no presentation to the prebend of Flixton.

So, for two years both the bishopric and the prebend
lay vacant; until Prince Edward besought the pope to put an
end to the scandal by appointing a commission to examine
his former chaplain again, that he might receive consecra-
tion. Innocent yielded, and appointed archbishop Langham
and bishop Sheppey of Rochester to examine him in
England. Stretton underwent examination a second time,
but a second time he was rejected. The examiners found
him “insufficient,” and were not able or willing to accept
him. And now, again, the king, who had no mind to give
in to the dean and chapter, a second time (August 22nd,
1360) issues letters patent appointing Wykeham! to the
vacant prebend of Flixton. They were absolutely ignored,
as before.

Matters were again at a deadlock ; when pope Innocent
suddenly gave in, and wrote to the archbishop to consecrate
Stretton without examination. Disdaining to do this him-
self toa man whom he had pronounced unfit, the archbishop

yet permitted bishop Northburgh of London to do it, and .

Stretton was consecrated September 27th, 1360. He took
the oath of canonical obedience to the archbishop at
Lambeth on the 6th of February following; but it was

'MS. Harl. 6960, f. 43.

The guardian
of the see
refuses him
institution.

Wykeham
presented to
Flixton a
second time,
Aug. 1360.

Stretton made
bishop of
Lichfield,
institutes
Wykeham, and
insists on his
induction.

Wykeham
inducted under
protest,

but resigns
prebend, Nov.
1361.

42 William of Wykeham.

‘

found that he could not read the Latin of the oath, and
a third party had to read it for him."

But before this, the king—whose patronage in the
prebend was so soon to expire—had, on January 2oth, for the
third time “conceded or given” to Wykeham the prebend
of Flixton? and had written to Stretton, directing him to
institute Wykeham to the prebend. Accordingly, Stretton
writes on the 1st of February to Hugh Hopwas,’ who up to
this time had acted independently as guardian of the
spirituals of the see, making him his commissary for the
purpose, and enjoining him to “execute the letters of our
lord the king according to the requirement of the law.”
This Hugh Hopwas did under protest. He inducted one
Nicholas Ivinghoe, Wykeham’s proxy, to the stall of
Flixton in the choir of Lichfield Cathedral, and assigned
him his due place in the chapter. He then writes to the
bishop, under date of April 13th, that he has done all this,
saving the right of the dean and chapter.*

But we find that at the end of the same year Wykeham
exchanged this uneasy seat with John Waltham,’ who
resigned to him instead of it the prebend of Dunham in
Southwell Collegiate Church, worth 55 marks, or nearly
A357.

Wykeham had thus become notorious both at Avignon,

 

1 Dean Hook (iv, pp. 148, 149) charitably suggests that his sight may have been
failing him. He was blind before his death (Amglia Sacra, i, p. 449 2), which took
place in 1385.

2 MS. Harl. 6960, f. 46. 3 Stretton Reg. f. 79.

4It is difficult to decipher Stretton’s Register here (f. 79). It seems to read
“Dominum W. de Wikham . . . . . in Canonicum et fratrem ecclesize
cathedralis Lichfield necnon dictze pracbendz preebendarium, salvo jure cujuscungue
per locum tenentem decan; et capitulum...admitti... feci."" The dean and
chapter had the right of induction, and protested against their new bishop's viola-
tion of that right.

* Reg. Stretton, f 52. aun Waltham (perhaps from Bishop’s Waltham,
Hants) was a friend of Wykeham's, and succeeded him in more than one prefer-
ment. He became bishop of Salisbury in 1388.

° Reg. Langham, f. 12.
Wykeham and the Popes. 43

 

and to the papal partisans in England. On May Sth, 1360,
he was further appointed by the king to the deanery of the
collegiate church of St. Martin le Grand,! near Aldersgate,
London. He found the building nearly in ruins; and,
always glad of an opportunity of exercising his architectural
skill, he rebuilt the chapel, cloister, and chapter-house,
decorating them with stone carvings and rich woodwork at
his own expense.

The controversy about the Lichfield stall was not settled
till April, that about Pulham not till July, 1361. And by
this time, Wykeham seems to have come to the momentous
resolution to seek Holy Orders without further delay ; and
this it was which made him anxious to terminate these
controversies, and not only so, but also to resign the prefer-
ments which had been the causes of the quarrels, before
he became an acolyte. And we find that he had actually
resigned both, before (on December 5th) he was ordained
an acolyte® by bishop Edingdon, in the chapel of his palace
at Southwark.

If we seek a reason for his determination to proceed to
Holy Orders now, after so long a hesitation, perhaps a
sufficient one will be found in the fact that, as already
noticed, this year saw the second visitation of the plague,
when so many of the nobility—among them his friend, the
Constable Thomas Foxley—fell victims to it. But he had,
in all probability, made up his mind before this, and com-
municated his purpose to the king. For from July, 1361,
to the end of the year, the king loaded him with prebends,
which fell into his hands in great numbers through the
unusual number of clerical deaths. This astonishing list of
Church preferments is as follows:

1 MS. Harl. 6960, f. 88. ‘‘ Opere lapideo et ligneo dictam capellam et claustrum

in gremio ejusdem restituit in formam novam mire pulchritudinis, et erexit ac
celaturis lapideis illud mirabiliter insignivit.”

2 Reg. Edingdon, iv, PP.

Made dean of
St. Martin's le
Grand.

Ordained
acolyte, Dec.
Sth, 1361.

Presented to
numerous
prebends by
the king.
44 William of Wykeham.

 

1.—July rath. Prebend, vacated by the death of William
Somerford, in Hereford Cathedral.!' Bishop Trilleck of Hereford
having died in November, 1360, and his successor not yet being
appointed, the king had the presentation to the prebend.

2.—July 16. Prebend of Trathelan in the collegiate Church of
Abergwili, in the diocese of St. David’s.2 Bishop Falstoffe of St.
David’s had died the month before. But this prebend Wykeham
exchanged on December 14th, the same year, for that of Rhyl in
the same Church.?

3.—Same day. Prebend of Treffelegh in the collegiate
Church of Llanddewi Brewi, in Cardiganshire, in the diocese of
St. David’s.4

4.—July 24th. Prebend in Bromyard collegiate Church, in
the diocese of Hereford.5 See No. 2. This however he resigned
on October 23rd following.§

5.—August 16th. Prebend of Yetminster Prima in Salisbury
Cathedral.7 Admitted, and probably presented also, by bishop
Robert Wyville, who had been appointed to Salisbury at the
instance of queen Philippa. This however he exchanged on
October gth for another prebend in the same Cathedral, that
of Fordington and Writhlington ;® and this, again, on October
15th, for that of Bedminster and Redcliffe, in the same.9

6.—September 24th. Prebend of the Altar of St. Mary in the
collegiate Church of Beverley, diocese of York ;1° worth Lr6.

7-—October ist. Prebend of Oxgate in St. Paul’s, London."
Bishop Michael Northburgh had died in September, and the king
had the gift of the prebénd. But on December roth Wykeham
exchanged this for that of Totenhall, in the same Cathedral.?2

8.—November z2nd. Prebend, vacated by Richard Clay-
hanger, in St. David’s Cathedral.!* Sze No. 2.

9.—December 2oth. Prebend in Wherwell Minster, a Bene-
dictine nunnery, in the diocese of Winchester.1* To this he was
admitted, if not presented, by bishop Edingdon, who only a
fortnight before had ordained him acolyte.

'MS. Harl. 6960, f. 50. 2Ib. Le. 3 Tb. 60.
* Ib. 50. 6 Ib. 1: / ® Ib. 56.
7 Rich. Jones's Fasti Ecclesie Sarisburiensis, p. 434.
®° MS. Harl. p. 381. * Ib. p. 361. Tb. 6960, f. 54.
"Ib. f. 54. 2 Tb. 60. '3 Ib. 6960, f. 58.

“Tb. 59.
Wykeham and the Popes. 45

 

But we find that Innocent determined to try and put a
stop to this accumulation of benefices upon so flagrant
an offender against himself. The way in which he interfered
was the same which he took in Stretton’s case. Wykeham
was to be presented to the prebend of St. Andrew in
the church of Bishop Auckland. The pope issued a bull to
Adam Houghton, the bishop elect of St. David’s, directing
him to examine Wykeham, and if he was found fit, to allow
him to take the prebend.!

Did he hope to stop him, as he had prevented Stretton
two years before from taking his bishopric? It is reason-
able to suppose that rumours were abroad about Wykeham’s
lack of learning, such as certainly were spread later, which
may account for Innocent’s conduct. He had found the
examination test useful once against King Edward’s
nominee, and he may have hoped to be successful again.

However this were, he was disappointed. Wykeham,
rather than submit to the indignity of being examined,
chose to throw up the prebend. It is to be observed that
Innocent did not object to him, as he well might have done,
on the ground that he was not yet in Holy Orders: he
chose rather to proceed against him for want of learning.

In 1362, he was ordained subdeacon? on March 12th,
and priest? on June 12th, both by bishop Edingdon, at
Southwark. The record of his ordination as deacon, strange
to say, is missing.

In 1363, he was presented on February 17th to a prebend
in the collegiate church of Hastings; and‘*on April 21st,
to a prebend in the royal chapel of St. Stephen’s, West-
minster.

1 Reg. Langham, f. 12.
2 Reg. Edingdon, iv, QQ. He is described as ‘‘ Canonicus Sarum.””

3 Tb. RR. He is described as dean of St. Martin’s. 4MS. Harl. 6960, f. 66.

5 Ib, 67. This prebend was vacated by John Harmesthorp, clerk and secretary
to Queen Philippa (Additional Charters, Brit. Mus. 15, 422).

The pope
proposes to
examine him :
Wykeham
declines.

Ordained
subdeacon,
March tath,
and priest,
June 12th, 1362.

Presented to
more prebends :
to the arch-
deaconry of
Northampton,

which he
exchanges for

that of Lincoln,

May, 1362.

The king
makes him
provost and
prebendary of
Wells.

46 William of Wykeham.

 

John Gyndwell, bishop of Lincoln, had died in August,
1362. His chapter elected under the royal licence John
Buckingham, archdeacon of Northampton, to succeed him,
who was confirmed by the pope on April 5th next following.
Three weeks later (April 26th), the king collated Wykeham
to the archdeaconry of Northampton, which comprised the
whole of the counties of Northampton and Rutland. But
this Wykeham exchanged within the month for the arch-
deaconry of Lincoln, which he took (May 23rd, 1361) on
the resignation of John de Ufford, and which included
all the county of Lincoln, except the deanery of Stow.

On the 15th December, 1363, he was further made
provost and prebendary of Wells Cathedral by the king,
presenting after the death of bishop Ralph Shrewsbury.
The provost was the chief officer among the prebendaries of
Wells ; he held a large endowment, out of which he had to
pay the other fourteen prebendaries, and other cathedral
ministers: but his residuary income therefrom averaged
68 marks, or £45. 6s. 8d

But in May, 1364, Wykeham—who had been for some
time all powerful at the council-board as king’s Secretary—
joined the clerical ministry of bishop Langham of Ely,
as Keeper of the Privy Seal. What made the country
so tolerant of a ministry almost wholly composed of
clerics, was the fact that the chief political question of the
day was resistance to the pope, and that the clerics were
the foremost to resist his claims. And there was a new and
still more severe pope to deal with. Innocent VI, Wyke-
ham’s old enemy, had died in October, 1362, and Urban
V, a Benedictine abbot in Marseilles, had been elected
instead. He was born an English subject, though a French-

1 What he paid away amounted to 175 marks yearly, or £116. 135. 4d. ; the
whole receipts, therefore, of the provost were £162, Reg. Langham, f. 12.
In the thirteenth century, they had been £164. 185. 63d., of which £100 was paid
to the fifteen prebendaries.—Freeman’s Cathedral Church of Wells.
Wykeham and the Popes. 47

 

man ; he was rigorously moral, though Avignon was a sink
of profligacy of the worst kind. He was longing, and fully
intended, to return to Rome; but, meanwhile, his hands
were full of the correction of abuses. But the king of
England had his abuses, too, to complain of as against the
pope. The statutes of Provisors and Pramunire were not
obeyed as they should be; and the pope, he who had been a
subject of the king of England, connived at their being
broken. Under these circumstances, it was determined—
and it may possibly have been the impetus given to the
ministry by the new Privy Seal that instigated it—to
enforce more strictly the statute of Provisors in the next
parliament, and that the king should speak to the lords
in person on the subject.

Accordingly, on January 21st, 1365, the lords were
addressed by the king, who complained of the insult offered
to the laws of the land by the breach of both these statutes.
This, he said, had so impoverished the Church in England
as to make it well nigh impossible to sustain God’s worship
in its due pomp and style. The commons had the substance
of the king’s speech repeated to them, and the result was
that a statute was passed bringing suitors to the papal
courts more distinctly under the provisions of the former
act of Premunire, by which they had been declared liable
to outlawry and imprisonment.

To this challenge, Urban V responded in a characteristic
way. He reminded the king that king John had promised
that the English nation should for ever pay to the papal see
a thousand marks.a year; and as this payment had now
been suspended for thirty-three years, he demanded that
thirty-three thousand marks should be paid over to him.
And, before the parliament replied to this audacious claim,
he published a bull: against the pluralities held by the

1 May sth, 1365.

New statute of
Provisors.

The pope
demands the
arrears of King
John’s tribute,

and publishes
a bull against
pluralities.
48 William of Wykeham.

 

clergy, which would strike a blow, at least, at oné well
known ecclesiastic in England. He has been told,’ he says,

‘ by those worthy of credit, that certain of the clergy in

Answer of
parliament to
pope's demand.

England have presumed to accumulate many dignities,
prebends, benefices, or ecclesiastical offices in an excessive
number, which has led and is leading to great evils and
scandals. Therefore, he warns all such persons to come
before their diocesan within six months, with an exact list
in writing of all such priories, benefices, etc., describing -
whether they are with or without cure, what is their quality
and true value, under pain of being deprived of such
benefices. The bishops were to furnish all such lists within
one month to their metropolitan, and the metropolitans
to forward them to the pope within a certain number of
months, to be fixed at their own discretion.

It is plain that Wykeham was one of those at whom
this bull was aimed. Former popes, it is true, had been
very shameless in giving their dispensations, and there
were, probably, cases where the same man held together
more benefices than Wykeham held. But he was the most
promiment of those who derived all their promotions from
one source—the king: and pope Urban, in his zeal to
reform the abuses allowed by former popes, would not be
sorry to be able to deal a blow at such a leading champion
of the ministry which had just strengthened the law as
to Praemunire.

On March 30th, 1366, the parliament met? to consider
the matter of the pope’s claim to tribute. The bishops
requested leave to discuss the question by themselves. On
April 2nd, the whole of parliament resolved that if the pope
attempted in any way to enforce his claim, the king should
withstand him with the whole force of his realm. It is

1 Wilkins’ Concilia, iii, p. 62. ? Rot. Parl. ii, p. 289.
Wykeham and the Popes. 49

 

needless to add that no further step in the matter was taken
by the pope.

This proves that the papalist party in England had
almost dwindled to nothing. Not quite, however: for,
shortly after, an anonymous monk published a tract main-
taining that the kings of England, by their failure to pay
the thousand marks yearly, had legally forfeited the
sovereignty of England to the pope. He challenged John
Wiclif, a rising chaplain of the king, to refute the statement
if he could.

This is the first time we hear of Wiclif, but the circum-
stances of his first appearance are very significant. He
is one of the king’s clerks at Windsor under Langham, who
as Chancellor had the especial management of the royal
chapel. He is hand and glove with the nationalist ministry
of the day, of which Wykeham was so important a member,
and employed by them, it seems, to wield his pen on their
behalf. For he was one of the acutest theologians of the
day, with great dialectical skill and force derived from the
Oxford schools. Wiclif wrote a rejoinder, which at once
set him at the head of the antipapal controversialists.

Though the pope’s bull on pluralities had been issued in
May, 1365, it does not appear to have been acted upon for
some time. But in 1366, at latest, all the pluralist clergy
were bound to certify the value of their livings to their
diocesan. Wykeham, as a resident in London, appeared
before Simon Sudbury, bishop of London, in November,
1366, and gave a list in writing of all his ecclesiastical
preferments. He states that he has one benefice with cure
of souls—the archdeaconry of Lincoln; that he has eleven
benefices without cure ; and that, in obedience to the bull,
he has resigned the living of Menheniot, near Liskeard,
in Cornwall, which he had held by virtue of a papal

dispensation.}
' Reg. Langham, f. 12. See the text of the Return in Appendix A.

John Wiclif
asserts that
England is
under no obli-
gation to pay
tribute to pope.

Wykeham
makes his
return as to
benefices held
by him.
More prebends
in his posses-
sion.

50 William of Wykeham.

 

Wykeham had rigorously complied with the law of his
time. That law prescribed that a man might hold but one
benefice with the cure of souls, but allowed him to hold
besides any number of benefices without cure. Even to
hold Menheniot—which, of course, was a benefice with
cure—he had taken care to provide himself with a papal
dispensation. If he had cared to shelter himself under this,
he might still have held the living; but he preferred to
resign it, as more respectful to the pope.

Meanwhile, his return mentions many prebends as in
his possession, which we have not yet heard of. These
are :—

1.—The prebend of Sutton, in Lincoln Cathedral: worth 260
marks, or £173. 6s. 84 This had been in his possession at
least since June, 1362.

2.—The prebend of Laughton, in York Minster: worth 110
marks, or 473. 6s. 8a. This he had taken (31st October, 1363)
in exchange for another in the same church, that of Langtoft ; and
this again he took (17th March, 1362) in exchange for the benefice
of Gosberkirk, in Lincolnshire.

3.—The prebend of Iwerne, in Shaftesbury nunnery, worth
thirty marks, or 420. The abbess ordinarily appointed the
prebendaries ; but the abbess, Margaret Lewknor, was just dead,
and the king had the presentation, as this was one of the four
nunneries in England which was held of the king as baronies.
Wykeham was presented on July 2nd, 1361; and on the last day
of the same month a new abbess, Joan Formage—also presented
by the king—was confirmed and received the benediction from
the bishop of Salisbury.!

4.—The prebend of Swords, in Dublin Cathedral, in Ireland:
worth ninety marks, or £60.

5.—The prebend of Alnethley, in the collegiate Church of
Bridgenorth, in Shropshire: worth £23. 6s. 8d. In the king's
gift, Bridgenorth being a royal free chapel.

We have now carried him through to the greatest
extent of his church preferments before he became bishop.

1 Dugdale’s Afonasticon.

 
Wykekam and the Popes. SI

 

And every one that reads such a list in the present genera-
tion will, at once, say, “How can you defend such pluralism ?
Here is a man who, besides rich lay appointments, is well
beneficed in every diocese in England, except five: how is
it possible to acquit him of gross covetousness, in that
he received pay for work which he never tried, or even
intended, to perform? It is, surely, no excuse, but only
a plea in arrest of judgment, to say that he made a muni-
ficent use of the wealth so accumulated ; for he ought to
hhave declined to accumulate such wealth under such
‘conditions at all.”

We all must condemn the principle of pluralism ; that
is, of the receiving money to perform duties which we
‘cannot perform at all except by deputy. But it is a very
different thing to condemn the system, and to condemn the
men who made use of the system. The utmost that can
fairly be said in condemnation of Wykeham is that he was
not ahead of the age in which he lived. He was not in the
vanguard of Church reform upon this matter. That he
was a forward reformer of the Church in other matters we
have already seen. But as regards this particular abuse, he
had not had his eyes opened. And well they might be
shut, when the tendency not only of his generation, but
of many past generations, had been to close them.

For, first, it was the universal custom to regard Church
benefices as convenient rewards for secular work. Not
only the king so regarded them, and the lay mind of the
country, but the presentees, and clerical opinion in general.
There was, doubtless, not a layman in England who would
have found fault with Wykeham for accepting so many
benefices, nor a cleric who would have refused to do the
like. And even the pope, in publishing his bull against
pluralities, did not put the matter on the right ground. He

1 Canterbury, Rochester, Worcester, Carlisle, Durham.

Pluralism in
itself not to be
defended ;

but we must
not condemn
Wykeham for
not being in
advance of his
age.

Popular con-
ceptions of
clerical duty in
the 14th cen-
tury.
Wykeham
resided in
London.

At the summit
of royal favour ;

5? William of Wykeham.

 

only said, “ You have broken the law, which forbids you to
hold at the same time more than one benefice with cure of
souls.” He did not say: “All benefices in the Church are
to be held by you as trustees for work to be done by
you, whether or no that work lies in cure of souls.” Such a
conception, however just and true, is one of the nineteenth
century, not of the fourteenth.

And, secondly, the vicarial system—that is, the system
of working by deputy—was so firmly rooted in the English
Church, that no man’s conscience was shocked by it. Does
it not actually still linger among us? Is it not dying a
hard death at the end of this nineteenth century? Let us
not be surprised then to find that at the end of the four-
teenth, Wykeham could not feel that his holding so many
prebends at once hurt any one, as long as his vicars were
adequately remunerated for their services; and was not
uneasy in keeping them all, though he never visited,
and never intended to visit, the Cathedrals in person.

Of course, although he was archdeacon of Lincoln,
Wykeham’s secular occupation kept him in London! The
king’s Secretary and the Keeper of the Privy Seal was
too important a personage to be allowed to reside within
the bounds of a country archdeaconry. But he seems to
have visited all the Churches within his archdeaconry in
person.”

Wykeham’s return to the bishop of London, giving the
list of his benefices, is dated November, 1366 ; but earlier in
the same year, his attention had been drawn to another
subject.

He had by this time reached such a height in the king’s

' “Tn civitate ac diocesi Londoniensi ratione officii sui predicti moram trahens,
et ut constat larem fovens.""—Reg. Langham, f. 12.

_ 2? “Verus valor et communis annuus ejusdem, si Archidiaconus personaliter
visitet omnes Ecclesias Archidiaconatus sui, et solidas procurationes percipiat ubique
in pecunia immediata, se extendit in cccl libras sterlingorum.""—Ib. id.
Wykeham and the Popes. 53

 

favour that there were no offices, either in Church or State,
to which he might not reasonably aspire. Froissart’s words,
already quoted, give the prevalent impression which he had
created at court: “He was so much in favour with the
king that everything was done by him, and without him
nothing was done.”! We may, therefore, reasonably con-
clude that he would be consulted about the conferment of
the very highest Church dignities ; and that he might him-

self have aspired to be archbishop of Canterbury had he -

wished it.

When then the archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Islip,
died on the 26th of April, 1366, it may fairly be presumed
that Wykeham might have succeeded him, if he had chosen
to do so. But there were obvious reasons for his shrinking
from the dignity of Primate of all England. The chief of
them was the close relation in which he would thus be
brought with the pope. For almost three centuries the
archbishop of Canterbury had also been the legate for life
of the Roman see in England. This would have been an
embarrassing position for such a nationalist churchman as
Wykeham. He had hitherto been known as the king’s
right-hand man, the champion of the national Church; but
he would be forced seriously to modify that position if he
undertook the papal legateship for England. In fact, his
career up to this time reminds us of nothing so much as the
ante-episcopal career of a former archbishop of Canterbury,
Thomas a Becket. He, too, had risen by the king’s favour
through the same sort of secular offices; he had been a
general instead of an architect, it is true, but he had been
besides a diplomatist, an archdeacon, and a chancellor.
But on being forced against his own will into the arch-
bishopric, he had turned right round, and become as
devoted to the pope’s service as he had been before to the

' Froissart, i, 249.

might probably
have been
archbishop of
Canterbury,
 

 

 

but prefers the
bishopric of
Winchester.

54 William of Wykeham.

 

king’s ; as devoted a churchman (in the only way in which,
according to the conceptions of the time, he could become
so) as he had before been a courtier. Now Wykeham, had
he become archbishop of Canterbury, must have felt that
if the change of position did not mean the becoming a
churchman instead of a courtier, at any rate he would be
expected by the pope to abandon his position as a
nationalist churchman. And this he did not feel himself
able to do.

Moreover, he seems to have looked forward to becoming
bishop of Winchester. Winchester was, no doubt, dear to
him in many ways. It was the capital city of his native
county, not more than a dozen miles from his native village
of Wickham. It was the scene where he had passed his -
boyhood and youth, and to its cathedral he was attached
by no common ties of loving memory. We cannot,
therefore, be surprised to find that he preferred Winchester
to Canterbury; and perhaps may reasonably conjecture that
he had made known his preference to the king, and that it
was with a view to his advancement to Winchester that
bishop Edingdon was recommended to the monks of the
priory of Canterbury.

In pursuance of the king’s recommendation, Edingdon
was elected on the 1oth of May; but he declined to be
moved. Winchester was richer than Canterbury, said
some ; and they quoted a saying of Edingdon’s that
“though Canterbury was the higher rack, Winchester was
the deeper manger.” By others it is accounted for more
simply, in a way more consistent with Edingdon’s high
character. He was already an old man, looking for the
end of his life ; and he, perhaps, may have felt that Canter-
bury was no place for one in frail health and with failing
powers, who in his new position would have to assume a
new attitude in relation both to the king and to the pope.
Wykeham and the Popes. 55

 

In truth, he may have felt already that his days were
numbered. He died on the 7th October, less than five
months after his election to Canterbury.

The king on receipt of the news of his death lost no
time in issuing the congé d’elire (October 13th), with a
recommendation of Wykeham for the vacant see of Win-
chester. The prior of St. Swithun’s (Hugh de Basing)
assembled his monks accordingly, and elected Wykeham.
This election was confirmed by the king, “ with incredible
joy of heart,”! on the 24th of October. But there was still
much to be done before he could be consécrated and put
into possession of his see. The pope’s consent was necessary,
as well as the monastery’s and the king’s.

But the popes had for generations been contesting the
rights of episcopal appointments with the kings. For the
last hundred and fifty years this had been one of the
principal sources of irritation between them. The popes
had constantly since the beginning of the century appointed
to bishoprics by way of reservation and provision; ze.,
reserving the next appointment during the life-time of the
late bishop by secret bull, and providing his successor by the
publication of the bull after the vacancy. The controversy
for the time had been closed by Edward III’s proclamation
of 1343, followed by the decided language of the statute of
Provisors in 1351. But, in spite of this, a compromise had
been found, which saved the dignity both of king and pope.
The pope was allowed to retain in his own hands the
nomination to sees vacant by translation, which he could

1 “Qua electione regi praesentata cujus auctoritate roboraretur, ut ei suffragator
in expediendis existeret, ultra quam credi potest gavisus est, et lattatum est cor suum.
Gratias igitur egit Deo qui talem super suum gregem elegit pastorem, in totius regni
et przecipue diocesis Wintoniensis consolationem, quem ab ipso Domino, plebe
nesciente quod fecit, nullus dubitaret electum.’’"—Heath, 6. Just before this, Heath
gives a graphic account of Wykeham’s hesitation when the episcopal dignity was
offered to him. He knew that it would be likely that he should offend the king if
he were an upright bishop, and he shrunk from the contamination of the court ; but
his comfort lay in thinking that he had not put himself forward.

Nominated
thereto by kin
and elected b
monks of

Priory ;

the pope alon
demurs.
 

 

Wykeham
treated as
bishop-elect ;

made guardian
of the see by
the king.

56 William of Wykeham.

 

multiply at his own pleasure. But when a see became
vacant by death, the king sent, with the congé d’elire to the
chapter, a letter nominating the person to be chosen ; and
also a letter to the pope, requesting that the same person
might be appointed by papal provision: The successive
popes felt the wisdom of submitting, indemnifying them-
selves, meanwhile, by their unfettered choice in cases of
vacancy by translation.

There was, therefore, now no reason to doubt on the
king’s part that pope Urban would assent, as usual, to the
consecration of Wykeham: and the king sent his formal
letter of request * that he would provide his chaplain to the
vacant see, and give the leave for his consecration. But
Urban himself thought otherwise. He would, at least,
demur to the consecration of a man who had shown himself
so determined an anti-papalist. He would have, he well
knew, to give in in the end; but his consent should be
wrested from him inch by inch.

Accordingly, in England all took place according to
precedent. Wykeham was treated as the bishop elect. In
November, the prior and convent of St. Swithun ask him to
request from the king a licence for them to purchase land
of the value of £50 a year. This licence, no doubt, they
would have asked of the bishop, had there been one; or
of the temporary guardian of the temporals of the see.
But the king had assumed the temporals of the see on
bishop Edingdon’s death, and had not yet committed them
to any guardian. This, however, he did on the 1st of
December ; giving into Wykeham’s hands, “for a certain
large sum of money, which he paid in the king’s chamber
and presence, for the expediting of sundry arduous under-

' Stubbs, iii, p. 314.

2 A rege tamen interpellatus [papa] administrationem episcopatus eidem contulit,
Ang. Sacr. i, 317.
Wykeham and the Popes. 57

 

takings, the guardianship of the see of Winchester, which
had been vacant since the death of William de Edingdon.”}

We must pause here to meet the objection which may
obviously be raised as to Wykeham’s conduct in this. Is
not the payment of this large sum of money, it may be
said, an ugly fact in the case; is it not morally, if not
legally, simoniacal, and must we not be shocked with
Wykeham for having consented to such an arrangement ?
The true reply is, that it was not legally simoniacal, as not
having been given to purchase the bishopric, but only the
temporary guardianship of the see. That it was, however,
morally so may be granted at once; and if we are to judge
by the rule of what would be thought right in the nine-
teenth century, we shall surely condemn Wykeham for it.
But, again, we must observe that it would be an anachronism
so todo. The king wanted money, and Wykeham had it
in abundance ; he did as he had often done before, and was
often to do again; and so long as he was within the law, felt
himself blameless for so doing. Had he lived five centuries
later, he would, doubtless, have been more cautious lest it
should be reported that he was buying the bishopric of the
king.

But pope Urban was bent upon delaying his con-
firmation as long as possible, and yet doing it in the
most courteous way. To this end, he addressed a bull to
Wykeham,’ calling him archdeacon of Lincoln and adminis-
trator as to spirituals and temporals of the Church of
Winchester ; that is, fully recognizing his late appointment
by the king. He observes that in the lifetime of the late
bishop he had reserved the appointment on the next

“Rex, pro quadam magna pecunize summa, quam W. de Wikham archidiaconus
Lincoln in camera regis et przesentia ejus pro expeditione arduorum negotiorum pre
manibus solvit, concessit eidem custodiam episcopatus Wintoniensis vacantis a
tempore mortis Willelmi de Edingdon. x Dec. 40 Edw. III.""—MS. Harl. 6960, f. 7¢.

2 From Avignon, December 11th, 1366. Quoted in Lowth, App. No. V.

The pope con-
firms this
appointment.
 

58 William of Wykeham.

 

occasion of the vacancy, and thereby made the appointment
of a successor by any other whomsoever null and void ; and
now that it is vacant he is seeking to provide a worthy
successor. “You,” he says, “are commended to us by
many trustworthy witnesses for your knowledge of litera-
ture, uprightness of life and habits, prudence in spiritual
and guardedness in temporal matters. We therefore by
the advice of our brethren ordain, constitute, and depute
you to be”—what? not bishop of Winchester, but—
“administrator of the said Church in spirituals and in
temporals during the pleasure of the apostolic see.”

Surely, such a laudatory preamble might have been
expected to carry another conclusion; and, as a matter
of fact, this was just such a preamble as did usually precede
the licence for the consecration of a bishop. It looks as if
the king and Wykeham had been expecting that the pope
would despatch the business in the ordinary way. But
Urban was not to be forced to go faster than he would.
This was as much as he would yield at the present moment
—this confirmation of the action which the king had
already taken, in the appointment of Wykeham to be the
temporary administrator of the see. It will be observed
that the bull made him no more than what the opening
address had declared him already to be—administrator of
the spirituals and temporals. There was a quarrel of long
standing about these words. The popes denied that the
kings could give the spirituals; the kings denied that the
popes could give the temporals: yet both the popes and
kings claimed to give both these things. And so the bull
may be interpreted as an address to one who, by courtesy,
may be styled administrator of both, since he has been
made so by another ; and a confirmation of him in the title,
by him who alone can make an administrator of both.

It had not been usual for the popes to interfere in
Wykeham and the Popes. 59

 

the appointment of the temporary administrators of things
spiritual in the vacancy of bishoprics. That was usually
left to the archbishops of the province. But in this case
there had been no archbishops of the province to do it,
until on November 4th bishop Langham of Ely had
received the pall; and Urban, perhaps, thought this a good
opportunity to assert a new right of interference with
elections. At any rate, he was not sorry to disappoint
both the king and his nominee, who had taken such a
forward part against the claims of the papacy, in their
expectations.

The king seems to have been perplexed as to how
to proceed. He was probably indignant, and might have
done something in sudden passion had not Wykeham been
at his right hand to counsel him to proceed cautiously, and
by no means to outstep the law.

First, by an instrument dated February 22nd, 1367,
archbishop Langham gave Wykeham! the spirituals of the
see of Winchester, till the appointment of a successor—
exactly as the pope had done. It is probable that Wyke-
ham’s caution suggested that this step should be taken. In
spite of the pope’s interference, the usual course was
followed ; and the archbishop’s instrument was held to be
necessary to authorize Wykeham, the bishop elect, to act
as administrator of the see for the time.

Wykeham was in London when this was done, and
received the archbishop’s mandate by messenger from
Lambeth at the house which he was occupying as Privy
Seal. He wrote the same day*® (February 22nd) to his
beloved in Christ, John Worminghall, making him his
commissary to institute to benefices. But in this letter,

1 Ang. Sacr. i, 317.

? Reg. Wykeham, i, f. 1. John Worminghall, canon of Salisbury, was elected
bishop of Salisbury by the chapter 1375, but set aside by the pope in favour of
Ralph Erghum, Rich. Jones, Fasti Sarisb. p. 94.

Archbishop
Langham gives
him the spiri-
tuals of the see
for the time.
 

 

 

The king sends
to entreat the
pope to con-
firm him,

by the duke
of Bourbon.

60 William of Wykeham.

 

though he recites at full length the pope’s bull of the
December previous from Avignon, he says no word of the
conferment of the spirituals on him by archbishop Langham
that very same day.

And, secondly, the king seems to have sent a messenger
to the pope, who was on the point of leaving Avignon for
Rome, begging him to give the see of Winchester to
Wykeham. Weare told by Froissart! that his messenger
in this delicate business was no other than the duke of
Bourbon, who had been a prisoner in England, but had
been permitted to return to Paris. We must receive
Froissart’s testimony in such a matter with caution, but it
probably represents fairly enough what was the current
gossip of the French and English courts. His account
is as follows :—

“When the chancellorship and bishopric were vacant,
the king of England, at the instruction and prayer of
the said Sir William [Wican], wrote to the duke of Bourbon,
asking him, for the love of him, to take so much trouble
as to go before the Holy Father Urban to get for his
chaplain the bishopric of Winchester: and he promised
to be very courteous to him as to hisimprisonment. When
the duke of Bourbon saw the messengers of the king of
England, and his letters, he was much rejoiced thereat.
So he showed the whole affair to the king of France,
and what the king of England and Sir William were
begging. The king counselled him to go before the pope.
So the said duke departed with all his array, and made so
much haste in his journey that he soon came to Avignon,
where pope Urban resided for the time (for he had
not yet taken his departure for Rome); to which Holy
Father the duke of Bourbon made his prayer. The pope
assented to it, and gave to the said duke the bishopric

' Froissart, i, 249.
Wykeham and the Popes. Or

 

of Winchester, to do with it what he liked ; and promised
that if he found the king of England courteous and amiable
as to the composition for his deliverance, he should be very
willing that the said Wican should have the said bishopric.
On this, the said duke of Bourbon returned to France, and,
afterwards, to England, and negotiated for his deliverance
before the king and his council, at the same time showing
them the bulls. The king, who loved the said Wican
much, did all that he wished; and thus the said duke
of Bourbon was set at liberty, for the payment of twenty-
five thousand francs, resigning the bishopric of Winchester
to the said Sir William.”

So reports Froissart. And he may very possibly be
right in one of his main facts—that the duke of Bourbon
was sent to Avignon to plead for the bishopric of Win-
chester for Wykeham. Perhaps we need not suppose that
this was the ozly business on which he went to Avignon
to serve the king of England. He may also have been
entrusted with some secret mission about Prince Edward,
who was just then setting out for Spain with his ill-fated
army.

At any rate, he is right as to the ransoming of the duke
of Bourbon, which took place a year later, on the payment
of 40,000 crowns as ransom, in four instalments.

But he is not right as to the immediate compliance
of the pope with the king’s wish. On the contrary, the
pope did nothing at all at the time. He may, possibly,
have promised at this time what he performed some months
later ; we cannot, of course, tell what conciliatory words he
used. But it looks as if he were bent on holding out as
long as possible, in order to make king Edward feel that he
was not lightly going to consent to the episcopation of
a man who had been such a forward anti-papalist, and who

1 See receipt for the first instalment, Jan. 28, 1368. Rym. vi, p. 585.

The pope pro-
crastinates,
and meanwhile
returns to Italy,

Issues from
Viterbo (1) the
bull of provi-
sion ;

(2) the leave for
consecration.

62 William of Wykeham.

 

had been actually prosecuted in the papal court for a
canonical offence. He made no sign, except possibly
a secret one, at this time ; and for the next few months, his
time and attention were taken up by his journey to Rome.

For Urban V was bent on returning to Rome, which
had been his secret object ever since his consecration to the
popedom. He was a Frenchman, it is true: but even before
his election he had longed for a pope who should restore the
seat of St. Peter to Italy. Urgent invitations to return
came from Rome; the cardinals in vain attempted to stop
him; and were compelled in spite of their murmurings
to accompany him into Italy.

The cortege embarked at Marseilles on April 20th; it
was at Genoa on Ascension Day; at Corneto by Whit
Sunday ; at Viterbo in July. During his stay in Viterbo,
which he prolonged in preparation for his public entry into
Rome, Urban had time to think of Wykeham. Perhaps he
was not displeased to have let so long an interval elapse
before confirming king Edward’s choice for the see of
Winchester. On July 14th he issued two bulls, dated from
Viterbo.

The first is the long-delayed bull of provision.
Wykeham records its date and substance in the title to
his Episcopal Register: ‘‘ Here ' begins the Register of the
acts and deeds of the Reverend Father Sir William de
Wykeham, to whom a provision by way of reservation was
given concerning the bishopric of Winchester, by Urban
the Fifth of happy memory, pope by divine providence,
under date of Viterbo, the second day before the Ides”
[the 14th] “of July, in the fifth year of his reign” [1367].

The second is the leave for consecration. It is addressed

1'Incipit Registrum de actis et gestis Reverendi patris domini Willelmi de
Wykeham, cui de Episcopatu Wyntoniensi per felicis recordationis Urbanum
divina prudentia papam quintum per viam reservationis fuit provisum, sub datu
Viterbii, ii Idus Juli, pontificatus sui anno quinto,"—Title to Reg. Wykeham.
Wykeham and the Popes. 63

 

to William, bishop elect of Winchester :! and that it is so is
significant, for it shows that pope Urban was willing to
recognize, what we might have expected him to have
forborne to recognize, the election by the monks of St.
Swithun nine months before. When the pope had last
written to him, in the December of the last year, Wykeham
had been bishop elect of Winchester as much as now ; but
then Urban had not chosen to recognize the fact, but had
addressed him as administrator of the see of Winchester.

It proceeds to set forth that he long since* had designated
him for the bishopric of Winchester, and refers to his bull
of provision for a testimony to the fact.2 Considering that
the bull of provision was written on the same day, the
pope’s intention to which it bears witness was not of very
long standing. The bull then gives the formal leave to be
consecrated.

It will be seen that we cannot wholly adopt the view of Reasons for
Lowth, that the contentions between the king and the pope, ia,
on the general question of the appointments to bishoprics,
were the reason of the long delay in Wykeham’s entering
on his see. We believe that the pope had reason, and let
us own he had just reason, to be afraid of Wykeham. Not
on the general grounds of morality or learning ; the words
of the bull appointing him administrator forbid that idea.
But he knew him to be a nationalist churchman to the
backbone. He remembered the time when Wykeham had
been prosecuted at Rome. He remembered that he had
been preferred to half the ecclesiastical preferments in the
realm. He remembered his own bull against pluralism
a very few months before, and how it had been levelled at
Wykeham. He strove to put off the evil day, when he
must consent to this appointment, at least as long as he

"Reg. Wykeh. i, f. 8. ? « Pridem.”
3 Reg, Wykeh. i, f. 8 (cit. Lowth, p. 40 z.)
Wykeham
made Chan-
cellor, Sept.
17th,

consecrated
bishop of
Winchester,
Oct. roth.

64 William of Wykeham.

 

could. So, first, he only appointed him administrator of the
see. When his leave was personally asked by the Duke of
Bourbon, he may have promised for the future, but he gave
no present sign. The king and Wykeham might wait his
convenience. And so he set out for Italy, and it was July
before he gave the required licence.

This can hardly have reached England before Septem-
ber, allowing for the slow rate of travelling of those days.
Wykeham fixed the tenth of October (the translation of
St. Ivo) for his consecration; but, meanwhile, there was
another ceremony to be gone through. On September
17th the king committed to him the Great Seal. He
seems to have been unwilling to make him Chancellor till
the dispute was absolutely settled, and the pope had given
his leave. It would be awkward to have a Chancellor who
was not a member of the House of Lords. But now there
was no reason for delay, and the ceremony took place at
once. The archbishop of Canterbury resigned the Great
Seal, which was placed in Wykeham’s hands.!

And then followed the consecration in St. Paul’s
Cathedral, on October 1oth, by archbishop Langham of
Canterbury, assisted by bishops Simon Sudbury of London,
and Robert Wyvill of Salisbury. Four days later Wykeham
writes from Southwark (of which palace he had already
taken possession, instead of his house north of the Thames,
which he had occupied as Keeper of the Privy Seal), a letter
to pope Urban to inform him of what had happened.
He calls himself the pope’s devoted and humble creature,
William by divine providence bishop of Winchester, and
assures the pope that he humbly kisses his blessed feet.
Then he recited the pope’s brief to him, giving him leave to

‘Who kept the Privy Seal at first under Wykeham I cannot find. In 1370 one
Peter Lacy was first clerk to the Keeper (July), and then Keeper of the Privy Seal
himself (October).—Brantingham’s /sswe Holl, pp. 217, 290.
Wykeham and the Popes. 65

 

be consecrated ; and informs him that, in pursuance of this,
Simon, archbishop of Canterbury, “chosen by me for this
purpose,” with the assistance of the bishops of London and
Salisbury, on Sunday, the 1oth October, in the “ecclesia
major” of London, “according to the Church’s accustomed
form, bestowed on me the gift of consecration, and after-
wards received my oath of obedience to the Roman see,
which I took upon God’s holy gospels, saying these words :
‘So help me God, and these holy gospels of God.” He
concluded by begging the pope to insert this letter among
the apostolical documents.

Two days before this—on October 12th—Wykeham
received the temporals of the see of Winchester from
the king! He was no doubt required on this occasion, as
was always the case, to “renounce the offensive words” in
the pope’s bull of provision. This meant that the popes
professed in their bulls of provision to be conferring
both the spirituals and the temporals of the sees they
provided to. The kings demurred to the popes’ right to
appoint to temporals; and the bishops, for generations
past, had been in the habit of declaring that they had
nothing to do with the “offensive words,” and renounced
what such words pretended to convey. On this the kings
gave them the temporals of the see, which they had
kept since the death of the last incumbent. On this
occasion the king conveyed the temporals by letters
patent, and it is noticeable that they were directed to
“William, bishop of Winchester, by the pope’s provision ;”?
thus returning the courtesy whereby the pope addressed
his leave for consecration to “William, bishop elect of
Winchester.”

In entering upon his bishopric and chancellorship,

Rym. vi, p. 574- ? Lowth, p. 47.

Receives
temporals from
the king,

and letters of
acquittance as
to secular
offices.
Enthroned in
his Cathedral,
July oth, 1368,

66 William of Wykeham.

 

Wykeham, of course, gave up his old positions, both in
church and state! With regard to the latter, lest he should
be exposed to the malice and detraction of enemies, such as
afterwards gave him serious annoyance with regard to the
chancellorship, he took the precaution of obtaining letters
patent from the king, containing a full acquittance and
discharge with regard to the offices held by him in times
past. This document? is dated May 22nd, 1368, and
pardons all debts hitherto contracted, acquits him of
demands of money or jewels, and releases him from all
actions whatsoever that can be brought against him.

One thing more was necessary in order to put him in
full possession of his see, and that was that he should be
enthroned in his Cathedral. But this, for some reason
which we cannot certainly determine now, he put off for
nine months after his consecration. Perhaps it was that
the fabric of the Cathedral was undergoing repairs at the
hands of the late bishop’s executors. We cannot tell. But
whatever be the reason, it was not till July oth, 1368, that
he was enthroned.

The ceremonies of his enthronization are minutely
described* at the beginning of his Register. It was the
privilege of the archdeacons of Canterbury to enthrone the
suffragan bishops of the province. The archdeacon of
Canterbury at the time was cardinal Peter Roger. He
made Raymund Pilgrim‘ his proctor ; and Raymund issues
a commission, on June 12th, to Thomas de Pechy, abbot of
Hyde, near Winchester, the abbot of Chertsey, Master
William Askeby, archdeacon of Northampton, and Sir
ae ae Ee eet a the lands round Windsor to Thomas Cheyne,
af Hacconliy t Joba Bi Seale Le BaD ii, p. 294. Also his wardenship

? Lowth, p. 517, citing Rot. Pat. 42 Ed. III. 3 Reg. i, fol. 1.

4 Raymund Pelegrin (or Pilgrim) was now canon of Anjou; he had been
prebendary of Bishopstone (1343) and of Highworth (1352) in Sarum Cathedral,
and Master of St. Cross (1345-46).
Wykeham and the Popes. 67

 

William Moulsoe, dean of St. Martin le Grand, requiring
them to enthrone and instal William, bishop of Winchester,
according to custom. Canon Raymund also sent, with the
commission, a programme containing minute directions as
to the customs sanctioned by tradition on such occasions.
These directions were strictly followed in the present
instance. Wykeham came to the church of St. Lawrence,
which is close to the cathedral, in his everyday clothes ;
then, having made his devotion, he took off his cape, gloves,
hat, and boots, which the servant of the archdeacon of
Canterbury seized as his master’s perquisite, and robed
himself instead in his pontificals. Then he was conducted,
thus fully vested, along the churchyard, through the west
door of the Cathedral (lately rebuilt by Bishop Edingdon),
and through to the bishop’s throne in the choir. To this
the archdeacon of Northampton led him, and then
“reverently embraced him,” and said: “By the authority
of Christ’s Church of Canterbury, I induct and enthrone
thee, Sir William, duly elected, confirmed, and consecrated
to be bishop of this Church, into possession of the same,
with all rights and purtenances thereof: the Lord keep
thy going in and thy going out, from this time forth for
evermore.” The archdeacon then seated Wykeham on his
throne, and the precentor began to chant the “Te Deum ;”
after which the newly-installed bishop celebrated the High
Mass.

1 Askeby and Moulsoe were both successors of Wykeham in offices which he had
held. Askeby was chancellor, Moulsoe chief chamberlain of the Exchequer at this
time.

2 “Tn aliqua ecclesia val domo ecclesize suze Cathedrali contigua” are Pelegrin's
words, But the Church of St. Lawrence has always been used as the Church for
“‘inducting” the bishops of Winchester.—Cf. Woodward's Hampshire, i, p. 367,
note i.
Feeling against
a clerical
ministry, such
as Langham's,

CHAPTER IV.

WYKEHAM’S FIRST CHANCELLORSHIP.
A.D. 1367—1371I.

"= rejection of the pope’s claim to tribute in 1366—

all but unanimous as it was—must have materially
strengthened the hands of Langham’s ministry for other
works besides that of opposition to the pope, by making
them popular with the country. It was not before jt
was needed. A feeling had been growing among a certain
section of the people, almost certainly fostered by a certain
section at court, against the employment of a clerical
ministry as such. Now, the Langham ministry was
exclusively composed of clerics. The feeling had not
been unknown before. In 1346 the king, discontented
with his clerical advisers, had exchanged them for laymen;
but after a four years’ experiment, he was forced to revert
to a clerical ministry. The clerical life alone afforded
opportunities for acquiring learning of any sort, whether
metaphysics, law, or languages. And to be acleric was not,
at least in the conception of that time, to be professed,
so as not to be capable of undertaking in addition the
functions of a judge, a legislator, or a statesman.

But there was a small party who thought otherwise;
and one of its first exponents was John Wiclif, the king’s
chaplain, who had written so convincingly on the subject of
the papal tribute. We recognize now that he was right,
and that the feeling is a right feeling. It means nothing
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 69

 

else than that the clergy are exclusively to occupy them-
selves with the things of God. But it was in the generation
about which we are speaking that this modern feeling was
born. It would not have had a chance of growth, had it not
allied itself with the feeling of the party which was anti-
clerical on other grounds. And, though it had some small
success, yet the feeling was premature. It did not prevail
till the Reformation, and that was full two hundred years off.

Wykeham’s ministry was simply a continuation of
Langham’s. It was equally a ministry composed of clerics,
and it carried forward the same anti-papal policy. Nay,
though Langham had resigned his office of Chancellor, he
was still a chief adviser of the king, and still did as much as
was consistent with the duty of a working archbishop. But
Wykeham was the nominal head of the ministry: and the
king, through his friendship with Wykeham, was well
understood to be behind all its acts.

But Edward III had passed his zenith, He had begun
the fifth and the last decade of his reign. He was still but
a middle-aged man—only fifty-five years old; but his reign
had already made its full mark, and its remaining ten years
did but heighten the contrast with what he once had been.
The magnificence with which his reign had begun had
degenerated into luxury. The success of his wars was
absolutely over. His popularity, which had been dependent
on the frankness and geniality of his manner, was on the
wane with his military successes. There was very little
sympathy between him and the body of the nation,
when once the sympathy of success was over. The right
of purveyance, or of seizing goods for the king’s use on his
journeys—often, without payment of any kind—was never
more shamelessly abused than now. “At your coming,
men are sad,” boldly wrote archbishop Islip to him, “and
hide their ducks and hens, and the rest of their goods ; no

and Wyke-
ham's,

The king
becomes un-
popular.
70 William of Wykeham.

 

wonder there are lamentations and sighs when you come

near.”
His sons, _ His three eldest sons, the dukes—for Edward, in his
Edward prince 7 9
of Wales ; desire to keep the family together, had created a new

dignity—were all out of England in the year 1367. With
Edward, the prince of Wales, Wykeham had had no
opportunity of becoming intimate. But six years younger
than Wykeham himself, he had already been for two years
in the French wars when Wykeham joined the court at
Windsor. He had been in France almost continuously
till the peace of Bretigni in 1360, and had gone with the
title of prince of Aquitaine to reside at Bordeaux in 1362,
carrying with him as his wife Joan of Kent, his father’s
first cousin. She had brought him two sons—Edward,
who died five years afterwards, and Richard, the ill-fated
successor of his grandfather, born in 1366. The year of
Wykeham’s accession to the chancellorship (1367) was the
turning point in prince Edward’s career. In February, he
had crossed the Pyrenees to re-establish Don Pedro on
the throne of Castile. This was successfully done by the
battle of Navarrete in April; but since then, the fickle
Pedro had broken all the promises which he had made,
disease had spread in the English ranks, and Edward had
re-crossed the Pyrenees in June, invalided by the illness
from which he never recovered, but of which he died, after
a lingering illness of ten years.

as The second and third sons of the king were much
younger. Lionel was only nine, John only seven, when
Wykeham first came to court ; he probably, therefore, knew
them as young men much better than he knew their
brother Edward. Lionel had been in Ireland since 1361,
when he was sent there as lord lieutenant, and created duke
of Clarence. His administration had been severe, but
on the whole successful ; he had just lost his wife, an Irish
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 71

 

*

heiress, who left one infant daughter, Philippa; who after-
wards transmitted to the house of York her father’s right to
the crown, in preference to the offspring of his younger
brother, duke John of Lancaster.

‘Duke John of Lancaster plays a larger part in English
history than his brother Lionel, and particularly in the
history of Wykeham: He had married the daughter of
Henry, duke of Lancaster, and on the death of his father-
in-law in 1362, he was created duke of Lancaster instead.
His son Henry—afterwards Henry IV—had been born in
1366, at Bolingbroke. He had been with his brother
Edward in Guienne, had with him marched into Spain, and
fought at the victorious but disastrous battle of Navarrete.

The most anxious question of the day was the amount
of hold which the English were to retain over France.
In estimating the precise share of blame which attached
to the two countries for their renewal of war between them,
it must always be remembered that France had everything
to gain by a renewal of the war. She had consented to the
peace of Bretigni, with the tacit understanding—who can
doubt it?—that there should be war again as soon as
she was strong enough. Through the cautious and astute
policy of her king Charles V, such seemed to be on
the point of being the case. But neither the English king
nor the English ministry seem to have thought so. Prince
Edward, in Guienne, measured the situation more truly, and
repeatedly warned his father of the threatening state of
affairs. But while Charles punctually paid the instalments
of his father’s ransom, and spoke courteously and con-
siderately, Edward would pay no heed. The French king
was biding his time; and, meanwhile, was prompt to take
advantage of every false move of the English. Unhappily,
the first false move was made by prince Edward himself.
In order not to be obliged to dismiss without pay the

John duke of
Lancaster.

French wish to
renew the war.
Parliament
(1368) opened
by archbishop
Langham.

72 William of Wykeham.

,
companies who had followed him into Spain, he levied a
hearth tax upon all the inhabitants of Guienne. The
impolicy of the proceeding was strongly urged upon him
by his older advisers; but he saw no chance but to insist.

 

The Guiennois appealed to king Charles at Paris, as
their feudal suzerain. The English complained loudly that
all feudal rights over Guienne had been ceded by the peace
of Bretigni. Charles felt the game in his own hands, but as
yet made no move.

The parliament of this year (1368)! was opened on
Thursday, the fourth of May, by the chief minister himself,
archbishop Langham of Canterbury, who assured the
lords and commons that the king thanked God for
giving him victory over his enemies, and enabling him to
maintain peaceable and quiet governance of his people.

It was not yet, at this time, the settled custom which it
became soon afterwards, that parliaments should be opened
by a speech from the Chancellor. Since the beginning of the
reign, we only find two? occasions on which the Chancellor
had taken this leading part till 1363. In that year, and
ever since, Simon Langham had done it, being bishop
of Ely and Chancellor. It was, therefore, natural that
he should do it again, though he was no longer Chancellor,
and had been promoted from the bishopric of Ely to
the archbishopric of Canterbury. But we can well believe
that Wykeham, the actual Chancellor, was busy with other
and more sacred matters, and did not care to supersede his
chief in secular politics. Nay, we may go further, and
conjecture that it would have continued to be so, had not

1 Bishop Barnet of Ely was succeeded this year (1368) at the Treasury by
Thomas Brantingham, afterwards bishop of Exeter. He it is whose Issue Roll for
the year 1370 has been published in the Rolls Series.

> 1331 and 1344. In 1347 and 1348, it was opened by Sir William Thorp,
Chief Justice ; in 135%, 1353, and 1354, by Chief Justice Shareshill; in 1355, by
Sir Walter Manny ; in 1362, by Chief Justice Green.
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 73

 

the pope astutely offered Langham a cardinal’s hat, in the
summer of 1368. Langham accepted it, perhaps hoping
thus to be able to promote peace between the king and the
pope. But the king’s wrath suddenly blazed forth against
the traitor who, as it seemed to him, had deserted his party
for that of the pope. His acceptance of the cardinal’s hat
had, by the common law, vacated the archbishopric of
Canterbury; and the king seized the temporals of the
see, as if on the death of its incumbent, and nominated
bishop Whittlesey of Worcester to succeed him. The
pope’s consent was obtained in October, and Whittlesey
received the pall from Wykeham’s hands, in Lambeth
chapel, on April the 19th following.

Thus the only effect of the pope’s move had been to
withdraw Langham altogether from the service of the
English court. But it cannot be doubted that this was to
the advantage of Charles and the French. Langham’s
experienced counsel was withdrawn, just at the critical
moment when he might have foreseen that Charles’ conduct
would end in war. Wykeham, with far less experience, was
left alone at the head of affairs at the moment of the out-
break of a war, which might have been prevented had he
possessed the requisite foresight.

Another fortunate circumstance for Charles was that
many of the French hostages whom Edward had detained
at Calais, had, on one pretext or another, put themselves
beyond the power of the English. The most important of
these were four princes of the blood, called by the English
the lords of the fleur de lys: the duke of Orleans, the
king’s uncle; the dukes of Anjou and Berri, his brothers ;
and the duke of Bourbon (also, in right of his father, count
of Ponthieu), his distant cousin, but also his brother-in-law.
Of these, the duke of Anjou broke his parole and joined the
French army in 1363. The duke of Orleans was liberated

The pope.
makes him a
cardinal, and
thus withdraws
him from
England.

Lords of the
fleur de lys
allowed to re-
turn to France.
Charles V sum-
mons Prince
Edward to
Paris,

74 William of Wykeham.

 

in return for the cession of certain lands in Poitou to
Thomas, king Edward’s youngest son, afterwards duke of
Gloucester. The duke of Bourbon was sent, as we have
already seen, to Avignon in 1367, and allowed to ransom
himself. And the duke of Berri was permitted to return
to France in 1368 for a year. Having recovered these four
relations of his own, Charles could afford to sacrifice the
rest of the hostages when the moment arrived for the
declaration of war. The easiness of Edward and _ his
ministry was clearly no match for French craft.

By the beginning of the next year, 1367, Charles judged
that the time was ripe for throwing off the mask. He
therefore sent a summons, dated the 25th January, to
Edward, “prince of Wales and Guienne,” summoning him
to appear in Paris, on the 1st of May, to hear judgment
pronounced by his feudal superior on certain grievances
alleged against him by sundry barons and knights of Guienne.
Prince Edward, in a transport of rage, declared that he
would attend the summons, but at the head of 60,000 men.
The die was now in reality cast. War was imminent, and
an offer of the English king to renounce all claim to
Normandy, Maine, and Anjou, provided Charles would
equally renounce all right to sovereignty over Guienne,
determined the French king on war. But yet he hesitated
to declare it; and the English king and council, of which
Wykeham was at the head, refused to believe that he would
declare it, and did not take the necessary precautions
against it.

There was little doubt which was the most assailable
point in Edward’s French dominions. Besides the English
provinces to the south-west, Poitou and Guienne, in which
prince Edward commanded, there were two small spots on
the north-west coast which were English and not French.
The northernmost and the smallest of these was Calais and
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 75

 

its immediate neighbourhood. To the south of Calais,
with the county of Artois between, lay the little county
of Ponthieu, with Abbeville for its capital. After the war
had recommenced, it was recognised that had Abbeville
received English reinforcements in time, Ponthieu would
have been safe. But the governor of Ponthieu, Sir Nicholas
Louvain, a knight in whom Edward had every confidence,
did not ask for reinforcements ; and so the opportunity was
lost.

Thus arrived the 1st of May, the day which the
summons to the prince of Wales had fixed for his appearing
at Paris. He was known to have been preparing to execute
his threat of appearing there at the head of an army; but
was known also to be quite unable, from illness, to mount a
horse or take the field in person. The time had come for
action on the part of Charles. By the advice of his peers, he
rejected the English proposal, and sent a “kitchen varlet” to
Westminster to declare war. It is said still to have been
unexpected by the English: now that it was declared,
they lost no time in despatching an expedition in aid
of Ponthieu. But before it had sailed from Dover, the news
of disaster came. Charles had waited till he calculated that
his defiance would be received: and then he let loose his
army on Ponthieu. Abbeville and other towns opened their
gates; the English were defeated at Pont St. Remi; the
governor of Ponthieu was captured.

In his first rage at hearing of this, Edward thought of
executing his remaining hostages. Time brought wiser
counsels, and he ransomed some for large sums of money.
He called together his parliament at Westminster on June
the 3rd, the first Sunday after Trinity ; and Wykeham, as
Chancellor, addressed them in a speech, the substance of
which is recorded for us in French (though it was spoken in
English) in the Rolls of Parliament. It is noticeable that

declares war,

and occupies
Ponthieu.

Parliament
summoned
June 3rd,
and opened by
Wykeham.

76 William of Wykeham.

 

Wykeham omits the taking of a text from scripture, with
which the clerical Chancellors had hitherto been in the habit
of beginning ; the emergency was too grave for any but the
most businesslike words.

He began! by referring to the good advice which the
lords and commons had always given the king in critical
times. He reminded them of the peace of Bretigni, and
that the promises on the part of France, of the delivery of
certain lands and countries, and of the payment of a fixed
sum of money, were still unfulfilled, notwithstanding that
the king of England had, on his side, dropped the title of
king of France. “Nevertheless,” he went on, “our adversary
hath entertained appeals from the count of Armagnac, the
lord d’Albret, and others who are liege subjects of our lord
the king in Guienne ; and, in virtue of these appeals, hath
summoned the prince of Guienne to appear before him in
Paris, on the first day of May last past, to answer to their
appeals, in defiance of the terms of peace. And besides, he
hath of late sent a great number of armed men and others,
who ride as soldiers through the lands of our said lord the
king in Guienne, and have taken by force towns, castles,
and fortresses, and other places, which they still hold; and
have seized the liege subjects of our lord the king, killing
some, and throwing others into prison, or holding them to
heavy ransom. And further, he hath of late sent a great
number of men to the demesne lands of the king, to
Ponthieu, who have taken by force the towns, castles, and
fortresses,”

He proceeded* to inform them that prince Edward had
sent special messengers to the king, advising him to retaliate
by resuming the title of king of France, and that the king
“charged the archbishop of Canterbury and other prelates to
discuss this point, and give him their advice and counsel.”

"Rot. Parl. ii, p. 299. * Rot. Parl. ii, p. 300.
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 77

 

Three days afterwards, on Wednesday, June 6th, “the
archbishop and prelates, having given mature deliberation
to the charge they had received, with one accord answered
and said, that our lord the king might, for the aforesaid
causes, resume and use the title of king of France of right
and good conscience. And to this agreed the dukes, earls,
barons, and other lords and commons in full parliament.
Which title of king of France the king resumed : and on the
11th day of June, the great Seal of the king was put away,
and another Seal struck with the name of France resumed,
and charters, patents, and briefs sealed therewith; and
all the other seals in other places belonging to the king
were changed in like manner on the same day.”

Next day (June 7th), Wykeham went into detail upon
the king’s necessities, explaining that he was unable to
furnish the war without the good aid of his lords and
commons, praying them “to consider how he could best
be helped to his own greatest profit, and the least damage
and charge to his people.”

The parliament, after due deliberation, concluded that
they would give to the king a subsidy on wools, woolfells,
and hides exported from England, of £2. 3s. 4d. on each
dozen score of woolfells, and on each sack of wool; and
this was to be in addition to the smaller payments “by
ancient custom,” from those who were not native English-
men. They also agreed, as a matter of precaution, to
remove the staple from Calais, and to constitute several
towns in England staples for the sale of wool.

The two next days (Friday and Saturday) were taken
up with hearing and answering the petition of the commons ;
and on Sunday, June 1oth, the Chancellor declared to the
king the amount of the aid which the parliament had
ordered ; and by the king’s commandment, addressed them
in the following strain. “Thanking them for their bounty,”

Title of king
of France
resumed by
Edward.

Grant in aid of
the war.

Wykeham
thanks parlia-
ment for its
bounty.
English invade
Ponthieu and
Poitou.

78 William of Wykeham.

 

he said, “and wishing to make them some recompense, the
king ordains, wishes, grants, and accords to all, of whatever
degree, the fee-simple in whatever land they may recover
for themselves of the French kingdom, reserving only the
lands and rights taken from the king and the Church of
France to the king and Church of England.

“Also, that the king prays all his prelates, that having
regard to the great danger of invasion which the realm is in,
they would array their subjects as well as themselves, and
all religious persons whatever, to rebut the malice of
his enemies, if perchance they wish to enter the realm. So
the prelates granted that they would do, in aid and defence
of the realm and the holy Church.

“ And so departed the parliament.”

Reinforced by the aid of his parliament, the king pushed
on his preparations vigorously. He did everything but go
himself to France, and head his own armies. But he
was prematurely old, though not in years; and he never left
England again.

The two invasions, of Ponthieu and Poitou, were met
by two armies, one headed by Lancaster, the other by the
earl of Cambridge (the youngest son of the king), and
the young earl of Pembroke, the king’s son-in-law. While
the two latter made their way to Angouleme to the assistance
of prince Edward, the former went to the relief of Ponthieu.
But duke John was no general, and it was Charles’s policy
never to hazard a general battle. The two armies con-
fronted one another for weeks in the valley of Tournehem,
near Calais; at last, the duke of Burgundy broke up his
camp, and retired without a battle. Cambridge and Pem-
broke, meanwhile, laid siege to Bourdeilles, which they took
after a nine weeks’ siege; but the French side gained
important successes, which more than counterbalanced their
losses to the English.
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 79

 

In the midst of this campaign, at Windsor, died
queen Philippa. Her death took place after a short illness ;
she took a touching farewell of the king, whom she begged
to fulfil her wishes as to the disposal of her property in
charity ; and so she expired on the 15th of August, 1369.
She was deeply and widely lamented. Froissart lays the
greatest stress on her charity: “So many good deeds had
she done in her time, so many knights succoured, and
ladies and damsels comforted, and had so largely departed
of her goods to her people.”! Bishop Wykeham, in one
of the first circular letters on public affairs which he writes
to his diocese, describes her? touchingly, as he must have
known her well. “While she was on earth she practised,
by busy deeds, the virtue of humility, so prominent from
the other virtues in the sight of the strict Judge; in the
bestowal of alms, she opened her bountiful hand to the
helpless, and extended her fingers to the poor. She was a
kind and merciful helper to widows, minors, orphans, and
others in distress ; a devout assister of holy church on behalf
of the nation; beloved by God and by men.” Her death
coincided, at least, with the king’s decay both in material
fortune and mental power. For his remaining ten years the
record of his reign is a record of humiliation and shame.

The year 1370, therefore, opened amid gloomy prospects
for England. In January, the greatest English general, Sir
John Chandos, was killed in a skirmish at the bridge of
Lussac on the Loire. The French king’s brothers met in
Paris to concert measures; and their consultation resulted
in an invasion of Guienne by the duke of Anjou, with
Bertrand du Guesclin for the general of his army, and of the
Limousin by the duke of Berri. To oppose them, Lancaster
and Sir Robert Knollys brought detachments separately

1 Froissart, i, 273. 2 Reg. iii, 23.

Death of
Queen
Philippa.

English want
of success,
1370.
50 William of Wykeham.

 

from England: but the English want of success culminated
in the treason of the bishop and garrison of Limoges, who
declared for the French. Limoges had always been dis-
tinguished by prince Edward’s special favour, and its
bishop had been particularly trusted by him. He was
transported with rage, took the field in person, and was
carried in a litter to the walls of Limoges, which he took
by assault after a month’s siege. Then a terrible massacre
began, and the prince, deaf to all appeals for mercy,
punished the treason of the inhabitants with the indis-
criminate murder of three thousand men, women, and
children.

It was his last achievement. On his way to Bordeaux
he heard of the defeat of Sir Robert Knollys, by
Du Guesclin, at Pont Valin; almost at once on his arrival

Pane Buia he lost his eldest son Edward, at the age of six. Shattered

England, Jan. by disease and misfortune, he was advised to return to

ao England. He assembled his barons and made them do
homage and swear fealty to his brother John, and then
sailed for England in January, 1371. He landed at
Southampton, passed some days at Windsor with his.
father, and retired to his manor of Berkhampstead, in
Hertfordshire.

He found England in a state of murmuring and
discontent, which had mainly been produced by his own
ill success in the war. The people had been heavily taxed
to sustain their armies in the field. If those armies had
been victorious, they would have borne all, and more,
cheerfully ; but they felt the pinch of the taxation when
fortune went uniformly against them. As usual, the first
thing that occurred to them was to find fault with the

1On July 18th Wykeham made a loan of £2,000 for the king's necessities.
(p. 204) ;, on September 15th, another of 4316 for the wages of the sailors in the-
king's ships (p. 254).—Brantingham's /sswe Roll, 1370.
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. ‘SI

 

ministry in power. We may gather what were the chief
points of their complaint against them from the articles
exhibited in accusation of bishop Wykeham six years later,
They were, no doubt, the failure of the ministry to take
due precautions against the loss of Ponthieu, and their
consent to the release of the hostages. But all was summed
up in the complaint that the ministers were clerks, and not
laymen ; they said that clerks had their own work, but that
the conduct of politics should be left to laymen.

While the commons were in this temper, it was found
absolutely necessary to call a parliament. The liberal
grants of 1369 had been sufficient hitherto to maintain the
war; now the expenses were outrunning the money voted
for them, and it was imperative to obtain a further supply.
In short, it was just an occasion such as the commons of
England have never been slow to seize, when they could
dictate their own terms in return for the grant they made.

On the 24th of February the king himself, with his Chan-
cellor, and bishop Brantingham of Exeter, his Treasurer,
met his lords and commons in the Painted Chamber at
Westminster. After the parliament had been declared
open, Wykeham addressed it as Chancellor. He began by
reminding them of the advice given in the last parliament
to prosecute the war, and the heavy drain of expense to
which the king had been put. He told them that the
preparations of the enemy were larger than ever, sufficient
not only to reconquer all the French possessions of England,
but to invade England also ; and this, he said, our adversary
is urgent todo. “Wherefore the king requires and charges
the lords and commons here assembled, to advise him on
the aforesaid points, and counsel him how his kingdom can
be safely guarded, and the navy saved and maintained
against the malice of his said enemies.”

For more than a month the subject was in debate ; for

G

Parliament
summoned,
Feb. 1371,

and opened by
Wykeham.
Attack on the
ministry by
anti-clericals.

Petition against
clerical
ministry,

82 William of Wykeham.

 

the required aid was not promised till the 28th of March,
There is no detail of the proceedings, but we cannot doubt
what was the character of them. The clerical ministry were
being attacked by the anti-clericals, led by John Hastings,
the young earl of Pembroke, the same who had held a
command in France two years before. He, or another of
his party among the lords, made use of a fable, which has
been preserved to us. The monastic owners of property
had laid a claim to be excused from the general payment
of tenths to the king; on this was founded his attack on
clerical property in general. “Once at a consultation of
birds,” he said, “the owl came without feathers, and, pre-
tending to be shivering with cold, begged that the other
birds would give her feathers. Moved with pity, each gave
her one of her own; till she was covered with an unsightly
load of feathers not her own. Down came the hawk for his
prey: the birds, for defence or flight from its attacks, beg
each for her own feather back from the owl. The danger
was imminent, and each snatched her own feather back by
force; and so escaped, leaving the owl more miserably
featherless than before.”! The moral of the fable is obvious.
It was nothing but the old argument which has become so
common and is so fallacious, that since the state endowed
the Church originally, the state may, on sufficient occasion,
resume the property which she gave.

At any rate, the following petition was enrolled on the
records of parliament, as a result of the aforesaid debate:

“Because it has been shown to the king by the earls, barons,
and commons of England, that the government of the kingdom
has long been worked by men of holy church, who are not
responsible to justice in every case, whereby great mischief and
damages have happened and will again happen, . . . Mayit
please the king that sufficient and able laymen of the same

'Wiclif, De dominio civili, ii, 1: cit. Shirley's Fasctendus Zizaniorum, p. xxi.
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. oF

 

kingdom be chosen, and no other persons be henceforward made
Chancellor, Treasurer, Clerk of Privy Seal, Chamberlain of
Exchequer, Controller, or to fulfil any other office or government
in the said kingdom, And that this be now so established, that it
be no way defeated, or anything done to the contrary in future.
Saving always to our lord the king the choice and removal of such
officers, provided they be always laymen as aforesaid.”

Thus, the gist of the whole complaint was that clericals
were “not justiciable,’ or not men who could be made
responsible to justice for what they did. No doubt, strictly
speaking, this was the case according to law. Ever since
Becket’s time, bishops had, in their character of ordinary,
withdrawn offending clerks from the king’s courts to be
tried by their own courts instead; and the bishops them-
selves—although, as barons, they were subject to the civil
law by the Constitutions of Clarendon—had been, in
practice, shielded by.their spiritual character. Yet, even in
this respect a change was impending, which cast its shadows
before. Edward III’s quarrel with archbishop Stratford
had involved threats which in the result came to nothing:
but his grandson, Henry IV, threatened all the bishops
alike, and beheaded archbishop Scrope for treason. And
in this respect Wykeham, with his usual keen foresight,
had guarded against the possible consequence of disfavour
by procuring the letters patent (already mentioned) dis-
charging himself of all obligations prior to his entering on
his bishopric. He felt that in the temper of the times
less reverence than hitherto would be shown to a bishop
who had offended the nation ; and he was destined himself
to be a conspicuous instance of this six years later than
this time

To the lords’ and commons’ petition, the king replied
haughtily, “that he would ordain on this point as should
seem to him best, with the advice of his good council.”
And, no doubt, consulting with his council, he consulted

because ‘‘not
justiciable.”
Wykeham
resigns the
Chancellorship.

The new
“ministry
Lancastrian.

Grant in aid
of the war.

o4 William of Wykeham.

 

with Wykeham, the chief of his council. We only know
the upshot of his consultation; on March 4th, Wykeham
resigned the Great Seal. No promise for the future was.
made, such as the parliament had demanded; at the
present crisis, the king disbanded his ministry. There is.
no need to suppose—in fact, everything contradicts the
supposition—that Wykeham was out of favour with the
king. The king only bowed to the storm, and called lay-
men for a time to his ministry. Bishop Brantingham
resigned the treasury, and a new Chancellor and Treasurer
were appointed? Their names prove from what quiver the
shaft had come. Sir Robert Thorp, the new Chancellor,
was the master of Pembroke Hall, at Cambridge, which
had been founded, and still was regulated, by the earls
of Pembroke. Sir Richard Scrope, the Treasurer, was the
firm friend of duke John of Lancaster. This has led to the
supposition that Lancaster was now, as later, opposed to
Wykeham’s ministry. But Lancaster was now in France ;
and his share in this crisis was, probably, confined to a
general approval of the acts of Pembroke, with whose
political party he was usually identified.

The ministry having thus been changed, the parliament,
under their new Chancellor, proceeded to vote their aid
to the king. On March 28th, they decided to grant to the
king a subsidy of £50,000, to be levied in the following
manner: from each parish throughout the land, on an average,
225. 3d., so that the parishes of greater value should help to
pay for those of less,

Having gained this aid, the king was in a hurry to

' The seals remained in Wykeham’s custody till the 8th.

? Rym, Foed. vi, p. 683. In this first chancellorship, Wykeham provided for
two of his relations, zzcertum guo gradu. (t) Nicholas Wykeham, by procuring
for him from the king (3rd February, 1370), on the death of the bishop of Exeter
who usually presented, the prebend of Appledram in the .Church of Bosham ;
(2) Richard Wykeham, by procuriug for him the prebend of Peasmarsh, in the
royal free chapel of Hastings (rst October, 1371).
Wykeham’s first Chancellorship. 85

 

get rid of his parliament, and dispense with the help of
his new ministers. On the same day, a single bill was
passed for the establishment of a wool-staple at Melcombe ;
and then the new Chancellor told the parliament that
Easter was near, and that they could not hope to answer all
the commons’ petitions before that holy feast, but that those
which had already been answered should be read, with their
answers ; and that the king would ordain certain lords and
others, after Easter, to consider the petitions not already
replied to, and give them such answers as should reasonably
suffice. Which was done; and the king having thanked
them for their aid, “so departed the parliament.”

The council which was to supplement the proceedings of
this parliament was summoned to meet at Winchester.
Winchester was Wykeham’s cathedral city, and, therefore,
the choice of it for the session of the council is significant.
To the council were summoned four bishops (Wykeham
himself being one),! four abbots, six earls, and seven barons,
and one of the members for each county or borough named
in the writ as having been summoned to the last parliament.

They met on June 8th, the octave of Trinity Sunday.
An unexpected difficulty had arisen. The number of
parishes in England proved to be lIcss than a quarter of
what was expected ; the sum produced would be less than
412,500, instead of £50,000. Wykeham, probably, smiled
at the perplexity of the new lay ministers, as he must have
Suspected beforehand that the number of parishes would
not prove to be so great as was anticipated. And here
were laymen trying their hand at levying a tax which had
been purposely laid on ecclesiastical lines, in order to annoy
the clergy. Wykeham himself had duly certified to the
king the number and names of the benefices in his diocese ;
and-had issued a commission for the levying of the royal

1 Reg. iv, f. 4. The summons to Wykeham is dated April 27th.

Council at
Winchester.

Difficulty as to
assessment of
parishes,
 

how solved.

Wykeham

~ becomes a

landed pro-
prietor,

and founds a

» chantry in
Southwick
priory.

  

56 William of Wykeham.

 

subsidy of 450,000.1 There could hardly have happened
anything, which could have proved more plainly that
laymen were not such adequate ministers as clergy. But
the thing had happened, and the Chancellor was bound to
find a remedy. He proposed that 45. 16s. be the sum to
be levied from each parish, instead of only 41. 3s., and that
the Church lands acquired since 1292 should not be exempt
from the payment. This was agreed on without discussion ;
the rest of the business was hurried through, and the
council dispersed.

It was during his chancellorship that Wykeham first
became a landed proprietor. In 1369 the king gave him
the lands at Mickleham, near Dorking in Surrey, which
had been forfeited for felony by John Apedale? And in
the same year, the king also granted him leave to endow
the priory of Southwick with the manor of Boarhunt
Herbelin, including lands in Southwick, Wanstead, Por-
chester, West Boarhunt, and Wymering, which all had
belonged to the Boarhunt family?

This instance of care for the priory of Southwick leads
naturally to the mention of another (undated) foundation
in the same priory. Aylward tells ust that he founded in
the Church at Southwick a chantry of five priests to pray
for the souls of John and Sibill, his parents. We do not
know when they died ; but the statement in Aylward looks
as if the gift occurred soon after the beginning of his
episcopate ; and thus it may have been about the same
time with his thus endowing the priory with the manor of
Boarhunt.

' Reg. iii, ff. 49, 53. The certificate to the king is dated May 23rd.
? MS. Harl. 6960, f. 89. 3 Abbrev. Rot. Original, ii, p. 304.
+ Aylward, 5.
CHAPTER V.

WYKEHAWMW’S EARLY EPISCOPATE.
A.D. 1367—1376.

E have now to contemplate Wykeham in a different

character. In the last chapter, we have seen him
governing England under the king ; we are now to see him
organizing and ruling a great diocese. There can be no
question as to which was the better done, or for which
he was the most fitted.

Heath? strikes the key-note of his episcopate thus:
“He was consecrated to be bishop of Winchester in 1367, in
the 40th year of the reign of king Edward III, and the
43rd of his age. And now, in order-to attain the grace
of the Sacrament, as well as the Sacrament itself, he set
himself to renew his old man, and clothed himself with the
new man, which after God is created. And remembering
what heights he had climbed, what as a layman he had
neglected, he did his best to redeem the time. Wherefore,
as if changed to another man, he set before himself this
rule of life: to be on equal terms with his servants, humble
to priests, kind to the people, compassionate to the
wretched, bountiful to the needy. Considering that he
was made the father of many nations, he thought that the
truest step towards renewal must begin with himself, and
that if he first learnt to rule himself, he would really be

1 Heath, 7.

Wykeham pre-
pares to rule
his diocese.
58 William of Wykeham.

 

able to rule others in the right way. So he subdued his
body, and brought it under servitude to God; and so
taught it to be the handmaid of the spirit.” That there
was such a searching of spirit at the time of his consecration,
we may well believe; and that then he reviewed his past
life, and prayerfully resolved to dedicate himself anew to
the service of God.

ee aa Our chief authority upon the affairs of his diocese is his
Episcopal Register, which is in a perfect state of preservation.
It is formed of four large folio volumes ;!} of which the first
contains a list of institutions and collations to benefices, and
confirmations of the heads of monasteries ; the second, the
list of Orders conferred by him; the third is more miscel-
laneous, and contains all his other official documents, such
as letters to individuals or to the diocese, summonses to
convocation, papal bulls, licenses of non-residence, etc. ; and
the fourth contains royal despatches, with memoranda of
the way in which they were answered.

Until October, 1367, when he was actually consecrated,
he managed the affairs of the diocese through his commissary,
John Worminghall, whom we have seen him appoint in
February. After his consecration, he made Worminghall
his officiary.

Chasity OF Even before his consecration, Wykeham was, probably,
the wealthiest commoner in England: but he was as open-
handed and generous as he was wealthy. He began his
charity at once upon his entrance into office, by remitting to
the poor tenants on his manorial estates the acknowledg-
ments which were due by custom to a new lord; and his
bounty in this particular cost him £502. 1s, 7d2

He began, also, at once the practice, which was never

1 Now bound into two volumes, and kept in Winchester Cathedral.

? The amount is given by Aylward, 4; the particulars by the (now lost) MS.
Farnham. See Lowth, p. 200 ae ' z
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. 39

 

omitted during the thirty-seven years of his bishopric, of
giving a dinner daily to twenty-four poor men or more.!

He did not ordain in person in Lent 1368, but granted
a commission to Gervase de Castro, bishop of Bangor, to do
so instead of himself, in Winchester Cathedral.? The first
ordination which he took himself was that at Trinity the
same year, which he performed in his private chapel at
Esher. Here he ordained ten acolytes, nine sub-deacons,
seven deacons, and five priests.2 Bishop de Castro had
admitted the unusual number of fifty-six acolytes in the
spring ; perhaps it was the new episcopate which induced
youths to take minor Orders. The number of those admitted
into the Holy Orders of deacons and priests during the year
1368 was sixty-five; which was the average number of
such ordinations at the period.

The see of Winchester, to which Wykeham was now
raised, was, in truth, as deep a manger as any in the
kingdom. In right of his office, the bishop was the lord of
sixteen manors, of which ten were within his own diocese.*
Three of these ten—Twyford, Meon, and [Bishop’s] Sutton
—appear to have had no manor house, or one insufficient
to take in the bishop and his retinue. But in the other
seven—Wolvesey, in Winchester ; Southwark, near London ;
South [now Bishop’s] Waltham, Farnham, [High] Clere,
Esher, and Marwell—it was his intention to reside from
time to time, when he was visiting the different parts of his
diocese. Of these, Southwark, from its neighbourhood to
London, was necessarily his most frequent residence.

All these houses were much dilapidated when they
came into Wykeham’s hands. Bishop Edingdon’s executors
declared that “they were satisfied that the buildings, towers,

' Aylward, ib. 2 Reg. ii, 351. 31d. 352.

4The other six were Downton and Wargrave, in Sarum; Taunton, in Bath and
Wells; Bitton, in Worcester; Adderbury and Witney, in Lincoln.

First ordina-
tion.

Residences
belonging to
the see;

dilapidations.
paid on them,
and repairs
executed.

Repairs to his
Cathedral.

go William of Wykeham.

 

walls, and closures in the castles and manors belonging to’
the see at the time of his death were in a ruinous state, and
very unsafe, many actually prostrate to the level of the
ground, and standing in the utmost need of repair.” The
sum payable for dilapidations was not finally paid for four
years andahalf. It consisted! of the stock belonging to
the see in kind, exactly as bishop Peter des Roches had
settled that payment should always be made by the
executors of the late bishop to his successor, namely, cattle,
1,550; draught horses, 127; sheep (3,876 male, and 4,777
female), lambs, 3,521. Next, the dilapidations proper, con-
sisting altogether of £1,814. 3s. Iod.:—an enormous sum
for those days, and equal to almost £25,000 of our present
money.

Wykeham naturally delighted in architecture of all
kinds ; and he set to work without loss of time to repair
these buildings. He bought the right of hewing stone from
the quarries of siliceous limestone or rag at Quarr, near
Binstead, in the Isle of Wight. On April 9th, 1371, he
wrote® to all the incumbents of churches, and heads of
religious houses in the Isle of Wight, begging them to
supply workmen to hew the stone, and vehicles, carts, and
carriages to haul it when hewn, all to be at his sole expense,
under the superintendence of the abbot of Quarr Abbey.
These repairs on the whole, including such as from time to
time were necessary during his episcopate, are stated by
Aylward to have cost not less than 20,000 marks, or
upwards of £13,0003

Two days before he wrote this circular to the ecclesiastics
of the Isle of Wight, he wrote another document which
shows that there was then going on some “new work” upon

' Lowth, p. 67 7, quoting MS, Farnham. ? Reg. iii, 47.

3 Together with the dilapidation money he received, this makes just about
£200,000 of our present money, expended on buildings alone.
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. or

 

his Cathedral Church in Winchester. In this he complains
that “certain whose names are unknown have stolen from
their place stones hewn and unhewn, chalk, and cement,
and sundry instruments for the new work of our Church
aforesaid, which were got ready at great expense for the
purpose of making good the building.” He therefore
excommunicates them, and forbids the sentence to be
reversed unless they are at the point of death! This was
in April, 1371. We do not hear elsewhere of his touching
his Cathedral till twenty-three years later; but this incidental
notice proves that he had not been idle in the earlier years
of his episcopate, but had at least executed some extensive
repairs.

If we bear in mind that these letters, thus inaugurating
a vigorous period of building, were written a fortnight after
his resignation of the Great Seal, we shall, perhaps, see an
indication of the relief with which he turned from matters
of state to the architectural work for which he had been so
famous.

In the spring of 1373 he made up his mind to a personal
visitation of the whole of his diocese. He wrote a letter?
from Southwark, on the 26th April, to the prior and
brethren of his “beloved spouse, his Cathedral Church,”
telling them of his intention to visit the clergy and people
committed to his charge, and summoning them on the 3rd
of the next June. And in like manner he carefully went
through the whole diocese, visiting in person? not only the
“clerus et populus,” but also all the religious houses
within it.

He had declared to the prior of St. Swithun’s that it was
part of his pastoral office “to correct the erring, to
extirpate the thorns of vices, and to stablish in the paths

! Reg. iii, go. ? Reg. iii, fol. 47.
3“ Personaliter et actualiter.""—Reg. iii, 99.

First visitation
of diocese,
and of religious
houses.

Hospital of
St. Cross, near
Winchester.

92 William of Wykeham.

 

of justice the upright, and them that walk in the way of the
Lord.” This, therefore, he proceeded to do in September
of the next year,! by the appointment of commissioners to
reform the abuses which he had observed in his visitation
of the year previous.

A few of the principal religious houses he visited
separately. Thus St. Thomas’ hospital, in Southwark, he
visited? in January, 1372; the hospital at Sandon in Surrey!
in November, 1374.

But the most conspicuous example of his determination
“wholly to extirpate the thorns of vices,” was his thorough
reformation of the hospital of St. Cross, near Winchester, of
which a detailed account must now be given.

The hospital of St. Cross, in the parish of St. Faith, and
the suburb of Sparkford, near Winchester, was founded by
bishop Henry de Blois, king Stephen’s brother, in the year
1132. He founded it to support entirely “thirteen poor
men, feeble and so reduced in strength that they can hardly
or with difficulty support themselves without another’s
aid ;”* these were to be clothed, boarded, and fed. Also,
a hundred other poor and indigent men were to have their
dinner daily, and other acts of kindness done to the poor
according to the ability of the hospital. To this object, he
appropriated the tithes of twelve parishes in the diocese,
two in that of Salisbury, and one in that of Lincoln, with
other rents in Winchester ;* and in 1151, handed over his
new foundation to the charge of Raymund, master of the
Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem.®

The next bishop of Winchester, Richard Toclive, added

' Reg. iii, rr2. 21d. 62. 31d. 116.

ed + Pauperes et imbecilles, ita viribus attenuati ut vix aut iniquius sine

alterius adminiculo se valeant sustentare.”""—Charter of Foundation, quot. Reg.
iii, 100.
5 Lowth, p. 74, from MS. Farnham.
® Humbert's Hospital of St. Cross.
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. 93

 

to the charity the benefaction of feeding another hundred
of poor men daily. This extension of the original purpose
of the foundation rendered it necessary—or, at least, useful
—to maintain a new staff of officers; and four priests,
thirteen secular clerks, and seven choristers were introduced ;
and payment, partly in beer and meat, given to them.

The charity long continued under the charge and
administration of the Knights Hospitallers. Repeated
quarrels, however, arose between them and the bishops
of Winchester, as to the extent of their jurisdiction in the
hospital: and, about 1200, commissioners ‘from the pope
pronounced sentence in favour of the bishops, who thence-
forth appointed the masters independently of the knights.

And now began the regular periodical misappropriation
of revenues, which is so tempting when an irresponsible
head manages the affairs of a rich charity. In the year
1304, the new bishop of Winchester found that the then
master, Robert Maidstone, had so considerably abused
his trust, that he deprived him. It was the period of
the mismanagement of such houses all over Europe. Within
the next few years, however, pope Clement V issued a bull
to remedy the misappropriation and waste which often
occurred in the management of houses for the reception
-of strangers, leper-houses, almshouses, and hospitals; in
which he ordered that inventories of the goods of such
places, and a yearly account of the administration, should
be rendered to the Ordinaries. This is known as the
constitution “ Quia contingit.”

But within fifty years there was another crisis of the
same kind, for in 1349 bishop Edingdon (himself a former
master) presented his nephew, John Edingdon, to the
mastership. His seventeen years’ reign was a period of
unequalled ruin to the real interests of the hospital. He
continued master till his uncle was grown so old that there

Funds mis-
appropriated.

John Edingdon
master,
exchanges with
Stowell,

and he with
Lyntesford,

94 Willid%h of Wykeham.

 

was no reasonable expectation of his surviving more than a
few months: and then, unwilling to face a new diocesan
instead of his indulgent relative, he effected an exchange in
1366 with William Stowell. “By his manner of leaving
this office we may pretty well judge how he had acted in
it; he took away and alienated the whole stock belonging
to the hospital: all the cattle, corn, goods, instruments,
utensils, and moveables whatsoever, either in the house’ itself
or upon the estates. Besides, the necessary repairs of
dilapidations left by him amounted by computation to
between three and four hundred pounds.” !

But in less than two years the new master repeated the
process of exchange:—he seems to have found St. Cross not
so lucrative a post as he expected. In March, 1368,? the
year after Wykeham’s consecration, he effected an exchange
with Richard Lyntesford. The exchange was allowed by
Wykeham ; but the next day he wrote to Stowell,? who
now had become rector of Burghclere, demanding from
him an exact inventory of all the stock delivered to him
by Edingdon, and by him to be transmitted to Lyntesford.

Stowell’s reply * was unsatisfactory, for it showed that
the stock handed over to him by Edingdon was far less
than it should have been. Wykeham (who probably knew
well from common report who was the real offender in the
case) granted a commission in April® to enquire into the
general state of the hospital property, and the amount of
stock which, nineteen years before, had been delivered to
Edingdon by the executors of the previous master. About
the same time he issued a sequestration against the goods
of Lyntesford, being resolved that he should not imitate
Edingdon’s example, but be held responsible for all the
hospital stock as it came into his hands.

1 Lowth, p. 81. 2 March 22nd, 1368. * Reg. iii, 9. March 23rd, 1368.
4 Dated March 26th, 1368. MS. New Coll. § April 20th. Lowth, p. 82.
Wykeham’s early Eptscopate. 95

 

This seems to have convinced Lyntesford that he had
nothing to gain by remaining master of St. Cross. The
large expectations with which he had apparently entered
on the benefice had been completely frustrated by the
action of the previous masters. In the summer of 1369
he applied for an exchange with Roger Clown,! rector of
Campsall, near Doncaster? Wykeham, observing that “he
himseff was deeply occupied in various and arduous royal
affairs,” gives the archbishop of York power to effect the
exchange. It will be remembered that this was just the
crisis of the revolt in Ponthieu. It was perhaps owing to
his pre-occupation with public affairs that he neglected to
make enquiries as to Clown’s real character; a character
most unfit for the administration of a hospital which was
already suffering from the unscrupulousness of its masters.

But, at first, his true character did not appear. Wyke-
ham’s commission, no doubt, reported upon the state of the
hospital property for the last twenty years, and informed
him by so doing of the embezzlements of Edingdon. He
immediately issued another commission, dated 30th July,
1370,3 to John Worminghall, his officiary, and two others,
bidding them go to the spot, and examine witnesses,
particularly the three last masters and the present one, and
make a list of the stock, implements, etc., which ought to
be in the inventory passed from a resigning master to his
successors. Shortly after this, Lyntesford made his sub-
mission “simply and spontaneously,” and obtained a
relaxation of his sequestration.*

The next step in the matter came from Clown. He
moved the bishop for an injunction to compel the three late
masters to render him the proper amount of dilapidations.
Wykeham, in reply, makes Thomas Yonge, and two

1 Spelt in the Register ‘‘ De Cloune,” from Clown, near Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
* Aug. 13. Reg. i, 50. 3 Reg. iii, 39. 4zoth Sept. Reg. iii, 38.

and Lyntesford
again with
Clown.

Commission to
examine hos-
pital property.
Four masters
summoned to
Southwark.

96 William of Wykeham.

 

others, his commissaries, to take proceedings “in the case
which our beloved son Sir Roger Clown is promoting”
against his three predecessors:! but, at the same time,
crosses this action by naming the same persons a com-
mission to summon all four masters to Southwark, and
investigate the whole affair.

Yonge, accordingly, summoned them to Southwark, and
opened the proceedings by a statement of the case against
them, and asked them to show anything in their charter
of foundation which authorized the immunity they claimed
from the provisions of the “Quia contingit.”* They
acknowledged that they could not do so He called upon
them for inventories. Edingdon* and Stowell declined to
make them, alleging a contrary custom. Lyntesford made
no statement of his own, but said that he agreed with
Clown’s statement. Clown utterly rejected the claim for
inventories as novel. He put in a statement, “that the
house of St. Cross is a perpetual ecclesiastical benefice,
without cure of souls, free from all obligation of making
oath, giving an inventory, or rendering any account ; that it
was principally founded for the honour of the worship of
God, and has nothing of the nature or use of an hospital,
the brethren received into it being weak and infirm in body,
but in no way diseased or infected, so that it does not come
under the description of a hospital, according to the terms
of the “Quia contingit;” and that the master has the admin-
istration of all the possessions and goods belonging to it,
with the burden only of making a certain distribution
to a certain number of poor both within and without the
house.” 5

1 30th October, 1370. Reg. iii, 42. 2MS. C.N.
3 The MS. New Coll. is annotated by Robert Sherborn (rags), a later master
of St. Cross, who notes here that they could not have read attentively their charter
of foundation, or they never would have acknowledged this.

4 November sth. 5 Lowth, p. 84.
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. 97

 

The case was protracted from sitting to sitting by the
arguments of the proctors, whom both the plaintiffs and
the several defendants constituted for this purpose But in
this business we note more than the usual delay of the law.
It was true that during the first part of the time Wykeham
was unusually busy. But he resigned the Great Seal in
March, 1371,? and the great council at Winchester was over
during the month of June that year. Yet we hear nothing
of the St. Cross suit during the whole year; in fact it
does not seem more than once* to have come before the
commissioners in that year. In June, 1372, we hear of a
meeting, and again on October 14th and 22nd, at which
last all four masters were present.*

And now, at last, some progress seems to be made, for
Wykeham is able to divide the rebel camp. His proctor
insists,> as usual, upon the absolute necessity of their fur-
nishing inventories, and so complying with the terms of the
“Quia contingit.” But if this is all, Stowell has already done
this, when two years and a half ago he sent an inventory
in on Wykeham’s demand. There is, therefore, nothing
against Stowell; before the end of the year he reads
through certain letters of submission, which are prescribed
for him, and publicly submits.6

Meanwhile, Clown appealed to the pope, although the
suit was still pending. He complained, no doubt, in terms
like those of his plea, that the claim on the part of any one
for authority over the master of St. Cross was an absolute
perversion of the founder’s intention, which had been to create
a benefice to be held without condition, and that the bishop,
knowing this, was maliciously impugning his title.”

IMS. N.C.

2. On March 25th, 1371, Wykeham appoints Nicholas Heath, M.A., his proctor
to the papal court. Was it on the St. Cross business? Reg. ii, 66.

3 This was on March 13th, 1371. MS. N. C. 4MS. N.C.
6 October 22nd, 1372. © Dec. 29th. Reg. iii, 80. 7 Reg. iii, 95.

H

Stowell
submits ;

Clown appeals
to the pope.
Lyntesford
submits.

98 William of Wykeham.

 

Hearing of Clown’s appeal, the bishop himself wrote to
the pope, and laid the true state of the case before him.’ He
recounted the history of the foundation of St. Cross from the
beginning, and characterized the attitude of the masters
who refused the accustomed inventory. He said* he feared
that Clown, by his late appeal, meant nothing but to keep
open the suit so as to gain time, which time he would use
for the worst of purposes, namely, to rob the hospital.

A very few days after Stowell’s submission, that of
Lyntesford followed. It was worded thus:* “6th January,
1373. I, Richard de Lyntesford, late warden of St. Cross,.
considering the purpose of the foundation of St. Cross, and
the bull ‘Quia contingit’ of Clement V, purely, spon-
taneously, simply, freely, and absolutely yield and renounce,
by these writings, the position I have hitherto maintained,
and submit to the disposition of William de Wykeham,
bishop of Winchester, in all cases which he may have
against me, especially that before the Venerable Thomas
Yonge, commissary.” Then follow the signatures of eight
witnesses, among them being that of William Stowell, rector
of Burghclere.

Stowell and Lyntesford now felt themselves at liberty
to report to the bishop the evildoings of the present
master ; how he was robbing the hospital of “all corn, hay,
animals, stock, and other goods and utensils that he could
lay hands on.”* He had, indeed, set himself to despoil the
hospital during the remaining time of his incumbency. “He
sold the corn and the cattle, and a great quantity of
materials that had been laid in for repairs, and converted

1 Wykeham, on January 7th, 1373, made Robert Sistede, Hugh Earlham, John
Lidford, and John Upton his proctors to the papal court. Reg. i 61. d

2 ‘‘Intendens super appellatione hujusmodi lites constituere immortales, ut
preetextu litis hujus sic pendentis, ad facienda petita minime artari possit.""—Reg.

iii, 95.
3 Reg. iii, 62. * Reg. iii, 86.
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. 99

 

the money to his own use: while the suit was pending, he
had the impudence to pull down the larder of the hospital,
and to sell the materials. Indeed, it was now of no use:
the great hall was fallen in ; the hundred poor were turned
away; and the thirteen brethren were forced to quit the
hospital, and provide for themselves where they could.”!
Wykeham saw that a further effort was required. He
granted a commission to Thomas Shepton and two others
to enquire about Clown’s malicious waste ;* and issued three
letters to the three rural deans in whose deaneries Clown
was most likely to be found—those of Winchester, Andover,
and Droxford—bidding them arrest his person wherever he
might be found.3

Yonge now signified to the bishop that his long
investigation was at an end.* On the 23rd of February,
1373, the sentence was pronounced. It was on all points
against the masters: that they “had not proved their
allegations, and ought to be compelled by ecclesiastical
censures to give an account of their administration.”*

But now Shepton reported to the bishop on the gross
dilapidations which Clown was maliciously causing at St.
Cross. The bishop bade them summon him to show cause
‘why a coadjutor should not be appointed.6 But Roger
again absented himself, on which the bishop summoned
him to formal trial in the Cathedral. The dean was
instructed to post his name on the Cathedral door, and to
cite him to trial on the Wednesday after April 25th, before
four trustworthy men of Twyford and four of Owslebury ;
and to add that should he appear neither by person nor by
proxy, the trial would proceed absence notwithstanding.
We only know the issue of this trial from the fact that such
a coadjutor was appointed, one Nicholas Kingston, and the

1 Lowth, p. 87. ? Reg. iti, 86. 3 Reg. iii, 86.
4 Reg. iii, 102. > Lowth, p. 85. 6 Reg. iii, 89. March 23rd.

Sentence
against the
four masters.

Clown cited to
be tried in the
Cathedral.

A coadjutor
appointed to
Clown.
roo William of Wykeham.

 

charge of “all things which are known to pertain to the
administration of the temporal goods of the hospital” were
committed to his charge.1_ This action of the bishop had
the effect of deposing one William Castleford, rector of St.
Pancras in Winchester, who had been the agent on the
spot who had seen to all Clown’s ravages since he had left
residence in the hospital. Kingston found it no easy task
to set matters to rights. He had again and again to invoke
the bishop’s aid, who first summoned Clown to Esher? to
answer for having stopped the daily charity whereby the
hundred poor were fed ; and next sequestrated the property
of St. Cross derived from churches and pensions.? Next he
warned the public against violating this his sequestration ;*
as such was the riotous state of affairs, that it was not
uncommon even for men with arms to invade the hospital
and its lands, and carry off whatever they could find. And,
lastly, he gives to Kingston a commission to gather the
hospital rents.®

eee But meanwhile the answer from the pope had arrived.
P : : : :
of London He took no notice of Clown, probably considering his
Power to try : 5 : ; 3
the case. appeal as informal, having been made against a trial still

pending ; but he wrote to the bishop of London, constituting
him his delegate for the formal trial of the case. The bishop
of London made Thomas Baketon his commissary for the
trial. On June 21st all four masters appeared before the
latter, who formulated the charges against them. Clown,
by his proctor, excepted against the jurisdiction of the
pope's letters, as “surreptitiously obtained, by underhand
means and false suggestions.” Upton, Wykeham’s proctor,
argued against the exception ; which was not allowed. In

1 Reg. iii, 97. June 16th. 2 Reg. iii, 98. 6th September.
°Reg. iii, 99. 6th September.
1Reg. iii, 99. 17th September. 5 Reg. iii, 100. rst October.

eo, (1374). .—Reg. iii, 95. The whole account of this trial is con- *
Wykeham's early E. ‘piscopate. ror

 

the middle of October began the examination of witnesses,
and was continued till the end of November. Thirty-four
witnesses were examined in all, of all degrees and estates
of life, inhabitants of Sparkford itself (the hamlet in which
the hospital was situate), of Winchester, and of the villages
round about. By their depositions, a powerful body of
evidence against the masters was brought together.

On the fifth of December Baketon summed up. He
recounted all the circumstances since the beginning of the
trial before Yonge five years before. He found that St.
Cross was a hospital within the meaning of the “Quia
contingit ;” and that all the masters ought to be strictly
bound by oath to render an annual inventory or account of
their expenditure. On these accounts, he pronounced
sentence that things should return to their former state ;
that the staff of four priests, thirteen secular clerks, and
seven choristers, should be restored; and that Roger de
Clown, the present master, should bear all the expenses of
the suit.

Thus the long proceedings came to an end. Clown,
who had, in fact, got off surprisingly cheap, finding it
hopeless to resist longer, made his submission at the
beginning of 1375, and swore that he would render an
annual account of his administration to the bishop whenever
called upon. “Upon which he is absolved from all
sentences of excommunication pronounced against him for
‘ contumacy, and enjoined. for penance to observe his oath of
obeying the orders of the Church in this behalf.” *

But Wykeham had no intention of allowing him again
to administer the affairs of the hospital. The sequestration
of the previous September was not yet cancelled ; and the
bishop kept the hospital property still in his own hands,

1 January 6th, 1375.—Reg. iii, 103. 2 Lowth, p. 88.

Sentence of
pope's delegate
given against
Clown,

who submits,

and isabsolved ;
but the
management
of St. Cross is
given to
Nicholas
Wykeham.

 

“design for

- helping the
clerical estate
in England.

02 William of Wykeham.

 

appointing a kinsman of his own, one Nicholas Wykeham,
to administer the hospital for him. This arrangement
Clown at first seems to have resisted, and appealed again
to the court of Rome. But, convinced that further resist-.
ance was hopeless, he soon relinquished his appeal, and left
the hospital thenceforth undisturbed, though still continuing
legally master. Meanwhile Nicholas Wykeham set about.
restoring the hospital to its former state, and recovering
the estates and revenues, and restoring the buildings to:
something like their former condition. It was a long and
troublesome task, but one made necessary by the ravages.
of Edingdon and Clown. Clown died on September 8th,
1382; and then the bishop appointed his great friend, John
Campden, to be master ; first, however, taking the precaution
to make Nicholas Wykeham renounce all the right and title
which he might seem to have had in the hospital.

During the progress of this tedious affair, another
design—the design, as it has proved, by which he will be
chiefly remembered—was slowly taking shape in Wykeham’s
mind.

He was a very wealthy man; and, as a priest, with
no heirs of his body, he had learnt to look on the Church—
perhaps we ought to say, on the Church of England—as
the heir to his wealth. How could he best provide for
the great object of serving the Church of England? She
was at an extremely low ebb at this time. The plagues of
1349, 1361, and 1368, which had decimated the population
of England, had almost denuded her of clergy. That of
1349 alone is said to have destroyed nine-tenths of the
clergy. Even supposing this estimate to be an exagegera-
tion, we can easily guess how a loss of numbers anything
like this would impair the efficiency of those who
remained. Wykeham bears testimony, as we shall see
afterwards, to “the universal disease of the clerical soldiery
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. I03

 

(iliti@), which is sorely wounded by the scarcity of the
clergy, resulting from plagues, wars, and other miseries
of the world.” And yet it was on the efficiency of this
soldiery that the welfare of the Church of England
depended. His first conclusion, therefore, was that he must
in some way or other help the clerical estate in England ;
probably by raising some large educational establishment
to train the clergy of future generations.

There is no evidence to show decidedly whether this
scheme was in Wykeham’s mind from the first in its
entirety, or whether it was of gradual growth. But it
looks as if it had been in his mind from the first. From
the first he fed and clothed poor students of grammar in
the city of Winchester. It is possible that he assumed to
himself from the first the charge of the priory school, at
which he had himself been educated, and paid for the
scholars? In 1375 we find him getting together a society
of scholars in Oxford; whether drawn thither from
Winchester or not we cannot tell. He asserts himself that
“our two colleges, though situated in different places, come
from one root, and originally spring from one fountain.” %
In fact, he seems to have had in his mind the idea—
imperfect and unshaped it may be—of a twofold institution,
whence boys taken first at a tender age and instructed in
elementary learning, should be drafted to a place of higher
instruction, where they should be further trained until they

1Stat. Coll. Oxon. § 1.

2In 1380, pope Urban VI says of Wykeham, ‘‘ut asserit, scolaribus in gramma-
ticis in eadem civitate studentibus, de bonis a Deo sibi collatis pluribus annis vite
necessaria ministravit.'’"—Kirby’s Wnchester College Charters, p. 8. There is a
curious ‘‘commissis pro aqua benedicta pauperibus scolaribus assiguanda,” in
which Wykeham speaks of ‘' nostri scolares:"’ dated 3rd January, 1363.-—Reg. iii,
16. Milner (History of Winchester, ii, 154) writes as if he thought that the seventy
college boys were the successors of the boys of the priory school, and that the one
foundation was merged in the other. This would give, at least, a different concep-
tion of Wykeham's work. But that it was not so, is plain from the deed which
institutes his chantry, as that mentions the priory school as still existing. —Lowth,
App. Pp. 33. :

3 Stat. Wint. § 4; Oxon. § 4.

First concep-
tion of his two
colleges ;
to be founded
to the honour
of Christ and
the Virgin:

the principal
one at Oxford

04 William of Wykeham.

 

became priests in the Church, and were provided with a
home when they might, if they chose, continue to live the
lives of students till old age. “It is not only,” he says,
“those who are already learned, rich, or taught in the arts
(as we mostly see), but only and solely those who must, as
it were from their cradles, or from boyhood, have lived on
our alms in our college near Winchester, and there been
taught in the rudiments of grammar—that is, poor and
needy scholars,—whom we have ordered to be chosen for all
future times ; and who, devoted to the faculties and liberal
sciences from youth to old age, will have the right to be
kept at our two colleges on our alms.”?

So far as we have yet followed him, Wykeham was
intending to found a college at Oxford, with a preparatory
institution at Winchester: and the great object of those
establishments was no doubt thus expressed in the forefront
of his future statutes ; “ To the praise, glory, and honour of
the name of the Crucified, and of His most glorious Mother,
Mary, for the keeping up ahd exalting of the Christian
faith, the profit of Holy Church, and the increase of Divine
worship, and liberal arts, sciences and faculties.” 2

He naturally fixed on Oxford as the place where his
idea should take the first shape. Oxford and Cambridge
were then the only two universities in the country. Cam-
bridge too shared the overflowing of his bounty ;3 but it
was natural that he should be more attracted to Oxford,
as being situate in the same diocese, that of Lincoln, of
which he had successively served two archdeaconries. It
seemed plain by this time that the university would never
again be moved from Oxford, as it had been more than
once before. Walter de Merton, about a hundred years

"Stat. Oxon. § 66. 2 Introd. to Statt. Winton and Oxon.

“Item pro anima Willelmi de Wycoumbe, episcopi Wintoniensis."" From the
mass for Cambridge benefactors. Cole's MSS. xxi, p. 128: quoted Walcott, p. 277.
Wykeham's early Episcopate. I05

 

before, had doubted whether this might be taken as certain ;
but by founding his college (the first of the colleges in the
modern sense of the word) had himself largely contributed
to fix the university to its then locality. Since that four
other colleges,! two of which existed earlier in another form,
had grouped themselves round it. These five foundations
rendered it out of the question to disperse the students,
who, once to the surprising number of 30,000, and, still, in
spite of the unpropitious times, to the number of 6,000,
gathered either in halls or hostels, under the tuition of
separate graduates, or else at the private houses of the
citizens of Oxford.*

But what should be the type of the constitution of his
colleges? Should it be monastic, or secular? That ever
since the beginning of his episcopate Wykeham had been
anxiously considering what the constitution should be, is
evident from the language of his statutes. He there® says:
“We have carefully studied the traditions of the old fathers,
and the different tried rules of the saints; and then we
have looked at the many who profess the said traditions and
rules. But we sadly confess that nowhere now, as of old, have
we found the rules, ordinances, and statutes observed by
those who profess them, according to the mind of their foun-
ders. This has much troubled and perplexed us.” ;
“On this subject we reasoned that it would be better for us
to give with our hands our worldly goods to the poor, than
while our life lasts to appropriate them, or in any way
to assure them, to the use of the improvident ; for we saw
what great dangers threatened the souls of them that broke
such their rules, ordinances, and statutes. Yet, for a long
time, we could not make up our mind upon the subject ;
but at last,after devoutly asking God’s aid on our undertaking,

1 University, Balliol, Oriel, Queen's.
2 Report of the Oxf. Univ. Commission, 1852, p. 129. 3 Stat. Oxon. § 68.
for the educa-
tion of poor
clerical
scholars,

who should live
under a rule,
and become
secular priests,

106 William of Wykeham.

 

we have unalterably fixed our mind’s eyes towards the relief
of poor clerical scholars while in the schools; in the firm
hope that men steeped in learning and different sciences
will keep God before their eyes, and thus will look
more clearly than others at His will as to keeping rules,
ordinances, and statutes: and, therefore, will keep the rules,
ordinances, and statutes we have delivered to them the
more strictly. To their aid and relief then we have bent
ourselves, and finally determined to spend our means and
pains on this object according to our power.”

In these words, he gives, no doubt, a true picture of
the mental process by which he was brought to his
determination. The natural thing to have founded would
have been a monastery, or, at least, an educational establish-
ment bound by some monastic rule. But he had no heart
to do this, after comparing the actual lives led in such
monasteries with the high profession of their rule, and
remembering how unfailingly, in a generation or two after
their foundation, monks and friars alike had degenerated
from the high purpose of their respective founders. Rather
than do this, he elected to follow nearly the example
which Walter Merton had set a hundred years before, by
founding a college of lay brethren so as to counteract
the influence of the regular clergy, and especially of the
mendicant friars. But Wykeham’s design was far from
being a servile copy of Walter Merton’s constitution.
Though Merton had founded a community, with provision
for their religious wants, none of his students were bound to
take orders ; they might all be laymen. But what Wyke-
ham had set his heart upon was to help the Church by
adding to the strength of her army. His conception
was, therefore, to found colleges for training not regular but
secular priests, and making it as like a monastery as might
be, but keeping always in view this main point of difference:
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. 07

 

monasteries consisted of idle men, and it was found that not
even their greater devotion to the service of God could
induce them to keep to their founders’ rules for more than
two or three generations ; they consisted of illiterate men,
whose want of learning proved a sad stumbling block to the
permanence of their zeal. But if his scholars were really
students, and, still more, if they were men versed in all the
learning and culture of the time, it could hardly be—
Wykeham thought—that they could attend the devotional
exercises which he would prescribe for the use of his
colleges, and yet deliberately infringe the statutes he had
prepared with so much care.

Wykeham thus came, early in his episcopate, to the
resolution that he would found an establishment in Oxford
for the training of the clergy. Its exact site, perhaps, was
a matter of accident, depending on what parcels of land
happened to be in the market. But in the year 1369 there
happened to be a considerable number of acres lying close
to each other for sale, in the parish of St. Peter’s in the East.

In February that year, John Buckingham, canon of York,
and John Rouceby, clerk, bought for Wykeham! (1) certain
plots of land, in amount two roods, of the prior and convent
of St. Frithswith, roth February, 1369; (2) eight plots,
amounting to two acres, of the abbot and convent of
Oseney, February, 1369; (3) six plots, amount three roods,
of the provost and scholars of the new Queen’s College, 1369.

Also, the next year, the same persons bought for
Wykeham, (4) a tenement near St. Peter’s church, of
Nicholas Reading, vicar of St. Peter’s; at the same time
agreeing with the abbess and nunnery of Godstow to pay
their rent of fifteen shillings a year to the vicar and church-
wardens of St. Peter’s, for another half-acre, 21st February,

'Wood's History and Antiquities of Colleges and Halls in Oxford, edited by
Gutch—iv, p. 177. And Patent Roll, 3 Ric. II, part i, 32.

Site of New
College
bought,
and seventy
poor scholars
collected.

Meanwhile
Wykeham
agrees with
Richard
Herton to
teach poor boys
at Winchester,

I08 William of Wykeham.

 

1370; (5) one plot of John Wetwang, and (6) one of
Emma Ludlow. These four acres all lay in the parish
of St. Peter’s in the East.

Before the building could be raised, Wykeham had got
ready the nucleus of his future college. In 1375 he collected
a society of scholars ; in 1376 we find mention of a warden
and seventy scholars, called “Bishop Wykeham’s poor
scholars ;” and, at the same time, Richard Tunworth, a
fellow of Merton, was made warden of this society, at.a
salary of £20 a year. The fellows were lodged in different
halls! on the site of Wykeham’s future cloister, and allowed
eighteen pence a week, and servants with their wages paid.
The whole sum paid for their lodging amounted to
410. 138. 4d. apiece per year.

But, meanwhile, before his plans were ripe for building,
or perhaps while he had enough building upon his hands
already in the repair of his manor-houses, he was securing
the material to be trained, the boys to be the future clergy.
In September, 1373, he had made an agreement, as follows?
with one Richard Herton, at Winchester :

‘In God’s name, Amen. A.D. 1373, Indiction 11, September
rst, Appearing in person before the reverend Father William, lord
bishop of Winchester, in the hall of his manor-house at Marwell,
in the diocese of Winchester, in the presence of the notary public
and the underwritten witnesses, the venerable and discreet man,
Master Richard Herton, grammarian, made, entered, and con-
firmed a sure covenant with the said bishop, as follows :

“That the said Richard, for ten years, beginning with
Michaelmas Day next, shall instruct and teach faithfully and
diligently in grammar the poor scholars whom the said Father
keeps, and shall keep at his own expense; and shall receive no
others to teach without the license of the said Father, except
during a sickness or during a visit once to be paid at his own
expense to the court of Rome, during which he shall substitute
another fit and sufficient master to teach the said scholars in his

‘Black Hall, Hart Hall, Shule (or Sheld) Hall, Maiden Hall, and Hammer Hall.
? Reg. iii, 98.
Wykeham’s early Episcopate. Iog

 

place. For this purpose he covenants with the said Father, that
the latter shall find and keep for him another fit man to help him
in his work of teaching the aforesaid scholars.

“This the said Master Richard has firmly promised with all
diligence to perform and fulfil; and that this covenant may be
firmly held and kept, the said Master Richard expressly placed
his right hand in the said Father’s right hand, and gave his
promise to perform all the above as aforesaid.

“Done in the aforesaid year, indiction, month, day, bishopric,
and place ; present, the discreet Master John Buckingham, canon
of York, and Sir John Campden, canon of Southwell, York diocese,
and Henry Thorp and John Kelsey, apostolic notaries public, all
called specially and asked as witnesses to the foregoing.”

We do not know the number of the boys whom Herton
thus instructed,! or where they were lodged. We hear of
them some years later as lodged in the parish of St. John’s
on St. Giles’ Hill, and it is possible they may have been
there from the first. St. Giles’ Hill is a steep eminence
which rises abruptly close to the east gate of the city, from
the chalky brow of which the whole extent of the High Street
can be traced as it winds down from beneath the west gate
to the level of the river Itchen, almost beneath the feet. On
the slope, just on the hill side of the river, lay the small
church of St. John, in which Wykeham’s scholars were
bound to attend the services of the Hours, and the Mass,
every Sunday and Saint’s Day as long as they resided in
this parish.

Embarked in the scheme of his life, Wykeham
would probably have pursued it with much more rapidity,
had it not been for unseen political troubles, which were
destined to burst upon him during the year 1376; which,
had they continued, would have completely put an end to
his plans for the public benefit, and which had the effect of
quite paralyzing them for the time.

'Lowth quotes a bull of Urban VI, referring to Wykeham’s ancient. habit of
keeping 70 scholars. But the word ‘‘septuaginta”’ before ‘‘scolaribus ” is omitted
in Kirby's transcript of the same bull (p. 8). The elder of these boys may possibly
have been among ‘' Wykeham’s poor scholars" in Oxford in 1375. See last page.

to be lodged in
St. John’s
parish.
CHAPTER VI.

WYKEHAM IN DISGRACE.
A.D. 1376, 1377.

E resume the thread of the political story from the
June of 1371, when we saw—at the end of Chapter
IV—the clerical ministry in retirement, and discredited
with the country; and a ministry composed of lawyers
managing the war.
oe But the war continued to be unfortunate. Duke John,
1372. it is true, had one success. He recovered Montpaon, which
had surrendered to the French; but then he disbanded his
forces, and returned to Bordeaux. There he remained till
September, quite inactive in spite of French successes ; and
then returned to England with his newly-married wife,
Constance, the daughter of Pedro, the late king of Castile,
in whose right he henceforth assumed the title of king
of Castile.
pee = The winter of 1371—1372 saw a change in the command.
hecommand Young John Hastings, earl of Pembroke, the anti-clerical
leader of the court party, who had been intended for the
king’s son-in-law, was appointed to be commander in
Aquitaine instead of the duke of Lancaster. He set sail
with a fleet—raised, it was noted after the event, by the
unjust taxation of the Church—for Poitou in June, but was
intercepted, defeated, and captured by a Spanish flotilla
sent by Henry of Castile to the succour of the French
king. It was a severe blow to the English; the king in
Wykeham in Disgrace. III

 

person collected a larger fleet and army than ever, and
sailed for Poitou in August, with his three sons, Edward,
John, and Edmund then earl of Cambridge. Before he
left England, he had summoned a parliament to be held in
October by his grandson, prince Richard, as regent. But
after beating about in the Bay of Biscay for nine weeks,
they were defeated by wind and weather, and forced to
return ignominiously before the appointed day (October
13th) for which the parliament was summoned. He met it,
therefore, himself in November, and laid before it his needs.
Enough bullion to pay 3,000 soldiers had been captured
with Pembroke ; the king had spent £900,000 upon the
recent ineffectual attempt to relieve Rochelle: all this must
be paid for somehow. The commons granted a heavy tax
on wool; but the recent misfortunes in war had made
the lawyers’ ministry unpopular, and by consequence had
raised the credit of the clerical ministry, as at all events
nothing so disastrous had happened during their tenure
of office. And so we find that the only petition which
passed into a statute during this parliament was one
retaliating on lawyers with a measure similar to that
by which clergy had been excluded from office the year
before. The ordinance ran that “ men of law” (gents de ley)
actually practising in the king’s court, and sheriffs during
their term of office, were not to be returned to parliament
as knights of the shire. The clerical interest. cannot have
been unfavourably viewed by a parliament which passed
such a statute; and their rivals, the court and lawyers’
ministry, must have been proportionately out of favour.
The year 1373 saw another effort on the part of the
English to regain their conquests, but one equally unfortu-
nate with the last. Duke John landed at Calais in July
with a well-appointed army of 13,000 English, and marched

The king sets
out in person,
but returns.

Parliament
enacts statute
disabling
lawyers from
office.

Another
invasion of
France, 1373,
under duke

into Picardy. Portions of this army were defeated in Jonn,
who appeals to
parliament for
money.

Wykeham
named for
conference
with lords,

Conference at
Bruges, 1374.

Ir2 William of Wykehan..

 

several small engagements ; but the French wisely avoided
hazarding a general battle. They had already earlier in
the year laid siege to Becherel, a strong castle in Bretagne,
which held out for many months. Duke John, meeting no
direct opposition, marched through France, avoiding the
capital. His progress was slow; but about Christmas he
threw himself into Bordeaux, never once having met a.
French army. But his own army was not what it had
been. He had lost nearly all his horses and many of his.
men ; supplies had run short ; he had sent home for money,.
and the English parliament was called to provide it on
November 21st.

When parliament met, the Chancellor peremptorily
asked for aid, saying that until this was done the petitions.
of the commons could not be heard. This inversion of the
usual order of proceedings was resented by the commons ;
they asked for a conference with the lords, naming eight
peers who “should go and treat with them of the said
points and causes.” The eight named were opposed to the
Lancaster influence ; three were bishops, and among them
Wykeham of Winchester, the late Chancellor. The lords.
agreed to send them, and after five days’ consultation the
commons made their offer of aid to the king, after which
followed the presentation of petitions. Among them many
related to the encroachments of the pope in England, a
subject which will come more fully before us in another
chapter.

Meanwhile pope Gregory XI, anxious to make peace
between the two kingdoms, had sent two bishops as envoys
to the headquarters of both armies. Their efforts resulted in
an agreement that a great conference should meet at Bruges
in 1374, when French, English, and papal ambassadors
should all be present.

In preparation for this conference, a truce was agreed.
Wykeham in Disgrace. II3

 

on, to last for fifteen months from February, 1374, which
was not to disturb the general war, but to pacify only the
country to the north of the Somme, that the ambassadors
of the respective nations might come and go without
difficulty! First arrived envoys from England, on a private
matter between king Edward and the pope; for the king
seized this opportunity to come to an agreement with the
pope about his encroachments within the realm: of this
subject more hereafter. The English ambassadors upon
the general busineSs of the war were commissioned in the
summer :? duke John, bishop Sudbury of London, William
Montacute earl of Salisbury, John lord Cobham, and
four others. Before the conference met, however, both
Becherel and St. Sauveur le Vicomte were in the hands of
the French. Both of these places were dearly-prized
English possessions, and as to both of them, sinister
rumours of treachery were propagated. As to both, the
suspected persons afterwards suffered from the fury of the
English, as we shall see.

The conference met on November Ist, 1374. The
discussions were prolonged for many months; but in June,
1375, duke John concluded a truce between French and
English for a year. He then returned to England, where
broils of a different kind awaited him.

During the two years which he had spent abroad,
everything had tended to accentuate the difference between
the parties.

He found the king, although he was but sixty-three
years of age, grown prematurely old, and sluggish and
inactive in mind as well as body. He found a mistress
ruling him like a despot ; one Lady Windsor, in reality the
wife of Sir William Windsor, but better known by the
name of Alice Perrers, who had been recommended to him

' Froissart, i, 322. 2July 26th, —Stubbs, ii, p. 427, and x.
I

Truce con-
cluded, June,
1375.

Alice Perrers,
Lady Windsor,
supported by
duke John,

opposed by
Wykeham and
the national
party,

Irg William of Wykeham.

 

(it is an enemy’s description), not by her good looks, for
she had none, but by her winning and persuasive tongue,
She was a native of Henney, in Essex, the daughter of a
tiler ; but her ready wit, in spite of her low birth, had made
her one of the ladies of the bedchamber to the late queen
Philippa. After the queen’s death, she had gained
ascendancy over the king. Edward was weak enough to
grant her the jewels belonging to her late mistress :? she
had appeared at a tournament in Cheapside in a fancy dress
as lady of the sun, on a white palfrey. It was whispered
that she alone dispensed the royal favour: she actually had
appeared in court, and taken a seat on the king’s bench,
and so overawed the judges as to thwart them in adminis-
tering justice. She was hated by the people; but their
hatred, while secure in the favour of the king, she was
content to despise.

Such was the state of things when duke John returned
from Bruges, and readily fell into his old place as leader of
the court party, supporting Lady Windsor in her presump-
tion, and the king in his infatuation. With him acted the
executive of the day, Sir John Knyvett, the Chancellor, who
had succeeded Sir Robert Thorp on the death of the latter
in 1322,and Sir Richard Scrope of Bolton, the Treasurer,
duke John’s personal friend and confidant. With him also
generally acted those who had held commands under him
in the now suspended French war.

But against him was a powerful opposition : the national
party forming a coalition with the Church, with bishop
Wykeham for its foremost champion. The unsuccessful
war furnished them with complaints: John’s merits as a

'Chronicon Anglia, a Monacho Sti. Albani (Rolls Series, 1874), p. 95.

?In the Introduction to Brantingham's Issue Roll appears the following, under
date 1372:—‘' To Alice de Perers, in money paid to her by her own hands, in
discharge of £397, which the lord the king commanded to be paid to her for jewels
and divers other things, purchased from the same Alice ; and £200 for divers other
jewels purchased from the same Alice, for the use of the said lord the king.”
Wykeham in Disgrace. IIs

 

commander were canvassed, his defects criticised, his
personal courage freely denied, his lieutenants charged with
treachery. It was a long and hot summer; no parliament
was summoned for fear of a repetition of the plague; from
having no legitimate vent the growls of the populace
became chronic, became dangerous. What if the duke
were scheming to lay hands on the crown at no distant
date? His father and brother were already doomed to
death ; there remained but one in succession to the crown
before himself, prince Edward’s son Richard, now a boy of
nine years old. It was apparently this last suspicion which
set prince Edward himself in opposition to his brother
John. He lent his powerful influence to head the coalition
of Church and nation; and though visibly decaying in health,
his influence was still great, for his deeds in war had made
him the darling of the nation. All at once, while things
were in this state, duke John showed furious antipathy
towards bishop Wykeham. That this antipathy was of a
sudden growth appears to be without doubt. The duke
had been in the habit of naming Wykeham as one of his
trustees to administer the revenues of his castles and
manors, and to act for him in the case of his death. This
he had done before taking the command in France in the
year 1369 and 1373; nay, as late as the beginning of this
very year 1375, he had nominated him and one other his
attorneys to act for him in any of the English courts during
his absenee at Bruges.’

But this he had done while yet absent in Flanders ; and
before he became acquainted, except by hearsay, with the
state of English parties. What can account for the sudden
burst of wrath with which he distinguished him, and the
vindictiveness with which he hunted him down as soon as
he had the power?

'Lowth, p. 62.

with whom
prince Edward
acted,
Duke John
violently
enraged with
Wykeham.

Parliament
summoned,
1376.

116 William of Wykeham.

 

There seems to have been a more personal cause of
enmity than the general one of being at the head of the
opposite party. What this was, we shall probably never
know. The duke’s temperament of mind may account for
much; he seems to have been, like his father, liable to
sudden bursts of resentment which only lasted for a time.
Witness king Edward’s peremptory conduct in the matter
of archbishop Stratford, and again of archbishop Langham.
But this sudden aversion to one for whom he had formerly
had all respect seemed so extraordinary to bystanders, that
they told a most improbable story to account for it. They
said that queen Philippa on her death-bed had owned to
Wykeham, under seal of confession, that John was not her
own child, but the child of a Ghent woman, whom she had
substituted for the son (or others said the daughter) of
whom she had been confined at Ghent, and had begged
him to make it known if the child ever became likely to
succeed to the throne. The whole fable is just of that
improbable kind that pleases the ignorant crowd, and is
hardly worth a serious refutation. But the fact that the
story should have been believed at all proves at least that
it served to account, in however improbable a way, for the
duke’s estrangement from the bishop; and so that this was
felt to be an extraordinary thing, and one perfectly unac-
countable in itself.

The national party resolved to make an effort to get rid
of the king’s advisers in the parliament which was summoned
for February the 12th, 1376. But, though summoned for
this day, it did not meet till April the 28th, and did not do
business till the 29th. On that day Knyvett, the Chancellor,
addressed the lords and commons assembled in the Painted
Chamber. He briefly referred the summoning of the
parliament to three causes: it was called to advise for the
good and peaceful governance of the realm, for defence
Wykeham in Disgrace. II7

 

against the king’s enemies, and for the maintenance of the
war. The commons, as in 1373, requested that a committee
of lords might be appointed to confer with them on the
business before the house. They nominated four bishops,
Norwich, Rochester, London, and Carlisle; then, after
consultation with. them, chose four barons, lords Percy,
Stafford, Bryan, and Scrope of Masham;! and the barons
and bishops, together with the commons, chose four earls,
those of March, Warwick, Stafford, and Suffolk, and so
made the whole committee twelve.

It is a remarkable thing that Wykeham was not among
the bishops nominated. We can only infer that he did not
care to put himself forward, but that he was thoroughly
identified with the party of opposition there can be no
manner of doubt. In his absence, Courtenay, bishop of
London, his friend and disciple, was the leading prelate of
the party. The leading earl was Edmund Mortimer, earl
of March, who had married Philippa, daughter of Lionel,
duke of Clarence ; and who, therefore, had a direct interest
in opposing the schemes of duke John, who was Lionel’s
younger brother, in the interest of his heir not yet born,
who would stand next in the succession to the throne to
young prince Richard.

These twelve lords met the commons in conference in
the chapter-house at Westminster. They agreed to the
levying of the subsidy granted in the last parliament for
three years more; but they refused to agree to anything
further, on account of the distress of the times—the recent
pestilence, murrain, and failure of crops. And this they
weighted with a condition; namely, that a permanent
administrative council of ten or twelve members (lords)

1 Not the same with Richard lord Scrope, of Bolton, his first cousin, who was
Treasurer; this was Henry lord Scrope, of Masham and Upsal, an older man (zt. 62)
“of much official experience. ''—Stubbs, ii, p. 429.

Conference of
lords and
commons

propose an
administrative
council,
to which the
king agrees.

De la Mare
states

_. commons’

grievances,

and impeaches

IIs William of Wykeham.

 

should be appointed by themselves to “enforce” the king’s.
council. Six of these were always to be in attendance on
the king; no great business was to be undertaken unless.
all agreed upon it; and the ordinances of this body were.
to be duly executed, as if they had emanated from the
ministers themselves.

That the king agreed to this almost revolutionary
measure, saving only to his ministers the rights in their
several offices, must be ascribed to his urgent distress for
money, and perhaps to a hope that in some unforeseen way
he should be enabled to shelve these assessors. Their
actual nomination was delayed till the rest of the business
of the parliament was dispatched.

This settled, the conference broke up ; and the commons.
proceeded to put forward Sir Peter de la Mare, a Hereford-.
shire knight, to urge their grievances to the council, which
many of them scarcely even yet dared to do. They
represented—apparently, by his mouth—that the king
ought to be rich, considering the vast aids which had been
given him in former years, and that the fact that he was poor
instead of rich lay at the door of certain private persons,
who only cared for enriching themselves. He pointed to
three ways in which this had been done: first, they had
procured wool and bullion to be carried elsewhere than.
to Calais, so defrauding the staple ; secondly, they had
agreed to the lending of divers sums to the king at an usury
shamefully heavy ; thirdly, they had connived at the buying
up of the king’s debts at less than their full amount, while
they had obtained full payment for them at the king’s
treasury. Further, he proceeded to specify nine culprits,
whose impeachment duke John was obliged to allow. The
three most notorious were William lord Latimer, Richard.
Lyons, merchant, and Alice Perrers.

1 Rot. Parl. iii, 10.
Wykeham in Disgrace. IIQ

 

The head and front of Latimer’s offence had been
misconduct in the war. He had been entrusted by duke
John with the command in Bretagne, but he had used it, it
was alleged, to extort large sums from the Bretons: had
sold the castle of St. Sauveur le Vicomte to the French, and
had prevented the relief of Becherel. Richard Lyons had
lent at shameful usury to the king, and been paid one pound
for each mark ; he had played into Latimer’s hands, to the
enriching of themselves, and impoverishing the kingdom by
gigantic frauds. Lord Neville ventured to intercede for his
father-in-law, Latimer, but was silenced by a threat directed
against himself. Latimer was examined before the lords
his peers. He “craved counsel and day, to have the said
articles in writing, and withal he desired that he might
answer by advisement.!. But Sir William of Wykeham,
bishop of Winchester, in the presence of the lords, said that
it were not meet he should have counsel or day, for no man
knew his deeds so well as himself, and therefore that reason
would he should answer without other advisement, and
without prolongation of day. And the lord Latimer
answered the bishop, and said this was hard, and contrary
to all reason, in so short a space to be urged to make answer
to such grievous and heinous points as are laid against
him: protesting, notwithstanding, that he would wholly put
his person, castles, and goods into his liege lord’s favour
and will, to do with him and his goods whatsoever it might
please him. And at that present, he was attached and
committed into the custody of the earl of March, then
marshal of England; and the constableship of Dover,
whereof the said lord Latimer was then guardian and
constable, was given to Sir Edmund of Langley, earl of
Cambridge, the king’s son. As well, at the same time,

1 The quotation comes from Appendix (B) to the introduction to Chronicon
Anglie [p. xxii].

lord Latimer

and Richard
Lyons.

Wykeham

refuses to let
Latimer post-
pone his trial.
120 William of Wykeham.

 

Richard Lyons aforesaid was adjudged and commanded
to the Tower of London perpetual prisoner, and all his rents
and tenements given by the king to sundry persons, and all
his goods forfeited.” 1
This is the only notice that we have of any personal

part taken by Wykeham in the proceedings of this parlia-
ment. But apparently he did actually take a leading part
in these proceedings, and his apparent object was to show
that the misconducting of the war was the fault, not so
much of the late ministry who were in power when it began,
as of the commanders who had lately been responsible for
its management. But his refusal to let lord Latimer be
represented by counsel, and have another day appointed
for his answer, was remembered by his enemies and visited
on himself before many months were over.

Three others Next followed the impeachment of three of the lesser

also impeached
criminals: William Ellis, John Peach, of London, and
John, lord Nevill. The last-named was deprived of his
office of steward of the royal household, and compelled to
pay a fine of 8,000 marks, or upwards of 45,300, as some
restitution for the unjust gains which he had made in the
purchase of the royal debts. The monkish chronicler of
the period adds * that the commons also petitioned for and
obtained the removal from the king’s person of one Sir
Richard Sturry, a knight of Lollard opinions and intimate
with the king, who was believed to have poisoned his mind
against the views of his fellows among the commons; but
of this we hear nothing in the Rolls of Parliament.

ale The next attack was on the king’s mistress, but covertly
reproved, made, as was necessary in dealing with one so high in the

royal favour. The St. Alban’s chronicler tells us? that
De la Mare insisted on her removal from the court ; the
Rolls of Parliament give a more sober version of what was

' Chron. Angl. p. 87. 2 Ib. p. 87. 3 Ib. p. 97.
Wykeham in Disgrace. I2r

 

done. According to these, on the commons’ petition, a
Statute was made “concerning women practising in the
king’s courts,”.as follows :—“ Whereas complaint is made to
the king that certain women have pursued divers businesses
and quarrels in the king’s courts by way of maintenance. . .
this thing displeases the king, and the king forbids that
henceforward any woman do this, and especially Alice
Perrers, under penalty of as much as the said Alice shall
be able to forfeit, and of being banished beyond the realm.”

This public reproof was probably all that took place.
The chronicler goes on to tell us that she was banished
from court, the king interposing to protect her against a
capital sentence: that she took an oath that she would
not return upon the cross of the archbishop of Canterbury,
who also swore to excommunicate her if she perjured
herself! But this seems like the garnish necessary for
making up a good story. If the statute were strictly
carried out, Alice Perrers could have been in no danger
of death: it only threatened her with penalties provided
she repeated her illegal acts. If she did repeat them her
goods were to be forfeited, and she herself to be banished
the kingdom. This last certainly did not take place, and
it is highly improbable that she repeated her offence ; and
if not, it would have been an illegal and unwarrantable act
to remove her person from the coast.

On June the 8th the long illness of prince Edward
terminated fatally. He died at Canterbury on Trinity
Sunday, after much suffering borne patiently and resignedly,
and was buried in the Cathedral. The chronicler says that
Sir Richard Sturry sought an interview with him, and was
rebuked by him on his deathbed ;! an incident, perhaps,
only thrown in to heighten the effect of the dying scene, of
the prince’s forgiveness of his enemies, and of Sturry’s

wickedness,
' Chron, Angl. p. 200.

Death of
prince Edward

June, 1377.
Commons
require prince
Richard to be
produced.

Parliament
dissolved ;

22 William of Wykeham.

 

His death was a severe blow to the party of reform. It
was by this time apparent that the king could not live
many months; duke John, in case of his death, would be
the heir presumptive to the crown, and it was important to
secure the safety of the future king. Another John had
been more than suspected of employing foul means to rid
himself of his nephew Arthur; and if the chronicler is to
be believed, the duke at once took measures which strongly
suggested the parallel. He proposed that the parliament
should settle the question of the succession in case of the
king’s death, setting aside female claims.!1. This was aimed
at Philippa, the wife of Edward Mortimer, earl of March,
who, as already observed, was the daughter of duke John’s
elder brother, Lionel. The commons set the matter aside
as unnecessary to discuss at present; at the same time they
begged that prince Richard of Bordeaux, the son of the late
prince Edward, should be produced before the parliament.
This was done on the 25th of June, between a fortnight and
three weeks after his father’s death.

Thus ends the official record of the acts of the parlia-
ment, fondly called the “good parliament” by the people.
The chronicler inserts here the choice of the assessors to
the king’s council, which the Rolls had given earlier among
those acts. And it is possible that the names of the
members of the committee, which may have taken some
time to agree upon, were published now. The chronicle
itself does not give the names ; but nine of them, selected
in equal proportions from bishops, earls, and barons, are
named in one of the contemporary fragments.? The three
bishops were archbishop Sudbury of Canterbury, Wykeham
of Winchester, and Courtenay of London. The three earls
were Arundel, Stafford, and March: of these, March and

' Chron, Angl. p. 92.
2 Appx. (A) to Introd. to Chron. Angl. (p. Ixviii).
Wykeham in Disgrace. I23

 

Stafford had served on the committee to confer with the
commons; Arundel was Richard FitzAlan, also earl of
Surrey. The three barons were the lords Percy and Bryan
(who had both been on the conference committee), and the
third was Roger lord Beauchamp of Bletsoe.

The parliament then departed for Eltham, where the
king lay, to gain his consent in person to what had been
done. He gave his consent, and the session broke up on
the 6th July, having sat for ten weeks, the longest time that
any session had taken yet. They were well content with
what they had done, and to show their joy the knights of
the shires gave a great banquet to the bishops (no doubt
among them to Wykeham) and the other lords, and to the
mayor and burgesses of the city of London and other cities,
the king contributing “two tons of claret wine and eight
does of venison.

No sooner, however, had the worthy knights and
burgesses returned to their homes, than the work of the
parliament was “foredone.”® Duke John was left at the
head of the executive, and he declared his intention of paying
no heed to the ordinances of the late parliament. Latimer

Dy

was released from prison, and returned to court; we need
not heed the further rumour that he had bribed the duke to
procure his release2 The assessors to the king’s council
were not even summoned to attend it: lord Latimer was
summoned instead. The king had an access of his illness
about Michaelmas,* while staying at Havering-at-Bower,
near Romford; and Alice Perrers—who had stayed away,
‘perhaps, by his desire—at once returned to him.> Sir Peter
de la Mare was invited to court, and on his coming was
carried off without form of trial to prison in Nottingham-

1 Appx. (B) to Introd. to Chron. Ang. (p. Ixxii).
2 Chron. Angl. Pp. 73- 31d. p. 102.
4 App. (B) to Introd. Chron. Angi. p. Ixxiii. 5 Chron. Angl. p. 104.

its work un-
done by duke
John,
who calls a
council to try
Wykeham for
misdemeanors.

Wykeham
pleads for
delay :
refused.

124. William of Wykeham.

 

shire. The duke, wishing to get rid of the earl of March,
ordered him to go officially as marshal of England to
Calais; but March, rather than leave England at this
juncture, resigned the marshal’s baton,’ which was imme-
diately given to lord Percy, who by this bribe was detached
from the party of reform, and attached to the duke’s side.
And now the duke had leisure to fall upon Wykeham
with the full force of his vengeance.

He summoned, on October 11th, an extraordinary great
council* at Westminster: its sole business, so far as we
know, was to try the bishop of Winchester on a charge of
malversation brought by certain persons unknown. Latimer
and the duke had arranged between them that Wykeham
should be accused thus of offences committed during his
chancellorship, and that the proceedings should be an exact
counterpart of Latimer’s own impeachment before the
parliament three months before. They hoped to divert the
popular indignation by fixing it upon their rival, whom they
charged with a larger amount of default than even they had
been found guilty of. Eight articles of accusation were
drawn up against the bishop; and, at the beginning of
November, he was summoned before the council to hear
them, and to reply to them.

Wykeham, who seems to have heard of the accusations
contained in the articles now for the first time, “craved
counsel and day because he could not so speedily answer?
Then Sir William Skipwith,t at that time newly made

' Chron. Angl. p. 108.

?“*A great council which began straight after the prince's burial—the next
Monday after the feast of St. Denys—and continued to the feast of St. Nicholas.”—
App. (B) id. p. Ixxiv. On the great council, see Stubbs, ii, pp. 255—264. ‘‘ From
the accession of Henry III, a council comes into prominence, which seems to
contain the officers of state and of the household, the whole judicial staff, a number
of bishops and barons, and other members who, in default of any other official
qualification, are simply counsellors; these formed a permanent, continual, or
resident council.""—p. 256.

3 Chron. Angl. p. 78.

4 Sir William Skipwith, of Ormsby, in Lincolnshire, was made baron of the
Exchequer in 1362. Three years afterwards he was removed and imprisoned on
Wykeham in Disgrace. I25

 

*

secondary justice of the king’s common pleas, said that it
was no reason to give him day of advice, neither any
counsel, no more than the lord Latimer had ; for such was
his own judgment against the said lord.” But duke John
interposed with an appearance of moderation, which no
doubt he thought would be especially galling to Wykeham.
“The duke of Lancaster then answered that he demanded
but reason; also that what was done to the lord Latimer
was done in the heat of the day and without good faith,
and therefore he granted him day and counsel as himself
list to have ; also, if he wist not how to answer for himself,
he should take counsel with such men of law as were able
in his defence to declare his mind.” There must have been
something particularly pleasing to the duke in the advice
which he thus gave gratuitously to the bishop, as if he had
said,—You no doubt are so busily occupied with the duties
of your sacred calling that you have not had time to study
the law, and therefore you can take advice with the “men
of law” who have hitherto been your rivals.

The duke no doubt enjoyed his taunt; and the bishop
was dismissed for the sitting.’ For the next two days,
before the third day after, when the next sitting was to
take place, he had enough to do to study the articles and
prepare his defence. These articles were as follows :<—

I. “Imprimis, that, after through truce the king was at
peace with his adversary of France, the said bishop had the
disposition and administration of all the king’s revenues, as well

suspicion of some malpractices. In 1370 he was restored to the Bench, being
made Chief Justice of Ireland, and 1376 was appointed Judge of Common Pleas in
England. In this office he continued till 1388, when he resigned rather than give
the illegal decision for the king against the Duke of Gloucester. He died in 1391.
Unpublished account of the Skipwith family.

1 Chron. Angl. p. 78.

2 The articles are given as translated in Appendix B, in the introduction to
Chron. Angl. The original Latin is to be found in Rot. Parl. iii, p. 388. A
mistake in translation is to be found in Article 8, where 20,000 is written for 10,000
marks ; but for the most part it is faithfully rendered in Chron. Angi.

First article.
126 William of Wykeham.

 

on this side the sea as beyond the sea, with all the subsidies of
England, both great and small. Also of the money by him
received for the French king’s ransom, likewise for the ransom
of the land of Burgundy, and for the Scottish king ; which receipt
amounted to eight years, throughout the whole time that Dan
Simon of Langham, bishop of Ely, afterwards cardinal, and
Master John Barnet were Treasurers of England, that is to say
from the 26th day of November, in the 35th year of the king,
unto the 43rd year, amounting to the sum of £21,600, and
100,000 francs for Sir Galeas.!. Also, he had the government
of all the king’s goods, which for the most part are not returned
to the profit of the king and the realm. Likewise, that when the
said peace had continued ten whole years, and the second war
began, there was but little found in the king’s treasury, but the
king was in great poverty, to the impoverishment of himself and
his realm, and the oppression of his people; for of mere force
it was meet he should be discharged by the clergy and commons
by way of subsidy and loan; all which proceeded of the evil
government of the said bishop.”

This article could not have been a difficult one to
answer, except that it was conceived in such general terms.
During the first six of the eight years above mentioned,
Wykeham was not the chief adviser of the king, not the
Treasurer, nor the Chancellor. During the last two, when
he was Chancellor, bishop Brantingham of Exeter was
Treasurer ; and he was still alive, and should have been
accused instead. Doubtless, the article proceeded on the
general opinion that Wykeham had been the confidential
friend of the king all this time. This, no doubt, gave him
an influence, but a perfectly indefinite one, and one which
could not authorise him to interfere in the province of the
Treasurer. The fact that the kingdom was so exhausted
with debt in 1369 is sufficiently accounted for, by the
consideration that the nine years of peace had succeeded
to twenty-two years of an expensive war, had been inter-
rupted themselves by the Spanish expedition and the Breton

' Galeazzo Visconti of Florence.
Wykeham in Disgrace. 127

 

war, and had been fruitful in the intestine disasters of
famine, murrain, and pestilence.

II. “Item, contrary to God, to all reason, and to the laws of
the realm, the said bishop put to ransom, and procured to take a
great sum of gold and silver of Messieurs Matthew de Gourney,
Thomas Fogge, John St. Lo, Diggory Lees, and Robert de Ewes,
and of many other captains who had nobly travailed in the king’s
wars against his enemies. Which misprisions redounded so greatly
to the king’s damage, and to the loss of the realm, that it cannot
well be spoken: for all the other soldiers, when they heard of the
said oppressions, gathered into sundry companies, and raised a
new war in the realm of France. Whereupon war began again,
and other mischiefs happened.”

This is nothing less than a charge against Wykeham of
being the original founder of those curses of social life
in Western Europe—the Free Companies :—a charge which
makes one smile, so far is it from having any foundation in
truth. There is no manner of doubt as to how the Free
‘Companies arose. They were the natural product of the
war between England and France. We first hear of them
in 1357, ten years before Wykeham was at the head of
affairs in England. They consisted originally of the
disbanded soldiers of both sides, except that there were
no Englishmen in their ranks ; “there were,” says Froissart,
“Germans, Brabanters, Flemings, Hainaulters, Gascons, and
bad Frenchmen.” But they were mostly officered by
English, or by Frenchmen of the English obedience, so that
by degrees these drew English to join their ranks. They
became a formidable third power between the combatants,
selling their services to whichever side would pay the most,
and always the first to maraud and pillage the country
where they happened to be. In 1366, the pope actually
hired them to support the claim of Don Henry to the
Castilian throne. Many English leaders, such as Sir John
Lalverley and Sir Robert Knollys, were among them,
in spite of peremptory orders from king Edward not to

Second article.
A

Third article.

Fourth article.

128 William of Wykeham.

 

cross the Pyrenees. Two of the persons whom Wykeham
was charged with oppressing had been in the expedition,
Sir Matthew Gourney and Sir Thomas Fogge, the latter of
whom had long belonged to Knollys’ company. Nothing is
more likely than that they, and possibly the others here.
specified also, captured on their return into Aquitaine, were.
punished with fines by the English Chancellor: but therein
he would only have been exercising the necessary discipline.
of war.

III. “Item, the said bishop, being Clerk of our lord the king’s;
Privy Seal, and chief of the privy council, and governor of the
great council, caused to release and deliver the hostages royal of
France: and among the rest were delivered the dukes of Anjou
and Bourbon, Berri, and Burgundy, and many others; and, as the
common voice and fame of the people goeth, all for his own profit,
to make him bishop of Winchester. Notwithstanding the prince,
whom God pardon, had often written to the king and to him
wisely to govern and safely to keep the said hostages, to the end
the peace might not be broken: for had they been kept we had
had no war.”

We have already mentioned the release of the princes:
of the fleur de lys as one of the proximate causes of the
renewal of the French war, and we have given the popular:
story as to the mission of the duke of Bourbon to Avignon:
to plead for the bishopric of Winchester for Wykeham.
That he procured the bishopric for him was, at any rate, an
absurd exaggeration ; still, it does seem that this count fairly
hit a weak spot in Wykeham’s armour, and that his weakness.
as Chancellor was one of the causes of the renewal of the
war. But this was not a reason for the condemnation of a
minister, however unsuccessful, seven years after the event.

IV. “Item, that where[as] he was in time convenient sufficiently
certified by the officers of Ponthieu to aid them with succour
against their enemies, to the end that peace might not be broken,
he foded on the messengers with subtle and deceivable speeches,
and so negligently behaved himself toward them that it seemed
Wykeham in Disgrace. 129

 

he took no care to appoint any remedy or help, so that the land
was lost through his default.”

Here again, if the fact could be proved of the frequent
appeals in aid of Sir Nicholas Louvain, governor of
Ponthieu, no one could acquit Wykeham of gross negli-
gence in not hearkening to his representations. But we
hear of no such representations. It is true that king
Edward, by neglecting to watch Ponthieu, gave the French
the opportunity they wanted for recovering the country.
“Had the king of England,” writes Froissart, “ perceived
that the king of France intended war, he would easily
have prevented the loss of Ponthieu by reinforcing the
garrisons of Abbeville with English, and others attached
to him, so that he would have been master of the whole
country.”! Wykeham, therefore, was so far blameworthy
that he did not suggest extraordinary precautions as to
Ponthieu; but it is asking too much of a minister to
demand that he should be always on his guard against
treachery, especially after a peace of nine years.

V. ‘Item, while he was Chancellor of England, sundry times Fifth article.
of his own authority he caused the fines in the Rolls of the
Chancery to be diminished, and the Rolls to be razed; especially
in the case of Sir John Grey of Rotherfield, who fined £80 to
purchase a licence to make a feoffment of certain lands and
tenements, which £ 80 were paid into the hanaper. And the said
bishop, in respect of a bargain made between him and the said Sir
John, caused the first charter to be cancelled, making another
charter of like matter and tenor and date, for a fine of £440; and
caused the clerk of the hanaper to return the other £40 to the
said Sir John, to the deceiving of the king.”

This turned out to be the only charge that was
sustained, and consequently we shall hear more of it when
we come to the narrative of the trial.

VI. “Item, in the 43rd year of the king, John the son of Sixth article.

' Froissart, i, 251.
Seventh article.

30 William of Wykeham.

 

John Buildwas fined #100 for a pardon for lands purchased
without licence; and the said bishop made to abate £20, as
appeareth by a memorandum upon an enrolment of the same.”

Wykeham’s detractors without doubt meant to insinuate
that he appropriated the £20 above-named to his own use.
But of this there is no proof whatever; rather, as the
charge was not pressed, we must conclude that the whole
dealing was open and above-board, and that the partial
remission of the fine was but an instance of Wykeham’s
characteristic goodness of heart.

VII. “Item, where[as] there was a commission directed to
the earl of Angus and other commissioners to enquire of certain
lands and tenements whereof the lord John de Driby died seized,
and of Tattershall Castle, and the manor of Tumby, and other
lands: also how the lord John Kirton entered after the decease
of the said lord John de Driby, and upon what cause: also upon
what cause he occupied the said castle, lands, and tenements so
long time that the issues and other profits of the same arising
amounted to above 8,000 marks, from whom the king should have
been answered of the said sum, because the said castle and lands
were held of him in chief, as by inquest it was found :—the said
bishop, being then Clerk of the Privy Seal, for his own singular
profit, by his subtle counsel caused the king to release and pardon
all the issues and profits aforesaid, without taking anything or
having anything to the king’s use of the said Sir John Kirton.”

Of this affair we know nothing from other sources.
Driby near Alford, Kirton near Boston, and Tattershall, are
all in Lincolnshire. A John Kirton, doubtless the same
with the above, died in 1367, without issue, having twice
been summoned to parliament, in 1362 and 1363.) This
may possibly have been because he was possessed of Driby,
as a tenant in chief. What was charged against the bishop
seems to have been that he neglected to enforce the pay-
ment of the “ primer seisin ” or first year’s profits, due from
every tenant in chief to the king. But the feudal system

| Hist. Peerage (H. Nicolas), p. 275.
Wykeham in Disgrace. I3L

 

was dying out; and long before it was abolished by statute
this particular service had died a natural death.

VIII. “Item, that in the time that John Barnet, bishop of
Ely, was treasurer of England, the said bishop of Winchester, of
his own authority and without any warrant, caused to be taken
out of the king’s treasury 10,000 marks to buy tallies for the king’s
profit, as he said ; which sum remained in his hands two years and
more: and afterwards he returned into the said treasury, for the
said sum, tallies amounting to the sum of 12,500 marks or there-
abouts. So he made the king’s profit but 2,500 marks, whereas
he bought £100 for £25, and therefore, in reason, the king’s
increase and profit should have been about 27,000 marks.”

The tallies were of the nature of assurances, given to
those who had lent money, for future payment jn full. In
the lack of ready money, they had been given in plenty,
and now the public credit had fallen so low, that the
creditors were glad to part with them for a quarter of
the sum named upon them. And perhaps it may have
been the truest charity which induced Wykeham (if the
Story be true at all) to buy them up at the fourth of their
original value. But his accusers absurdly go on to complain
that what he refunded into the treasury, besides the 10,000
marks which he had taken out for the purpose of buying
them, was only about 2,500 marks; and they imply that
what he should have paid was the 40,000 marks which had
originally been borrowed, and of which he had appropriated
more than 26,000 marks. Surely, an absurder accusation was
never framed. That in two years he was able to make the
profit amount to as much as 2,500 marks, implies no small
financial ingenuity: that he should have quadrupled the
10,000 marks could have been the serious expectation of
no one. But anything, however preposterous, served his
enemies’ purpose, which was simply to swell the number of
counts in his accusation. Having served this purpose, the
charge was dropped, as no doubt it was meant from the first
to be.

Eighth article.
Wykeham’s
trial compared
with Latimer’s.

Second
hearing.

132 William of Wykeham.

 

We should lose much of the fine irony of the whole
proceeding if we did not note how exactly the matter of
these articles balanced the matter of the articles exhibited
shortly before by Wykeham, or, at least, the commons of
his party, against Latimer. Latimer had been charged
with having caused the surrender of two castles: Wykeham,
with having caused the loss of a whole district full of
castles. Latimer had been charged with enriching himself
by giving a smaller sum for the king’s debts, and receiving
a larger for them; Wykeham, with precisely the same
offence at another time. But Wykeham’s record was
heavier than that of Latimer. It is as if Latimer sought to
wipe out the memory of his own conviction, by charging
Wykeham with frauds of precisely the same kind.

On the third day after the former hearing “the bishop
came to the council through the hall of Westminster, well
accompanied with men, but with a pensive countenance,
and with him the bishop of London to comfort him, and
some six serjeants of the law of his counsel.”! William
Courtenay, bishop of London, was a nobly-born prelate, the
son of an earl of Devon and the daughter of a Bohun,
earl of Hereford and Essex. He was both on the lords
committee for conference with the commons earlier in the
year, and one of the assessors who had been appointed
to “enforce” the king’s council, but whom the duke had
dismissed with contumely. Courtenay and Wykeham had
acted side by side against the pope, and in the parliament ;
and now Courtenay boldly took his part against the
influence of the court party.

_ Wykeham and his little party “ entered into the White
Chamber before the lords: and the duke of Lancaster asked
the said bishop whether he were advised, and would deny
the points before notified unto him. Then said the bishop:

+ Appendix (B) to Introd. Chron. Angi. p. Ixxviii.

t
Wykeham in Disgrace. 133

 

“Sir, to which point shall I answer first?’ ‘You shall
know soon enough’ said the duke ; and then by command-
ment a clerk began to read the article how 480 were razed
out of the chancery, and how 440 were re-delivered by the
clerk of the hanaper of the said chancery to Sir John Grey
of Rotherfield, by reason of a bargain passed between the
said bishop and the said Sir John Grey as is aforesaid ; and
how the first charter was cancelled, and another charter
made, of the same tenor and date, for a fine of £40.”}

In other words, the duke elected to begin with the fifth
article of accusation, that of illegal remission of fine to John,
lord Grey. John, lord Grey, of Rotherfield, now called
Rotherfield Greys, near Henley-on-Thames, in the county of
‘Oxford, had paid into the chancery 480 for a license to
take possession of certain lands and tenements in the year
1367. But there had already been dealings between the
‘Chancellor and lord Grey, and the charge was that
Wykeham, on a private understanding with Grey, caused
the indenture of fine to be cancelled, another to be made
of half the amount, and repaid the other half to Grey.
Nothing further is known about the case ; but at all events
this charge was not one of personal appropriation, for Grey
and not Wykeham was the gainer by the change: it was
that he “ deceived the king.” And yet the transaction was
obviously not done in secret, but transacted in the full
light of open day.

The bishop, on the charge being read, “first offered to
discharge himself by oath, which the lords would not suffer
because he could not loyally be gainsaid.” If they had
suffered him to take his oath that he was innocent in the
matter, there would have been an end of the proceeding ;
no one thereafter could have raised the question without
accusing a bishop of perjury, a length to which none of the

1 Appendix (B) to Introd. Chron. Angi. p. Ixxix.
Third hearing.

134 William of Wykeham.

 

court party cared to go. “And therefore he had another
day assigned him.”

Three days after he was again summoned. “The third
day again he came into the council, and was questioned
with about the razing of the rolls.” His answer was two-.
fold. “Hereto he answered that the said razing was never
made for his advantage or profit, but for alms, for it was.
evil enrolled and contrary to conscience.” His first plea.
was that he had had no private interest in the matter, as
was obvious upon the face of it; that he had caused the
change to be made because the charge was preposterously
high, and he could not in good conscience be party to the
king’s receiving such a large fine ; he had therefore remitted.
440 “for alms,” that is in free gift to lord Grey. His second
plea was general. “Besides, that to this matter he ought
not by law to answer, for at the time he was Chancellor, the
secondary in England next to the king ; which office is of
such authority that he that is Chancellor is not bound to.
account for his office, but all that he doeth is to be allowed.”

On the first plea his enemies had nothing to say: the
presumption is that the facts were exactly as the bishop.
stated them. But more than one was ready with an answer
to the second. “Hereto among the rest” (ze, among
several other answers that were made), “Sir William
Skipwith, justice, said: ‘Sir bishop, the law is that every
of the king’s officers, in whatsoever office he be, and [if he]
hath the king’s goods in his hands, is bound to account for
his office, as well the Chancellor and Treasurer as any other.
And it is found ’—here he was, as legal assessor, pronouncing
the judgment of the great council— that you have concealed
the king’s goods, and that you have caused the rolls of the
chancery to be razed to the great hurt of the king; and
there is a statute that whosoever causeth the said rolls to
be razed in any sum to the deceiving of the king, for every
Wykeham in Disgrace. 135

 

penny shall pay to the king 100 marks. And the sum of
this razing by you made amounteth to 440, and therefore
by account the sum wherein you are indebted to our lord
the king amounteth to 960,000 marks, And so they
departed for that day.”

The council could not have come to a more preposterous
conclusion. The Chancellor was not to be at liberty to
settle the amount of the fines payable by intending pur-
chasers ; and an indenture for enrolment in the chancery
was such a sacred thing that, before it was enrolled, the
Chancellor might not cancel it and enrol another instead !
All turned on the motive with which Wykeham had done
it; and this the council persisted, in spite of his solemn
denial, was “the deceiving of the king.” Therefore, he was
seriously adjudged to pay the enormous fine of £64,000, or
about £800,000 of our present money.

But this was only a sample of what the council intended
to do by way of revenge. “Another day he was brought
up to answer to the rest of the articles. The fourth day
after he came to the council, and was apposed upon the
other points aforesaid; and many points were proved
against him, which he could not deny; and, therefore,
the duke of Lancaster, the king’s lieutenant, with others
of his society, counselled to forejudge him.”! No doubt
the facts of the capture of the castles of Ponthieu were fresh
in the memory of all, and Wykeham could not deny this:
what he could and would have denied was his own respon-
sibility for the sudden invasion, and for the disposal of the
subsidies and ransoms, and for the deliverance of the royal
dukes. Still, duke John had a plausible case against him,
which made him urge the council not to wait for all the
forms to be gone through, but to condemn him at once.
This might possibly have been done, had it not been for the

) Appendix (B) to Introd. Chron. Angi. p. xxix.

Lancaster
urges instant
condemnation ;
the bishops
resist this,

Temporals of
his see forfeited
to the king.

Wykeham for-
bidden to come
within twenty
miles of the
king.

He goes to
Merton abbey,

136 William of Wykeham.

 

interference of the bishops present. “ But the bishops then
present would not suffer it, as concerning his parson, and
said unto the lords that as concerning his parson and his
spiritualties they had not to do nor to judge.”! They took
their stand upon the rights of their order. They, no doubt,
urged that a bishop, even though liable to be tried by a
king’s court, was not liable to any penalty there to be
inflicted, but that he must be handed over to the Church, to
be tried by the archbishop, who alone could deprive him of
his spirituals.

“ And, therefore, the lords of the council, with the king’s
assent, seized and took away his temporalities to the king’s
pleasure.” The duke, not able to get him condemned
otherwise, suggested the forfeiture of the temporals, and
the king readily agreed to his wish. This was done
“without answer ” *—without giving him further opportunity
of self-defence. On November 17th, writs were issued from
the Exchequer to the sheriffs of the counties in which the
temporals lay, directing them to seize such temporals
into the hands of the king. Wykeham was dismissed for
the present, but desired to attend again for a further
examination on January 2oth, in the coming year 1377.
The duke was not even satisfied with this, but issued
a proclamation, in the king’s name, forbidding Wykeham
to approach within twenty miles of the royal person.

Wykeham had gone to his palace at Southwark, and
was there when the council broke up, which it did on the
6th of December. He prepared with a heavy heart to obey
the law. He left Southwark within a week of this date,
and went to Merton, in Surrey, where he was received in
the priory of Austin Friars, of which Robert Windsor was
prior. There he staid for three weeks, till after January

' Appendix (B) to Introd. Chron. Angl. p. Ixxx.
? " Absque responso.""—Chron. Angl. p. 106.
Wykeham in Disgrace. 137

 

7th; for Merton, although within twenty miles of London,
was beyond that distance from Havering, where the king
then was. But the king was getting better, and at the
beginning of the year “began to recover with the help of
the physicians, and by restoratives and good meats, and
fresh broths, and by sops of wheat-bread in caudles of
goat’s milk, for other food he could neither eat nor taste.”!
He seems to have been moved to London in January, and
consequently bishop Wykeham, who had by this time
received the king’s letters proroguing the hearing of his
case indefinitely, had to move from Merton, in order to put
himself once more at the required distance from the royal
person. On the 21st of January he dates from “ Novus
locus,” which seems to be Hyde abbey, near Winchester.*
But by the 1st of February he was certainly at Waverley,
taken in by the Cistercian abbey, not far from Farnham. In

truth, his condition at this time was most forlorn. His-

castles and manor houses were no longer his but the
king’s ; Southwark, Farnham, and Wolvesey were no doubt
occupied by the king’s sequestrators. “They hunted the
said bishop from place to place, both by letters and by
writs, so that no man could succour him throughout his
diocese, neither could he, neither durst he, rest in any place.
And therefore he then brake up houschold, and scattered
his men and dismissed them, for that he could no longer
govern and maintain them ; sending also to Oxford, where
upon alms and for God’s sake he found [ze., was supporting]
seventy scholars, that they should depart and remove every
one to their friends, for he could no longer help or find
them; and so they all departed in great sorrow and dis-
comfort, weeping, and with simple cheer.” 3

1 Appx. (A) to Introd. Chron. Angi. p. xxiv.

2“ Monasterium de novo loco” was one of the many names of Hyde abbey, near
Winchester. It is probable, therefore, that he was taken in by the abbot of Hyde,
Thomas Pechy.

3 App. (B) to Introd. Chron. Angi. p. liii.

to Hyde abbey,

and to
Waverley
abbey,

dismissing his
household, and
Oxford
scholars.
Change of
ministry ;
clericals again
in power.

138 William of Wykeham.

 

But Wykeham was not one easily to lose heart. He
gave thanks to God, Heath tells us, who scourged him so
mercifully. He looked on all these tribulations as meant
to teach him patience; he remembered the example of Job,
and the Beatitude, which says, “Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” }

Meanwhile, duke John had been busy with lord Percy,
preparing the measures to be submitted to the next parlia-
ment, which had been summoned for January 27th; and the
men who were to deal with them, for he did not hesitate to
pack the parliament to support his own views. He managed
to secure the rejection of all except twelve of the knights of
the shire who sat in the last parliament: those twelve their
constituents stoutly refused to part with at his pleasure.

Shortly before the parliament met, the duke changed
the king’s ministers, exchanging the “men of law” for
“men of holy Church.” This looks surprising at first sight,
but its causes are not far to seek. His conduct towards
Wykeham had alienated the clerical estate. Yet it was
absolutely necessary to get a liberal grant from the parlia-
ment ; and therefore he wished to court the clergy by
choosing his chief advisers from among them. And there
was one cleric especially of whom the duke took pains to
make a friend. This was John Wiclif, whom he had met
at Bruges, and whose influence as a demagogue he thought
might prove useful later on. Wiclif caught at the alliance,
being far too unworldly to suspect his patron’s motive for
the respect he paid him.

The new Chancellor and Treasurer, we may be sure, were
men not opposed to Wiclif’s tenets, and at the same time
men who were in no sense of the party of reform. The
Chancellor was Adam Houghton, bishop of St. David’s ; the
Treasurer, Henry Wakefield, bishop of Worcester.

1 Heath, 19. ? Chron. Angi. p. 109.
Wykeham in Disgrace. 139

 

The parliament met on January 27th, nominally under
the presidency of young prince Richard, but really under
the guidance of duke John. On the 28th, bishop Houghton,
after a long-winded sermon, applied for help for the king’s
needs, and gave the commons the choice of four ways in
which it might be levied. Then Sir Robert Aston, one of
the royal chamberlains, spoke, being charged by the king
with words which hardly befitted the mouth of a prelate.
He complained of the papal usurpations, and said that he
purposed to lay before the parliament certain articles which
would lay the basis of a settlement between the pope and
king. Then the lords and commons separated to their
respective houses. A lords’ committee, consisting of four
bishops, four earls, and four barons, was appointed, as usual,
to confer with the commons ; of which duke John’s influence
secured that more than half should be the same persons
who had been lord Latimer’s sureties the year before. His
influence also secured the election of a speaker devoted to
his interest, Sir John Hungerford, his own steward. Not-
withstanding this, the few members who had belonged to
the last parliament proposed to petition for De la Mare’s
release from prison; but they were silenced by threats of
personal violence, and the commons took seriously in hand
the debate upon the aid to be granted to the king.

Before it was over, the convocation had met, on the 3rd of
February. Wykeham had not, of course, been summoned
to parliament ; but he had been summoned to attend con-
vocation in the usual course; for the writs, though in the
archbishop’s name, were issued by his friend bishop
Courtenay of London. Nevertheless he was not there,
being doubtless kept away by the royal proclamation which
forbade his approaching within twenty miles of the king.
But bishop Courtenay insisted that they ought to do nothing
without him.) The whole episcopate had been insulted by

1 Chron. Angl. p. 114.

Parliament,
January, 1377

Wykeham
summoned to
convocation,

and bishop
Courtenay
insists on his
being present.
The archbishop
sends for him
and he comes.

Wiclif tried at
St. Pauls.

I4O William of Wykeham.

 

the gross treatment of one of their brethren ; and not only
they, but the whole Church in them. Wykeham was as
much a member of the convocation as they ; the matters to
be discussed touched him as deeply as any of them, and
therefore he ought to be there. Courtenay insisted that
the archbishop should send him a personal message of
invitation.

Sudbury hesitated, and pleaded the king’s express
prohibition. But the bishops declined altogether to proceed
to business unless Wykeham was present. Under these
circumstances, the archbishop gave way. He sent and
fetched him from Wayerley: “and Wykeham,” says the
chronicler, “immediately came to London, with a small
number of servants, who aforetime was thought to excel all
others in multitude of servants. He was joyfully received
by his fellow-bishops, and (as became such a person) greatly
honoured.”! This happened before the 20th of February,
1377.

While both parliament and convocation were sitting,
Wiclif was summoned to answer for his teaching at St.
Paul’s,on the 19th. He appeared, bringing duke John with
him: high words passed between the duke and bishop
Courtenay, a riot was the consequence, and the duke fled
for his life to the princess of Wales. She attempted to
mediate, and the Londoners replied by coupling the names
of Wykeham and De la Mare as ill-used Englishmen, and
demanding for them both that they should be judged
by their peers? This was on the 20th; and on the 22nd,
the duke came to Westminster as one who went in fear
of his life. He and lord Percy brought armed soldiers with
them, and came through back ways, where he would be
unlikely to meet with opposition. The commons—perhaps

‘The quotation is taken from MS, Harl. 6217, which is only a translation
of Chron. Angl. p. 114.

2 Chron. Angi. p. 126.
Wykeham in Disgrace. I4q

 

awed by his armed retinue—agreed upon a poll-tax of four-
pence a head, to be collected on every one above the age of
fourteen. Certain of the lords and commons visited Sheen,
now Richmond, to which the king had been removed ; and
there, “in his presence and in that of the duke, were rehearsed
the articles of the general pardon and grace which the king
himself has made to the commons,” taking occasion from
the completion of the fiftieth year of his reign, which
had ended on the 24th of the previous month. But from
this act of clemency Wykeham was excepted by name. “ By
no means,” say the Rolls of Parliament, “is it the king’s
pleasure that Sir William of Wykeham, bishop of Win-
chester, shall be comprehended within the pardon and grace
aforesaid, or enjoy anything of them.” !

The deputation of parliament returned to London on
the 23rd ; and then followed the usual public recital of the
petitions and the answers to them. Next day followed
a solemn farce. The Speaker asked if the king would
pardon on the occasion of his jubilee the persons whom the
late parliament had condemned; that is, he asked that
their pardon might be recorded on the rolls of parliament as
publicly as was their condemnation. The duke asked for
their names: they had not yet been produced, when a
message from the king dissolved the parliament. But the
petitions without their answer were allowed to stand on the
Parliamentary Rolls. The Speaker by them petitions the
king in favour of Richard Lyons and Alice Perrers among
the rest. With regard to the latter, he prays that “seeing
that she, by untrue suggestion, was in the last parliament
deprived of the common liberty which all loyal subjects
have a right to enjoy, the said judgment may be repealed,
and that she be restored entirely to her former estate,
notwithstanding the judgment, or any defence against

' Rot. Parl. ii, p. 365.

General pardon
at king's
jubilee,

except to
Wykeham.

Parliament
dissolved.
‘Temporals of
see of Win-
‘chester given to
prince Richard,
March rsth ;

142 William of Wykeham.

 

it, made on behalf of the said Alice in the same parliament.”

We do not know whether the minor offenders were still
in prison or not; but it is most unlikely, considering the
influence that for some time had prevailed. Nor are we
absolutely certain that Lady Windsor had not been in
prison, as this petition certainly represents her as having
been. But, again, it is most unlikely ; considering that for
the last seven months duke John and Latimer had been at
the helm, that she assuredly was not condemned like the
others in the late parliament, and that since September, at
least, she had been again with the king. It looks like a
solemn farce, by which the duke wished to get them
publicly acquitted by the same tribunal by which they
had been condemned. And though according to the forms
of parliament he was not able to do this, no doubt the
Speaker’s petition for them gave a show of er post facto
legality to their release.

The vindictiveness by which the duke excepted
Wykeham from the general pardon was speedily followed
by another oppressive measure, combining in itself several
different objects. By a grant! dated March 15th, the king
settled the temporals of the see of Winchester upon young
prince Richard, in part payment of 4,000 marks a-year,
which he was to have as prince of Wales. The reasons
for this stroke of policy were: first, that it saved the
Exchequer expense ; secondly, that it would secure Wyke-
ham’s perpetual exclusion from his temporals ; thirdly, and
perhaps chiefly, that it promised to divide the party of
opposition by detaching young Richard from Wykeham’s
interests, while it would be gall and wormwood to Wykeham
to see the son of his old friend, prince Edward, enjoying
the use and profits of his estates and manors.

For the young prince of Wales was a main factor in the

'Rym. vii, p. 142.
Wykeham in Disgrace. Id3

 

new political situation. He himself no doubt was but a
boy of eleven years old; but his mother, once the “ fair
maid of Kent,’ possessed still great influence with the
populace, as duke John had lately found. She lived at
Kennington! with her son, a short row down the Thames
from Westminster, and all her sympathies were upon
Wykeham’s side; which was also the popular side, for
Wykeham was looked upon as a persecuted man as
much as the popular hero, Peter de la Mare.

But the malice of the duke was soon to be frustrated.
On June 18th the temporals were restored to Wykeham.?
Before prince Richard, the duke of Lancaster, and the
king’s council, the earls of March, Arundel, and Warwick
became sureties for Wykeham that he would fit out at his
own expense three galleys, each manned with fifty men-at-
arms and fifty archers, and pay their salaries for three
months, the king finding the mariners’ wages. In case
there was no need of such voyage, he was to pay to the
king a reasonable equivalent to the wages of the said three
hundred men.’ In return for this promise the king restored
his temporals, the use of his castles and manor houses.‘

What produced this sudden reversal of affairs? Our
chronicler, never at a loss, gives the current gossip of the
time as follows :—

“ Meantime the bishop of Winchester, who had suffered many
losses and wrongs, when he saw that the laws of the land were
administered not justly but capriciously, and that he was bereft of
nearly all human aid, had recourse (though he knew how
unbefitting him it would be) to woman’s help. In truth, he was

1 Chron. Angl. p. 124. 2Rym. vii, p. 148.

3 This amounted to £1,988. 145. 63d., and 9 quarters of oats.—Rym. vii,
P. 149.

4“ Temporalia predicta cum pertinentiis, una cum feodis militum advocationi-
bus ecclesiarum, et omnibus aliis ad temporalia illa quovis modo spectantibus sive
pertinentibus, prefato episcopo restituta sunt.'""—Rot. Parl. iii. p. 387. The king
did it by letters patent to prince Richard, commanding him to restore the temporals
.of the see of Winchester.—Rym. loc. cit.

restored to
Wykeham,
June 18th.

Gossip of St.
Alban's chron-
icleraccounting
for this.
144 William of Wykeham.

 

forced by necessity, and therefore he did what was [not] right, out
of care not so much for his own as for his Church’s oppressions
and losses. So, knowing well that Alice Perrers, the king’s
mistress, could do anything that she wanted, and that no one
would even if he could gainsay her will, he begged help of her,
offered her money, and promised to serve her. Whether, with a.
view to better speeding, he promised anything unbefitting his.
condition as a bishop, you may easily guess if you are acquainted
with a harlot’s ways ; especially as the case was an uphill one, the-
enemy was strong, and she herself was greedy and covetous.' She-
then not refusing that which was offered, and hired (as is said) for
a sufficient reward, went to try if any sparks of love yet lived in.
the king, if the deceits of a harlot might now as of old find a place.
in him. But he, long since taken with her love, was now soothed.
with her speech and prayers, and would deny her nothing that she
asked. Therefore, against the duke’s will, he commanded the.
temporals to be restored; and so the bishop, through right and
unright, making himself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness,.
recovered what he had lost. The duke, although he was much
hurt at what Alice had done contrary to his desire, yet, fearing the
king’s wrath, purposed to be silent for a time, deferring his revenge:
until times better suited for retaliation.”

Thus the charge laid at Wykeham’s door by the St.
Albans’ chronicler is that he, despairing of regaining his.
rights by fair means, recovered them by bribing the king’s
mistress. Is this charge likely to be true? We assert
emphatically that it is most improbable.

The story has been widely circulated. It is found in
Walsingham, in Stow, in Malvern’s continuation of Higden,,
in archbishop Parker’s notes. But this Chronicle, which
was first printed in 1874, gives the story in its original’
shape, and from hence Walsingham, Stow, Malvern, and
Parker (who possessed the Chronicle in MS.), all derived it.
Hence we have not to deal with a story vouched for by
many witnesses, but only by one.

1This is the only way in which I can understand the following almost untrans-
lateable sentence :—-''Si in convenientiam episcopali statui ulla spopondit, ut
facilius expediret, quisquis mores meretricis agnoveris minime dubitabis : praecipue
cum foret causa ejus ardua, valida pars adversa, et illa nimis cupida et avara.”
Wykeham in Disgrace. I45

 

Is the Chronicle, then, a reliable witness for what it
relates? Here we come at once to the root of the matter.
It has been the fashion of late years to trust unreservedly
to this newly-discovered authority. But soberness compels
us to record our conviction that the Chronicle, although of
much and deep interest, is not trustworthy in some of its
details.

It possesses the interest of a vivid history, written very
soon after the events which it records, by one who seems
to have had singular opportunities for knowing the details
of some of the scenes of which he writes! But it is written
with an evident bias, and all through the bias is painfully
prominent. The reason is not far to seek. The animosity
which guided the writer’s pen was religious. He was a
monk, and the bitterest hatred of the monks was poured
out upon John Wiclif. The history is a graphic romance,
in which all the Wicliffites are painted black, all the
adherents of the old doctrine white. Hence the duke of
Lancaster throughout is the demon of the story, for whom
nothing can be too fiendish or black. Under the reign of
the Lancastrian kings the different MSS. of the Chronicle
were obliged to modify? some of the expressions as to his
character, but without being able substantially to alter the
tenor of the whole narrative. Hence, too, Lady Windsor
is in the chroniclers pages a bye-word for all that is bad
and unwomanly. <A personal motive, moreover, envenoms
his words about her; she had put the abbot of St. Alban’s?
to the trouble of a long lawsuit in order to regain certain
lands in Hertfordshire which she had wrongfully seized.
In like manner all of the opposite party are glorified :—
Edward, prince of Wales, Sir Peter de la Mare, and
Wykeham.

1 See chap. 9, the account of the riot in London, pp. 118—126.

2 Introd. pp. xix—xxiii. 3 Introd, p. xiii.

Estimate of
the veracity of
the chronicler.
His story very
improbable.

r46 William of Wykeham.

 

But with this general bias in favour of Wykeham and
his party, how comes it that he attributes to him such
an act of baseness as this? Is it not the more likely that
this story is true, since one of his admirers is the authority
upon which the discrediting tale is given? The answer is
that we do not attribute to the chronicler the invention of
this story. He probably gave it as he heard it: indeed, he
confesses as much by the “ut dicitur” with which the
marrow of the whole story, Alice’s over-persuasion of the
king, is introduced.'. It is probably a true shred of the
gossip of the time, and was invented to account, in a way
which the populace could understand, for the sudden
collapse of the persecution under which Wykeham had
suffered.

Is it a likely story? Everything is against its proba-
bility. To say nothing of Wykeham’s well-known integrity
and blamelessness of character, and to put the probability
on the lowest ground, what adequate motive had he for so
acting? It must have been perfectly notorious by this
time that the king was dying, and consequently that
Perrers’ reign was also drawing to an end. The king did, in
fact, die on June 21st, three days only after the grant
which restored Wykeham’s temporals. With. that event
the parties were reversed : the opposition came into power,
Wykeham was courted, duke John retired, and Alice
Perrers sank into well-merited contempt. It has been
suggested that possibly a desire that he might so shield
Richard from evil advisers, when left alone, was the reason
why Wykeham obtained his restoration through such an
unworthy instrument. But if he had waited quictly, he
would to a certainty have had them restored on Richard’s

' The hesitation with which he shrinks from directly accusing the bishop is also
noticeable. ‘‘Si in convenientiam episcopali statui’ ulla spopondit, ut facilius
ee) quisquis mores meretricis agnoveris minime dubitabis.” This is all
he says.
Wykeham in Disgrace. I47

 

accession without so sullying his character. It has also
been suggested that Wykeham longed so heartily for
reconciliation with the old king before his end, that he was
blind to the dishonour of the means through which he
obtained it. We may, indeed, assume this feeling on
Wykeham’s part as highly probable and natural ; but must
hesitate to allow, without further proof, that it was allowed
to lead him to the commission of such a vile act. It might
have been, indeed, that Lady Windsor herself, seeing
what was inevitably coming, and willing to ingratiate herself
if possible with the opposition, begged the king to right
‘Wykeham, and that at first it was opposed by the duke.
‘Whether we shall think this probable or not depends on
the credit we give to the details of this gossiping piece
of scandal. Perhaps we shall be safer to reject it as untrue
from beginning to end.

.On the morning of June 21st it became evident that
the king was at the point of death. A deputation of the
citizens of London waited on the young prince at Kenning-
ton,! protested their devotion to him, begged him to trust
himself in the city, and to reconcile them with duke John.
They were graciously answered ; but while—

“The swarm that in his noontide beam were born
Went to salute the rising morn,”

—king Edward died forsaken by all his servants, even by
Alice Perrers herself. She decamped with the very rings
off his fingers, in wrath at having been repelled by him the
day before? Only an unknown priest remained by his
death-bed and held the crucifix before him, which he kissed
devoutly, and expired a few minutes after. This was the
end of the magnificent king whose splendour had once been
the pride of England. His people were still half proud of

' Chron. Angl. p. 147, says Kingston; but this is probably an error.
* Chron. Angl. pp. 143, 144.

Death of king
Edward,
June ast.
Demeanour of
Wykeham.

Wykeham at
coronation of
king Richard II.

General pardon
to Wykeham,

148 William of Wykeham.

 

him, half weary of the mis-government of his later years ;
and they all looked with eager hope to the reign of his.
grandson, the son of their beloved hero, prince Edward.

As for Wykeham, he went about his diocesan work as.
composedly as if no reverse of fortune had lately happened
to him. He must indeed have rejoiced to think that he
had been at peace with the king when he died, though we
do not hear of any interview after the reconciliation. But
one thing is very noticeable. The earlier years of his
episcopal Register are full of notices of political events, as
became a trusted servant of. the crown. Thus his diocese
is bidden to pray for the continuance of peace, or for the
safety of the armies of the princes in France; for the soul
of Lionel, duke of Clarence; of the first duchess of Lan-
caster; of queen Philippa: but there is no mention of
either politics or king during the troubles of this year.
His episcopal duties go on as uninterruptedly as before ;
it would be impossible to detect, from any slackening in
them, that he was in disgrace during these months. But
not a word, bad or good, does he record about the king.
There is no bidding his subjects pray for him during his
illness, nor for his soul after his death. He simply does
not mention him at all. He passes by the subject in sad,
impenetrable silence.

Wykeham was present in his place at the coronation of
the young king on July roth. A fortnight later, on July
31st, two writs passed the Privy Seal.

By the first of these! the king granted Wykeham
pardon of the fifth article of the charge against him, in
consequence of which his temporals had been forfeited ;
remission of all the burdens laid on him when they were
restored ; and all profits of the said temporals, which had
been due to the king, then prince of Wales.

‘Appendix, Rot. Parl. iii, p. 387.
Wykeham in Disgrace. I49

 

By the second,! the king grants him acquittal on the
other seven articles, which, it will be remembered, were still
kept 2” ¢errorem over him, having been postponed indefinitely
from the last January. “Reviewing with the eyes of our
mind,” he says, “the welcome, useful, and praiseworthy
services in times past rendered to our said grandfather by
the aforesaid bishop of Winchester, who for him underwent
heavy and costly toils, and the high place which in various
ways the said bishop held with our dearest lord our father
in his undertakings, and the special affection and hearty
love which the same lord our father bore and entertained
while he was alive towards the aforesaid bishop,
we wholly, for ourselves and our heirs, disburthen, acquit,
and utterly absolve him for ever of the aforesaid articles,
and of all other crimes and offences whatsoever, . . ;
willing that all men should know that, although we have
granted unto the bishop of Winchester the said pardons
and graces, . . . . yet we do not think the said bishop
to be in any wise blameworthy in God’s sight of any of the
matters thus by us pardoned, remitted, or released to him ;
but do hold him, as to all and every of them, wholly
innocent and guiltless.”

Thus were as full and hearty amends made him as the
bishop could have hoped for. He was now free from the
malice of his enemies, at liberty to set again about his
munificent educational designs. No ‘concession, indeed,
could wholly compensate for the annoyance and expense
to which he had been subjected: he is calculated by one
who was in a position to know to have expended first and
last on this affair not less than 10,000 marks*—a sum
nearly amounting to £10,000 of our present money.?

' Appendix Rot. Parl. iii, p. 388. 2 Aylward, f. 7.

3 It was not till three years afterwards (25th August, 1380) that the king, on
Wykeham's prayer, annulled all the ‘collations and presentations’ made by his
grandfather before r5th February [March ?], 1377. This shows that king Edward,
or duke John for him, had been, as usual, presenting to benefices, etc., as if in the
vacancy of the see.
150 William of Wykeham.

 

‘The king The young king was not content with this: he wished
reconciles duke

John and his subjects to be at peace, we are told, and he restored
Wykeham.

concord and unity between the duke of Lancaster and the
bishop of Winchester.1. On one side, at least, there would
be no hesitation or shrinking from a hearty reconciliation ;
and whenever afterwards the duke crossed Wykeham’s path,
we find an ungrudging welcome, as if the events of this
disastrous year had never taken place, or not been due to
his enmity alone. Nay more, they at last became firm
political friends, united in their opposition to the despotic
tendencies of this very king who now brought them together.
But all this was as yet in the future.

Wykehaty During these years, Wykeham had been not unmindful
purchases . Q ne
lands. of ‘his heirs ; for by this time he seems to have settled that

the eldest son of his niece, Alice Champneys, and William
Perot, should succeed to his landed property. On the 6th
May, 1376 (under royal license), he bought the manor of
Eling, near Southampton, from the Camoys family, and
sold it to his niece and nephew-in-law for the nominal sum
of seven francs ; but subsequently changed his mind, and
left the manor to Winchester College.? Also in 1377 (pre-
sumably late in the year, when he was restored to his full
rights), he bought Broughton Castle, near Swalcliffe, with
the adjoining manor, and subsequently settled his heir there.
The fact that a Thomas Wykham was in possession of
‘ Swalcliffe, and of an actual part of Broughton, is certainly
a curious coincidence, and has given rise to much speculation
concerning the family of the bishop of Winchester. In 1382
he bought the advowson of Swalcliffe of the same Thomas
Wykham, and gave it to his college in Oxford.

' Chron, Angl. p. 150.

? British Museum, Additional Charters, 5538. _ Sir Thomas Camoys afterwards.
(409) tried to regain this manor by a suit in the King’s Bench against the warden
and fellows of Winchester College, The latter part of the same MS. is given by
Lowth, as No. III of his Appendix, from an ancient leger-book in Winchester

College: 3 See Appendix A, at the end of the volume.
CHAPTER VII.

WYKEHAM ON STATE COMMISSIONS.
A.D. 1377—1389.

HE duke of Lancaster was too far-sighted a politician
not to perceive that the death of his father and the
accession of his nephew was a critical epoch for his own
influence on the nation. The French could not understand
how it was that duke John, who had been virtually king of
England for so long, did not at once set aside young
Richard, and make himself actually king. But the duke,
whatever may have been his wishes, had found himself too
unpopular with the lower orders to be willing to risk the
actual usurpation of the crown; he was far from being a
Richard III, who did not care what deeds of violence stood
between him and the object of his desire. He held his
hand ; and it was left for his son to attain the height to
which his father would fain have climbed, when more than
twenty years after the king had wearied the nation out
with the foolish recklessness of his attempts at despotism.
On the moment, Lancaster took as wise a course for his
future power as he could. He retired to Kenilworth castle,
and apparently left the game in the hands of the opposite
party. But meanwhile he found means to procure the
appointment to the council of several of his own adherents,
though he himself, with his brothers, earls Edmund of
Cambridge and Thomas of Buckingham, were excluded

from the administration.

Duke John’s
hesitation ;

he retires, and
is not one of
the council.
Parliament
meets ;

commons
appoint De la
Mare their
Speaker.

Council
remodelled.

Alice Perrers
forced to

submit to her
old sentence.

I52 William of Wykeham.

 

Thus, the composition of the council bore tokens of a
compromise. There was earl Edmund of March and bishop
Courtenay of London ; but also there was lord Latimer and
bishop Erghum of Salisbury, both allies of the duke. The
parliament met on October 13th, and the commons, in
requesting (as was now usual) the assistance of a number
of lords to consult with them, named ‘ the duke of Lancaster
at their head. This gave the duke the opportunity he
wanted of disavowing any treasonable designs against
his nephew, which was graciously accepted. They then
proceeded to business, and showed at once their reforming
bias by appointing Sir Peter de la Mare their Speaker.
Having done this, they next proceeded to lengths which
clearly showed that they looked on the king’s minority
as their special opportunity. They proposed eight new
members for the council, and prayed that they might have
the appointment of ministers till the king was of age, and
that all who had been attainted during the last reign might
be excluded from the council. Their proposals were agreed
to; the council was remodelled, and lord Latimer excluded
from it.

The commons were then dismissed, after granting large
supplies : but before they dispersed, they had requested the
lords, who continued in session some time longer, to take
into consideration the case of Alice Perrers,? who though
impeached before them in 1376, and found guilty, had been
rehabilitated by the next parliament. In consequence of
this, the lords reheard the case,3 and compelled her to
submit to the sentence passed on her by themselves in the
“good parliament ;” and all her forfeited estates were
adjudged to be applied to the relief of the people.

' Rot, Parl. iii, p. 5. 21d. pp. 12, 13, 14.

3 The trial was by jury before a committee of the house, consisting of the duke
of Lancaster and four earls. —Lingard, iii, p. 276; cf. too Chron. Angi. p. 171.
Wykeham on State Comimitssions. 153

 

One thing more they had done before they separated :
they had petitioned the king in favour of Wykeham.!
They were not content with the full pardons which the
king had already granted him; but, as if they would
mark specially the special malice with which he had
been condemned unheard, they petitioned the king that he
would “by the advice and common consent of the prelates,
the duke [of Lancaster], the earls, barons, and other lords,
and the commons, affirm, approve, ratify, and confirm in
this present parliament, your said charters, with all the
articles, pardons, graces, remissions, and circumstances
whatsoever in them contained, to the honour of God, and
for the safety and surety of the estate of the said bishop,
and of his church of Winchester.” To which the king
made gracious answer, that he did “ by his own person, and
by his own mouth,” as well as by the advice of his parliament,
“fully grant this petition, and directed that the said charter
of pardon be now ratified under his Great Seal.”

To all this we see that duke John was a consentient
party. Nor need it surprise us that it was so, for the
ebullition of his wrath was over, and he, like his father, was
lightly offended and lightly reconciled. And he was now
playing a deeper game for power.

But by his ill-success in the French war, joined to the
overbearingness of his manners, he lost much popularity
during the three next years. He contrived, however, to
keep himself on good terms with the king and court;
the ministers were his friends, and his old ally Richard,
lord Scrope of Bolton, was Chancellor. Still no gleam of
success visited the English arms, and in January, 1380,
Scrope appealed to parliament for a greater aid than ever.
The parliament granted it, but conditionally on the appoint-
ment of a commission to reform the king’s household,? and

1 Rot. Parl. iii, p. 24. * Rot. Parl. iii, p. 73.

Petition in
favour of
Wykeham.

Wykeham on

commission to
reform king's

household.
Imposition of
poll-tax.

Villeins’ revolt,
1381.

I54 William of Wykeham.

 

the license to parliament to select the king’s ministers. In
consequence of this, Scrope resigned the Great Seal, which
was taken by archbishop Sudbury ; and Wykeham was one
of the commissioners to reform the household. With him
were fourteen others, of every shade of political character ;
among them the earl of Arundel, lord Latimer, William
Walworth, and John Philipot, of London.

But the king had got what he wanted, and was in no
haste to keep his promises. Though the commission was
promised in February, it was not actually granted till May,
and it had not proceeded to business by November, when
the commons petitioned the king that it might have facili-
ties for meeting, and begin work on the 2oth of the next
January (1381)! In the same parliament a poll-tax, to
be levied from all persons above fifteen years of age, was
granted ; two-thirds of the sum was to be paid by January
13th, the rest by Whit-Sunday.? Thus the heaviest part
of the tax had already been collected before the commission
began its labours. And now it was too late. Disaffection
smouldered throughout the home counties during all the
spring months, and broke into open violence by the
beginning of June, when the balance of the tax was due.
To the standing grievance of villein-services, demanded
from a whole class of society which had been gradually
reduced from a higher standing, there was now added this
poll-tax, which brought home to every man and woman
in England the indigence of the country. And this roused
their wrath against the administration that did not devise
a remedy for such a state of things, and the royal household,
which, as if in mockery of their sufferings, was never more
lavish in its expenditure than now. Three days after
(June 5th) Whit-Sunday the Kentishmen rose, and in a week
(12th) were in possession of Southwark. Next day (13th)

‘A les octaves Seint Hiller proschein, Pp. 93. * Dp. 70.
Wykeham on State Commissions. I55

 

they entered the city, burning the palace of the Savoy, from
hatred to duke John, who was absent in Scotland. The
next day (14th) they broke into the Tower, where they
insulted the princess of Wales, and murdered the Chancellor
(the archbishop of Canterbury) and the Treasurer. On
the 15th, Wat, the tiler of Maidstone, was killed at a
conference with the king, who by his bold adroitness and
lavish promises succeeded in dispersing the insurgents.
This was the crisis of the revolt. In spite of more
distant risings, it never again became dangerous. When
order was restored, the king revoked his charter of manu-
mission, and punished the rebels with reckless severity.
In November, the parliament met, with lord Scrope of
Bolton for Chancellor. New taxes they dared not propose,
but the commons prayed the king again for reform of his
household, the mismanagement of which they declared had
caused the revolt ;! and the commission of the last year
being set aside, a new commission was appointed to reform
it, with duke John at their head. On this commission, too,
Wykeham consented to serve.

This commission at least met and agreed upon some
regulations ; for we find that in the same parliament in its
second session in February of the next year (1382), the
commons petitioned the king that the officers of the
household may take oath before the lords to observe the
ordinances recommended by the commissioners ;? which
petition was granted.

The French at this time were particularly daring in
their raids on the south coast. In August, 1377, as soon
as they heard of the death of the old king, they had taken
the Isle of Wight, and only been dislodged again by the
successful skill of Sir Hugh Tyrrell, governor of Carisbrook

1 Rot. Parl. iii, p. 100, Wykeham was named among the lords for conference

with the commons,
: 21d. p. 115

Wykeharr
serves on
commissic
to reform
household

Wykeham
orders to
Isle of W
clergy to <
against th
French.
Bishop
, Braybrooke of
London
Chancellor.

Wykeham
named for
conference by
commons.

Bishop
Spencer's
crusade.

156 William of Wykeham.

 

Castle. In the summer of 1382 they were again threatening
the island. But on August the 22nd that year, bishop
Wykeham issued a mandate from Highclere, bidding all
abbots, priors, and other religious persons both regular and
secular, within the island, within the ages of sixty and
sixteen, to “arm and array” themselves! against a certain
day, and make themselves ready to march to the defence of
the island.

The duke’s influence was waning. The revolt of the
villeins had taught him a lesson ; he found out the extent
of his unpopularity, and became far less overbearing than
before. But the king no longer acted solely by his advice :
in July, 1382, he turned lord Scrope, the duke’s friend, out
of the chancellorship, and put bishop Braybrooke of London
in his place.

In October the parliament again met; and Wykeham
was one of the lords whom the commons named,’ petition-
ing that they might be allowed to confer with them. The
question before them was in which of two ways it was the
most expedient’ to help the cause of pope Urban against
Clement. Pope Urban had sent bulls both to duke John
and to bishop Spencer of Norwich, commanding them to
head a crusade against his rival. Duke John, who claimed
the kingdom of Castile in right of his wife, and who,
therefore, is always called in the parliamentary Rolls “my
lord of Spain,” proposed to lead an army of Castilians
against France, the principal kingdom in Clement’s interest.
But Spencer’s crusade was the more popular one with the
English, because the pope imposed * a tribute of a tenth
part of their incomes on all the clergy, and the rest of the
people hoped to escape with only a fifteenth. It was
decided in favour of the bishop, to the duke’s disgust,

1 Armari et araiari."—Reg. iii, 197.
21d. p. 134. 3 Id. pp. 133, 134. ‘ Froissart, ii, 131.
Wykeham on State Commissions. 157

 

and he set out for Flanders at the head of five thousand
men! He was very successful at first; but when he
demanded reinforcements, they were detained by the
jealousy of the duke; the Flemings took heart, and the
bishop returned unsuccessfully. He was coldly received,
and deprived of his temporals by the young king.

By this time the chancellorship had been taken from
bishop Braybrooke and given (March, 1383) to a new man
of the king’s own raising, one Michael de la Pole, son of
a Hull merchant, who had commanded the fleet against the
Scots. Richard was gathering round himself an army of
favourites, mostly new men. Such was Sir Robert
Tressilian, Chief Justice of the king’s bench; Sir Nicholas
Bramber, mayor of London; Sir Simon Burley was older,
and had been selected by prince Edward for the king’s
guardian. But all these men were foes to the old baronial
party, of which the king’s uncles, duke John and earl
Thomas of Buckingham were at the head ; and with them
acted Robert de Vere, earl of Oxford, one of the older
nobility, but an attached friend of the king’s. As to
Wykeham, his chief bias in politics was given by his
genuine attachment to the young king ; an attachment too
genuine to allow him to side with the headstrong men who
were now the favourites of the king, and who were advising
him to his ruin.

In the autumn of 1383, the parliament met to provide
against a threatened war with Scotland. The anti-pope
Clement had published a crusade against England, and
called upon the Scots to invade it. Hereupon the lords
marchers were ordered to their respective districts, that
they might take measures for their protection. The lords
marchers were such as had estates on the Scottish marches,

! Wykeham (16th April, 1383) asks the prayers of his diocese for the success of
this expedition.—Reg. iii, 200.

Michael de la
Pole
Chancellor,
1383.

New favourites.

Wykeham
opposes the
petition of

lords marchers, |,
‘and carries
_ his point.

158 William of Wykeham.

 

and comprised the noblest names of the north of England :
the Percies—Wykeham’s old enemy, lord Henry Percy of
Alnwick, who had been made earl of Northumberland, his
son Henry, called Hotspur, and his brother Thomas, after-
wards earl of Worcester ; John, lord Nevill of Raby, father
of the first earl of Westmoreland; Roger de Clifford of
Brougham, ancestor to the earls of Cumberland ; and Hugh
Dacre of Gillesland. These frontier lords petitioned the
parliament that part of the funds raised by public taxation
for the defence of the nation against the Scots might be
apportioned to them. But the bishop of Winchester
withstood the demand.!. They had been enriched, he said,
and made lords for this very purpose, that they might
defend the borders, and spare the necessity of keeping an
army on the spot to resist the raids of the Scots. Their
ancestors, who had been comparatively poor and untitled,
had won honour in resisting the Scots: why were they
to be paid for services which their fathers and grandfathers
did for nothing? It is perfectly clear to whom these words
were meant to apply principally. They would not be
literally true of Nevill, or Clifford, or Dacre. But lord
Percy was the first of his line to obtain an earldom instead
of a barony; and, moreover, he was Wykeham’s most
persistent enemy. He had not always been so, for he had
been among the assessors to the king’s council appointed by
the good parliament. But then he had been seduced by
the offer of the marshal’s staff to join the court party, and
thenceforward he had been one of the leading persecutors
of Wykeham, and supporters of Wycliffe. But two years
before this (1381), he had quarrelled with duke John
of Lancaster, his great ally of former years. This may
have been of weight in determining the issue of the debate.
It was settled against the lords marchers: commissions

' Walsingham, p. 307.
Wykeham on State Commissions. 59

 

were given them to raise an army to resist the Scots, but no
extra pay was promised for this service. Before the end of
the year, the Scots had taken Berwick. Northumberland
was the governor of Berwick, and it was by corrupting his
deputy that the enemy gained this advantage. Hereupon,
duke John attacked him in parliament, and actually obtained
a sentence of death against him, which was only remitted to
him by the favour of the king.

For the king was far from being as obsequious to his
uncle as he had been, and in 1384 he showed a violent
animosity to him. The parliament sate at Salisbury in
April, and there a friar accused the duke of treasonable
designs. He was soon found murdered—it was said and
believed, by earl John Holland of Huntingdon, duke John’s
son-in-law, whose overbearing violence was such as to make
the story credible. Earl Thomas of Buckingham, duke
John’s brother, espoused his quarrel ; the duke himself was
employed on foreign service. On his return, the king was
about to have him arrested, but he threw himself into
Pomfret Castle, which he had victualled and armed to stand
a siege, and which he did not leave till the good offices
of the princess of Wales had brought about an apparent
reconciliation between him and the king.

In 1385, the whole kingdom was set in motion against
Scotland. The king himself took the field, but the campaign
was disturbed by the miserable jealousy of his nobles. The
earl of Huntingdon murdered the earl of Stafford’s son
at York, on their way to Scotland ; the Chancellor, lord De
la Pole, suggested to the king fresh suspicions of duke
John’s loyalty, and Richard abruptly withdrew his whole
army, having done nothing but destroy Edinburgh and
ravage the country. In the autumn, Richard, thinking to
please both parties, and at the same time provide a balance

1 Collins’ Historical Peerage, ii, p. 256.

King angry
with duke
John.

Fresh jealousy
of duke John.
Wykeham on
commission to
examine the
Exchequer,

1385.

160 William of Wykeham.

 

to the power of his uncle John, gave all the prominent men
promotion. On the one hand, both his younger uncles
received a further addition to their honours, earl Edmund
of Cambridge being made duke of York, earl Thomas of
Buckingham duke of Gloucester. This was done to be a
makeweight to the promotions of lord De la Pole to be earl
of Suffolk, and the earl of Oxford to be marquis of Dublin
and duke of Ireland; and at the same time the king
quenched duke John’s hopes by declaring the young Roger
Mortimer, earl of March, the son of Philippa duke Lionel
of Clarence’s daughter, heir presumptive to the crown.

The king returned to hold a parliament in October.
The commons asked for a commission to examine into
the condition of the Exchequer, and the number of the
adherents of the anti-pope ; the bishop of Winchester was
one of the nine lords nominated upon it, to whom were
added two bannerets.! But compliance with this and such
like requests was as easy a thing to the king as it was to
thwart their usefulness when appointed. We shall see that
it was made a charge against the Chancellor the next year,
that he had hindered the execution of the ordinances issued
by this commission.

Meanwhile duke John, attracted by the offer of a
Portuguese alliance to invade Castile, applied to the par-
liament for men and money. The proposal met with
astonishing success; the king was glad on any pretext
to get rid of his uncle; an army of 20,000 men left
England in May 1386,? and landed at Corunna. But

'“Ttem, de savoir queux seigneurs serront ordeinez par le conseil, et qu’ils eiont
plein pouir a sercher et ordeiner pur toux les voies queux saveront ou purront, en
l'Eschequer et aillours, ou il semblera que bon serra, touchant les cxx mill’ livres,
responsions, sismaticks, et apportes, et touz maners dettes dues a nostre dit
Seigneur le Roi, Les Seigneurs ordeinez d’estre du Counseil du Roy, les Evesques
de Wynchestre et d'Excestre, et deux Banerets, c'est assavoir . . The rest
is lost, but a note in Rot. Parl. informs us that the ‘‘schismatics” were those who
adhered to the anti-pope Clement. Rot. Parl. iii, PP. 203, 204.

? Walsingham, 321.
Wykeham on State Commiissions. IOI

 

the French took advantage of this expenditure of men
and means, and assembled an immense army at Sluys,
intending in August to invade England. The army and
fleet were on a grander scale than had ever yet been
assembled ; no expense was spared. The English were
much alarmed, and made every preparation for resistance.
Beacons were erected along the coast, and enrolments of
soldiers made. All clerks, as before, were ordered by royal
brief! to the bishops to be enrolled, and adequately armed.
But all these preparations both for attack and defence came
to nought. When the French were impatient to sail, the
wind was against them ; when the wind changed, the duke
of Berri advised them to defer the invasion till the next
spring. The encampment at Sluys broke up for the winter.
There was great relief in England. Bishop Wykeham?
does not fail in charging his clergy to return thanks for the
escape (21st Nov.).
But when the immediate stress of the danger was over,
a greater one was in store for the peace of the kingdom.
The king, at a parliament in October, proposed to attack
France, saying it was better to invade than to be invaded,
and asked for an extraordinary aid. But the place of the
leader of the opposition had devolved, in duke John’s
absence, on his youngest brother, duke Thomas of Glou-
cester, and he was resolved to carry on internecine war with
the favourites. It was just such an opportunity as he
wanted; taxation was ruinous, the favourites were
thoroughly unpopular, the court was never more extra-
vagant, and the king required money. He suggested to
the commons the impeachment of the late Chancellor.* It
1Rym, vii, p. 539. Wykeham sends this royal brief to his archdeacons,
Reg. iii, 223.
2 Reg. iii, 225. He also lent £200 to the king. Rym. vii, 543.

3 Rot. Parl. iii, p. 215.
4 Thomas Arundel, bishop of Ely was Chancellor. Stubbs, ii, p. 474.

M

Orders clergy
to be enrolled
to resist
invasion ;

and orders
thanks for
escape from
invasion.

Impeachment
of earl of
Suffolk.
Wykeham on
the commission
of regency,
1385.

62 William of Wykeham.

 

must have been strange for Wykeham to watch the exact
imitation of the proceedings against himself at the end of
the last reign. Seven charges were prepared against
Suffolk; he had enriched himself by accepting lands
from the king, and appropriating the king’s pensions and
revenues; he had not cared to enforce the ordinances
of the last household commission ; he had mis-applied
the money granted for the last year; he had set the
Great Seal to illegal charters; he had caused the loss
of Ghent.' Every one of these charges finds its strict
parallel in the charges against Wykeham in 1377. Suffolk
was defended by his brother-in-law, lord Scrope of Bolton ;
but the conclusion was foregone. He was condemned? on
three out of the seven charges, to forfeit his lands and to
be imprisoned till he should pay £20,000. Had Wykeham’s
trial been prosecuted, he might have expected exactly the
same treatment; but there was one essential difference
between the cases. Wykeham had been popular; Suffolk
was popular with none but the king and his favourites.
Hence the difference between the issues of the two trials.
The commons having been successful in striking at the
chief of the unpopular administration, followed up their
stroke® by demanding that supreme power should be vested
for a year in a commission of regency. Richard struggled
hard against this; nevertheless, he was obliged to give in,
and sign the commission on the 19th of November to eleven
peers who were to act with the new ministers, of whom the
chief was Thomas Fitz-Alan, bishop of Ely, brother to the
earl of Arundel. There was much in the composition of
the new commission that might have encouraged Richard,
had he been in a mood to be comforted4 Duke Thomas
of Gloucester and Edmund of York, of course, were at

' Rot. Parl. iii, p. 216. 21d. pp. 219, 220. 31d. p. 2ar.
4 Stubbs, ii, p. 476.
Wykeham on State Commissions. 163

 

the head of it, and archbishop Courtenay was an open
antagonist of the king’s. But archbishop Nevile of York
was decidedly on his side ; and the two other bishops were
Wykeham and his quondam Treasurer, Brantingham of
Exeter, both staid men of ripe experience, and the former
at least anxiously in earnest to ameliorate the under-
standing between the king and the nobles. Of the lords,
Scrope of Bolton was an old man, of much official experi-
ence, the intimate friend of duke John of Lancaster, and
the brother-in-law of Suffolk, whose cause he had just
unsuccessfully pleaded. It was a commission of moderation,
and did not at all show a disposition on the part of its
composers to push matters to extremity.

Its powers,! however, were singularly large. Any six
of them, in conjunction with the three ministers, are
empowered to examine the government of the kingdom,
court, royal household, revenue, receipts and expenditure.
Upon this examination held, they are to correct and
determine the future administration of these things as they
Shall think fit; and to suggest the revocation of this
commission is declared to be subject to heavy penalty.

Richard, however, could see nothing but that it deprived
him for the time of his whole freedom of action, and that it
was led by his uncle of Gloucester, whom he by this time
bitterly hated, and whom he never forgave. Before dis-
missing the parliament, he protested* by his own mouth
that nothing done in that parliament should be held to
lessen his royal prerogative; and he immediately after
released Suffolk without paying any ransom.

The country was now irremediably split into two parties ;
and Wykeham, to his regret, must have found himself
fairly committed to a side against the king. Yet it was

1 It is recited at length (in French) in Reg. iii, 228.
? Rot. Parl. iii, p. 224.

State of parties.
The king
secretly pre-

pares for war.

Five lords
appellants
appeal the
favourites ;

164 William of Wykeham.

 

the side of reform of much that was scandalously wrong,—
the side, moreover, of the present administration, of the
archbishop of Canterbury, of the royal dukes, and of the
most prominent earls of the generation, Henry of Derby
(duke John’s son), Thomas Beauchamp of Warwick,
Thomas Mowbray of Nottingham, and Richard Fitz-Alan
of Arundel. On the other side was archbishop Neville of
York, with the bishops of Durham and Chichester ; the two
lately promoted peers, the duke of Ireland and the earl
of Suffolk ; and the company of knights whom the king
kept round him, Burley, Bramber, Tressilian, and others.
The blame of resort to open violence must rest with the
king and his favourites. When the year allowed to the
commissioners began to wear away, the king made frequent
progresses through England, and sought to make personal
friends of the country gentlemen. At Nottingham (August
25th) he met six judges, and asked their opinion as to
the legality of the commission. They replied that it was
illegal, and that those who had introduced the measure
were liable to punishment as traitors. Richard, keeping this
a secret for the present, prepared for a struggle when the
commissioners’ year should be out. On the roth of
November, he returned to London, and was received with
pomp by the citizens. Next day he heard that the nobles
had taken up arms, declaring that they were come to
deliver the king from the thraldom of the favourites ; and
on the 14th—in the last week before the commission was to
expire—five, hence called lords “appellants,” appeared
in presence of the commissioners (and therefore of Wyke-
ham), and “appealed,” that is accused of treason five of
the king’s favourites—archbishop Neville, Ireland, Suffolk,
Tressilian, and Bramber. The king would not hear them at
first, but he soon perceived that he had no power to resist.
On the 17th, in Westminster Hall, he received the commis-
Wykeham on State Commissions. I65

 

sioners, with Wykeham among them, and the appellants ;
and replied that he would summon a parliament, which
should do full justice between them and the accused.
Meantime, all the five favourites fled. Bramber was taken:
the rest saved themselves for the ptesent. The duke of
Ireland raised an army of 5000 men, and marched to
the Thames ; he was defeated at Radcot and put to flight
again by Gloucester and Derby, and this time escaped to
Ireland.

The appellants advanced to London; the king yielded
to all their demands. Eleven of the royal favourites were
imprisoned ; ten lords and knights, with three ladies, were
only released on bail to appear before the parliament. This
was summoned for February 3rd, 1388;1 on that day
the appellants brought thirty-nine charges against the five
lords. Ireland, Suffolk, Bramber, and Tressilian were
condemned to be hanged as traitors ; the archbishop to be
deprived of his temporals. In March bishop Rushook
of Chichester, Sir Simon Burley, and three other knights
were tried. In May they were condemned, and all six
laymen were executed. The archbishop and bishop were
banished the realm. ‘ Before the parliament separated in
June, the king was forced to repeat his coronation oath,
and the peers repeated their homage.

So ended the work of the “merciless parliament,” as it
was called. Gloucester and the nobles had obtained a
complete victory: the king was crushed, and the band of
favourites was fairly stamped out.

The stillness for the time was like the stillness of death.
Gloucester ruled the country, and reigned in a far truer
sense than the king for the next year. But the king was

'In Reg. ii, 232, is a commission given by Wykeham to a suffragan to confirm
for him in his diocese, he ‘‘ being much hindered by the affairs of the king and the

kingdom.” It is dated 24th February, 1388 ; Wykeham must have been attending
this parliament.

advance with
an army to
London,

and crush their
opponents,
1388.

The king
crushed for
the moment.
166 William of Wykeham.

 

biding his time, and looking forward eagerly to the season
of emancipation. Little took place in the meantime. A
parliament was held at Cambridge, which enacted some
useful laws. For the rest, the country was quiet : exhausted
by what it had gone through, not roused to present action
by foreign war, and learning slowly but surely to murmur
at the oppressive despotism of the present administration.
CHAPTER VII.

WYKEHAM AND CHURCH DOCTRINE.

A.D. 1371—1396.

E are now to contemplate Wykeham in his attitude

towards that doctrinal movement which began to

stir the Church of England in his time, and after smoulder-

ing for more than a hundred years, at last blazed out in
the Reformation.

What we call the Reformation of Henry VIII had two
grounds. It was distinctly national as well as doctrinal.
Indeed, the first ground of quarrel in that reign was
national, rather than doctrinal ; and the doctrinal reforma-
tion would never have taken place at all, in spite of the
strong Lollard feeling throughout England, had it not been
that the national Church had shaken itself free, first and
separately, of the Roman obedience.

Now Wykeham, as we have seen, was a determined
nationalist in his churchmanship. But he appears, as far
as we can see, to have been satisfied with the doctrines
of the Roman Church. He did not go on like Wiclif,
from nationalism to doctrinal reform. He stopped short,
as did bishop Gardiner in later years, as did Reginald
Pole, as did Henry VIII himself:

Wiclif and he, it has already been remarked, began
together. They were just of an age, probably born in the
same year; and they both were part of the royal estab-
lishment. Wiclif was a royal chaplain when Langham was

Wykehan
nationalis
churchma
but firm a
Roman
doctrine.
 

PAnircieaeal
movement
championed
by Wiclif,

who writes with
contemptuous
allusion to
Wykeham's
learning.

168 William of Wykeham.

 

archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor, and Wykeham
Keeper of the Privy Seal. He had hitherto been known
only as a keen dialectician, and a strong opponent of the
mendicant friars, who had a strong following in Oxford.
But now he became known as a nationalist, and further
is said to have entertained strange opinions as to the
temporal authority of clerics, and the obligation to pay
tithes to unworthy pastors. It was in 1360 (as has been
said) that the pope was so ill-advised as to demand from
king Edward all the arrears of the tribute which king
John had undertaken to pay when he did homage to the
Papal see. The national spirit was roused; king, lords,
and commons alike rejected the claim, and Wiclif wrote
a treatise on the nationalist side, defending the right of
parliament to refuse the papal claim.

In 1371, he threw himself into, or perhaps was one of
the first champions of, the anti-clerical movement, by which
Wykeham was compelled to give up his chancellorship.
He it is that reports, in a treatise written entirely on
the subject, the socialistic speech of “a certain lord,” who
perhaps, as we have already ventured to conjecture, may
have been the young earl of Pembroke! That specch,
with its apologue of the owl stripped of her borrowed
plumes by the rest of the birds, follows in every respect
the teaching for which Wiclif was mainly responsible.

It seems to have been about this time that Wiclif
wrote the treatise in which he alludes contemptuously to
Wykeham’s rise by the king’s favour. The treatise is
entitled, “Why poor priests have no benefices ;” and he is
vindicating the claims of theological knowledge as the only
just reason for ecclesiastical preferment. “Yet lords will
not present a clerk able of knowing of God’s law; but a
kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or wise‘in building castles,
or worldly doing, though he cannot well read his psalter.”

1 See p. 128.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. r69

 

That this was undoubtedly aimed at the then Chancellor,
the pointed allusion to skill in castle-building shows. How
far was it just? Was Wykeham really deficient in theological
knowledge? We have no proof of the assertion ; and it is
very easy to understand how such an idea would rapidly
circulate as to Wykeham’s unprecedented rise. Here was
a man who had risen in none of the accredited ways ; who
had not been a monk, who had not beenra friar, who had
never taken a degree at cither of the universities: could it
be fitting to make him a bishop when his only claim to it
lay in his excellence as a judge and as an architect, and in
his friendship with the king? Yet pope Urban V, as we
have seen—not a man given to flattery—spoke of him as
being commended to him by many trustworthy witnesses
for his knowledge of literature, as well as for his prudence
and uprightness.!

The language of his college statutes—dquite certainly
his own production—will bear favourable comparison with
any of the Latin writing of the period. But there was a
strong impression on people’s minds that he had come by
his knowledge in no regular way. A chronicler of the next
generation? gives us the popular feeling about it when he
records his death, and says that Wykeham, because he had*
little knowledge of literature himself, founded his college to
compensate for this by raising up scholars. Two centuries
later this was improved into a story® that, on the king’s
informing him that some one had objected to his appoint-
ment on the score of his ignorance, he replied, “ Sire, I am
unworthy ; but wherein I am wanting myself, that will I

1 See p. 63.
*t404. ‘Hoc anno, sexto Kalendas Octobris, obiit vir insignis Dominus
Willelmus de Wikam, Episcopus Wyntoniensis, qui quod minus habuit litteraturze
laudabili compensavit [liberalitate ?}, dum collegium clericorum fundavit Wyntoniz,

et aliud sublimiorum facultatum construxit Oxoniae.""—Chronicles of St. Alban's
(probably by William Wintershill, almoner ; died 1424), Rolls Series 28, vol. ii,

3 Abp. Parker's .4ntiguzties (Life of Sudbury).—cit. Walcott, p. 114.

How far is the
report that
Wykeham was
illiterate
probable ?
Wykeham the
head of the
nationalist

party.

Wiclif at
Bruges, 1374;

I70 William of Wykeham.

 

supply by a brood of more scholars than all the prelates of
England ever showed.”

No reliance can be placed on this story, nor does it
prove anything as to the fact of his want of knowledge ;
for it is obviously just such an answer as any humble-
minded man, such as Wykeham undoubtedly was, would
have made about his own acquirements. And without the
least derogation from the extent of those acquirements, we
may own that he cannot have been Wiclif’s equal in
dialectic skill or theological learning.

At this time, be it remembered, Wykeham was
undoubtedly the head of the nationalist party in the
English Church. It shows the candour, therefore, of
Wiclif's mind, that he thus separated himself from his
chief. Under that chief worked William Courtenay,! then
bishop of Hereford, Wykeham’s firm ally and Wiclif’s
antagonist later as archbishop of Canterbury. The pope
wished to divide the forces against him, and by way of
an advance towards duke John and his lay ministers,
“ provided” young Thomas Fitz-Alan, the brother of the
earl of Arundel, for the vacant bishopric of Ely in 13732
This was a direct violation of the statute of Provisors ;
nevertheless the bait took, Fitz-Alan (or Arundel, as he
was more usually called) was consecrated bishop of Ely,
and the ministry went as far as, during the next year,
1375, to propose a total repeal of the Provisors’ statute
by royal prerogative. But before this was possible, a
new coalition had taken place—the duke had met and
conciliated John Wiclif.

Wiclif was chosen as a nationalist champion to debate
with the pope’s ambassadors at Bruges. On July 26th,
1374,5 a commission was given to him to join bishop

‘Hook's Archbishops of Canterbury, iv, p. 324.
21d. p. 406. 3 Rym. vii, p. 41.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. I7I

 

Gilbert of Bangor at Bruges, to meet the archbishop of
Rouen and the bishop of Carpentras, with a view to settling
some concordat between the king of England and the pope.
The result of this negotiation was not much. The pope
promised that he would not “reserve” benefices as before ;
the king that he would not usurp preferment on the plea
of wardship, or of patronage to vacant churches, by the
use of the writ “Quare impedit,” as he had been used to
do. But these promises were soon broken on both sides:
no effectual barrier was raised against papal encroachments.
But meanwhile an incidental effect of this negotiation at
Bruges was of more lasting interest. It was here that
Wiclif fell in with the duke of Lancaster, who was nego-
tiating the peace with France, and who seized upon him
as a convenient tool. It need scarcely be said that the two
men were very different. Wiclif was an earnest preacher
against vice, the duke was a profligate man. Moreover,
their aims differed ; Wiclif wished to reform the Church,
Lancaster to exalt his own political party. However, the
first means towards these different ends was the same with
both: the depression of the clergy, especially of the clergy
in office.

The “good parliament,” which met in April 1376, besides
impeaching the notorious offenders, presented, as has been
mentioned, a great number of petitions to the king. Many
of these complained of papal encroachment, to the iniquity
and danger of which the nation was now thoroughly
roused. They begged that the statutes on Provisions
should be re-enacted, and that no papal collector be
allowed in England, nor any Englishman become such
a collector.

In the struggle with Wykeham in which duke John got
the better for the time, Wiclif’s sympathies were wholly
on the duke’s side. In February, 1377, duke John

seized upon by
duke John.

Parliament
petitions
against papal
encroachments.
Wiclif cited to
St. Paul's,
Feb. 1377.

Riot in London
delivers Wiclif.

72 William of Wykeham.

 

summoned him by special messenger from Oxford where
he was lecturing, to help him in intimidating the convoca-
tion. Wiclif came, but only to find bishop Courtenay
successfully demanding the recall of Wykeham. Having
been successful in this, Courtenay proceeded to attack duke
John through the new ally whom he had summoned to his
aid. He stirred up archbishop Sudbury to summon Wiclif
to St. Paul’s, on the 19th of February, to answer for his
heresies on the relations of Church and State. On that
day Wiclif came to trial, attended by the duke and lord
Percy. Percy! shouldered his way through the crowd in
the church with violence. Courtenay, as bishop of London,
remonstrated with him for irreverence. Proceedings were
opened in the Lady Chapel, and Percy insisted that Wiclif
should sit during the trial. Courtenay replied that he must
stand at the time of answer. The duke took Percy’s part,
and told Courtenay that he was insolent, and haughtily
trusting to his high birth. Courtenay replied that he
trusted only in God. The duke, transported with rage,
wished that he could drag him by the hair from the
Church. The words were said in a low voice, but were
overheard and resented by the Londoners as a threat to
their bishop. They broke up the meeting tumultuously,
and next day they held a council as to resisting the duke.
There they were told by lord Fitz-Walter of a prisoner
illegally detained in lord Percy’s house. A tumultuous
crowd immediately rushed to the house, and released the
prisoner ; but not finding Percy, they concluded that he was
with the duke at his palace of Savoy. Meanwhile, the duke
and Percy had really gone to dine with a rich merchant.
Oysters were being served, when a Lancastrian retainer
rushed in and warned the duke to fly for his life. He sprung
up, bruising his shins against the bench in his haste, and

' Chron. Angl. p. t10.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. I73

 

made his way to the river with lord Percy, where they hailed
a boat and rowed to Kennington, to the palace inhabited
by the princess of Wales and her son. Meanwhile, the riot
was quelled by the generous eloquence of bishop Courtenay ;
and when the princess strove to make peace between the
duke and the citizens, they replied by demanding for both
Wykeham and De la Mare a trial by their peers.

Thus Wiclif escaped for the time; but his enemies were
resolved to prosecute the matter further. They had sent to
the pope, at the end of the year 1376, nineteen propositions
collected out of Wiclif’s writings, desiring his judgment
upon them. These propositions! concerned, (1) the origin
of civil dominion, which he denied that the Church ought to
have ; (2) the nature and obligation of excommunication,
which he said was only lawfully available as a weapon
against spiritual offences; and (3) the duty which he
asserted to be incumbent on all, of despoiling a delinquent
Church of her earthly goods.

The pope issued in May, 1377, bulls to the university
of Oxford? and to the archbishop of Canterbury, bidding
them take proceedings against Wiclif. But the bishops
were half-hearted in their measures, perhaps rendered so
by archbishop Sudbury, who notoriously leant himself to
Wiclif’s views ; and the university of Oxford, where Wiclif
was popular, would not stir until they knew that only an
inquiry was intended*® At last the bishops (December
18th, 1377) directed the university to cite Wiclif to appear
again at St. Paul’s on the next February 19th. A message
from the princess of Wales made them put off their meeting;
and the adjourned meeting at Lambeth was once more

1 Chron. Angi. p. 182.

2 Chron. Angl. pp. 174—180. Fasciculi Zizaniorum, p. 242. Lowth confuses
these bulls with those by which the citation to St. Paul’s, February 19th, was ordered ;
Pp. 1407.

3 Hook, iv, p. 276.

The pope
directs pro-
ceedings
against Wicl

who is sum-
moned again
St. Paul's, Fi
1378, but
delivered by
the mob.
Wiclif gives an
opinion as to
the payment of
tribute to the
pope.

Beginning of
schism in the
papacy, 1378.

I74 William of Wykeham.

 

interrupted by the London mob, who thus brought off
Wiclif scot-free for the second time.

The St. Albans’ chronicler complains loudly of the
bishops for remissness in prosecuting this business, and
compares them to reeds shaken by the wind.2, We know
that the archbishop did not think Wiclif much to blame,
and the prosecution was at least not encouraged by the
king. For the very moment when the Church was thus
prosecuting him was chosen by king Richard for consulting
Wiclif as to England’s obligation to pay the pope what
he demanded. This question Wiclif answered at length,
insisting on the right of the king and parliament to with-
hold what payment they pleased. The king imposed
silence upon him for the time ; and for the time he was
quiet. We can well understand therefore that the bishops
thought the time ill chosen to prosecute Wiclif for heresy.
But before the end of 1378, Wiclif—who thus had again
taken the nationalist part—was forced once more into
political prominence on the side of duke John. The duke’s
followers invaded Westminster Abbey in search of two
men who had incurred his wrath, and murdered one on the
spot The bishop of London excommunicated those who
had committed the outrage. The duke jeered at the sen-
tence, calling the bishop contumacious, and the Londone;xs
ribalds* But Wiclif defended the deed in one of his
treatises, though without mentioning names.

This year also the famous schism in the papacy began,
which at one time threatened to perpetuate two popes in
the Western Church—a Cis-Alpine and a Trans-Alpine
pope. Gregory XI died at Rome in March, 1378, and in
April Urban VI, an Italian, was chosen by the cardinals,
intimidated (it was afterwards said) by the Roman popu-

* Chron. Angl. p. 183.
21d. p. 183. 3 Id. p. 208. 41d. p. 210.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. I75

 

lace, who clamoured loudly for a Roman pope. But he
alienated his friends by harsh and repulsive manners and
measures, and in September the whole body of cardinals
proceeded to a second election at Condi, and chose Robert,
cardinal of Geneva, a man who had been a leader of Free
Companies in Bretagne. There were but four Italian
cardinals who gave no vote, but still adhered to pope
Urban. His rival, taking the name of Clement VII, fled
to France, and took up his abode at Avignon. Europe
was divided between the claimants, but the greater number
of countries held with Urban. A parliament held at
Gloucester in October decided that Urban was the pope to
whom England should pay allegiance. This was almost
inevitable, as France had assumed the patronage of the
Avignon pope ; and equally so was it that Scotland should
oppose England, and side with Clement and France.

It is very noteworthy that just at this time Wykeham
ceases to commend the pope’s collectors to the clergy of
his diocese. Before, his register has recorded many such
demands ; papal taxation has oppressed clergy and people
almost as heavily as national taxation. Thus letters are
written to enforce the subsidy of 66,000 florins, which is
due to the pope in 1375.! Nine letters again are written
in different years to give authority to the collectors of
procurations for cardinals visiting England or other papal
nuncios.2. The last of them is dated November oth, 1378,
a month after the parliament had given the allegiance of
England to Urban VI. There is no other letter enforcing
papal taxation on his diocese till Wykeham’s death The
papal collector, that unpopular personage, was as much in

' Reg. iii, 132-135. ? Reg. iii, 57, 75: 79, 118, 119, 130, 150, 153, 173.
Ss 32—13

3 The only apparent exception to this is a letter (March 2nd, 1399) authorizing
‘commissioners to ask a charitable aid for the emperor of Constantinople, which
the pope was urging on Christendom. But this was ‘‘caritativa,” z.e., voluntary.
Reg. iii, 310.

Wykeham
ceases to
encourage
papal taxatic
Reverence for
the pope on
the increase.

Wiclif's pro-
positions on
the Eucharist,

176 William of Wykeham.

 

England as ever; only the bishop of Winchester declined
to write, as before, letters endorsing the claims made by
him. Surely this can be no fortuitous coincidence. It
would seem to mean that Wykeham had determined to.
be national even in this, and to encourage by his authority
none but national claims ; and thought the accession of a
new papal dynasty, as it were, an opportune one for putting
his resolution into practice.

The schism in the papacy had another effect. It
distinctly increased the reverence felt in England for the
pope. He was no longer a Frenchman residing in France,
but an enemy of the French people, and employed in
hurling excommunications at the French pope. Wiclif’s
tone of rancour towards the papal court was sensibly
modified by this: he no longer called the pope Antichrist,
as before, nor preached that all aid should be withheld.
He even sent a copy of his inculpated opinions to Rome,
and requested the pope’s judgment upon them. And the
establishment of a pope at Rome may have had a similar:
effect, though unconscious, upon Wykeham himself. He
had all along been a nationalist, but a Romanist in
doctrine. His nationalism must always have run counter
to his respect for the head of the Church. Now, at least,.
the pope was not a Frenchman, and did not live in France ;
nor had he as yet taken any steps to assert his supremacy
over England.

Matters, therefore, as regards the Church were unusually
quiet for the next few months. But in the spring of 1381,
Wiclif published twelve propositions upon the nature of
the Sacrament of the Eucharist. These propositions attack
the doctrine of Transubstantiation, on philosophical as well
as on theological grounds. To say that by the consecration
the substance of the Body and Blood of Christ was sub-.
stituted for the substance of bread and wine, though the.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. 177

 

accidents of bread and wine remained as before, was
according to him unphilosophical; accidents could not
remain without substance. It was an attack upon the
philosophy of Realism, which asserted that each substance
had a true existence independently of its accidents ; and
the University of Oxford was thoroughly Realist. They
therefore called upon him to defend these. opinions; and
when he had done so, they published a decree condemning
them, and forbidding everyone to advocate them.

Wiclif appealed to the king and court, hoping once
more to obtain the protection of duke John. But Wiclif’s
usefulness was over; the quarrel between the duke and
the clergy was at an end, and the duke had no mind to
prosecute reform on doctrinal as well as social matters.
He came to Oxford, and urged on Wiclif submission to
the University authorities. Instead, Wiclif boldly and
carefully re-asserted his former views ;! and obtained more
than a patient hearing even at Oxford, where he had always
been popular.

But while this was going on in the Church, the villeins’
rising, described in a former chapter, took place in the State.
The villeins of south-east England rose ez masse in June,
and murdered the king’s ministers, including archbishop
Sudbury. The young king’s adroitness put as sudden an
end to the rising, as it had been sudden in its beginning ;
but the danger to both Church and State had been very real
for the time. And it had as remarkable an effect in the
ecclesiastical as in the social sphere. Wiclif was shocked
and subdued by the sudden excess with which his own
theoretical views were put into practice, and especially by
the murder of his friend, the archbishop. Henceforth he
let social questions alone, and devoted his energies to purely
theological teaching. And the clergy and bishops, with

' Fasc. Zizan. pp. 11§—132.

condemned by
Oxford
University.

Revolt of the
villeins ; its
effect on
Wiclif,

and on his
teaching.
Controversy at
Oxford on the
Eucharist.

Courtenay
introduces a
bill against
heretics,

178 William of Wykeham.

 

their new archbishop Courtenay at their head, were not
slow to connect the social with the theological revolt.
Courtenay had been Wykeham’s tried friend throughout.
His first essays in nationalistic churchmanship had been
made under the shield of Wykeham; and he had stood
Wykeham’s friend in the day of his trouble. Well born
and orthodox, Courtenay was a much sterner antagonist
than poor Sudbury ; and Wiclif’s views were as much out
of favour under his reign, as they had been protected in the
time of Sudbury. There was no doubt what should be the
ground of attack. Wiclif’s views on the Eucharist were
felt to be the key of his whole position. He taught at
Oxford ; and Oxford became the battle-ground of the new
views. Oxford had been known for its exclusive Realism ;
but the thinking minds were shaken upon the subject by
his lectures. The extreme party against him was led by
the mendicant friars, with Peter Stokes, a Carmelite, at their
head. On the other side were Nicholas Herford and John
Aston, and Dr. Peter Ridge, a late convert to his views, who
actually had signed the decree in which the university
condemned them the year before. Meanwhile Wiclif’s
army of poor priests went everywhere through the country,
preaching everywhere, and with great acceptableness, the
doctrines of the Lollards, as they began to be called.

In May, 1382, parliament met, and convocation. In
parliament, Courtenay brought a bill into the house of lords
to remedy the slowness of proceeding against heretics. It
enacted that with a bishop’s certificate the Chancellor might
compel the accused to satisfy the bishop. This the lords
passed: but the archbishop shrank from exposing it to
be rejected by the house of commons, where there were
many Lollards, and determined to try whether the authority
of the lords would not suffice. The commons were in-
dignant, and annulled the statute in the next sessions.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. I79

 

In convocation Courtenay resolved to put down with a
high hand these dangerous views on the Eucharist. But
the first day of their session (May 19th) an earthquake
shook London. The bishops assembled at Blackfriars were
awed; both sides claimed it as a sign from heaven in their
favour.! The bishops examined the opinions of Wiclif,
condemned ten of his statements as heretical, and fourteen
more as erroneous, and prohibited such teaching in the
dioceses of England under pain of excommunication.
These twenty-four proscribed opinions were interdicted
under the archbishop’s hand on May 30th. Wykeham,
who had been one of the ten bishops present,’ publishes
the interdict at once in the diocese of Winchester.’

Meanwhile, there had been great excitement at Oxford,
where the election of Dr. Ridge to be Chancellor gave a
temporary triumph to the Wicliffites. On Ascension day
(May 16th), Herford preached before the university, and
openly sided with Wiclif. The Chancellor appointed
Philip Repington to preach on Corpus Christi day (June
6th); and Repington was an adherent of Wiclif’s, except in
the matter of the Eucharist, on which he had not made
up his mind. Father Stokes informed the archbishop that
this sermon was to be preached; on which the archbishop
sent (May 30th) his mandate to the Chancellor,* desiring
him to assist Stokes in procuring the publication of the
decree of the Blackfriars Synod against Wiclif’s doctrine.
But the Chancellor, maintaining that the University of
Oxford had always been free from direct interposition from
the heads of the Church, declined to obey. On Corpus
Christi day, he went to St. Mary’s, accompanied by a

hundred armed men, and Repington’s sermon was preached. .

and summons
Synod of
bishops at
Blackfriars,
May, 1382;

who condemn
Wiclif's
opinions.

The Chancellor
of Oxford.
a Wicliffite,

authorizes a
Wicliffite

Stokes wrote to the archbishop that he had done all that sermon,

’ Fasc. Zizan. pp. 272, 283. 21d. p. 286.
3 Reg. iii, 196. 1 Fasc. Zizan. p. 298.
is summoned
to Blackfriars,
and submits,
June, 1382 ;

and Wykeham
pleads for him.

The University
rebuked,

150 William of Wykeham.

 

he could do to prevent it, and that now he feared for his
life.!

The archbishop answered by summoning? both Stokes
and Ridge to Lambeth, for June 12th, the day to which
the Blackfriars meeting stood adjourned. That day the
Chancellor and proctors were formally tried.2 Seven pieces
of evidence were given against them, and they were found
guilty of contempt of the archbishop’s mandate. Ridge
submitted, and asked Courtenay’s pardon on his knees.
The bishop of Winchester, we are told, pleaded for him,
and the archbishop forgave him. But he dismissed him
with a mandate®> for the future administration of the
university. He was to suspend Wiclif, Herford, Aston,
Repington and Bedeman from scholastic acts till they
should have established their innocence; to publish the
condemnation of the proscribed opinions in St. Mary’s, and
to search out the favourers of heresy and compel them to
abjure.

This is the only occasion on which Wykeham’s name
comes prominently forward in the affair. He interceded for
the Chancellor of Oxford, when he was found guilty of
Lollard views. This shows first, the fact of Wykeham’s
influence in the Synod. He was probably the oldest of the
bishops, certainly the highest in standing among them. And
next, it shows of what character was his influence. He was
above suspicion as to doctrine, but his position as to
Church nationalism must have eminently fitted him to
become a moderator of the Synod’s zeal against the
Lollards. He was in favour of mildness and gentleness,
thinking that these should first be tried, and that persecution
should not be set on foot till they had failed.

The next day Ridge was summoned before the privy

' Fasc. Zizan. p. 300. 2 Td. p. 302. 31d. p. 304.
4 Td. p. 308. 5 Id. p. 309.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. IST

 

council, and the Chancellor Scrope confirmed the arch-
bishop’s mandate. The same day (June 13th) a royal
brief! directed the university authorities to comply with
that mandate; and the next day another? charged them
not to molest Henry Crumpe, or Peter Stokes, or Stephen
Patrington, for anything they had done to oppose Wiclif’s
doctrine.

Ridge came down from London to Oxford, and pro-
ceeded to suspend Aston, Herford, and Repington. The
two latter appealed to duke John of Lancaster,®? whom they
knew to be a great friend of the lord Chancellor. But
duke John had never cared for the controversy for its
own sake; he had used Wiclif as a convenient tool to
further his own political ends, but he did not feel the least
theological interest in his party. He soon gave them to
understand that they could not hope for his aid. They
therefore drew up a memorandum of their views, and
presented it to the archbishop on June 2oth. It seems to
have stated their case with some plausibility, for the Synod
was perplexed, and put off their answer for another week.
But that day Aston was condemned; and Herford and
Repington on July ist They both recanted. Repington
became a persecutor of the Lollards and bishop of Lincoln,
and a cardinal: Herford died a Carthusian monk.

The most remarkable thing about this persecution, for
such it may be called, was the complete immunity the
leader of the heretics enjoyed. Wiclif was quietly working
on his cure at Lutterworth, and nothing was done to harm
him. We shall not be so much at a loss to know how to
account for this, if we remember the personal interest
which the king had taken in Wiclif. He had consulted
him on tribute to the pope, and the bishops had shrunk

' Fasc. Zizan. p. 312. 21d. p. 314.
31d. p. 318. 41d. p. 290.

and the
Lollards
condemned.

Wiclif probably
shielded by
royal favour.
Crumpe con-
demned by
Synod of
Meath.

182 Willham of Wykeham.

 

from condemning him. He had several Lollard knights
among his chamberlains at court. In 1382 he married
Anne of Bohemia, and she was said to have lent a willing
ear to the heretic ; so that it was through her retinue that
the flame of novel opinions spread into Bohemia, and
blazed out in John Hus. It may well have been the
royal influence which kept Wiclif unharmed, in spite of
his fearlessness in attacking the Church authorities, by
whom his opinion had been condemned. And there was
at least one among the bishops who would have been
rejoiced that it was so. Wykeham would have disliked
persecution, and rejoiced at his old friend’s immunity.
While using his quiet time to expound (often to explain
away) the startling paradoxes by which he had upset the
conservative instincts of churchmen, and also to complete
his great work, the English translation of the Latin Bible,
Wiclif had a stroke of paralysis. He lived to recover some
degree of literary usefulness; but a second stroke carried
him off on the last day of 1384.

Shortly after, one of his old opponents at Oxford was
in the like trouble on his own account in Ireland. Henry
Crumpe had originally been a Cistercian monk from the
Irish monastery of Bawynglas. He had conceived a bitter
hostility against the mendicant Orders, and when he came
to reside in Oxford had engaged in fierce strife with them.!
But he had signed the decree suspending Wiclif from
academic acts in 1381,? and supported Stokes in his strife
with the Lollard leaders. He was suspended himself by
the Lollard Chancellor, Dr. Ridge; and petitioning the king
in counsel, was restored at the point of the sword by the
royal brief of June, 1382.3 After the excitement of the
Lollards had calmed down, his strife with the mendicants
broke out again. He quitted Oxford for Ireland, and there

1 Fase. Zizan. Introd. p. lxvii. 71d. p. 113. $Id. pp. 311314.
od
ae
els

Wykeham and Church Doctrine. 183

 

was accused before the bishop of Meath of holding opinions
similar to Wiclif’s own. He was found guilty by him
(March 18th, 1385) of exalting the authority of the parish
priest above that of the pope, and of holding that the
sacrament of the altar was but a mirror for beholding the
Body of Christ in heaven.!. We shall hear more of him
2 soon.
Meantime, Lollardy was a great and increasing influence Increasing

influence of

in England. The friars and the Lollards divided Oxford Lollards at
into two camps; and the increasing bitterness against the sc
friars, which is shown by the satirical poems of the time,
clearly showed the predominance of the Lollards. More-
over, there was a strong and influential body of Lollards at
court2. The author of the Chronicon Anglie gives a list of
them, when he is relating how they supported (1387) one
Pateshull, an Augustinian friar, in inveighing against the
crimes of his own order. Four of them were king’s
chamberlains, and were chosen by the king to be of his privy
council when, in May, 1389, he superseded the ministry of
the appellants. Sir Richard Sturry was the oldest of them
—the same who had been chamberlain to prince Edward,
the king’s father. Then came three belonging to the great
northern families—Sir William Neville, Sir Lewis Clifford,
Sir Thomas Latimer. Sir John Clanvow was also a trusted
chamberlain of the king’s. And John, lord Montagu,
brother to the earl of Salisbury, and father to the earl
of Salisbury who was the chief? of the Lollards of the
next generation, is distinguished as having been the maddest
of them all.4

This increase of power, of course, stirred them up Petitionagainst
powerful enemies. The parliament of 1388 presented a eee

' Fasc. Zizan. P. 350.

2 Yet the king addresses to Wykeham a ‘‘ Breve contra Lollardas ad capiendos
eos.""—Reg. iv, 7.
3 Collins’ Peerage, ii, p. 43 7. 4 Chron. Angl. p. 331.
 

Crumpe cited
to Synod of
Stamford,

1392:

© Wykeham one
of the judges,

84 William of Wykeham.

 

petition to the king against them ; and the king, in reply,
enjoined on the bishops to exercise greater care in their
several dioceses. Perhaps in consequence of this, in the
next year, we find the archbishop of Canterbury trying,
condemning, and excommunicating eight persons charged
with holding Lollard opinions. But persecution did but
stimulate the progress of the new doctrines.

In 1392, we find the mendicant friars making an attack
on Henry Crumpe, then resident at Oxford. It is clear
that this must indicate, first, that the friars were very
unpopular; and, secondly, that their chief enemies were
Lollards. Oxford was in the diocese of Lincoln, and
John of Buckingham, bishop of Lincoln, summoned a
council at Stamford to try Crumpe, and called upon
Wykeham to act as one of the judges. Crumpe was
arraigned of having publicly taught ten errors,’ of which
the chief was that he exalted the authority of the parish
priest above every spiritual power besides. He had taught
that every one, even kings and prelates, were absolutely
bound to confess to their parish priest; and without his
licence, it was unlawful to confess to any one else, however
high his authority, even the pope himself. This exaggera-
tion of parochial authority, of course, struck at the root
of the influence of the friars, and hence the accusation.
Crumpe boldly declared that he had never held such
doctrine ; nevertheless, the Synod found him guilty upon
three counts only, and dismissed the rest of the charges.
He was compelled to abjure these doctrines ;? and this con-
clusion was arrived at without the Synod’s knowing of the
former condemnation of the same man by the bishop of
Meath in 1385. But Crumpe could not even then keep
himself quiet; the authority of the king was invoked, who
enjoined the University of Oxford to suspend him again
from all scholastic acts* (March 20th, 1393).

1 Fase. Zizan. p. 344. 21d. p. 343. 31d. p. 358.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. 185

 

In 1394, the Lollards in the house of commons were so
many, that they actually ventured to present a petition for
Church reform. They drew up ten conclusions, wherein
the views of Wiclif are pressed to the entire subversion
of Church order; and they ended by saying, “ We present to
you these conclusions . . . . and we pray you to lend
your aid to the reform of the Church.” The king at the’
time was absent in Ireland, but the bishops besought his
protection for the Church; and on his return the Lollards
received a sharp reprimand, and their teachers were
expelled from the University of Oxford. The archbishop,
Courtenay, died in 1396, and with him ended the list of
archbishops who were content with bloodless persecution.
With Arundel’s accession begins a new era—that of arch-
bishops who tried to enforce their own doctrinal views, first
on one side and then on the other, by the fire and the
stake. That this melancholy period, which lasted for more
than two hundred years, had not begun in Courtenay’s time,
is perhaps owing to the gentleness and moderation of the
counsels of his friend, bishop Wykeham of Winchester.

Meantime it would be a question of the deepest interest
to us, if we had means of deciding it, how far Wykeham’s
private opinions went in the direction of Lollardy? Have
we any reason for supposing that he adopted either side
in the matter from deliberate conviction ?

We have seen his attitude towards the other quarrel
with the popes ; we have had reason to think him the most
determined nationalist in England. At the same time
we have seen that the quarrel with Wiclif was not of his
making, but was forced upon him by Wiclif’s scurrilous
pen. And we have seen his characteristic gentleness and
moderation, in the fact of his having interceded for the
Lollard leader at Oxford. ;

On the other hand, all his hierarchical leanings would

Petition of
Lollards for
Church reform,
1394-

Wykeham’s
views on
Lollardy.
His devotional
thoughts on the
Eucharist not
distinctively
Romanist.

186 William of Wykeham.

 

naturally be against Wiclif. He was but defending the
Church of which he was a bishop, in deciding against him ;
and assuredly Wiclif lost no opportunity of making all the
hierarchy his enemies.

Wykeham was not a deeply read theologian, and he
may well have shrunk from committing himself to teaching
which seemed to be adverse to the decrees of his Church.
But it is a striking fact that the only indication we have of
his opinions on the controverted points, should be in the
direction of Wiclif’s tenets, rather than against them. We
are told by Aylward! that after he was prevented by the
weakness of old age from attending the office of the mass,
he still used to receive the holy Elements in private on
every Sunday and on double feasts, with remarkable
devotion and tears of penitence, “recalling perhaps that
which is often chanted in Church, ‘O holy banquet! in
thee Christ is taken’; the memory of His sufferings is
repeated, the mind filled with grace, and an earnest given
us of future glory. For of Christ the heavenly Bread, Who
hath placed Himself in the shape of bread as a wonderful
sacrament, and not of any material bread, is that passage
truly to be understood, that ‘he that eateth that Bread
shall live for ever.’”

The first clause of this quotation is a hymn? from the
services of Corpus Christi day, by St. Thomas Aquinas.’
But it is remarkable that Wykeham, in his habitual devo-

tional thoughts on the Eucharist, should have dwelt

upon this aspect of it only. He doubtless looked on the
Eucharist as a “sacrifice” as well as a “banquet”; but he
prefers to call it a “banquet,” and to describe it as a

1 Aylward, 8.

2 Breviarium ad usum Sarum, edited by Proctor and Wordsworth, ff. mlxxxiv,
mlxxxy. It is the Anthem to the Magnificat at Second Vespers.

3 Thomas Aquinas (Ogera, Venice, 1788), xix, p. 474. Aquinas had composed
the office by command of pope Urban IV, when the feast was instituted.
Wykeham and Church Doctrine. 187

 

“memorial.” He doubtless thought that Christ was “given”
at that holy Feast ; still, for his devotional use, he speaks of
Him only as “taken.”

The language of the later clause is probably his own ;
at least it is not to be found in any of the recognized
formularies of the time! But taking these words as his
own, their purport is surely remarkable. For they seem to
imply a belief that while the change in the consecration of
the Elements is real, it is not material; and that wicked
recipients of the Sacrament are not partakers of Christ.
This, considering the controversies that were even at that
moment raging, is remarkable language to be handed down
as the devotional language of a bishop of our Church at
that time. Perhaps, as the shadows of life lengthened, as
he felt the hollowness of controversy, he dwelt more on the
only thing certain about the holy but mysterious Feast ; it
seemed to him that a memorial banquet, in which Christ,
really but not materially, allowed Himself to be taken, was
medicine enough for the sins of the whole world.

At any rate Wykeham, though declining to use even
the language of controversy,? was thoroughly sincere in his
devotion. Aylward tells us that he used to shed abundant
tears at mass, especially when the intercession for quick
and dead was being read, calling himself unworthy to
officiate at so great a Sacrament, with the humility of him
who said, “ Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter
under my roof.” It was the humility of a deeply-touched
conscience ; a humility which compared himself with God’s
saints of old, and with those of the last generation who had
but lately fallen asleep, of whom he seems to have been
always thinking—his father and mother, and those who

' Nor, as far as I have been able to find, in any of the controversial works upon
the subject. It should be observed that Aylward, as Wykeham’s intimate friend
and steward, had the best opportunity of knowing his patron's mind.

2? Aylward, 8.

His great.
humility.
i858 William of Wykeham.

 

had helped him to reach his present position: a position
of which the proudest title, in his conception, was that he

might call: himself the “humble minister to the servants of
God.”
CHAPTER IX.

WYKEHAM AND HIS COLLEGES.

A.D. 1377—1396.

YKEHAM had no sooner felt himself free from the

stress of malicious accusation, than, as if he had

been chafing impatiently at the enforced delay, he set about
his educational schemes in earnest without loss of time.

We have seen that when his fortune was at its lowest,
when he dismissed his retinue and retainers, he sent to
Oxford and dispersed the “poor scholars” whom he was
maintaining ; that is, he told the warden and seventy
fellows or scholars, whom he was keeping in Black Hall,
Hart Hall, Sheld Hall, Maiden Hall, and Hammer Hall,
that he could no longer maintain them. “And so they all
departed in great sorrow and discomfort, weeping and with
simple cheer.”! At the same time probably doubts were
raised as to the legality of the purchases of land by
Buckingham and Rouceby, for they had done it without
the king’s license, or the consent of his council.

His dispersed scholars no doubt reassembled when his
fortunes mended ; and with the year 1378 the purchase of borers oo
land went on steadily as before, the king formally pardoning College, 1373.
Buckingham and Rouceby for their misdemeanour in buy-
ing land for the purpose of a college, without previously
having asked the royal license. Wykeham also requested
in the same year a bull from the pope to enable him to

1 Chron, Angi. App. (B) to Introd. p. Ixxx.
1S
Igo William of Wykeham.

 

found a college at Winchester; but of this, as the second
undertaking of the two, we will speak more hereafter. He
devoted his energies first to “his greater candlestick of
knowledge,” as Aylward calls his college at Oxford.

He employed the same agents as before, Buckingham
and Rouceby, in the purchase of more land. These,
besides the four acres which they had bought in 1369 and
1370, now bought further (1) eight plots, containing two
acres, and a certain “venella,” a common way, called “the
Slype,” running parallel to the city wall and within it, of
the mayor and burghers of the town of Oxford (1oth
February, 1378); (2) certain plots of Littlemore nunnery
(25th February, 1378); and (3) a tenement of Thomas
Gloucester (March Ist).1
. King’s Taught by his previous troubles to be very circumspect

escheator tries . ; : ;
_Wykeham’s in getting the law on his side in everything that he did,

right toenclose;
Wykeham next moved the king to issue a brief to his
escheator for the county of Oxford,? John Salvein, direct-
ing him to enquire whether it would damage the king or
the town of Oxford if the bishop of Winchester were to
enclose these lands, and others hereafter to be procured,
for a peculiar use. The escheator came to Oxford, and
summoned a jury of townsmen to make the inquiry, in
the presence of John Gibbs, the mayor, and John Hicks
and Richard Addington, bailiffs of Oxford.
On Monday, June 20th, 1379, the inquiry was held.
The jury after consultation pronounced :—
the jury decides (1) That it would not damage or hurt either the king
or the town if the bishop of Winchester enclosed the plots
obtained from Oseney abbey, Queen’s college, Godstow
nunnery, and the parish of St. Peter’s in the East.
(2) Or if the same bishop should also enclose other

‘Wood's History and Antiquities of Colleges and Halls in Oxford, iv, p. 177,
edited by Gutch,

21d. p. 179,
Wykeham and his Colleges. IOI

 

lands which he was about to acquire, among which were
several plots of ground belonging to the town, and a
common land, in which they also had interest. But this
they only permitted, on condition that the warden and
scholars of his college bound themselves and their suc-
cessors to keep in repair so much of the north and east
walls of the said town as would include the college (namely,
from a spot opposite Sheld Hall to the Windsor postern
near the east gate of the town); and that also they made
a gate or postern in each end of the said wall at the
extremity of the college limits, that the mayor and bailiff
of Oxford might, once in every three years, enter and
pass through them, to see whether the said wall were
kept well in repair, and that the burghers of the town
might have free passage through the posterns, for defence
of the same.

(3) That the common way and the plots aforesaid were
not built on or enclosed for private use, but were full of
filth, dirt, and stinking carcases brought from several places
in the town, to the annoyance of the town, university, and
passers-by ; that there was often a concourse there of
malefactors, murderers, whores, and thieves, to the great
damage of the town and danger of scholars; that scholars
and others were there often wounded, killed, and lost ; and
that all the ground lay waste, desert, and desolate, and not
enclosed, or by any occupied.

(4) That to erect buildings on the said ground, and
enclose the said land, would be a profit to future times, a
relief and recovery to the whole town, and an honour and
security to the future scholars of the university.

(5) That the value of the said messuage and plots
was ten shillings a year and no more, because no one cared
to enter on, or have anything to do with them. Yet, in
spite of this statement as to the value of the land, the
Royal Charter
for foundation
of New College

Wykeham's
Charter for
foundation of
New College.

Ig2 William of Wykeham.

 

burghers of Oxford drove a hard bargain with Wykeham,
and made him pay 480 for these eight plots, and their
share of the common way.

This decision having gone in Wykeham’s favour, the
king ten days after (June 30th) issued his patent for the
foundation of the new college.'

He first recites all these purchases of land, both old and
recent. “By our special grace,” he proceeds, “and by the
advice and assent of our council, we have conceded and
given license to John Buckingham and John Rouceby,.
to give and assign separately to the venerable father in
God, William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester,’ the
aforesaid pieces of ground; and to the said bishop to
include the common way, and hold it so included within the
bound of a wall and turrets, to himself and to his successors
the bishops of Winchester for ever; and that the said
bishop may of these found a new college, house, or hall, and.
give it a fixed name, and there ordain and establish a.
warden and seventy scholars, who are studying in different
faculties in the university of that town. The Charter then
proceeds to recite the conditions already laid down by the
town of Oxford, as to entering and examining the state of
the wall.

On the 26th of November, Wykeham issued his Charter-
of foundation,’ calling his college by the English name,
“Saint Mary College of Winchester in Oxford,” and con-
stituting it a foundation for the support of a warden and
seventy scholars. On the same day, Richard Tunworth
resigned the wardenship of the temporary foundation, which
was given to Nicholas Wykeham, with a salary of £40
a year.

On November 30th, Wykeham gave authority to John

' Carte de Fundatione Collegit B. M. WW. in Oxon. 4. 7Id. 2.
Wykeham and his Colleges. I93

 

Campden to deliver, and on December 4th to Nicholas
Wykeham and Thomas Cranlegh, future warden of Win-
chester College, to receive seisin of the site of the new
college! A deed confirmatory of the founder’s charter was
also executed in the same month of December by the prior
and convent of St. Swithun, Winchester.?

Every legal necessary had now been completed, and the
next thing was to begin the building. On the Monday
of the third week in Lent, March sth, 1380, at eight o’clock
in the morning, the title was set up, and the first stone laid
of the new college;* but not by Wykeham himself, he being
detained, we may well suppose by imperative business, at
Southwark.*

The first thing designed and executed was the great
quadrangle. Immediately to the east of the halls where
his scholars had found temporary lodging, he built it on
about two hundred feet square, making the north side
run along the common lane or Slype, parallel to the wall.
On the north side of this quadrangle he placed the chief
public buildings, the chapel and the hall, for the sake of
the security afforded by the wall and ditch beyond; for
these were not times that could afford to dispense with
such protection against sudden attack. The chapel is to
the west, 150 feet-in length; the dining hall in the same
block with it, on the east, 80 feet in length. Upon this
side is built a rectangular figure of nearly square shape,
so as to enclose a quadrangle of 168 feet long by 129
broad. All the western side south of the chapel was

' Carte de Fundatione Collegii, B. Af. W. in Oxon, 3 and 4. 21d. 5.

3 Erexit igitur titulum et posuit primum lapidem in collegio beatae Marize
Winton in Oxon Lincolnize diocesi, vulgariter nuncupato ‘Seynt Mary college
of Wynchestre in Oxenforde’ anno domini Meccc™*LXXIXx°, hora iiij ante meridiem
quintze diei mensis Martii, qui fuit dies Lunze tertize septimanz XL*, anno regni
regis Ricardi secundi tertio, zetatis verum dicti patris anno Lv, et consecrationis
suze anno x1j°.”—Heath, 10. The last word should be ‘‘tertio decimo,” in order to
reconcile the dates.

4 Lowth, p. 1867.

Begins to build,
March, 1380.

Order of
building.
Society take
possession of
New College.

Building
continued,

Io4 William of Wykeham.

 

appropriated to the warden’s lodgings; all the eastern to
the library. The southern block consisted of the students’
chambers, thirteen in number, each for six or seven inmates,
of whom one, a senior fellow, kept order amongst the
others.?

During the six years while these buildings were in
process of erection, Wykeham was taking the preliminary
steps towards the sister foundation of Winchester, which
he put off beginning to build till this was finished. But
at last? on the 14th of April, which was the Saturday
before Palm Sunday, 1386, at nine o’clock in the morning,
the warden and fellows took possession of their new home,
walking in procession and singing the litany, preceded by
a cross-bearer ; and thus vacated the halls in which they
had been lodged for a time.

Two or three years after? he bought three of these
vacated halls, which lay immediately to the west of his
new chapel. These were :—(1) Sheld (or School) Hall, the
property of the Abbess of Studley, (2) Maiden Hall, from
University College, and (3) More [Great] Hammer Hall,
which belonged to the Abbot of Oseney. All these he
pulled down, and on their site erected the college cloister,
immediately adjoining the chapel on the west ; a square of
180 feet long by 140 broad, and enclosing a garth, which he
afterwards obtained license to consecrate and use as a burial

'In each chamber were places for three or four beds; the rest were truckle-beds,
or beds on wheels (¢roch/ee), which ran under the principal beds, and accommo-
dated the junior students. Stat. Oxon, p. 52. Thirteen of these chambers were
on the ground floor, eight above them. Those on the ground floor were afterwards
named respectively :—The Chamber of Three, Vine, Baptist's Head, Conduit,
Crane's Dart, Vale, Cock, Star, Christopher, Serpent's Head, Green Post, Chaplain's,
and Rose. Cockerell, p. 27 7.

2 “Quorum quidem primus ingressus in locum antedictum ad inibi habitandum
fuerat hora tertia ante meridiem xiiije die mensis Aprilis, die videlicet Sabbati
proxime precedente dominicam in Ramis Palmarum, anno Domini M°CcCC™LXXXVIp,
on oe erecta et litania solemniter cantata, processionaliter gradiendo."—

eath, 10.

3In 12 Rd. II (which is from June azst, 1388, to June arst, 1389). Wood's
Colleges, iv, p. 180.
Wykeham and his Colleges. IQ5

 

ground for the college, from pope Boniface IX, who suc-
ceeded in 1389. He also built the tower, at a distance
from the chapel and abutting on the north cloister; and
placed three bells therein, dedicated respectively to the
Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin, and St. John Baptist and
St. Frithswith. These were anointed and consecrated on
October 19th, 1400, by Nicholas, bishop of Dunkeld.!

We now must return to the year 1378, in order to trace
from the first Wykeham’s preparations for his younger
foundation of Winchester.

Very early in the reign of pope Urban VI, the first
Italian pope who kept court in Rome, Wykeham wrote
to him to request leave to found a college for “seventy
poor clerical scholars” in Winchester, with a chapel or
oratory, and to appropriate the revenues of Downton in
the diocese of Salisbury, which was in the patronage of
the bishop of Winchester, to their perpetual support. To
this request Urban VI makes answer,” sending it to bishop
Wykeham, but enclosing a letter to Thomas de Brinton,
bishop of Rochester, dated June Ist, 1378, whereby he
makes him his special delegate for the purpose of granting
a license to Wykeham to do these things.

The situation is remarkable. A new-made pope, not
yet sure of his ground, is besought by a bishop who has
hitherto been known as a nationalist, and lately as beloved
by the people, for license to found a college. The pope
grants the required leave ; he can hardly do otherwise than
grant such a request; but he grants it through a well-
known papalist bishop, one who has been a Benedictine
monk and a royal confessor.

This letter Wykeham kept by him for nearly two whole

' Wood's Colleges, p. 182.

2 Charter of Foundation and other Instruments of Winchester College, by T. F.
Kirby, p. 7.

Papal license to
found Win-
chester College.
Site of
Winchester
College.

I96 William of Wykeham.

 

years ; till he had finished the legal preliminaries for begin-
ning his college in Oxford, and had actually begun to build
it. Two months after the first stone was laid in Oxford
(May 6th, 1380), he gave Roger de la Chambre a com-
mission! to deliver this papal bull to the bishop of
Rochester. Roger made his way to Dover, and thence
crossed to Calais, in search of the bishop of Rochester,
whom he found at Guines; and thence, on May goth, the
required license was given.?

Wykeham had now to find a suitable site for the future
college.

The site which he eventually chose was one just outside
the city walls, within the episcopally-governed suburb of the
Soke. Here, on the south side of the city, near the eastern
corner, two streams, both artificial, and made for purposes
of usefulness, issued from the enceinte of the wall of the
Cathedral precinct, which at this point was also the city
wall. The larger of these was the stream which turned the
mill of St. Mary’s Abbey, or the Nunnaminster, higher up
its course. The smaller, issuing about three hundred feet
further to the west, was the “Lurte Burne,” or Lockburn?
which acted, in fact, as a sewer to the conventual buildings:
of the priory. Between these two streams lay a large piece
of ground called the Floodstock,—perhaps with reference to
certain hatches,t which the prior and convent were bound
to keep in repair, at the spot where the Lockburn issued
from their walls.

The suburb was already inhabited. In a meadow to the
east of the mill-stream lay the Chapel of St. Elizabeth of
Hungary, which bishop John of Pontoise had founded in
1301 for a warden, priests, and deacons. Across the stream,

1 Kirby, p. 5. Tb. he Be

3 The Tockburn is the name by which it is known now. The Lurte Burne is.
the name in Wykeham’s Reg. iii, 323.
4 Reg. iii, 323.
Wykeham and his Colleges. IQ7

 

and to the west of this, was a convent of White Friars, or
Carmelites, founded in 1278. Between this and the city
wall, bounded on the west by the Kingsgate street houses,
and on the east by the mill-stream, lay the “ greeneries and
garden walks” (wzridaria et deambulatoria) belonging to the
priory, to provide a quiet approach to which prior Herriard
had recently (probably during Wykeham’s school-days)
spanned the king’s high road outside the close wall with a
hanging bridgeway. Here also were at least two buildings
belonging to the same convent. Immediately to the east
of the Lockburn, so as to use it for a sewer, lay what was
called the Sustern Spital, or Sisters’ Hospital, a house for
fifteen sisters who went out at the prior’s bidding to nurse
the poor of the neighbourhood. And to the east of the
mill-stream was situated a house called “The Garret,” or
“Prior’s Garret,”! a name signifying a watch-tower, for which
purpose it was well situated, on the angle between the high
road and the field pathway which led eventually to St.
Cross Hospital.

A considerable part of this land was Wykeham’s own
property as bishop; and he ascertained by inquiry that
other proprietors were willing to sell their interest. Accord-
ingly in the year 1382 he applied for the king’s license to
found the college in this spot, which was given him on the
6th of October, 1382.2. King Richard by this lets all men
know that “at the prayer of William of Wykeham we have
conceded and given leave, for ourselves and our heirs, to (1)
the prior and convent of St. Swithun, to give and concede
to the aforesaid bishop a messuage, ten acres and a half
of land, and three acres of meadow, with the pertinencies
thereof, in the Soke of Winton, near the city of Winton ;
and to (2) Thomas Tanner, of the Soke of Winton, to give
to the same one messuage with pertinencies ; and to (3)

1a Garite,” or ‘‘ Prioresgaret.” ? Kirby, p. 12.

Royal license
to found Win-
chester College.
Purchases of
land.

I98 William of Wykeham.

 

Thomas Lavington, to give to the same one messuage with
pertinencies in the Soke aforesaid, which he holds of the
bishop as belonging to the see; to have and to hold of us
and our heirs for ever by the services thence due and
customary: and that the said bishop, when he has got
full and peaceful seisin, may found a college, or house, or
hall to God’s honour and glory and the increase of the
divine service of his glorious Mother the Virgin Mary, as also
for the increase of divine worship, as well in and on the
said messuages, land, and meadow, as in and on three
other messuages in the said Soke, which the said bishop
now holds as a part of the temporals of his see ; and may
put on it and give to it a fixed name.”

This—about five acres in the South Soke—was the site
of the future college. The royal license having been
obtained, there was no delay in purchasing the land.

On October toth the prior and convent of St. Swithunt
executed the deed which gave him their messuage, acre
and a half of land, and three acres of meadow. This
meadow land consisted of two “*meads”: Dummer’s mead
being apparently the northernmost, and Otterbourne mead
lying to the south of it. By a subsequent deed,®? dated
June 15th the next year, the bishop, declaring that he
does not wish to rob the priory, makes over to the prior
and convent certain hereditaments at West Meon, which
yield a rent of 13s. 4@. per annum, which sum the bishops
have been accustomed to receive yearly as rent for Dum-
mer’s mead.

On October 13th Thomas Tanner and Thomas Laving-
ton® both sold their houses to the bishop; and on June
15th, 1383, Wykeham empowered John Campden and John
Keton to receive seisin of the messuage and four acres and
a half which he bought of the prior, and which formed the

1 Kirby, p. 14. 2 Td. p. 24. 3Id. pp. 15, 16.
Wykeham and his Colleges. I99

 

bulk of the site of the college. He had now acquired the
whole site, except a narrow strip of land, 200 feet long by
only 12 broad, lying along the edge of the king’s road.
This strip of land he did not actually acquire for eleven
years more, and only within a month of the opening and
dedication of the ollege. But as it is the site of all the
principal frontage buildings, the bishop must have felt
secure of it beforehand, and planned his design with the
certainty that it would eventually fall into his hands.

But he was now in the full swing of building at his new
college in Oxford ; and he knew better than to undertake
two works of such magnitude at once. But April, 1386,
saw the opening and dedication of his Oxford college, and
consequently he was free to devote his whole energies to
his building at Winchester.

Accordingly, on the 26th of March, 1387, at nine
o'clock in the morning, the first stone of the new College
was laid; probably in the foundations of the chapel,
for here, as at Oxford, the chapel was his chief care.
As at Oxford, the precinct was bounded on the north
by the city wall; but at Winchester, there was besides
the protection of the mill stream, which was not the
case at Oxford. And at Winchester the approach to
the college had to be made from the north; there was
no approaching it from the west, as at Oxford. Accord-
ingly, the experienced eye of Wykeham determined to
build only on two acres out of the five which he had bought,
and those two in the angle between the wall and the
river; and to place the principal block of building, which
was to contain the chapel, with the dining hall at its end, as
at New College, at the southern extremity, with the east

1“ Cujus quidem primi lapidis positio fuerat facta xxvj° die mensis Martii, hora
autem iij ante meridiem, anno domini MeccC™LXXXvVIJ°, regni veri regis Ricardi
secundi anno xj°, et consecrationis dicti patris anno Xx°, zetatis vero sue anno
LxviljJ°.""—Heath, 11. Both the last dates have to be rectified.

Begins to build

Winchester
College, March
1387.

Order of
building.
200 William of Wykeham.

 

window of the chapel overlooking the river. As at New
College, the rest of the chapel quadrangle contained the
dwelling rooms for warden, fellows, master, and boys.
Outside, to the northward, were the necessary offices,
arranged on the two sides of another and somewhat larger
irregular square—the slaughter house, the bakehouse, the
stable yard, all necessaries of a self-supporting establish-

a ment. As has been said, the waste strip of ground! nearest
the city wall was not acquired till the rest was finished, when
it was found necessary also to take in a rood of ground
between the north western angle of the new building and
the Sustern Spital. Both of these, therefore, were granted
to Wykeham by the king, as proprietor of the highway, on
March Ist, 1393.

In April, 1390, while the college was building, William
Ashwell a fuller, and Alice his wife, enfeoffed Nicholas
Wykeham of three cottages which stood on part of the
site of the college. But as his wife’s right to dower could
not be barred by a simple alienation, Ashwell submitted
to a suit, in which Nicholas Wykeham obtained a judgment
against him and his wife: bishop Wykeham, of course,
paying the cost as the party for whose benefit the suit
was brought.?

The buildings on the lately purchased strips of land—
a malt room and brewhouse, a porter’s lodge, and stabling
—could hardly have been begun, when it was determined
to have the college opened. But all the more material

Society take parts were fully completed by the 28th of March, 1 393.

possession of

‘Winchester i On that day, at nine o’clock in the morning, the warden,
ollege, Marc 3
1393. * fellows, and scholars made their solemn entrance with a

view to habitation, walking in procession, preceded by a

' Kirby, pp. 34, 35:

° Winchester College Muniments. This seems to be the original of the story of
Thomas Devereux, the tailor, told in Cockerell, P. 14, on the authority of warden
Barter: though how to account for the change of name I cannot say.
Wykeham and his Colleges. 201

 

cross bearer, and chanting.! The warden was no longer
Thomas Cranlegh, who had been appointed in 1382. He
had resigned on May 12th, 1389, and on the 23rd of the
same month, Wykeham had appointed John Westcote, B.D.,
in his place. The head master was John Melton.®

The rooms were assigned to the inmates as follows.*
The fellows were to inhabit the upper rooms in the inner
quadrangle, three fellows occupying a single room. The
seventy scholars were accommodated in the six lower cham-
bers, two of the younger ones occupying one bed, and
not sleeping in single beds till they were fourteen years old.
Three of the older and more advanced scholars in each
chamber were to watch over the rest, to superintend their
studies, and to be responsible for their good conduct.? To
the warden was assigned the suite of rooms extending from
the room over the middle gate to the north-east corner of
the quadrangle ; to the head master and usher,® the upper
rooms west of these on the north side of the quadrangle.
The large chamber beneath the dining-hall7 was to be
always the school for the scholars.

Some “socii,’ or fellows, there were from the first, for
we find that such took part in the entrance procession.
But Wykeham ‘intended “ perpetual” or “ priest-fellows ” to
play a prominent part in the economy of his college, and
therefore was careful in the selection of them. The first
five of them he admitted on December 20th, 1394 ;° their

‘Quorum quidem ingressus primus ad inibi inhabitandum fuit hora iij ante
meridiem, xxvilj° die mensis Martii, anno domini M°’ccc™XCHJ°, regni vero regis

Ricardi xvij°, cum cruce erecta przecedente, sollemni cantu, processionaliter
gradiendo,"’—Heath, 11 a.

2 Reg. iii, 239. 31d. 240. 4 Stat. Wint. § 34.
5 Thus the number of eighteen ‘' prefects"’ is according to Wykeham’s original
plan for the college.

6 With these was to be the tenth fellow, the other nine being disposed of as
above.
7 Till lately, ‘‘ Seventh Chamber ;"" now a reading room.

* Reg. iii, 278.

Wykeham
admits five
‘« perpetual
fellows."
 

fe

Further
building.

Royal charter
of privileges.

202 William of Wykeham.

 

names were Henry Beach, John Self, Thomas Knight,
Robert Lemansworth, and John More.

Probably the building was still going on for two years
after the entry; for on July 7th, 1395, Wykeham gives,’
dating from Farnham, a commission to Simon bishop of
Achonry, in Ireland, empowering him to consecrate “the
chapel of our college of St. Mary Winton, in our diocese,
with the altars built in the same, and the place assigned for
a cemetery in the said college, and the stones for super-
altars.” By this time the chapel was completed: he had
also erected a temporary wooden bell-tower at a little
distance from its walls. A permanent tower, instead of
doing it himself later, as at New College, he left to a later
generation to erect: it was executed by bishop Waynflete
in 1482. Also, he made no attempt to build a cloister,
beyond enclosing and consecrating the “garth,” or cemetery:
that was the work of John Fromond, his steward, and was
finished, with the chantry in its centre, about 1430.°

In September, 1395, he obtained for his college a large
charter of privileges from the king. By this Richard,
observing’ that Wykeham wishes to secure for his college
yet ampler privileges than he has yet bestowed on it, says
that he grants them of his special grace, and by reason of
his own affection to the bishop’s person, “ because he has
diligently and faithfully paid fruitful observance to us and
our realm now for a long time, not without costly and
unwearied labours to the great detriment of his own
health.” For these reasons he grants to his newly founded
society,—warden, scholars, and chaplains :—(1) immunity
from the burdens of all services whatsoever done to himself
and his officers; (2) freedom from liability to pay either
aids to the state, or the tenths or fifteenths which might
be imposed on the clergy; (3) the perpetual right to the

1 Kirby, p. 41. ? Cockerell, pp. 21, 22. 3 Kirby, p. 36.
Wykeham and his Colleges. 207

 

free enjoyment of their present buildings ; (4) the right to
refuse lodging to the king’s officers, and to immunity from
the burden of purveyance, for which purpose he declares
he has taken the college under his special protection ; (5)
immunity from paying any pension, corrody, or sustain-
ment which hereafter may be levied on any of the college
lands by any of his successors. This document is signed
by all the principal officers both in the Church and state,
and dated at Westminster, on September 28th, 1395.

Thus did Wykeham, about ten years before his death,
complete the design which he had been prosecuting for
more than a quarter of a century. It still remained to
give statutes to the twin colleges: and for this one form
of words, only so much varied as the different purposes of
the colleges rendered necessary, would suffice. Thus arose
the two codes of statutes for New College and for Win-
chester; the same in outline, introduction, and conclusion.
That they were prepared with the utmost care a glance at
them will show. Instead of the somewhat rough generali-

ties of the rules given by former founders, Wykeham’s are.

prepared with a characteristic minuteness, and lawyer-
like elaboration of the smallest details. He reserved to
himself full power of changing, augmenting, or abrogating
them during his life; they were constantly being revised
by him, and it} was not till 1400 that they took their final
shape.

1. The principal* place in his conception was occupied
by his college for the future training of his students at
Oxford. This consisted of exactly a hundred members ;
a warden, seventy students, ten chaplains, three clerks, and
sixteen chorister-boys. The numbers at Winchester were

' He ordered an oath to the statutes to be administered to New College, 16th

February, 1390, and again 23rd September, 1400. To Winchester he ordered the
archdeacon of Surrey to administer the oath, gth September, 1400.

2Stat. Coll. Ox. i. Win. i.

Wykeham pre-
pares statutes
for Oxford and
Winchester.

Composition of
the two
colleges.
~ Eleetion to

the colleges.

204 William of Wykeham.

 

as little varied from this as the different purpose of the
college would admit. The warden was strengthened for
purposes of consultation by ten perpetual fellows, whose
duty it was to look after the concerns of the college, and
to take their meals with the boys in the dining-hall. There
were seventy students, as at Oxford, but these were under
the tuition of a headmaster (zzformator) and an usher
(hostiarius). The chapel staff consisted of three priest-
chaplains (instead of ten as at Oxford), three lay clerks,
and sixteen choristers, in all making a hundred and five
college members.

2, There was to be! an annual election of scholars to
both colleges; for which purpose Oxford was to send to
Winchester every summer its warden and two fellows, to
hold an examination with the assistance of the warden,
sub-warden, and head master of Winchester. The boys
chosen into Winchester were to be poor and needy, suffici-
ently taught in reading, plain song, and “the grammar of old
Donatus”; none but those who showed capacity and fitness
(habiles et idonet) were eligible. At the same time the
senior boys at Winchester were to be placed in order of
merit, so as to fill any vacancies which might occur during
the following year at Oxford. The kinsmen of the founder
were always to have the preference; after them, natives of
places where the colleges held estates; then natives of
counties to the south of England, exclusive of Cornwall
and Devon, and.inclusive of Oxfordshire, Cambridgeshire,
and Essex.

Of the seventy scholars? at Oxford, ten were to be
students of civil law, ten of canon law. The remaining
fifty were to study philosophy or theology ; except that
there might always be two studying medicine, and two
astronomy.

1Ox. 3. Win. 3. 70x 1.
Wykeham and his Colleges. 205

 

3. The next section! of both statute books refers to
the officers, and among them first to the two wardens.
They are both to be chosen by the whole body of fellows
at New College. They both preside over the other
members of their colleges ; but the Oxford warden is the
senior official of the two, and as such takes precedence of
all. In return for their superintendence of their colleges,
an absolute obedience is demanded from the other mem-
bers. They both have suites of rooms assigned to them,
in one corner of the quadrangle, by the entrance gate;
as well as a yearly stipend and daily commons.

At Winchester, its peculiar body of ten perpetual
fellows was to be chosen by co-optation with the aid of
the warden. The three priest-chaplains were to be nomi-
nated by the warden.

There were to be sub-wardens at both colleges, chosen
annually by the warden and fellows. The warden and
fellows of New College were also to elect annually five
deans, one for each of the faculties in which students
were studying, and three bursars ; those of Winchester to
elect the head master and usher, and two annual bursars.

4. Directions? for the use of the dining-halls follow.
The commons of the members of both colleges are exactly
stated, the allowance however being raised in seasons of
scarcity, because of the high price of food; and their
places at the tables are assigned them. A passage of the
Bible is to be read publicly at dinner-time, amid strict
silence ; after a meal students are to disperse at once.

5. Then follow? minute directions as to the dress of
the members of the college. Those at Oxford, who would
be the most tempted to transgress the rule, were warned
against wearing cloaks (cloce), red and green gaiters

Ox. g—14. Win. 6—12. 2Ox, 15--20. Win. 13—16.
3 Ox. 22, 23. Win. 27.

Officers of
the colleges.

The dining-
halls.

Dress of the
members.
Duties of the
members.

206 William of Wykeham.

 

(calige), peaked shoes (sotularia), knotted hoods (caputze),
belts or girdles with gold or silver ornaments ; and, except
at a distance from the university, they might not wear
epaulettes (armulanse). Those at Winchester, in like
manner, were warned against wearing striped (stragulate),
pied (variegate@), or parti-coloured clothes. The dresses
for which the colleges were to be chargeable yearly were:
for the wardens, twelve yards of cloth properly watered,
dried, and shorn, costing 46. 6s. For the fellows at
Oxford, enough cloth to make each of them a waistcoat
(subtunica), coat (supertunica), and long gown (tabarda
talaris ), which last might, if they pleased, be exchanged for
a cape and hood,—of different prices, according to their
different degrees. For the fellows and head master of
Winchester, eight yards of cloth for long robes (¢alares).
The ten chaplains at Oxford had five yards, the three at
Winchester six apiece, the usher at Winchester five, allowed
them. To each of the scholars and lay clerks at Win-
chester, four yards of cloth were allowed to make long
gowns (loge talares), the cost of which was not to exceed
41. 3s. 4d. apiece, and its colour not to be white, black,
russet, or grey! (glauco ).

6. The statutes next * discuss the duties of the members,
and here they are much more lengthy for those at Oxford
than for those at Winchester. But at neither college may
any, except the wardens, keep hawks, falcons (xis),
hounds, or ferrets, or indulge in hunting, fishing, or playing
with stones, within the college enclosures. For the fellows
at Oxford, the time is laid down when they were to proceed
to their several degrees, and when to the priesthood, and
permission is given to help poor men in taking their degrees.
And at both colleges the expenses of those fellows who

1 Possibly, that the scholars might not be confounded with the white, grey,
or black friars, all of whom had houses in Winchester. ‘The statute has long been

directly infringed. 2Ox. 23-32, Win. 17, 38
Wykeham and his Colleges. 207

 

take journeys upon college business are to be paid.

The next branch of the statutes! deals with offences.
No quarrels or bickerings are to be allowed in either college;
the offender is to lose his commons for a length of time in
proportion to his offence. The wardens may be removed
by the bishop of Winchester if they cause dilapidation, or
the alienation of land, or have committed murder, or acted
incontinently. For like crimes any member of the colleges
may be expelled, and the fellowships are zfso facto vacant
if they hold benefices of above £20 a year value; those
below that sum they may hold for a year with their
fellowships.

8. Then follow* minute directions as to the prayers in
private and in the chapels. Their private morning prayers
were to be an antiphon’ and a versicle* out of the matin
service for Trinity Sunday, the Collect® for Trinity Sunday,
and a short prayer for the founder® during his life; after
his death they must substitute for this last another longer
prayer.’ Each one was during the day, at the time which
best suited him, to pray for the souls of king Edward HI
and queen Philippa, and Edward prince of Wales; and to
add prayers for king Richard II and queen Anne after their
death. They were also to pray for the founder’s father and
mother, and for the founder himself when he was dead.

In the chapels likewise certain prayers * were to be said,

1 Ox. 33—38. Win. 19—25. 2 Ox, 42—46. Win. 28—3o.
3 ‘‘ Libera nos,” etc., (Proctor and Wordsworth, f. mxlix).
4“ Benedicamus Patrem”’ (id. f. mlii).
5 ‘*Qmnipotens sempiterne,” etc., (id. f. mxlvii), translated in our Prayer Book.
6  Rege queesumus Domine Willelmum Pontificem Fundatorem nostrum."
7 Deus qui inter apostolicos,” etc.—P. and W. 530.

* The prayers to be said in memory of these were the z30th Psalm, the Lesser
Litany, the Lord's Prayer, the angelic salutation of the Blessed Virgin, with two
collects, ‘‘ Inclina Domine" (P. and W. p. 282) and ‘‘ Fidelium Deus” (Id. p. 532).

9 De profundis " (Ps. 130), the Lord's Prayer, the angelic salutation, and the
collects, ‘‘Inclina Domine” and ‘‘Absolve quaesumus"’ (P. and W. f. meccexlvii).
_After the founder's death they were to insert, ‘‘ Deus, qui inter apostolicos’’ before
these two last collects.

Offences, how
punishable.

Prayers in
public and
private.
208 William of Wykeham.

 

three times a day—after high mass, after nones, and after
compline, at the end of which prayers the ruler of the choir
was to say aloud (after Wykeham’s death), “ May the soul
of our founder William, and the souls of all the faithful
dead, through God’s mercy, rest in peace.” The same
service was to be repeated after the grace which followed
breakfast and dinner daily in the hall) The warden and
fellows of New College were also to hear a mass daily, and
to repeat the Salutation fifty times, with the Lord’s Prayer
inserted after every tenth repetition of the Salutation.

The services at the canonical hours were strictly enjoined.
on both colleges ; and, in addition, processions round the
cloister at New College.! At eleven great feasts of the year
the warden, or a principal. person of the colleges, was to
officiate ; at other feasts, the persons of less dignity. On
the feast of the Holy Innocents, the boys (apparently the
choristers) were to say and sing matins and the other
canonical hours, according to the Sarum use? Seven
masses were also to be said daily, except on Good Friday :
the first for the Virgin; the second for the repose of the
souls of benefactors; the third for the day, according to
Sarum use; the fourth specially for the first of the
benefactors, Sir Ralph Sutton; the fifth for two others of
the same, Sir John Scures and Thomas Foxley ;° the
sixth and seventh for the founder. Besides these daily
masses, there were to be at New College four yearly
exequies for the souls of these benefactors ; and the anni-
versary of the day of the founder’s death was always to be
celebrated with a special service at both colleges. Special
prayers also were to be offered at New College for John
Buckingham, bishop of Lincoln, in grateful remembrance of

1 The Winchester cloister being not yet built.

?P. and W. ff. cexxx, ccxxxii, cexly.

*A fourth and fifth are added for Winchester — Andrew Jervis and John,
Woodlock.
Wykeham and his Colleges. 209

 

his gift to the college of the advowsons of Swalcliffe and
Adderbury ; and an English sermon was to be preached in
the chapel on the feast of the Annunciation.

g. The next section of the statutes! was about the
property of the two colleges, the manors, advowsons, and
other possessions belonging to them, which were not to be
alienated, nor pensions to be granted out of them, Then
followed? two in each code upon the arrangement of the
buildings, and the different uses to which each was destined :
these have already been referred to in the narratives of the
first occupation of the colleges. Then arrangements? as to
the financial business of the two colleges, progresses to
examine the state of their property, audits of their accounts,
and fair copies of the same.

10, After this follow * miscellaneous rubrics, in almost
the same words in the two codes: on the holding of days of
scrutiny into the state of the colleges; the preservation of
the libraries and of the statute-books; a prohibition of stone-
throwing against the chapels, and of dancing or violent
games in the halls; and on closing the gates of the two
colleges. And last of all followed*® the summing up of all,
and the statement of the main purpose of the foundations,
which has already been referred to.

This main purpose was the education of poor and needy
(pauperes et indigentes) scholars until they arrived at the
priesthood of the Church. But an ambiguity arises on the
terms “poor and needy.” By these words, Wykeham
certainly did not mean to denote the lowest class of the
population, or anything like it. These may have been “ poor
and needy” in the general sense of the words; yet,.they
would have had no exclusive claim to Wykeham’s benefac-

1 Ox. 48—s1. Win. 11, 32, 33. 7 Ox. 52, 53. Win. 34,35.
3 Ox. 54—58. Win. 36—39. 4Ox. 59—67. Win. 40—45.
> Ox. 68. Win. 46.

Property of the
colleges.

Arrangement
of buildings,

and other
business.

Miscellaneous
rubrics,

and conclusion.

What class did
Wykeham’s
scholars belong
to?
Origin of
** commoners,”

270 William of Wykeham.

 

tion. Let us examine the early registers of Winchester, to
see whom he actually took for education. Among the first
twenty-five scholars admitted, all have English names ;
there are no Norman names among them. Clearly, there-
fore, they did not belong to the upper classes. Nine! of
them have local names, among them Wykeham ; three—
Carpenter, Frocker, and Constable—are names of trades ;
six—Gold, King, Herring, Pollard, Little, Pear—are names
which probably originated in nicknames. In short, the
aspect of the names points to their being extracted from
the class from which Wykeham himself came, that of the
upper churls. It was for this class, doubtless, that Wyke-
ham would feel the most sympathy in their endeavours
to get into the ministry ; these, doubtless, formed the bulk
of his scholars, though here and there a boy of humbler
extraction might have been recommended by some
influential patron.

Meanwhile, it is quite certain that boys of a higher rank
could find no place among them, both because they could
not have been called “poor and needy,” and because
Wykeham provides for such elsewhere. “We allow,”? he
says in his statutes, “that the sons of noble and capable
persons who are special friends to the said college be able,
to the number of ten, to be instructed inside the same
college in grammar, and also taught, being no expense to
the said college ; yet so that on that account no prejudice,
loss, or scandal arise or emerge in any way whatever to
warden, priests, scholars, clerks, or any servants of the said
college.”* To these also Martin refers, when he says, “ He

' Brooks, Well, and Crook indicate possibly a lower social stratum than Hatton,
Twyford, Wykeham, Moordon, Wroughton, and Wyke.

2Stat. Win. 16.

5“ Permittimus tamen quod filii nobilium et valentium personarum dicti collegii
specialium amicorum, usque ad numerum decennarium, infra idem collegium
in grammatica instrui valeant, et etiam informari absque onere collegii supradicti:
ita quod ea occasione przejudicium, damuum, vel scandalum, custodi, presbyteris,
scholaribus, vel clericis, aut alicui ministrorum ejusdem collegii non fiant aut eveniant
quovismodo,""—Stat. Win. 16.
Wykeham and his Colleges. 2Ir

 

brought up, at his own cost, a great many boys—as appears
from the Winchester college archives—besides those who
were enrolled members of the college, in the city and
suburbs of Winchester, who were taught in the college
along with his own students.” ?!

Wykeham’s was indeed a grand conception, and
for five hundred years it has borne noble fruit. Yet
“the fruit that it has borne has not exactly tallied with
what must have been the founder’s expectation. He
expected that his foundation would be a seminary for
priests of the English Church; and well has even that
ideal been fulfilled. And yet, had it been as exclusive
as he wished to make it, it would have had all the faults
as well as the advantages of a seminary. But it has
developed into something wider than a mere seminary
for clergy. It has developed into a public school, and
the first in date of our English public schools. And the
accident by which it has done so has been the inter-
fusion among its members of these commoners whom
Wykeham thus allowed to mix with his scholars. He
probably did it entirely for the sake of the commoners
themselves ; had he anticipated their beneficial effect upon
his scholars he would have allowed them to come in a
larger proportion than that of one to every seven. Yet
the number of commoners has increased till it is nearly
five times that of the original seventy ; and Winchester is
by no means now an exclusively clerical school.

But what made the school so popular, what at first
attracted the fi/di nobilium, was the adequacy of the course

‘'Przeterea pueros etiam complures (ut ex archivis collegii Wintoniensis
constat) extra eos qui in collegium fuerant ascripti, in urbe atque suburbiis
Wintonize, qui una cum alumnis suis in collegio instituerentur, suis sumptibus
aluit.""—Martin, iii, 2, p. 207. I see no reason for distinguishing these two classes
of commoners from each other, as Mr. Adams does, and making them respectively
the ancestors of the ‘‘ gentlemen commoners,” and the ‘‘ ordinary commoners : -

though these both undoubtedly existed as distinct classes in the 16th century.—
Adams’ Wykehamica, pp. 102—107.

Wykeham thus
the Father of
the public
school system.
212 William of Wykeham.

 

of instruction there given to meet the needs of each succes-
sive generation. This was what from the first has made
Winchester a popular school; and of this Wykeham was
the original author. We may therefore deservedly entitle
him the Father of the public school system in England.
And to anyone who considers what that system has made
of Englishmen for the last five hundred years ; what man-
liness and self-respect it has engendered, at the same time
that it reproves eccentricities and idiosyncrasies,—this will
not seem the least of the many honours which crown the
name of the humble bishop of Winchester.
CHAPTER X.

WYKEHAM’S SECOND CHANCELLORSHIP.
A.D. 1389—139I.

Ties RICHARD, although for the first few months

of 1389 he was still apparently kept down by the
strong arm of his uncle duke Thomas of Gloucester, was
working secretly towards a resumption of power. And he
succeeded in detaching the earls of Derby and Nottingham
from the party in office, and getting their promises of
support. Duke Edmund of York was notoriously an
inactive, indolent man, who would never undertake respon-
sibility single-handed, and who counted for little more than
a cipher in the counsels of the opposition. The king’s
two chief remaining enemies were Gloucester himself, and
Richard earl of Arundel, the Chancellor’s brother, who had
but just returned from a successful naval campaign along
the coasts of France.

Richard now resolved to win back his power by one of
his bold strokes. He entered (May 3rd, 1389) into the
council chamber, and asked how old he was. The answer
was that he was twenty-three. “Then,” said he, “I must
certainly be of age; I will no longer submit to restraint, but
will govern the kingdom for myself.” He then demanded
the Great Seal from archbishop Arundel, who at once
handed it to him in its leathern bag. The king put it into
his bosom, and went out; but returning at once and
resuming his seat, offered it to the bishop of Winchester.

The king work-
ing towards a
resumption

of power.

He suddenly
offers the Great
Seal to
Wykeham.
Wykeham
hesitates,

but finally
accepts office.

214 William of Wykeham.

 

Wykeham was very loth to accept it ; indeed he at first
declined it altogether! He was not an ambitious man,
and the experience of twenty years before had been such,
that we may easily conceive him unwilling to renew it.
The months during which he had lost the favour of his.
sovereign had been the direct consequence of his former
tenure of office.

Yet there was much to point in the opposite direction.
He could not but be conscious that his management of the
war with France, which had broken out soon after the
beginning of his former chancellorship, had been a failure ;
but now there was a probability of the war being sus-
pended, and being succeeded by peace. In point of fact,
within the next two months a truce was concluded for
three years, which was lengthened out until king Richard
married the daughter of king Charles. Foreign relations.
being thus tranquil, Wykeham’s chief concern in the
chancellorship would be the internal affairs of the kingdom.
And here he must have felt, as the king also no doubt felt
in pressing the Great Seal on him, that he could do what
perhaps no other man in the kingdom could do towards.
pacifying the rupture between the king and the lords, and
settling the government of the country upon a solid con-
stitutional basis. He was committed to neither side; his
affection for the king dated from the time when his father
prince Edward was living: and it would really be of lasting
benefit both to him and the country if he could, as he
thought he could, reconcile the contending parties by
moderate and yet firm conduct. And the sequel of events
showed that he was in the right.

No doubt he sounded the king anxiously, to know how
far he was willing to take advice ; for on this depended all
his chances of doing good. The king was in earnest in

1“ Quamvis plurimum renitentem."—Walsingham, p. 337.
Wykeham's second Chancellorship. 215

 

wishing for his services as Chancellor; and therefore he
could make pretty much his own terms. He consented
the next day (May 4th) to undertake to start the new
administration; and the Great Seal, enclosed in its leathern
bag! (daga de corio), was formally delivered to him by the
king. Out of this Wykeham drew it the next morning at
eight o’clock in the chancery, after which the business pro-
ceeded regularly. He chose for Treasurer his old colleague,
bishop Brantingham of Exeter, who had already filled this
office during the two last years of Wykeham’s former
chancellorship ; who was his Keeper of the Privy Seal we
are not told.”

The composition of the privy council was the first
anxiety of the new Chancellor. The king was opposed
to the whole body of the appellants, with the exception
of Derby; and Wykeham was forced for the present to
yield the point, though he must have determined to
secure as impartial a council as he could at the first prac-
ticable moment. The other four appellants were there-
fore dismissed—duke Thomas of Gloucester, and the earls
of Arundel, Nottingham, and Warwick.

On May 8th, probably by Wykeham’s advice, the king
by proclamation informed the people that he had taken the
reins of government into his own hands, that he intended
faithfully to maintain the ordinances of the parliament at
Westminster, and that he should suspend the collection of
the subsidy which had lately been granted, till he was
better convinced that his necessities required it.

On the 15th of August the truce was signed with
France for three years and a day.*’ This was no doubt

1 Rym. vii, p. 617.

2''Le gardein de prive seal” is always mentioned as present, at the council
meetings, but his name is not given.—Nicolas’ Proceedings of the Privy Council.

3 Rym. vii, 617. 4 Rot. Parl. iii, p. 257.

Privy council,
how composed.

King's
proclamation.

Truce with
France.
Minutes kept
of privy council
roceedings.

Dispute with
king about
governors of
Scottish
marches ;

216 William of Wykeham.

 

what Wykeham had looked forward to on becoming Chan-
cellor; and it must have been a really joyful event to him,
as his powers lay more in the direction of peace than of
war.

About the same time bishop Brantingham resigned the
treasury, and Wykeham appointed instead John Gilbert,
bishop of St. David’s, who served for the remaining dura-
tion of his chancellorship.!

The same month marks an era in the proceedings of
the privy council. For on the 20th was the first meeting
of that body of which record exists. Not much is known
about the procedure before this; the council was “ privy”
or “secret,” and probably no record of its proceedings was
made. But now Wykeham, who was the senior member
of the council as well as the Chancellor (having been its
President not less than twenty-five years before), resolved
upon keeping short minutes of such proceedings; and
henceforth we have the minutes of such meetings as took
place, hardly ever less frequently than once a month, often
once a week, or on two or three successive days. At its
first meeting, August 20th, there were eleven members
present besides the Chancellor, four of them being the
prominent Lollard knights, Sir John Clanvow, Sir William
Neville, Sir Lewis Clifford, and Sir Richard Sturry.

In the month of October a serious difference of opinion
arose between the council and the king. It was again on
the subject of the payment for defending the Scottish
marches, on which Wykeham had spoken out in parliament
six years before. These marches were garrisoned all along
the line, and especially by the strongholds of Carlisle and

, "Stubbs, ii, p. 485.

? Proceedings of the Privy Conncil, by Sir H. Nicolas. The name of the first
clerk was John Prophet, whose hand-writing is often illegible. The records are
kept in French. The meetings this year were on August 2oth, September 13th,
October 15th, November 2th, 13th, 20th, 22nd, 28th, and 2gth, and December roth.
Wykeham’s second Chancellorship. 217

 

Berwick, which cities were defended by governors appointed
by indenture to last for a term of years, and paid by salary,
who also were usually the wardens of the west and east
marches. The warden of the west march and governor of
Carlisle was now Sir Henry Percy, called Hotspur, to
distinguish him from his father, the earl of Northumberland ;
and Thomas Mowbray, earl of Nottingham, and marshal of
England, was the warden of the east march, and governor
of Berwick. Perhaps there was some friction between him
and Hotspur, the warden of the west march ; at any rate, he
applied to be continued in his office, at a salary of £4,000 a
year for the governorship of Berwick in times of peace, as
well as £2,000 for guarding the marches; and 412,000 in
time of war, besides an extra force of men-at-arms and
bowmen. The king! was favourable to his demand; he
wished to gain Nottingham over to his side by liberal
pensions ; but Wykeham and the council, among whom was
Northumberland himself, withstood it. They pointed out,
by the Chancellor, that the existing indentures extended to
the following June, and that there.was no need to make a
fresh bargain before that date; that the sum the marshal
demanded was a heavy one, and must be paid by taxa-
tion, which would make the people’s burdens heavier than
ever. The king was very angry, and tried to scold them
out of their opposition. Nevertheless, they refused to give
up their point ; on which the king left them in a rage, and
saying, “At your peril be it if anything happens,” retired
to his palace at Kennington.

Next day (16th) the members of the council held an
informal gathering without the king in the Star Chamber
at Westminster. They again discussed the point, and
unanimously resolved to stand firm in their refusal to
sanction the appointment. Of this resolve they apprised

1 Proceedings of Privy Counctl, i, p. 12.

privy council
insist on their
opinion ;
dispute
compromised.

New pope
claimsadhesion
of England.

218 William of Wykeham.

 

Richard at Kennington. The king saw that he was opposed
by wills as resolute as his own, and suggested a compromise.
It was that the marshal’s governorship of Berwick should
be confirmed for five years beyond the term of his former
indenture, and on the same conditions. He added that he
saw no such impossibility in this ; and that the same might
be done in the case of the earl of Northumberland, who
might similarly be made governor of Carlisle and warden
of the west marches. This compromise was finally agreed
to unanimously.!

This scene shows us to what difficulties Wykeham was
liable during his administration. The king had been wont
to let all public business alone, except by fits and starts ;
but now he had declared his intention of governing, which
he had no notion of doing except despotically. But he was
met by a firm but constitutional opposition, which refused
to give way at his bursts of violence, and acted under
consciousness of being responsible to parliament for the
advice they gave. The king had but one alternative: if he
had persisted, Wykeham would have resigned, and so the
hopes of moderate policy which he had conceived last May
would have been at an end.*

In November, the council met no less than six times.
On the 2oth, it was occupied with discussing the position in
which England was placed by the death of pope Urban VI,
which had happened on October 15th, but of which the
news had just come, and with it that of the election of
his successor, Boniface IX, who sent to claim the adhesion
of England. Northumberland advised the king to say that
he could not take so important a step without the advice of

' Proceedings of Privy Council, i, p. 12.

2Cf. Nicolas’ Introduction to Proceedings of P. Council, ‘' Thus some support
is afforded to the charge brought against him at his deposition, that he was accus-
tomed at councils to reprimand and interrupt the members in so sharp and sudden
a manner as to prevent them from expressing their sentiments.”
Wykeham’s second Chancellorship. 219

 

his parliament, which was not in session! This course was
decided on, and on the 20th, two members of the privy
council—Sir John Dallingridge and Sir Lewis Clifford—
were despatched to Rome with messages to this effect.

Wykeham now began to feel sufficiently strong in his
position to make a move in Gloucester’s favour ; but first
he desired the presence in England of duke John. He had
absolutely forgotten the past, and he wished the king also
to forget it, and to receive both his uncles with favour.
Richard, sore as he had felt with duke John before his
going abroad, hated him less than his brother Thomas, and
thought that he would prove a valuable makeweight to
Gloucester’s influence. He, therefore, wrote to Lancaster,
(October 30th) bidding him return® Duke John had not
been so successful in war as in the arts of diplomacy. The
army with which he had attacked Castile in alliance with
Portugal had dwindled away, and he himself fell sick and
was obliged to withdraw to Guienne. While there, he had
induced the king of Castile to marry his son prince Enrique
to his own daughter, Catherine, in whom was vested her
mother’s claim to the throne as daughter of king Pedro the
Cruel. This marriage had taken place in 1388, and now
duke John was quietly residing in Guienne. On the receipt
of the king’s message, he asked for letters patent giving him
formal authority to come to England. These were given at
the end of November ;* and in the first day of December,
duke John crossed the channel.

Immediately on his return, Lancaster persuaded the
king to a sort of reconciliation with Gloucester ; and both
of them, with the rest of the appellants—Arundel, Not-
tingham, and Warwick—were re-admitted to the privy
council. Wykeham had now secured the point at which he

! Proc. of P. Council, i, p. 14. ? Rym. vii, p. 648.
3 P. of P. Council, i, p. 14. # Td, py IZ.

King sends to
Guienne for
duke John.

Appellants
re-admitted to
privy council.
Parliament,
1390, opened
by Wykeham.

220 William of Wykeham.

 

had been aiming,—a fairly representative council, composed
of the men who had been in arms against one another
in the previous year. The king, in spite of occasional
outbreaks, was for the most part kept in check in a
constitutional manner; and this wonderful result was
arrived at through the sagacity and firm moderation of the
man whom the king had had the wisdom to select as
Chancellor.

Matters had thus settled themselves by the time the
king and Chancellor were called upon to face parliament,
in January, 1390. On January 17th the lords and
commons assembled, and Wykeham opened the debates
as usual by declaring the reasons of their summons.
The principal reason,’ he said, for such summons was
“because the king, who has been for a long time of tender
age, is now of such age, thank God, that he is of greater
sense and discretion than he was before. And however
much he has been all the time well-disposed to govern his
people in quiet, peace, and tranquility, right, and justice,
he is now more and better disposed and firmly purposed
to govern his said people and his land still better, if better
he can. And he wishes that as well holy Church as the
lords, spiritual and temporal, and the commons, should so
have and enjoy their liberty, franchises, and privileges
henceforth, as they have reasonably used and enjoyed them
in the time of his noble ancestors the kings of England.”

After this apology, which was conceived in the same
spirit as Richard’s proclamation on the first formation of
his new ministry, Wykeham proceeded as follows :—

“And further he declares that the kingdom is sur-
rounded with enemies, namely, France, Spain, and Guienne
on one side, and Scotland and Ireland on the other. None
can yet know for certain whether the truce which now

"Rot. Parl. iii, p. 257.
Wykeham’s second Chancellorship. 221

 

obtains between our lord the king and his adversaries of
France and Scotland, to last from the 15th day of August
last past at sunrise, to the 16th day of August, A.D. 1392,
at sunrise, will hold good or not. And however much it
holds good, still there is need that we take order for the
safeguard of the march of Scotland, and of Calais, Brest,
and Cherbourg, and also for the protection of the lands of
Ireland and Guienne in the meantime. Also we must
debate upon the embassy to procure a treaty of peace, and
the articles of which they shall treat, and the terms on
which they shall finally agree. The king cannot, as is well-
known, in any way bear the costs and charges necessary
on this account, without aid from his lords and commons ;
and therefore it is needful that they take counsel and order,
how and in what manner the said costs and charges can best
be taken and raised, at the least charge to the people.

“Also the king wishes,” he proceeded, “to be informed
by the commons how the laws of his land and the statutes
are kept and executed, and his peace maintained in all
parts of his kingdom: and to be informed if any distrust
the laws; and particularly of those who undertake and
maintain quarrels and strifes in the land, to the disturbance
of the law and oppression of the people. You must debate
how such evils can best be redeemed and remedied, and the
kingdom best governed in time to come. Moreover the
said commons are bound, as of right and before God, to
inform the king of these matters, and to put forth all their
care and diligence to amend such faults to the best of their
power.”

Then followed the usual clause about the king’s wish
that right and justice should be done to all; and the
appointment of clerks of the chancery to receive complaints,
and of lords to answer them.

Next followed an unprecedented step, in which we

Ministry resign
their offices,
and are
restored,

222 William of Wykeham.

 

seem to trace the handiwork of the Chancellor. On the 20th
January “all the lords of the privy council prayed the king
to consider the great troubles and costs which they had
constantly borne and suffered whilst they held their offices,
and to discharge them.”! Richard gave the required leave
to the ministry to resign, and further discharged his privy
council. Coming therefore before parliament as private
individuals, they prayed openly in parliament that if any
wished to complain of them that they had done any wrong,
they would do so now before the king, lords, and commons.

-The parliament was upon this adjourned to the next day,

when the king ordered the duke of Lancaster to enquire
what answer the lords and commons gave to the members
of his late privy council. They replied that they had made
enquiry, and found that everything had been done
well: and the commons thanked the lords of the council
for their faithful and good conduct. ‘“ Whereupon, the king
charged the bishop of Winchester again with the office
of Chancellor, and again delivered to him the Great Seal
and also the Treasurer; and took again the councillors
to his council, and together with them the dukes of
Lancaster and Gloucester.”

We see that Wykeham’s determination to be constitu-
tional at every.step here went hand in hand with his
personal desire not again to run any risk of accusation,
when the facts of his administration were half forgotten.
For the privy councillors whom the king had removed
when he became Chancellor had been appointed by parlia-
ment itself in the session of 1388; and on this plea, the
parliament might well have challenged all the proceedings
of the present ministry. But we can quite understand how
this step should have been somewhat displeasing to the
king, for he had only exercised his undoubted constitutional

Rot. Parl. iii, p. 258.
Wykeham’s second Chancellorship. 223

 

right in appointing both the ministry and privy council.
Though, therefore, Richard consented that the privy
councillors should take oaths of loyalty in full parliament,
he recorded his protest, that nothing now done should be a
precedent, but that he should be able to appoint and
remove his officers as he chose.

This scene over, and a number of petitions having been
presented, which almost all had reference to the state of the
Church, parliament proceeded to business, which occupied
it for the next six weeks. We have no record of its
proceedings ; we only know the result—a statute confirming
that of 1351 about Provisors. This was the result of a long
agitation on the subject which now had culminated.
Urban VI, in return for the decision by which parliament
recognized him as pope, had issued a bull reserving the
two next vacant prebends in every collegiate Church, and
handing the nominations over to the king. This was acting
against the spirit, but not against the letter, of the statute
about Provisors passed in 1351. To this, the parliament
replied by a further restrictive law; no subject, under the
penalties of the statute of Provisors, was henceforth to
administer the benefices of aliens. But the king continued
to keep up his friendship with the pope by means of royal
licenses—the dispensing power which he was allowed by
that statute—in favour of the cardinals who were beneficed
in England: and the pope, in return, confirmed the
concordat between Edward III and Gregory XI, made
at Bruges in 1374. Yet the parliament went on adding
restrictions to the statute of Provisors; while the king
went on dispensing individual cases, and so practically
rendering the statutes almost nugatory.

There can be little doubt on which side Wykeham
‘would be, when the choice lay between the position taken
‘up by the parliament, and that of the king.

Statute of
Provisors, 1390
224 William of Wykeham.

 

The result was that the parliament of the spring of
1390 passed another statute of Provisors, a statute main-
taining some of the principles which actuated the reforming
house of commons in 1534.

After referring to the words and effect of former statutes:
of the same kind passed in the last reign, the preamble
discusses the origin and purpose of the gifts of lands and
possessions to the Church. Pious men, often kings, gave
them liberally for God’s honour, and the benefit of their
souls, and of those af their fellowmen. To them, therefore,
belongs the right of presentation on voidance of Church
dignities or other benefices ; in defeat of which the pope
issues reservations, and provides to ‘such benefices aliens,
to the extreme inconvenience of the people, and contrary
to the statute of 1361; and always upon such reservation
demands the firstfruits from the incumbent whom he.
provides. This is the cause why further legislation is.
needed: and such further legislation follows, in a very
trenchant form. The statute declares that elections to
bishoprics and other dignities, as well as to other bene-
fices, shall be free, as they were originally; that if the
pope exercises the right of provision, the turn of pre-
sentation shall be forfeit to the king. Anyone disturbing
free elections by procuring reservations or provisions from
the pope shall be imprisoned on conviction, and give
surety against such attempts in future. All provisions
granted before the 29th of January next following shall
hold good, all after it shall be null and void. Anyone.
accepting a benefice contrary to this statute shall be
banished for life, and forfeit his lands and chattels. Any-.
one suing to Rome to infringe this statute shall be heavily
fined. Anyone bringing or sending into England any
summons or excommunication against a person for en-
forcing this statute shall forfeit lands and goods, and.
Wykeham’s second Chancellorship. 225

 

besides incur the penalty of life and limb,! and he who
shall publish such excommunication shall lose his tem-
porals, if a bishop; if not, shall be imprisoned and fined.*

This was intended to be, and was, a severe blow to the
papal interest in England ; so severe that the two arch-
bishops thought themselves obliged to enter a protest
against it. They protested that “they intended nothing
in restriction of the apostolic power, or in subversion,
enervation, or derogation of the libérty of the church,”
but refused such statutes as tended tc them.®

This protest was made on March 2nd, the day on which
the parliament broke up. On the same day the amount of
the subsidy which the lords and commons had decided to
grant in return for the concession of this statute was
declared ;* and Lancaster was made duke of Aquitaine for
life, for which he did homage to the king as king of France,
and was invested with the ducal cap and gold rod.

At the next meeting of the privy council, on March 8th,
Wykeham submitted the rules he had drawn up for
the future guidance of the privy council.® These rules
were so rigorous and so drastic, that we naturally wonder
that the king submitted to be thus bound. It.seems like
a revival of the commission of 1386; but it was less
objectionable in form, seeming to emanate from his own
privy council; and so the king did not remonstrate, but
let them take effect. They were as follows :—

1. The lords of the council shall meet between nine and ten
in the morning at latest.

2. *The business of the king and kingdom shall take pre-
cedence of all other.

’ This clause was the subject of a petition from the present parliament ; and the
next clause was from the answer to the same. Rot. Parl. iii, p. 270.

2 Statutes of the Realm, i, p. 243 and seqq.
3 Rot. Parl. iii, p. 264. 41d. p. 262. 5 Id. p. 263.
6 Proc. of P. Council, i, p. 18.

Archbishops
protest
against it.

Dissolution of
parliament.

Rules for the
privy council
submitted by
Wykeham,

and approved.
226 William of Wykeham.

 

3. Matters touching the common law shall be sent to be
determined before the justices.

4. Matters touching the Chancellor’s office shall be sent to
him in the Chancery.

5. Matters touching the Treasurer’s office shall be sent to
him in the Exchequer.

6. Matters in which the king’s license is necessary shall be
shewn to the king.

7. No grant in decrease of the king’s profit shall pass without
the advice of the council, and the assent of the duke of Guienne
{Lancaster], York, and Gloucester, or at least two of them.

8. Other matters of great charge shall be determined by
advice of those present, with the public officers.

g. Other matters of less charge shall be determined by Privy
Seal with those present.

to. The ordinances touching offices in the king’s gift shall
be held and kept.

11. None shall be made sheriffs or justices for life.

12. Bachelors of the council shall have reasonable wages for
their time.

13. Knights of the council shall be recompensed for their
labours and costs at the king’s and council’s advice.

14. When a matter is once entered upon, it shall be finished
before any other be touched.

Such were the regulations for the despatch of business
by which Wykeham’s address gained the main points at
issue between the king and the appellants. Henceforth no
king’s grant was to be valid unless revised by his uncles ;
the ordinances, meaning those of 1381, were to be strictly
observed ; and no grants for life of the offices of steward or
justice were to be valid.

Richard seemed content. Whether he really was so,
or was only biding his time, must always remain uncertain.
But we may surely presume that he was in earnest in
making the attempt to govern constitutionally. He had
acted with real self-restraint in the matter of his banished
Wykeham’s second Chancellorship. 227

 

favourites. The kingdom was at peace and prosperous.
A strong hand and a wise head was at the helm of the
administration.

The only person who seemed dissatisfied with the state
of things was the pope. Boniface IX remonstrated at
once. He sent an abbot to the king to enquire about this
law which had been passed. The abbot told the king that
the pope’s wonder was extreme on hearing what had been
done; that he did not wish to diminish the royal pre-
rogative ; yet he hoped that the obnoxious statute might
be abolished.!

In the midst of the peace of England the weather
proved inauspicious. Another visit of the plague, especially
fatal to boys we are told, put England into mourning.
This was followed by a rise in the price of corn and fruit ;
nevertheless, under the influence of a good harvest, they
cheapened in the autumn.?, And on November 12th—the
morrow of St. Martin’s day—the parliament met again.

On that day the Chancellor opened the proceedings
with the usual speech :—

“He began by rehearsing many notable instances of the
importance of good government: first in general, and then more
especially of the good and noble government of our lord the king
all his reign. And then he proceeded that the king wished that
holy Church and the lords spiritual and temporal, as also cities
and boroughs, should have and enjoy their liberties and franchises
in future, as they have reasonably had and enjoyed them in the
time of his noble ancestors, the kings of England.

“And further, he said (to give the substance only of his
words), that treaties had been entered into between the king
and his adversary of France for a certain time, as openly was
declared at the last parliament. And that the bishop of Durham,
the earl of Northumberland, and others, had been now of late to
Calais on an embassy from the king to treat of peace, and had
reported to the king of their said embassy. And the king must

1 Walsingham, 344. 21d. pe 943.

Pope remon-
strates with
the king.

Second
parliament
1390, opened
by Wykeham ;
grants an aid,

228 William of Wykeham.

 

send a more formal embassy thither about Candlemas next to
treat of a final peace, if it please God ; which thing he does not
wish to do without the advice and assent of the lords spiritual and
temporal, and the other sages of his council.

“And also the bishop of St. David’s, Treasurer of England,
the earl marshal, and others, have been on an embassy from the
king to the marches of Scotland, to treat with the Scots of the
truce concluded by them with the French. But the said Scots
will not yet agree to the said truce. It seems better that the
king should have war there than peace; but the king does not
wish to make nor undertake the war without the advice and assent
of the lords and commons; yet these envoys, or others, must
be sent thither about the said Candlemas to re-open the negotia-
tion with the Scots.

“And then he rehearsed the great charges and costs which
were bound to be supplied, as well for the safeguard of the said
march of Scotland, and of the land of Ireland, as of Calais, Brest,
Cherbourg, and Guienne; and also for negotiating the said
treaties. It needed, he said, to take order in time for the war,
in case neither a final peace, nor longer treaties, could be had.
And the king could not bear nor supply all the charges and costs
necessary for this purpose without the aid of his land; and there-
fore he wishes to be counselled in this parliament, how the said
charges and costs can best be borne and supplied, with the least
loss and inconvenience to his people.”

The parliament sate for three weeks; not much was
done besides granting an aid. The dukes of York and
Gloucester petitioned the king that he would grant them
%#1,000 a-piece which he had promised;! on which the
lords and commons pray that the royalties of the crown
should not be harmed, but the king be as free as his pre-
decessors.? They plainly were jealous that so much money
should accumulate in the hands of the king’s near kinsmen.
The petition was granted, “seeming honest and reasonable
to the king”; but the former petition was granted also.
On March 3rd the parliament thanked the king for his
good government, and his continual zeal for the good of

' Rot. Parl iii, p. 278. 21d. p. 279.
Wykeham's second Chancellorship. 229

 

his people; and the king thanked them for their liberal
aids, and so dismissed them.}

Wykeham had mentioned the date of Candlemas, or
the Purification, as that about which he recommended
sending embassies both to France and Scotland. As
a matter of fact, they were not sent so soon. The ambas-
sadors to France were constituted on the 8th of April,
1391, and their instructions given them in the privy council
of the 19th® and 28th April.3 They were not able to
obtain more than a prolongation of the truce for a year;
but at the expiration of this time it was prolonged again
and again. The instructions to the Scottish ambassador
were issued in the council of the 27th May.* The Scottish
king, Robert II, the son of David Bruce, had died the year
before; he had been succeeded by his son, Robert III, who
was a cripple, entirely under the influence of his brother
Murdoch duke of Albany ; and the Scots had broken the
truce. Now, however, they were glad of the opportunity
of renewing it.

On the 27th of September,’? Wykeham resigned his office.
He very probably had stipulated, when he accepted it, that
he should be allowed to resign as soon as he had fairly
started the new constitutional system. If this ‘were so, he
claimed the king’s promise to release him at a time when
everyone would have acknowledged that he had been most
successful. He was probably, at the moment, the most
popular man in England. When he entered on the ministry,
Richard, it was clear, contemplated a new departure
of some kind; Wykcham had bent that new departure
into the beginning of constitutionalism. The king had
hated and suspected the appellants and their party ; now,
not only were all the appellants in the privy council, but

1 Rot. Parl. iii, p. 283.

2Proc. of P. Council, i, p. 19. 3 Id. p. 22. 11d. p. 27.
5 At Windsor, in the Painted Chambre.—Rym. cit. Walcott, p. 73.

andis dissolved.

Embassies to
France and
Scotland.

Wykeham
resigns the
chancellorship.
September,

1391.
Sequel of his
legislation.

230 William of Wykeham.

 

Wykeham surrendered the Great Seal to Thomas Fitz-
Alan, called Arundel, archbishop of York, the brother of
his own old friend, Richard Fitz-Alan, earl of Arundel.

Thus ends his public life; nor, except when the
exigencies of a new reign compelled him to come forward
as an old man, did he ever meddle in politics again. But
he had now set the government on a footing upon which it
could continue. The succeeding Chancellor carried on his
designs of conciliation. The peace lasted unbrokenly. The
legislation was mostly on ecclesiastical matters, and all
in a nationalizing direction. Thus, the statute of Mortmain
was amended and enlarged in 1391; and, in 1393, the
statute of Provisors was safeguarded by that known by
the name of Pramunire, which again’ did but follow the
precedent set in 1353, and maintain the exclusive right of
jurisdiction over English Church interests for English
courts.

Had things gone on according to the precedents set in
these years of Wykeham’s administration, Richard’s reign
might have been long and prosperous. But the one cause of
the sad tragedy which was now enacted was the instability
of Richard’s own character. In the last chapter, we shall
see how speedily and how mournfully he came to the end
which, like Rehoboam, deserting the counsels of his old
friends for that of younger men, he was mad enough to
draw upon himself.
CHAPTER XI.

WYKEHAM AS A _ BISHOP.
A.D. 1367—I404.

F a bishop of the nineteenth century has many cares
besides “the care of all the churches,” this was even
more the case with his predecessors of the middle ages.
He still, besides holding his ecclesiastical position, is a peer
of the realm, and as such has the right to sit and vote in
the house of lords. But Wykeham, besides this state
function, and the fact that he was occasionally an actual
officer of the state, was the owner in fee-simple of many
manors scattered throughout the south of England; the
guardian to some extent of the commercial interests of his
cathedral city; and the visitor of the conventual institutions
therein. In this chapter we will contemplate him in these
three capacities.

I. And first, as the owner of manors pertaining to
the see.

It has already been mentioned that the bishop of Win-
chester was owner of sixteen manors. Of these ten were
within his own diocese, six beyond its borders. At seven
of the ten within his own diocese he was a constant visitor :
indeed it was the regular custom for a bishop thus to travel
from one to another of his houses within his diocese, and
make that a centre for discharging his episcopal functions
in the neighbourhood. The seven houses at one of which
he was usually to be found were,—Wolvesey in Winchester,

Wykeham as
owner of
manors
pertaining to
the see.
Description of
Wolvesey
castle,

and episcopal
manor.

232 William of Wykeham.

 

Southwark near London, South Waltham, Farnham, High
Clere, Esher, and Marwell. Of these Wolvesey of course
was the principal, though not the one which he visited
the most frequently.

The grounds of Wolvesey castle immediately adjoined
the Cathedral precinct on the east, and thus lay at the
south-east angle of the city of Winchester. The bishop
had manorial rights over the whole of the precinct as well
as castle, and thus was in fact a co-ordinate authority with
the city magistrates, owning more than a fourth part of the
whole area enclosed within, the city walls. To this we
must add a large irregular suburb to the east and south
called the Soke, which was also within his jurisdiction ;
as suburbs both to the north, east, and west were within
that of the city authorities.

The castle ground of Wolvesey itself was an irregular
square, bounded on the south and east by the city wall, on
the north by a wall running almost parallel to the southern
wall, and on the west by a mill stream which was part of a
system of irrigation for the lower parts of the city devised
by bishop Athelwold ; and which, diverging to the south-
west from the bridge over the Itchen at the bottom of
the High street, feeds the mills of St. Maty’s Abbey,
Wykeham’s college, and the suburban farmstead called
De la Berton. In the middle of this enclosure lay the
castle of Wolvesey, of which the ruins may yet be seen.
It was built by bishop De Blois in 1138, and so strong are
the outside walls that it is evident that originally they were
part of the actual city walls, though those walls have in
later times taken a wider sweep.

But this is but a small part of the episcopal manor.
To the west of the mill stream lay the rest of it, the
Cathedral precinct proper. Across that stream the southern
wall was prolonged westward for nearly two hundred yards
Wykeham as a Bishop. 233

 

to the Kingsgate ; and there the Close wall parted from the
city wall, and ran parallel to it for almost two hundred
yards further, to the corner of what was called Minster
street, but now is known as Symonds’ street; thence for
four hundred yards it ran in a north-north-westerly direc-
tion to the present Square; after which it turned abruptly
eastward, and ran as far again parallel to the High street,
almost as far as Colebrook street: when it made a third
corner and ran due north, so as almost to touch the east
end of the Cathedral itself; from which another two
hundred yards in a north-easterly direction brought it to
join the north wall of the Wolvesey ground at the Lock-
pond. This large area was that of the episcopal manor ;
and within this the bishop possessed the rights of a lord of
the manor. But besides this his jurisdiction extended
outside the city wall over the parishes of St. Michael and
St. Swithun, with part of St. Faith’s, St. Thomas’s, and
Chilcombe, the Vill of Milland, the parishes of St. Peter
Cheesehill and St. John, and part of St. Bartholomew
Hyde parish. This large suburb went, as part of it still
goes, by the name of the Soke; a name which, derived
from soc, a participle of swcan, “to seek,” denoted first the
right of investigation which the lord of the manor had, and
secondly, the area within which that right was exercised.
In the angle of the wall by the gate to the Close which
stood near, but at right angles to the King’s Gate, was
the courthouse, called Cheyney Court, where the manorial
business was transacted by the lord, or in his name. Here
the bailiff of the Soke sate every Thursday, except red-
letter days; and besides this ordinary court, there were
courts leet held twice a year, on the Thursdays after Easter
Day, and after Michaelmas Day. There were two con-
stables, one for the East and one for the West Soke, the
latter of which lay to the south of the city; and each
Taunton castle
and priory.

234 William of Wykeham.

 

portion had three tythingmen or aldermen. The prison to
which misdemeanants were committed was at the High
street end of St. John’s street, beyond the Soke bridge ;
and opposite it stood the Soke public stocks, often used as
an alternative to imprisonment.

A complete counterpart to this was the manor of
Taunton in Somersetshire, with its castle and its priory.
The manor of Taunton was originally given to the see of
Winchester by Frithswith, queen of Ethelheard, king of
Wessex, in 737, and enriched by king Ethelwulf in 854.
There was a castle! and a borough, which paid duty to each
bishop of Winchester in succession, till they were torn away
by Henry VIII, and sold for less than a thousand pounds.
As lord of the manor of Taunton, Wykeham got king
Richard to inspect and confirm a “ record of the perambu-
lation ” of the borough, that is, to confirm its old bounds
and limits? (4th February, 1386). There was also a priory
of Augustinian canons founded by bishop Giffard of Win-
chester at the beginning of the twelfth century, of which his
successors were always the patrons. We learn from his
Register what were the relations of a patron to the priories
under his care. In December, 1377, the officers and the
canons regular of the priory appealed to him against the
continuance in office of Walter Grateley, their prior.’
Wykeham persuaded him to retire voluntarily ; and, on
April 1oth, 1378, “commended” John Kingsbury to be
prior,* writing to bishop Harewell of Bath and Wells that he
had “appointed” Kingsbury prior of Taunton. Kingsbury
died November 5th, 1391 ; the sub-prior sent to ask, in the
name of the convent, for leave to choose another.’ On this
being given, they chose Walter Cook, who was confirmed

1 Wykeham appointed Roger Dore constable of this castle in 1379. Reg. iii, 270.
? Brit. Mus. Additional Charters, 24, 881.
3 Reg. iii, 165. 41d. 166. 5 Id. a5.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 235

 

by Wykeham, and commended for induction to bishop
Harewell (November 27th). He also, on July 5th, 1380,
appointed a vicar to the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen
in Taunton,! thus caring for the spiritual needs of the
inhabitants, and asserting the right to do so against the
bishop of Bath and Wells.

Towards the priory of St. Swithun, in Winchester, the
bishops of Winchester had a similar relation. The history
of this priory, as far as it is ascertained to be genuine,
is that a body of secular canons, under the rule of a
dean, occupied the neighbourhood of the Cathedral for
a hundred years before 964, when bishop Athelwold, a
reformer like Dunstan, who had been raised to the see a
year before, expelled them, and planted in their stead a
body of Benedictine monks, under the rule of a prior;
calling the establishment the Old Minster—in opposition
to the New Minster once adjoining it, but now removed to
Hyde—or the priory of St. Swithun. Thenceforward the
bishops of Winchester exercised the right of confirming—
on election by the brethren—and on occasion removing the
priors ; and themselves, according to the regular custom,
which, however, was encroached on both by the king and
the popes, were chosen by the prior and brethren in full
conclave. When Wykeham was elected, Hugh Basing was
prior: he died in 1384, and Dr. Robert Rudborne was
chosen instead; and to him succeeded, in 1394, Dr. Thomas
Neville, who was still prior when Wykeham died.

Of course, the successive priors of St. Swithun’s had to
guard the rights of the priory against the bishops as
against other men, and a certain amount of friction was
engendered by the clashing of the interests of the two.
Thus it had from time immemorial been customary that on
each visit paid by the bishop to Wolvesey or any other

1 Reg. iii, 243.

Priory of
St. Swithun,
Winchester.

Disputes of
priors with
Wykeham.
i!

 

 

t

Visitation of
priory, 1373,

236 William of Wykeham.

 

residence in Winchester, the “domicellus” of the priory
should present him with eight loaves in wastell baskets and
one pint of wine, saying at the same time these words in
French, “Monseigneur, Saint Pierre et Saint Paul vous
envoient.” Prior Basing first set the example of with-
holding some of the bread and wine; and the new practice
was followed in the next priorate, and for the first four
years of prior Neville. But in 1398 Wykeham came to an
agreement! with prior Neville whereby it was settled that
the ancient amount should be offered, and accompanied
with the old words, in French, Latin, or English. At the
same time several other outstanding disputes were settled.
The tenants on the estates of the two corporations were
not to trespass on one another’s lands; the prior and the
bishop were to halve the expense of keeping up the bridges
over the Lock-pond and the mill stream outside the
south wall, and those of Prior’s Barton ; the monks are to
abstain from hunting in and to repair the bishop’s warren
in Morestead ; and the prior is to do homage to the bishop
for a holding in High Clere,

No part of his episcopal duties gave Wykeham greater
concern than the proper regulation of this monastery. It
would seem to have been in a bad condition at the
beginning of his episcopate ; and, in spite of his strenuous
efforts, it was not wholly amended at the time of his death.

His first visitation of it took place on June 13th, 1373.
He writes from Southwark and cites “Our beloved spouse
the Cathedral Church, and all the monks and brethren, and
the chapter of the same Church, to appear to be visited on
that day.” We have no record of the result, and probably
there was little hope of amendment while Basing was prior.
But again, thirteen years later, shortly after Rudborne had
succeeded, he cites them to a similar visitation to be held

' Reg. iii, 323.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 237

 

on July oth, 1386. On that day he was prevented from
keeping his engagement “by divers businesses of the king
and kingdom”; so he cited them again on the November
7th following, to appear on February 11th, 1387. The
subject which engaged his attention was the lax condition
of the monastery, and the neglect by the brethren of
the rules of the order. Accordingly, a few days before
(February 8th) he drew up a code of regulations, which he
caused to be read to the assembled convent at his visitation,
and required all to keep. In these he frequently refers to
the information gained at his former visitation; and the
insight thus given us! into the interior of a monastery is
exceedingly curious.

He had found them lax even about keeping the canonical
hours, about frequency of celebrating mass, and confession
before it, and keeping the rule of silence. He had found
laxity about closing the cathedral doors, and that the
monks were in the habit of talking to the townspeople
who used the Slype gate to pass through the cloisters to
and from the High street. The monks were very ignorant,
and frequently did not understand what they read; they
had forgotten the rule of the Benedictine order. They
broke the rule of dining in common in the refectory, and
that of giving dinner to the needy. They were in the
habit of going into the country upon small excuse; they
had a secular instead of a brother for cellarer, who was
unmerciful to the poor ; the brethren hunted and fished, and
kept hounds ; the number of monks had fallen from sixty
to forty-six ; the bread was bad, the beer thin,’ and the
other victuals unwholesome. The prior failed to render
an account of his administration every half-year to the

‘MS. New Coll.

? This was caused by the neglect of the prior, who provided the bread and beer.
Consuetudinary of Refectory, St. Swithun's priory, 1; edited by Dean Kitchin.

and again 1387,
when he gives
regulations

to correct the
gross irregu-
larities he has
found.
238 William of Wykeham.

 

assembled convent. The private monks took rent of the
churches and manors, yet their very places were falling
into disrepair. The payment of pensions, corrodies, etc.,
which the convent had contracted to make, diminished the
funds for charity. Offices were accumulated on the same
person ; the chantries were neglected, because the priests
were unpaid ; the almoner did not distribute all the frag-
ments left from the prior’s hall and refectory.!. The sub-
prior neglected the sick, and the chambers in the infirmary
were frequently bespoken privately, and not allowed to be
common to all. There was partiality in awarding punish-
ments. Both brethren and the hospital sisters dressed too
expensively ; the sisters in Calabrian furs and such like, the
brothers in silk belts, gold and silver ornaments, etc.
Lights were not duly placed at night all round the
premises, but were taken away as dangerous, instead of
being looked after. Old customs as to pittances, etc., on
feast days were neglected. The prior neglected to change
the chaplain after one year’s service.

These were heavy grounds of complaint: but to each
of these Wykeham addressed himself, ordering the remedy
for each, and that it should be applied under pain of appro-
priate penalties. These penalties are curious, as giving us
the scale of the enormity assigned to the various offences.
The heavier penalty of all was the major excommunication,?
which was assigned to the neglect of divine service on the
plea of other duties. The next was deposition, or removal
from the office the offender had abused: such was reserved
for ten of the above offences. Whipping was one penalty
for infraction of the rule of silence. The next was to put

' Consuetudinary of Refectory, St. Swithun's priory, p. 9.

2 "By this the offender was debarred, not only from the Eucharist, but from
taking part in all religious acts in any assembly of the Church, and from the
company of the faithful in the ordinary concerns of life.""—Dictéonary of the Bible,
art. ‘‘ Excommunication,” i, p. 113.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 239

 

the offender on bread and water, either for a year (this was
the penalty for appropriating the rents to private use), or
till the prior thought fit to release him (this for not con-
fessing before Mass). The most common and the lightest
was a diet of bread, beer, and beans, either for the next six
week-days, or twice a week for a month, or the next
Wednesday and Friday, or the next Wednesday only.

We have no means of knowing how these severe regula-
tions were kept: but as to the number of the monks, we
do know that the efforts to raise it were unavailing. It
still stood at forty-six in 1393, when Wykeham held his
next visitation; and though he then made it one of the
principal subjects on which he insisted, it had still further
fallen to forty-two at the time of his death nine years later.

The other subject of his inquiry in 1393 was the repair
of the fabric of the Cathedral. We have already seen that
something was being done towards this in 1371, not four
years after Wykeham’s accession, when he speaks in his
Register of the theft of “stones hewn and unhewn, chalk and
cement for the new work of our Church aforesaid, which
were prepared at great expense for the purpose of making
good the building.” The extent of this work of repair we
do not know. But it seems unreasonable to suppose that
Wykeham would have let the principal Church of his
diocese be so dilapidated, without doing anything to remedy
it, for more than a quarter of a century after he had come
to the episcopate ; when he had during that time expended
an untold amount of money on his two colleges at Oxford
and Winchester.

II. Weare next to speak of Wykeham as the guardian
of the commercial interests of the city of Winchester.

A medizval bishop was accustomed to interfere more
with the worldly concerns of his neighbours than would be
thought right now. They were the people committed to

Number of
monks
diminishing.

Cathedral
wants repair.

Wykeham as
guardian of the
commerce of
Winchester.
Guardian of St.
Giles’ Fair.

240 William of Wykeham.

 

his charge—his “subjects,” as Wykeham calls the citizens of
Winchester in his Register. He was careful to look after
the health of their souls; and very curious examples of
this are to be found in his Register. One deed! is a
mandate to barbers and hairdressers, telling them not to
“ wash, shave, or cut” hair on Sundays. Another? tells the
“ parishioners of his archdeaconries, and particularly shoe-
makers making new shoes, and others of the same trade or
of a lower grade of workmanship who mend shoes,” to:
abstain from plying their trade on Sundays and feast days,
and to shut up their shops; and requires the rectors of his
archdeaconries to warn shoemakers of either grade, and
their apprentices, not to do so.

But the chief reason of his authority lay in his position
of guardian of the annual St. Giles’ Fair. By a grant of
William Rufus to Bishop Walkelin® a fair was held each
year on St. Giles’ day (September Ist) and the two next
days, on St. Giles’ Hill, the steep escarped hill which rises
abruptly above the Itchen to the east of Winchester.
Henry I extended the three days to eight, during three of
which the profits of the fair were to be given to Hyde
Abbey, the “ New Minster” having recently been transferred
to Hyde. Stephen prolonged the fair-time to fourteen
days ; Henry II to sixteen. By this time the fair had
become one of the best known in Europe, and as it was
held on land within the manor of the Soke, it was under
the bishop’s jurisdiction. All the ground‘ about St. Giles’
chapel, and from thence to the brow of the hill, was densely
covered with booths—some permanent, some only tem-
porary—laid out in rows or streets, called, after the
different wares sold in them, the Goldsmithry, the Drapery,

1 Reg. il, 253. 21d., ib., and cf. 329.

3 Charter of Edward III for St. Giles’ Fair (Winchester Cathedral Records, No.
2), Pp. 14.

“ Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poetry, fi, p. 55. Milner, ii, 229. H. of H. i, PP. 291, 292.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 241

 

Spice street,! Wool street, Wheelers’ strect, etc., or accord-
ing to the places represented: Fleming street, Caen street,
Cornwall street. On the eve of St. Giles’ day the mayor
delivered up the keys of the city gates to an “usher”
appointed by the bishop, who received toll on all mer-
chandise brought up for sale in the bishop’s name. He sat
to try cases in dispute in the “pavilion,’? and determined
them according to a special code preserved in a “Con-
suetudinary ” of the fair.3 During the days the fair lasted
all the shops in the city were closed, and in every place
within seven leagues or twenty-one miles of the city—an
ordinance which must have suspended trade for the time in
every town in Hampshire. The bishop strictly forbad the
traders to linger beyond the sixteenth day, as they were
much inclined to do. The woods by which Winchester is
surrounded were guarded by horsemen, for protection of
the numerous caravans of merchandize against the robbers
who were attracted by them.

The attraction of these fairs no doubt kept up the trade
of Winchester for a time. But it was already on the
decline. It had ceased long since to be the royal city, but
exclusive privileges had been given to it over and over
again by the kings, and in the year 1337 King Edward III
established here one of his ten great staples for the sale of
wool, wool-fells, and leather. For a short time Winchester
prospered, and a large piece of ground in the western
quarter of the city was laid out* by the enterprise of the
citizens in the requisite manufactories. But after twenty-
six years of prosperity (in 1363), the right of staple was
removed from all these ten English towns and fixed at

1 Bk. of Winchester Charters, p. 11.
2See the appointment of John Combe as perpetual usher of the pavilion in
St. Giles’ fair.—Reg. iii, 260.
3 Reg. Pontissara, f. 201 (cit. Hist. of Hampsh.).
‘H, of H., i, p. 289. Still known as Staple Garden.
Religious
houses in
Winchester.

Hyde Abbey.

242 William of Wykeham.

 

Calais only ; and from that day the trade of Winchester
declined. The great fair, however, kept up its popularity
for a time, until, in the reign of Henry II, even the fair
itself went out of fashion, and ceased to be the annual
gala-time for the south of England.

III. We will next say something of Wykeham’s dealings
with the different religious houses in the city of Winchester
and through the diocese.

1. Of the first of these, the priory of St. Swithun, we
have already spoken above. The next for consideration
is Hyde abbey, once the New Monastery of Winchester.
The New Monastery or Minster had been founded by
Grimbald,! carrying out thus a long-cherished design
of king Alfred, about the year goo, for Augustinian
canons, on a piece of ground nearly adjoining the older
Monastery of the Cathedral Church of St. Swithun. The
Augustinian canons had been reformed into Benedictine
monks in 965 ; and the abbey had been ruthlessly plundered,
first by the Conqueror, and then by his nephew, bishop
Henry de Blois. But between these two dates the monks,
finding themselves still further straitened as to their site by
the building of the Conqueror’s palace, in 1110 had moved
their buildings into a meadow to the north-west of Win-
chester, called Hyde-Mead, from the Hyde-Bourne, a small
affluent of the Itchen. Here for four centuries Hyde abbey
existed, and for a time flourished ; but learning, to which,
according to the original design of Alfred, it was to have
been devoted, was never much attended to within its walls.
For the first thirteen years of Wykeham’s episcopate
Thomas Pechy was the abbot; he dying in 1380, was
succeeded by John Eynsham, who, on January 21st, 1381,
took the oaths of obedience and fidelity to Wykeham
Five years after Wykeham addressed to him a letter, to be

‘ Liber de Hyda, Intr. xxiii (Rolls Series).
? Reg. i, 113.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 243

 

found in his Register! It tells him that there are certain
chapelries belonging to the Church of Micheldever (in the
possession of Hyde abbey) of which the revenues have
been diverted from their rightful owner the chaplain, and
exhorts him to restore them to him.

In 1390 (April 3rd), the new pope Boniface IX sent to
Wykeham a bull commanding him to confer upon the
abbot of Hyde a mitre and a pastoral staff? This he
accordingly did, and the abbot of Hyde took rank with
the mitred abbots who had the right of attending the par-
liaments ; thus actually taking precedence of the prior of
St. Swithun’s, who, though also mitred, was only a prior.

Abbot Eynsham died July 3rd, 1394,3 and was succeeded
by John Letcombe, who was still living when Wykeham died.

z. Another religious foundation coéval with the last
was the abbey of St. Mary, or “Nunnaminster,” as it was
called, founded by Ealhswith the queen of Alfred for nuns,
but not completed or consecrated till the reign of her son,
Edward the Elder. The building, which lay between High
street and Colebrook street, in very extensive grounds,
are said to have been destroyed in Stephen’s siege of
Winchester; if so, they were rebuilt, for the monastery
certainly was a flourishing institution later. For the first
eighteen years of Wykeham’s episcopate, the abbess was
Alice Mare, who had succeeded in 1365 ; she died in 1385,
and Joan Deymede was elected instead.*| The ruins of the
abbey have since totally disappeared ; only a house and
a lane are known by the names of Abbey house and Abbey
passage.

3. We have already had occasion to mention St.
Elizabeth’s Chapel,’ which adjoined Wykeham’s college to

’ Reg. iii, 226. 21d. 249. 3 Reg. i. 334. 4H. of H. i, p. 313.
5 Commonly called St. Elizabeth’s College ; but its title in Reg. iii, 32, 79, 231,

327, is only ‘‘Capella Sanctze Elizabethe."’ Later, however, it was called a
“College” and a ‘‘ Hospital.” ~

St. Mary's
Abbey.

St. Elizabeth’s
Chapel.
Houses of
Friars.

244 William of Wykeham.

 

the east. It had been founded by bishop John of Pontoise
in 1301, for a provost, six priest-chaplains, six clerks, and
six choristers.! Its founder had endowed it with the
revenues of Hursley parish Church ; but bishop Edingdon
had wanted the rectory house at Hursley to reside in when
his duty called him to those parts, and the provost and
chaplains had made it over to him again. Wykeham, when
he came to be bishop, did not want it like his predecessor,
and conveyed it once more to St. Elizabeth’s, on the assign-
ment of a mark yearly to him and his successors for the
same John Shepton was the provost with whom this
arrangement was made (1372); he was succeeded by
Thomas Boys, who died in June, 1387.2. But towards the
end of Wykcham’s life (September Ist, 1400), certain
irregularities drew upon the establishment a visitation from
John Elmer, the bishop's officiary, and Simon Membury,
the treasurer at Wolvesey, whom the bishop authorized to
examine and canonically punish, if necessary, the authors of
certain crimes and excesses, and examine the provost’s
accounts, and his inventory of the goods of the Chapel.* It
seems as if something had been going on—what, we know
not—besides the regular service of prayer, for which the
Chapel was founded.

4. Besides these, there were the Friars’ Houses, which the
later part of the thirteenth century had seen established in
every Cathedral city in England. Winchester had all the
four different kinds of them. The Franciscans, or Grey
Friars, had their establishment between the Lower and
Middle Brooks ; the Dominicans, or Black Friars, at East-
gate ; the Augustinians, also Black, outside the South gate ;
the Carmelites, or White Friars, beyond the old wall in the
college meads. The Order of Friars Preachers had also

'H. of H. i, p. 314.
? Reg. iii, 79. 31d. 231 ‘Id. 327.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 245

 

chosen Wykeham the conservator of their privileges in
England.!

As a pendant to this chapter we must record Wykeham’s
dealings with the priory of Selborne. This was a priory of
fourteen Augustinian or Black Canons, which had been
founded by bishop des Roches in 1233. To this priory
Wykeham was bound by peculiar ties, of what nature
we can only conjecture. In 1377,> the year in which a
new prior John Weston succeeded John Winton, Wyke-
ham out of mere goodwill and liberality discharged all the
debts of the prior and convent, paying for that purpose
473. 19s. tod. But in ten years the debts had grievously
accumulated again, and in 1387% he visited the convent
in person, and observing that each time that he had visited
it before he had found heavy fault with it, imposed a set
of rules to correct its irregularities. These rules are for the
most part identical with those which he imposed the same
year on the monks of St. Swithun’s priory at Winchester,
but a few are peculiar to the canons of Selborne. Thus the
number is to be raised from 11, to which they have sunk,
to the original number of 14. They are never to sleep
naked, but to be decently clothed at night. They are
never to stand godfathers to any boy. They are not to
appear in public wearing gaiters of brown cloth or stock-
ings They are never:to perform the Occasional Offices for
those that seek them, without license from the parish priest ;
they are to be cleanly and decent in regard of their sacred
furniture; they are to recall all relics of saints, Church
plate, vestments, and books lent out on pawn, and not to
part with them again; and to frequent their cloisters for
the purpose of reading and meditation.

1 Reg. iii, 186, 203. 2 White’s Se/borne, Harting’s edition, p. 467.
3 Notabtilis visttatio de Selborne, 1d. pp. 458—467.

4 ««Caligas de burneto vel sotularia.”

Priory of
Selborne.
Wykeham
fond of

** exchanging
his clergy.

Improves roads
and bridges.

246 William of Wykeham.

 

But fourteen years after the convent was again in
grievous debt. Wykeham, therefore, on the 7th of May,
1401, made them a present of 100 marks, or £66. 135. 4d. :
which prior Weston acknowledged the same day as an
act of liberal almsgiving, and for which he promised that
two canons of the priory should for the spage of ten years
say masses daily for bishop Wykeham, or for the repose of
his soul when he died.

One thing more should be added here, as it presumably
relates to Wykeham’s government of his diocese.

In the first part of his register, as has been mentioned,
are contained all the institutions to benefices which he
made during his long reign. Of these institutions, which
number many hundred, the most frequent cause is exchange.
The rector of one church exchanges with the rector of
another; and quite the most usual reason for applying for
institution was that the man had been appointed per viam
permutationis. We meet with cases where the same Church:
changes hands eight or nine times during Wykeham’s epis-
copate of forty-seven years. Surely this points to a principle
of his administration; that of changing his parochial
clergy every five or six years, and passing them on to
other benefices. This is not the place to discuss the
merits of this system. That it must have had great.
advantages all will allow; and it was comparatively easy
to shift unmarried men thus from place to place.

Nothing seems to have struck Wykeham’s contem-
poraries more than his efforts for the temporal well-being
of the “subjects” of his diocese; and among these, his.
improvement of the roads in Hampshire and Surrey, and
his re-building of bridges. Heath reckons among his bene-

1 Reg. ili, 334. The ‘‘soul of Roger Gervays” is coupled with the name of
Wykeham in the promises of prayer. Cf. Andrew Gervase or Jervis, for whom.
Wykeham asks prayers at Winchester, Pp. 208, 7 3.
Wykeham as a Bishop. 247

 

factions to his diocese, his “mending muddy roads and
broken and unsafe bridges.” And Aylward tells us that
“he had a kindly compassion for travellers: for between
Winchester and London, and elsewhere in very many places,
he caused the muddy, wet, and filthy roads to be cleaned,
heightened and repaired for human feet... . A traveller,
who before walked through difficult ways in these places,
now might gratefully say of him, ‘He made a way for my
feet.’”*
‘ 1 Heath, 13. 2 Aylward, 5.
Wykeham
seventy years
old.

The king
humiliates
Arundel,

CHAPTER XII.

WYKEHAM’S LAST YEARS.

A.D. 1394—1404.

YKEHAM had now reached the full age of three-

score years and ten: an age when most men shrink
from new undertakings. Yet he began a. considerable
architectural work, the renovation of the nave of his
Cathedral, after he became a septuagenarian. And the ten
years which he lived after this date were fruitful in the sad
events which completed the strange tragedy of the life and
reign of Richard II. Until quite the end of this monarch’s
reign, Wykeham did not come forward, or take any part in
public life: yet we must not omit a slight sketch of those
events which so powerfully affected, and must have so
sadly interested, one who had been the intimate friend
both of his grandfather and his father.

The king during the years which followed Wykeham’s
second administration appears to have slowly and patiently
pursued one end: that of crushing in detail the party that
had destroyed his friends in 1388. For this end he had
first secured the friendship of duke John of Lancaster, and
then he had detached the earls of Derby and Nottingham
from the following of duke Thomas -of Gloucester. Events
fell in with his wishes. A revolt in Cheshire had been put
down by duke John in 1393; this the duke in the next
year’s parliament accused the earl of Arundel of having
fostered. Arundel replied by complaining of the exclusive
Wykeham’s last years. 249

 

favour shown to Lancaster by the king. The king insisted
on an apology ; Arundel yielded, and was pardoned. Thus,
one of the three—Gloucester, Arundel, and Warwick—
whom the king was bent on crushing as having been the
others who made up, with Derby and Nottingham, the five
original appellants, was humiliated before the nation.

The chief of the three, Gloucester, was at this moment
the popular champion of the French war. The war with
France had closed with the truce for three years of August,
1389, with which Wykeham’s administration had begun ;
but this itself had followed immediately upon Arundel’s
successes in the naval campaign of the spring of that year.
Thenceforth the triumvirate were in favour of renewing the
war, and rivalling the glories of Edward III’s reign. Not
so Lancaster, who had just accepted the duchy of Guienne
from the king: and the king himself was wisely in favour
of peace. Consequently, in May, 1394, a truce was
concluded for four years, much against the popular feeling.

On June 7th, 1394, queen Anne died at Sheen.t We
have already noticed how strangely the death of the king’s
grandmother, queen Philippa, coincided with the decay
of the brilliant powers of Edward III. Queen Anne also
appears to have exercised a very real restraint on Richard
II, and the removal of her influence was disastrously felt in
the sequel by the whole kingdom. At her funeral, the
king quarrelled with the earl of Arundel, and actually
struck him so as to draw blood within the precincts of
Westminster Abbey. Lancaster, York, and Derby, lost
their wives about the same time, and the same year saw
four royal widowers. But none of them remained widowers
long. Lancaster married Catherine Swynford, the mother
of his Beaufort sons, and gave great offence to Gloucester
and York by so doing. The death of Derby’s wife broke

' Wykeham desires prayers for her soul.—Reg. iii, 276.

and disgusts
the nation by
renewing the
truce with
France.

Death of queen
Anne, 1394;
The king
marries Isabella
of France,
1396.

King seizes
Arundel,
Warwick, and
Gloucester.

250 William of Wykeham.

 

the tie which had bound him to Gloucester, for their wives
had been sisters. And when in November, 1396, the king
married Isabella of France, and concluded a truce for
twenty-five years, Gloucester’s disgust culminated, and the
French alliance became as unpopular as the French peace.

Richard a few months before had translated archbishop:
Arundel from York to Canterbury, and the pope had
employed Wykeham to give him the pall.! It was the
last sign of favour that he bestowed on any one of the
popular party, and it is difficult to see the king’s design
in it. It might almost seem as if he did not identify
Thomas Fitz-Alan with the policy of his brother the earl ;
but if so he was mistaken in his man. And after his
French marriage his plans ripened fast. Duke Thomas
reproached him at the council-board for tamely surrender-
ing Brest and Cherbourg, and withdrew into the country,
followed by the Earl of Arundel. And now the king
determined to strike. By the advice of eight of his friends,
headed by Nottingham, he laid an ambush for them on
July 8th, and thus caught Arundel and Warwick.
Gloucester he seized in person the same day at Pleshy,
and sent him in custody to Calais. On August 5th it was
settled that the triumvirate — Gloucester, Arundel, and
Warwick—should be in their turn appealed of treason for
the lawless acts of 1388, by the same eight lords who had
advised their arrest. Foremost among them was Notting-
ham, himself one of the five appellants on that former
occasion, and inseparably mixed in all the lawless acts
which he now denounced. The rest were Rutland and
Somerset, the sons of York and Lancaster; Kent and
Huntingdon, the king’s half brothers; lords Salisbury
and Despencer, and Sir William Scrope.

It should be noticed that in this arrest neither duke

1 Hook, iv, p. 432.
Wykeham’s last years. 251

 

John of Lancaster, nor his son Henry of Derby, took any
part. Lancaster himself, perhaps, was too nearly of kin
to his brother Gloucester to make it safe that he should be
trusted with the secret ; and this makes it the more possible
that Gloucester’s death was determined on from the first.
As to Derby, his position must have been one of singular
uneasiness. He had been one of the first appellants, the
only other besides the three who were now being. accused,
and Nottingham their most forward accuser. He may well
have been disquieted as to his own foothold in the king's
favour ; and we cannot blame him for relying much on his
great popularity with the Londoners, to whom he had
greatly endeared himself.

Others, besides Derby, must have been uneasy also.
Who could tell that the king’s vengeance would be satis-
fied when he had struck at the first appellants? that he
would not visit the commissioners of his household also?
Six out of the eleven who had accepted seats on that
commission in 1386 were still alive. Gloucester and
Arundel, who were now in prison, were two of them,
York was a third, lords Cobham and Scrope of Bolton
were two more, the sixth was Wykeham himself. Wyke-
ham, it is true, had taken no part (that we can discover)
in the obnoxious proceedings of the commission ; he had
since been a Chancellor, and favoured by the king. But
in the chancellorship itself he had risked a good deal by
his attempt to reconcile the king with all the unfortunate
three who were now to be his victims; and he could not
get rid of the fact of having accepted the office of a com-
missioner. It was under these circumstances that the king,
always greedy of loans, determined to make him feel his
advantage over him, and demanded (August 1oth) a loan
of £1,000 from the bishop of Winchester. Wykeham was

Derby uneasy,

and Wykeham.
Parliament
Sept., 1397;

King pardons
Wykeham.

Parliament
adjourned to
Shrewsbury,
1398.

Arundel at
Rome.

252 William of Wykeham.

 

known to be a wealthy man ; it was not safe to refuse, and
the sum apparently was promptly paid.

Meanwhile, the king had issued the writs convening his°
parliament for the 17th of September. It met on that day
in a thoroughly subservient frame of mind. On the 2oth, it
repealed the statute establishing the commission of 1386,
and the pardons which had been granted to the three
imprisoned lords ; and the same day the archbishop was
impeached and found guilty by the commons. On the
21st, the new appellants formally accused Gloucester,
Arundel, and Warwick. In Gloucester’s absence, Arundel
was tried first. He persisted in his refusal to confess, and
was beheaded the same day. On the 24th, Nottingham
stated that the duke of Gloucester could not be produced,
as he had died in prison at Calais. On the 28th, Warwick
was tried ; but he made a confession implicating Gloucester,
and was sentenced to be imprisoned for life in the Isle
of Man. On the same day, the king pardoned the other
three who had been commissioners—Yorke, Scrope, and
Wykeham. On the 29th, he wound up his revengeful
proceedings by giving a step in the peerage to seven of the
eight who had acted as appellants—the eighth, the earl
of Salisbury, was dead—and conferred besides the dukedom
of Hereford on Derby, and the earldom of Westmoreland
on lord Neville. Then, he adjourned the parliament to
meet again at Shrewsbury on January 28th, 1398; where,
in a three days’ session, it confirmed the king in a power
too absolute to be stable.

Richard now seemed to have triumphed over all his
enemies. But in reality he was surely preparing for
himself the Nemesis which was to overtake him in a few
months. The end had actually begun in the banishment of
archbishop Arundel. Arundel retired to Rome, whither
Richard sent after him a request to the pope to translate
Wykeham’s last years. 253

 

him to some other see. This the pope did, and appointed
Roger Walden to the vacant see of Canterbury, desiring
Wykeham to deliver him the pall Thus irretrievably the
king made an enemy of the man who proved the next year
to be the leading conspirator against his throne.
Meanwhile, Norfolk—as Nottingham was now called—
and Hereford had quarrelled. Norfolk had expressed him-
self unguardedly in a conversation which was meant to be
private, but which came to the ears of the king. The king
bade Hereford state before parliament what Norfolk had
said. Hereford asserted that he had accused the king of
conspiring to “undo” them both, as well as his father, the
duke of Lancaster, and three other lords, for their share in
the rebellion of 1388. The assertion may well have been
true ; Norfolk and Hereford, the only two appellants
left, must have been dismayed to think that the king’s
vindictiveness would surely pursue his old enemies, when
he had done making use of them. But Norfolk gave Here-
ford the lie, and offered to do battle with him thereon. The
challenge was accepted, and the lists were prepared at
Coventry in September. But Richard saw his opportunity
to get rid of them both. He stopped the combat, and
banished them both. The sentence on Norfolk was
vindictive, considering that he had been the chief instru-
ment in Gloucester’s ruin. He was banished for life, and
all his estates forfeited to the king. With Hereford, he did
not deal so hardly. Perhaps Richard thought he might
yet be useful, and put off his extermination till a later
opportunity. His exile was to last ten years only; the
king sent him at Calais a present of a thousand marks.
But when, the next February (1399), duke John of

1 On 17th February, 1398, at High Clere, Wykeham delivered the pall to Roger
Walden in obedience to the pope's bull, making him take an oath (dictated by
pope Boniface) against the anti-pope. Reg. iii, 300.

Quarrel
between
Norfolk and
Hereford :

both banished
Sept., 1398.
Arundel meets
Henry of
Lancaster in
Paris.

Wykeham
engaged in
political
business.

254 William of Wykeham.

 

Lancaster died, Richard persuaded the parliament to
declare that Henry’s banishment precluded him from
inheriting the title; nay, that even his patent as duke of
Hereford had been illegally procured, and, therefore, was
forfeited. This filled the cup of the wrath of the people,
especially the Londoners, and consultations were held as to
the propriety of recalling him. Archbishop Arundel came
from Cologne to Paris in disguise, on purpose to see him,
and persuade him to attempt his restitution by force.

This (May) was the moment chosen by the infatuated
Richard for visiting Ireland to avenge the death of the
earl of March. This, too, was the moment chosen by
Wykeham for the appointment of a suffragan, Henry
Twillow, bishop of Ennachdun, to perform all ecclesiastical
acts within his diocese for six months ; saying that he him-
self was “so occupied with the affairs of the king and
kingdom as to be unable to bestow time on the pastoral
care of his diocese.”

What did he mean? We know of no public appoint-
ment which Wykeham had undertaken: and yet these
words, and their coincidence with the king’s departure,
must mean that the bishop was deeply engaged during
these weeks with something political. Its nature we
cannot guess; but Wykeham repeats the same phrase in
publishing (14th May), for signature by all the ecclesiastics
of his diocese, a schedule of an oath which the king had
insisted on their taking, of obedience to the statutes and
ordinances of the late obsequious parliament of Shrews-
bury.!

It is possible that Wykeham by this time anticipated
what was so speedily coming; though to what extent he
was in the secret of it of course we shall never know. He
remained at Esher till the end of May ; for June he went

"Reg. iii, 312. Given at length in Lowth's Appendix, No. XIV.
Wykeham’s last years. 255

 

to Southwark; and retired for the next three months to
Farnham. Let it be remembered that Wykeham went in
fear of his life at this time; that this. was no less anxious
a crisis for him than the last few months of the last reign,
that of Edward III: for had Richard succeeded in crushing
the Lancaster rebellion, he would at once have proceeded
(as Wykeham doubtless took for granted, and as was too
probable) to crush the survivors of those who had been
arrayed against him as commissioners.

Meanwhile duke Henry and archbishop Arundel
hastened to take advantage of the infatuated king’s
absence in Ireland. On July 4th they landed at Ravenspur
in Yorkshire, and were at once joined by the powerful earls
of Northumberland and Westmoreland. They left Raven-
Spur with forty men; they appeared before London with
60,000 men, Henry protesting that he only came to claim
his rightful inheritance of Lancaster. Richard landed in
Wales on August 9th, was trepanned and captured by
Northumberland on the 18th, and brought the next day
into the presence of Henry, at Flint, who promised to help
him govern better.

That same day (August 19th) writs were issued calling
a parliament for September 30th; and in the next fortnight
the unfortunate king was brought to London, and lodged
in the Tower. That his deposition had now been resolved
on is shown by the fact that other writs were prepared,
it is said by duke Edmund of York’s advice, to run in the
name of the new king Henry, and to be issued the same
day on which king Richard should have been deposed.

When matters had gone thus far, Wykeham, in spite
of age and infirmity, thought it very important that he
should appear in his place in parliament. Accordingly, he
came to Southwark, and was present at Westminster? on

1 Stubbs ii, 503. ? Rot. Parl. iii, 416.

Henry and
Arundel land
at Ravenspur,

July.

Richard
captured,
August,
and abdicates
September.

Rumours of
his death,

256 William of Wykeham.

 

September 30th, where Richard’s voluntary resignation was
read, and accepted by all present. Seven commissioners
were appointed to bear the news to him in the Tower.
One of them, Sir William Thirning, there addressed the
fallen man, and told him of his deposition. He answered
meekly, that “after all this he hoped that his cousin would
be good lord to him.”

After this Wykeham appears not to have attended at
Westminster, though he was still residing at Southwark.
All anxiety for his own safety was quenched by that one
act of supreme justice which had been enacted on the last
day of September: and no doubt he felt a tenderness for
the man whom he had once loved, and whose father and
grandfather had been so attached to him. He was not
present among the lords to whom the new king addressed
the enquiry what should be done with Richard, and who
recommended that he “be kept safely, in a secret place,
guarded by sure and sufficient persons”; nor when Henry
came to the house, and, after consultation, sentenced
Richard to be kept for life in the manner recommended
by the lords.

Wykeham was twice present at the new king’s privy
council in the course of the December following, and once
in the following February,! 1400. By this time rumours
were circulating freely that the unfortunate Richard was
dead ; and the privy councillors (among whom Wykeham
was not present) resolved that “if Richard, the late king,
be alive, as some suppose he is, it be ordered that he be
well and surely guarded, for the salvation of the king and
of his kingdom.” A few days after they resolved again,
“that it is necessary to speak to the king, that in case
Richard, the late king, be still living, he be placed in

"On December 4th, and 8th, and on February gth.—Proc. of P. C. i, 100,.
IOI, 105.
Wykeham’s last years. 257

 

surety agreeable to the lords of the realm,’—referring no
doubt to the lord’s resolution of the October 23rd previous—
“but if he be dead, that then he be openly shown to the
people, that they may have knowledge thereof.” !

Whether he was dead at this time will probably never
be certainly known: but a few days after the king sent a
message to Pontefract (where Richard was detained) upon
his secret affairs ; another came thence to announce some-
thing to the king’s advantage; and on February 17th a
hundred marks were given to the keeper of the wardrobe
for the conveyance of the late king’s body to London.’
There it was “shown openly to the people,” as the privy
council had recommended, on March 12th, in St. Paul’s
Cathedral? the emaciated face exposed from the eyebrows
to the chin. Whether his death had been in any way
hastened will probably always be a matter of doubt. Its
opportuneness will always breed a suspicion. The king
certainly had reason to desire his death, that it might check
the risings in his favour, one of which had just taken place
and been quelled ; but it must be remembered that Henry,
on this view, deliberately chose to face the obloquy which
was certain to fasten on him the crime of murder to support
his usurpation of the throne.

And now, having brought this long tragedy to its con-
clusion, let us turn back and gather up the other threads of
Wykeham’s life till this time of the succession of the
Lancaster dynasty.

Wykeham’s health had apparently been failing him
since 1391. For early in that year, which was his sixty-
seventh year, he wrote to pope Boniface IX stating that he
was “weighed down with age and bodily ill-health,” and
asking for license to appoint a coadjutor or coadjutors from

1 Proc. of P. C. i, p. III.
? Lingard iii, p. 411 7. 31d. p. 412.

His body
shown at
St. Paul's,
March, 1400.

Wykeham
ailing since
1391.
Orders repairs
to Cathedral,
1393:

258 William of Wykeham.

 

time to time, and power to remove them and substitute
others, without previous consultation with the archbishop
of Canterbury or the chapter of Winchester. This license
the pope granted! in a bull dated July 22nd, 1391, which
Wykeham kept for future use, and had no occasion to use
for ten years more.

In February, 1393, he was ailing at Marwell, and sent
an excuse to convocation, saying that he was hindered
from coming by “bodily ailment.” But he had so far
recovered by the 1st of March as to be able to ordain in
person at Farnham.? In September, 1395, he was evidently
known to be in ill-health ; for the king refers at that date,
in granting the charter to Winchester College, to “the
costly and unwearied labours” he has undertaken “to the
great detriment of his own health.”? In October, 1397, he
excuses himself again for non-attendance upon convocation
as being ill; and again on the parliament at Shrewsbury,
in January, 1398.

Such was the state of his health, when in 1393 his
fourth visitation of St. Swithun’s priory at Winchester
disclosed the fact that the Cathedral Church grievously
needed repair. Wykeham ordered that it should be
repaired, and that the cost should be met by the prior’s
paying £100 a year, and the sub-prior and convent 100
marks (466. 13s. 4d.) for the next seven years. This charge
upon the convent and its officers appears to have led to some
delay ;* while Wykeham was revolving in his mind an
adventurous design. He had just completed the works at

1 Reg. iii, 352.

? Lowth, p. 273. To this occasion he refers an account of r2s. 10d. for medicine
sent from Oxford to Winchester.—New College Computus Rolls.

3 Kirby, p. 37.

“In the Winchester Cathedral Records (iii, p. 8) there is a MS. circular letter of
Wykeham’s to all abbots, priors, and other clergy, directing them to collect the
alms of the faithful for the repair of the Cathedral, with the promise of a grant
of indulgence for 40 days to each contributor. Dated 16th December, 1393-
Wykeham’s last years. 259

 

the neighbouring college. What he had in mind was to
‘devote the last years of his life to the decoration of his
Cathedral, by transforming its nave into the perpendicular
style which was now fashionable; and to undertake the cost
of the whole himself, excusing the prior and convent their
contributions towards the work.

It was doubtless a bold thing for a septuagenarian to
undertake a work so extensive as this promised to be. It
is true that, if he died, he might look forward to his
executors completing the portion of the work in which
they were at the time engaged according to his orders ;
but to have conceived the idea of such a vast work at all
shows an energy of mind that we should hardly expect
from one who had already passed the allotted “threescore
years and ten” of man’s life.

As an architect, Wykeham had at first employed the
“decorated” forms which were everywhere in use when he
‘was a young man. This must have been the style imparted
to him by his architectural masters; and of this style the
key-form is the equilateral triangle. Its graceful arches, its
clustered columns, its slender windows, are so harmonious
to the eye, because all based on that simplest, yet most
complete, of figures. Had Wykeham built churches alone,
this style might have sufficed him. But he was widely
employed upon secular buildings in his youth, such as
dwelling houses and military castles; and he always readily
admitted improvements for practical use. Hence he came
to employ habitually the four-centred, or depressed arch,
which is now known as perpendicular; especially in domestic
buildings, and where a superincumbent floor made depres-
sion in the arch desirable. Besides this, there was the
tendency to display painted glass, the art of making which
had reached a high perfection. This caused the windows,
first to be widened, beyond the proportion to their height

Resolves to
undertake
them himself

History of
Wykeham's
architecture.
260 Wiliam of Wykeham.

 

which would have been allowed in decorated windows; and
secondly to be multiplied, till a wall came to be pierced at
short intervals by windows, and to display as much glass
as stone. The change led to a modification in the construc-
tion of the stone framework of the windows themselves ;
and the long “perpendicular” mullions extending the whole
height of the window, fortified by transoms which bonded
the mullions together, and sub-divided the whole into so
many picture frames, gave a name to the new style, which
Wykeham was among the first to employ. Thus he was
among the first to encourage the idea which looks on a

series of windows as a picture gallery,
“richly peint
With lives of many divers seint:” !

—as sang his contemporary Chaucer.

His noblest works in architecture are his two colleges ;
and of these the later, Winchester College, perhaps bears
the palm, from its felicitous construction, its unpretentious
adaptation to useful purposes, and the variety of resource
displayed in fitting the different parts together.

But now Wykeham had finished his colleges, and was
contemplating a bolder, if more hazardous, scheme. He
desired, instead of simply repairing the Norman architec-
ture of bishop de Lucy in the Cathedral nave, to reduce
it to conformity with the style at present in use. Some
will condemn the attempt as a failure which deserved to
fail, as it swept away so many of the historical features in
our architecture. Some will rather judge that the genius,
which could strike out so bold a rival to the earlier style,
redeems the rashness which made so adventurous an
attempt.

Bishop Edingdon had, as has already been stated, done
some of the work of repair at the extreme western end of

' “Chaucer's Dream,” 1347.
Wykeham’s last years. 201

 

the Church. “The whole of the west front of the present
nave, together with two windows and the three buttresses
that belong to them on the north side of the north aisle,
and also one window on the south side of the south aisle,” }
show a great difference from the rest of the nave, which is
undoubtedly the work of Wykeham, and therefore are
attributable to bishop Edingdon. Wykeham had to begin
his work, therefore, with the third window to the west of
the south aisle; and all the rest of the windows on both
sides, as well as the whole work of the interior, were left
to be done by him.

To this end he made an agreement with the prior and
convent of St. Swithun’s, that he would take the whole of
the expense of the work on himself, provided they (1) found
all the scaffolding necessary or convenient for the work ;
(2) permitted lime or sand to be taken from any of the
convent lands ; and (3) gave leave for the using of the old
material of the Church in the new building.? All this being
settled, he began the work on the Wednesday following
All Saint’s Day, 1394, under the direction of William
Winford as architect, Simon Membury as surveyor and
paymaster on the part of the bishop,? and John Wayte as
Surveyor and controller on the part of the convent.

He began his work on the south side of the nave, and
at the west end of it, in the immediate neighbourhood of
bishop Edingdon’s recent work. He did not pull down
the old nave and rebuild it, as had recently been done
at Canterbury ; but taking the Norman pillars one by one
as they stood, he with infinite pains cut perpendicular
mouldings upon the faces of them. The eight western-

1 Willis, p. 58, in Winchester Archeological volume.
2 See Wykeham's will, quoted Lowth, App. No, XIV, p. xxxvi.

3 The figures of ‘‘ William Wynfor, lathomus” (mason), and ‘‘Simon Mem-
bury,” clerk of the works, are portrayed in the east window of the Winchester

college Chapel.
, 4 Willis, p. 68.

Transform-
ation of the
Cathedral
nave,
262 William of Wykeham.

 

most of these piers to this day retain the small stones and
thick mortar-beds of the Norman builders, but cut to the
size and shape of perpendicular columns. Further, he
converted the three compartments in height of the Norman
nave into two, thus :—he removed the whole masonry from
the top of the pier-arch, and ran his new piers to the
height which had been that of the spring of the triforium
gallery. This triforium he also removed entire, with the
clearstory: and instead of them he placed a two-centred
arch upon the top of his piers, surmounted by a projecting
balcony, and over all a perpendicular window ; of which,
however, he glazed only the central three lights above the
transom, filling the rest of the compartments with stone
panels. Thus the old clearstory was exactly represented
in the new work by the real window, the triforium (or blind--
story) by the blocked compartments below the transom.

The progress of this work of transformation must have:
been both slow and troublesome. After having altered thus
the eight westernmost piers of the south side of the nave,,
Wykeham changed his mode of proceeding. He cut away
more of the four easternmost piers of the same south side,
and cased them with perpendicular ashlaring, which was at.
once easier of execution and showed no such contrast with
the new perpendicular work ; whereas the first eight are to:
this day unmistakeably transmuted Norman pillars.

But even so the progress of the work was slow. We
find exactly what must have been the state of the work at
the time of the making of his will, the date of which is
July, 1403, or fourteen months before his death. At that.
time the south side of the nave was completely done; on
the north much was done, but it was far from complete..
Professor Willis concludes that the parts left for his.
executors to complete, must have been the clearstory wall
of the north side and the vaulting of the roof, and declares.
Wykeham’s last years. 263

 

that this view is perfectly borne out by the building itself.!
Archbishop Arundel had, with hasty obsequiousness,
been replaced by the pope even before the revolution was
complete, on September 28th, 1399; by a bull in which he
frankly confessed that he had changed his mind since he
had relieved him from his chain and transferred him to St.
Andrew’s. As we have seen, Arundél had been the chief
mover in the revolution ; he had no mercy to expect from
Richard had it failed. We can well understand, therefore,
the triumphant tone and bitter words of the letter, which
he sent to his suffragans for publication on the roth of
February, 1400, and which Wykeham published to his
diocese on the 14th. He ascribes the salvation of the
kingdom and of himself, “wrought by the hand of our
powerful and most Christian king, from the mouths of
wolves and the jaws of beasts, which had prepared us a
dish mixed with gall if they had trampled on our back,”
to the intercession of the blessed Virgin ; and he orders, in
the case of all duly penitent and confessed Christian people
who say the Lord’s prayer and five repetitions of the
angelic Salutation at matins, an indulgence of forty days.”
Wykeham’s expressions of joy and thankfulness would
probably have been less savage; but his thankfulness can
have been no less sincere. Twice, at the end of two
successive reigns, had he been in imminent danger from the
wrath of the sovereign and his advisers; but this latter
danger had been the greater of the two, and he would not
have failed to ascribe it, as did the archbishop, to the
intercession for him of his especial patroness, the Mother of
our Lord.
Again, in May, 1400, Wykeham appoints the same
1 Willis, p. 8. But Heath (13), says positively, ‘‘Quod quidem opus feliciter con-

summavit.” But what need of leaving nearly £2,000 towards the completion of
the work in his will, if it was already happily finished ?

? Reg. iii, 318.

Publishes
archbishop’s
circular
ordering
thanks for the
revolution.
Appoints
suffragans,

and

coadjutors.

264 William of Wykeham.

 

suffragan, the bishop of Ennachdun, to do his diocesan
work till November, saying as before that he is fully
occupied with political business ;1 and the commission is
repeated in the same terms on March Ist, 1401.2 Next
year, in February, 1402, he appoints Thomas Butler, bishop
of Christopolis, his suffragan for a whole year ;* and in
November, John Brill; bishop of Ennachdun, for another
year.*

It will be noticed that he made the last appointment in
the autumn of 1402, whereas he had not been in the habit
of appointing suffragans till the spring. But by this time
his infirmity had increased so much as to require stronger
measures. He had taken up his residence in the end of
of 1401 at South (now Bishop’s) Waltham, so as to be
in the immediate neighbourhood of his parents’ graves at
Southwick, and his own native place ; and this residence he
never left again, though once or twice he ventured as far as
Winchester. And now he acted upon the permission given
him in the pope’s bull of eleven years before ; and causing
the bull to be read publicly by John Elmer, appointed
Nicholas Wykeham and the said John Elmer his co-adjutors,
and swore them in; “and from that day,” adds the Register,
“all proceeded as usual by the consent and expressed
authority of the said co-adjutors.”® This he did upon
January 4th, 1403.

Only one notice of these last months of his life remains
tous. Aylward tells us that “when he was prevented by
physical weakness from performing Mass, he would receive
the Communion of the Body of the Lord on Sundays and
double-feast days, with remarkable devoutness and com-
punction of heart; and was often so moved as to shed
tears.”

1 Reg. iti, 320. 21d. 33. 31d. 346. “Id. 352.
5 Id. 352, 6 Aylw. 7.
Wykeham’s last years. 205

 

On July 24th, 1403, he signed his will; and on
September 22nd he appointed bishop Brill of Ennachdun
to be his suffragan, no longer for a term, but during his
pleasure And the next January roth (1404) he nominated
Thomas Merks, the deprived bishop of Carlisle—who had
already repeatedly taken ordinations for him—to be his
suffragan for a year;* before the end of which he had
departed this life himself. Also, on the same January ioth,
he executed a codicil to his will, and himself undertook the
pleasing task of distributing as gifts certain sums of money,
which he had before left as bequests to different people.

This year he finished building the Chantry which he had
designed to the honour of the blessed Virgin, on the same
spot where he had been used to attend the “ Pekismass”
when a young layman, and where he had ordered by his
will that his body should be laid. On August 16th the
prior and brethren of St. Swithun’s made an agreement with
him ® that, in requital of the remission of a yearly rent of
410 due from the convent, of the concession of a rent of
42. 15s. 4d. to the same, and of the great expense which
the bishop had generously taken upon himself of putting
the nave of their cathedral into repair, they granted him
for ever that three of their number should say daily in his
Chantry, first, a Mass, “ De Sancta Maria,”* at early dawn ;
and secondly and thirdly, two Masses later in the morning,
either the Missa “De Sanctis”® or one accompanied by
prayers from the Temporale (according to the Church
season), at the discretion of the officiants; who were to
be paid at the rate of a penny a piece per day, and all
necessaries found for their use. The boys of the priory

1 Reg. iii, 358. 2 Tb. 362.
3 Lowth, Appendix No. XVI, who quotes the Cathedral Book of Evidences.
4See Proctor and Wordsworth's Sarum Breviary, 514-521.—‘‘ Missa de beata
Maria.”

5Id. sar.

Signs his will,

dedicates his
chantry,
266 William of Wykeham.

 

school were also every night to say prayers at his Chantry,
which till his death were to be for the souls of his parents,
and after his death also for himself: and to be paid six-
and-eightpence a year for this service.

They had not long to wait before using the full service.

Sasa ie Wykeham fell asleep, full of years and honour, on Saturday,
the 27th of September, the feast of SS. Cosmo and Damian,
at his house at Waltham.

He was buried in the Cathedral of Winchester in his
own Chantry. His hand was as open in death as it had
always been in life: and he had provided by his will that
every poor person who asked alms for God’s love and the
health of his soul in Winchester on the day of his burial
should receive fourpence. This unlimited order might well
be a severe drain on his executors, and may give us an
idea of the amount of wealth which he left behind him.

The amount of money of which his will disposes is
little short of ten thousand pounds; besides which, of
course, there was a considerable property in land,! which
passed to his heir, Sir Thomas Wykeham, the eldest sur-
viving son of his niece, Alice Perrot.

But of his personal property he left £2,000 to his
executors (Bishop Braybrook of London, Nicholas Wyke-
ham, John Elmer, John Campden, Thomas Childrey, Sir
Thomas Wykeham, and Thomas Aylward), 4200 to be
distributed among prisoners, 41,950 towards the comple-
tion of his work on the Cathedral nave: large sums to be
distributed among the members of his two colleges; to
sixteen religious houses within his diocese, and to Taunton
priory ; to twelve Churches in his diocese ; to fifteen of his
relations; to the justices of the King’s Bench and the

@ a the 7 euabton oe in Oxfordshire, he had also devised the manors
urnham ani rean in Somersetshire to his heir on tl ul —
Lowth's Appendix, No. II. See cee
Wykeham’s last years. 267

 

Common Pleas ; to nine of his retainers ; to a hundred and
ten more distant legatees ; to the incumbents of his livings,
the porters of his castles, and the keepers of his parks and
warrens.

The bishopric of Winchester passed into other hands—
those of Henry Beaufort, the half-brother of the reigning
king. He, too, occupied a great place in the political life
of the next generation ; and Wykeham’s sphere might
have seemed exactly filled. But the rare combination of
spiritual devoutness with political eminence had been
one which was not easily found again. Meanwhile Wyke-
ham’s memory, instead of decaying with the generation
that knew him personally, lives in the hearts of the faithful
sons whom he has helped to educate.

We have reached the end of our survey of his life ; and
what manner of man have we seen ?

We have seen one who, after his early and perhaps
fortuitous rise, yet was equal to every station in which he
was put by the providence of God; one who was of no
commanding genius on any single point, yet of singularly
comprehensive mind, and balanced judgment in difficulties ;
one popular in his manners, yet who dared to offend two
successive sovereigns at the risk of his life; one who was
no theologian or original thinker, but successful in the
administration of his large diocese, owing to the large heart
and clear head which he brought to bear on his work ; one,
finally, who though he had many admirers, and was
continually growing in reputation, was utterly humble in
his estimate of himself. Surely such a man must have
been a mainstay to the Church of his generation: he has,
at least, been a pride to all subsequent generations. For he
did more to perpetuate his memory than any other English
bishop ever did. He directly moulded the education of the

Summary of
his character.
268 William of Wykeham.

 

upper middle-class of the nation; and thus his wish to
do something to benefit “the soldiery of the English
Church” has been largely fulfilled, more so even than his
most sanguine hopes can have anticipated. May that wish
only be more and more largely fulfilled till the end of time.
APPENDICES.
APPENDIX A.
WYKEHAM’S ALLEGED NOBILITY OF BIRTH.

“THE account given in the text is that which seems to

me, on the whole, preferable. I have reserved for
this Appendix the discussion of the question, “Was
Wykeham a novus homo, after all?”—which some writers
have denied.

The evidence which attributes to him noble birth shall
first be duly marshalled.

1. An anonymous writer makes this note at the end of
the Liber Albus, New College: “It is well to be proved that
William of Wykeham, bishop of Winchester, was born at a
town in Hampshire called Wykeham, and that his grand-
father’s name was Wykeham, although there hath been
some doubt of his father’s name.” °

2. Harpsfield writes thus in the seventeenth century:
“The place of his birth was a village called Wicham,
whence some call him William of Wicham; but many
reasons present themselves to me for which I may not be
of their opinion, and which make me think that Wicham
was the right name of his ancestors. For so he calls him-
self in his will; so in those statutes which he made for his
colleges, and often in other places,—ze., Wicham, and not
De Wicham. So the king’s grants, whereby he gave him
power to build colleges, and so the statutes of the realm
call him. Besides, the first warden of his college in Oxford
was Nicholas Wickham, his kinsman by blood. Moreover,
others were chosen into the same college—John, Richard,
272 William of Wykeham.

 

and Thomas Wickam, as his kinsmen, who, by virtue of
the statutes, were admitted to a better estate and pre-
rogative than others chosen into the same college. Besides,
in the reign of king John there was one Ralph Wicham,
and in the time of Henry III one Robert Wicham, knight,
out of whose stock, family, and kindred came our Wicham ;
though, according to the changes of human affairs, his
parents had small means.”

3. Mr. C. Wykeham-Martin, writing in 1852, attempts
to establish the descent of bishop Wykeham from his own
ancestors, the Wykhams of Swalcliffe, near Banbury. His
arguments for this purpose are :—

(1.) That the registers of New College contain this
item: “Johannes Wickham de Swaclif de sanguine domini
fundatoris admissus est anno Henrici 4" quarto” (Ze,
1402—3).

(2.) That Nicholas Wykeham, archdeacon of Wilts,
whom Wykeham calls his cousin, bore the same coat of
arms with himself, only engrailing the chevronels which
Wykeham bore plain. “This is essentially the same coat
with that borne by Wykeham himself, the engraving of the
chevronels at that early period merely indicating a different
branch of the same family. . . . Nicholas Wykeham, then,
was evidently no very near relation; even if he were first
cousin, Wykeham’s grandfather must have borne arms.

Under these circumstances concealment was impos-
sible. Those were not times when persons looked out
their names in the Heraldic Dictionary, and painted on
their carriages any arms they found attached to a name
like their own. On the contrary, the right was jealously
watched by individuals, and, for a great portion of this
time, was controlled by periodical visitations. There can,
therefore, be only two alternatives—either both families
are entitled to the same coat, or the bishop or his successors,
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEDIGREE OF WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM.
Lord of Stratton
|
Amice
William Stratton
| a | 1
{
WYKEHAM Richard Stephen Robert John Alice Gillian Eleanor
(all died without issue) William = Richard = Richard
Bowade Botley Kerswell
| |
Henry Alice John Sibill Emma Elizabeth
Aas =John Akemore Longe i Bowade 7 Richard —Roger
| | |; Bennett Goring
ia eo tl Ne dle uel
: ‘ |
William Richard Ralph Emma Margery Alice Maud Joan WILLIAM Agnes Richard *John?|Joan
ae =----- =Robert =--- | =—--OF WYKEHAM =--- Bennett = Bennett
Aas Aas Aas; Carpenter Rokle Mavyell | b. 1324, d. 1404 Champ- of Botley
| | neys 64
a ae Ie el :
William  *Felicia William 7Joan John 8*Edith 9*Agnes Isabel Robert Agnes | *Sallot Alice
Aas Aas (Abbess =SirThos. Rosle =William 1=Guy William Mavyel =---- |=---- =William
of Romsey) *Warner Ring- 56 Aynho Mavyell 57 67 Purbeck Perot
d. before 1419 ; 60 ? | borne 2m5----
34 — 4 55 Woodlock | _— Sa
| | | |
*Thomas 61 *Agnes59g *William William *Edith Joan William Thomas *John
Warner =Sir Walter ingborne 63 Mavyell =William John Wykeham Wykeham Wykeham
== | Sandes (Steward of Farnham) =*Joan Croysar 58 Bolney 2 (1 396)=Alice (Rec. of Crondall)
i dr. of Sir J. Uvedale, d. 1398
*Reginald Thomas Bartholomew Balney of Titsey, Surrey

62 Warner Sands (b. 1405)
Appendix. 279

 

for the purpose of having it supposed that he was a man
of family, although the reverse was the truth, usurped our
arms, or connived at our usurping theirs.” }

G3.) “In 1377 William of Wykeham purchased
Broughton Castle, within about three miles of Swalcliffe.
He placed his great nephew, Sir Thomas, there long before
his death, which took place in 1404. Broughton Castle
still belongs to the descendants of Sir Thomas. Swalcliffe
still belongs to Lady Wenman; and until the death of her
father, about the year 1800, the two families continued to
reside thus close together.” Wykeham also bought the
advowson of Swalcliffe itself.

(4.) A coat of arms painted in a window of Swalcliffe
church, probably put up by Sir Robert Wykeham, of
Swalcliffe, who was dead before 1346, or his father, bore
the arms commonly known as bishop Wykeham’s arms.
They must therefore have been borne by the Wykhams
of Swalcliffe before bishop Wykeham became a famous.
man.”

Such are the arguments of those who believe Wykeham
to have been a scion of the well-known family of the name.
We will endeavour to meet them one by one.

I. The anonymous statement that “his grandfather’s
name was Wykeham.”

It has already been suggested that this may mean no
more than that his grandfather, like himself, derived his
surname from the village of Wickham.

The whole subject of surnames at this date is one very
little understood. Surnames did not come into fashion at
all till the Norman invasion, when the growth of popula-
tion made them necessary. And at the first, they were
of four kinds. They were either patronymic, e.g., Giles the
son of Robert, or Roberts, or Robertson ; or /oca/, taken at

1 Wykeham-Martin, p. 23. 2p, 19. 3 See page 4.
T
274. William of Wykeham.

 

first only by landlords from their property, afterwards by
every one from his place of birth, eg., John Buckingham
or De Buckingham ; or professional, signifying the trade or
profession followed, eg, Thomas Carpenter ; or fersonal,
which we should call nicknames, ¢g., John Long. These
four kinds of surnames were at first only applied to the
individuals of one generation ; but they all four soon became
hereditary. And yet for some generations the liability to
get a name from each of these four sources went on. It
was possible therefore to have four surnames at once; it
was possible for John, the son of Robert (or Robertson,
which name would change in the next generation into
Johnson) to be a carpenter by trade, born at (say)
Compton, and a short man: ze, he might indifferently
call himself John Robertson, Carpenter, Compton, or Short.

Of these, by far the most numerous are the local sur-
names, and these are names which apply with equal
propriety to every rank. Professional names (unless the
profession indicated was an high office about the king)
were for the most part confined at first to the lower rank
of artizans : nicknames were at least rare in the upper rank.
But there obviously was no reason why three generations
or more, if they continued to reside at the same place,
should not be known in the neighbourhood by the name
of that place.

II. We next come to Harpsfield’s objections, which
may be summed up as three:

1. He called himself Wykeham, as well as De Wyke-
ham, that is (Harpsfield would suggest) by a family name,
as well as by a local name.

The objection rests upon a pure misconception of the
history of surnames. “De” was at first simply the particle
always attached to a local name when employed as a
surname. Consequently, whether he called himself Wyke-
Appendix. 275

 

ham, or De Wykeham, both names alike were purely local
—both alike were given because of his connection with the
place called Wickham. That connection may have come
about in two ways: he may have owned property there, or
he may have been born there ; either of these things would
entitle him to call himself “of Wykeham.” If there is any
difference between the names at all, it would surely be
that “De Wykeham” was the more modest of the two;
“Wykeham” was an indication that he was looking forward
to found a family, and a family which should be known as
the Wykehams far excellence. This seems to be quite
sufficient to account for the name as given after he had
risen to his singular eminence.

2. We hear of a multitude of other Wykehams, whom
he calls his kinsmen.

It is quite true that we hear of a surprising number
of other Wykehams, some of whom he claims for his
kinsmen.!| But our surprise will be abated when we
remember, (1) that Wickham is such a common local name
that naturally those who called themselves after it would be
common, too; and (2), that when once a person of that
name became famous,” others from the same place, whether
relatives or not, would take the same name in preference to
calling themselves by a patronymic, or a professional, or a
personal name. Moreover, kinsmen by the mother’s side
would alter their other names to his, by way of asserting
their relationship.*

3. There is a particular family—that of the Wykhams
of Swalcliffe—from whom he is presumably descended.

1 See Appendix B on ‘‘ Wykeham's Collateral Relations.”

2 Wykeham became bishop in 1367. His earliest patronage of his kinsman
Nicholas is dated 1370; of Richard Wykeham, 1371. (See p. 84, ~. 2.) These are
the earliest instances of others of the same name of which we hear.

3So his great nephews, whose father's name was Perrot, took the name of
Wykeham in token that they were his heirs. So John Fyvyan took the name
of Wykeham.
276 William of Wykeham.

 

This is the hypothesis which Mr. Wykeham-Martin has
adopted. His first argument is that :

(i.) In the New College Register, within the founder’s
lifetime (in 1403),!a John de Wickham is described both as
“de Swacliffe” and “de sanguine domini fundatoris.” If
we allow the natural inference, cadit gue@stio, bishop
Wykeham was a blood relation of the Swalcliffe family.
But it is possible that just before the founder’s death the
name of Wickham might be mistaken for an assertion
of relationship: and this will become more probable as
we allow due weight to the arguments against such
relationship.

What are they? They are such as follows :-—

(1.) The absence of all indication in his pedigree that
he was other than a south-country man.

(2.) The fact that it is recorded by his earliest bio-
graphers that he was born at Wickham in Hampshire,
which fact would account in the most natural way possible
for his assuming the name of De Wykeham or Wykeham.
Now, even by those who assert that he was related to the
Wykhams of Swalcliffe, it is not pretended that they took
their name from the same Wickham ; but, on the contrary,
they were called from a Wykham in Oxfordshire, a hamlet
near Banbury. It comes to this, then; that an ancestor
of Wykeham’s, probably his grandfather, calling himself
Wykeham after the Oxfordshire hamlet, must have settled
at Wickham in Hampshire, and so transmitted to his
descendants ¢wo rights to call themselves by the name

' But in the rst Register of Winchester the entry made is ‘‘ Joh. Wikeham de
Swalclyff in com. Oxon.’’ The words ‘‘de sanguine fundatoris” are not there ; they
are there as a description of ‘‘ John Wykeham” in 1373.

2 Of the fifteen local names in his pedigree many of course cannot be identified
in the map. But there are three undoubtedly in Hants, one in Berks, one in
Dorset, one in Sussex. There is also one in Oxfordshire—Aynho, near Banbury,
which was the name of the first husband of Wykeham’s first cousin once removed.
But the marriage would not have taken place till after 1377, when bishop Wykeham
had bought the property at Swalcliffe, near Banbury.
Appendix. 277

 

of Wykeham. Is this in itself probable? It certainly is
not impossible; but without further proof, this is all that
can be said for it.

(3.) The fact that the claims of members of the Swal-
cliffe family to enjoy the privileges of founder’s kin have
twice been decided against at law—in 1572 and in 1635 ;
and that in spite of the testimony of the New College
Register.

Gi.) Mr. Wykeham-Martin’s second argument is that
bishop Wykeham bought an estate within three miles of
Swalcliffe, and settled his heir there before he died. The
coincidence is certainly curious, and it proves that he must
have been well acquainted with the Wykhams of Swalcliffe.
But it certainly does not prove relationship. Mr. Martin
urges the improbability of Wykeham having taken his arms
from Wykham of Swalcliffe, as this would amount to a
charge of misrepresentation of fact, if they were not con-
nected in blood. But may not the Swalcliffe Wykeham
have been the copyist, and taken his arms from the
bishop? By Mr. Martin’s own showing, the Swalcliffe
family did, as a matter of fact, change their arms just
about this time, and drop the Tankerville arms which
they had used for one or two generations. Mr. Martin
allows this, but suggests that they had borne the Wyke-
ham coat before that of Tankerville; and, so, that they
only resumed their old arms, “when a still greater relative of
their own race came and settled in their immediate neigh-
bourhood.” But of this I can find no proof whatever.

(iii) That they had before borne the coat known as
the Wykeham coat, and no other, Mr. Wykeham Martin
argues from the fact that the coat occurs in a painted
window put up, according to him, about the date of the
bishop’s birth. Other portions of the same window, he
says, are of about this date. But who is it to assure us
278 William of Wykeham.

 

that this particular coat (which, by the way, has disap-
peared now, but is described in an affidavit of the vicar
in 1635) was of that particular date? Why should it not
have been inserted fifty years later, when the bishop had
already bought Broughton, and the Swalcliffe Wykehams
had adopted the arms chosen for himself by the “still
greater” bearer “ of their own” name?

On the whole, it is much more likely that the arms
were (as was suggested long ago) .caxting arms, 72., arms
adopted by Wykeham with a view to intimating the means
through which he had risen; for a chevron is said to be a
rude imitation of a carpenter’s square. He at first bore
one chevron sable between three roses, gules ; afterwards,
whilst still archdeacon of Lincoln, he changed his coat,
and took two chevronels instead of one chevron! This coat
Sir Robert Wykham of Swalcliffe probably adopted entire :
Nicholas, the bishop’s cousin, slightly modified it, only
engrailing the chevronels.

Finally, it does not seem out of place to attribute (as
has been commonly done) his famous motto “Manners
makyth man

yg

to this unprecedented rise, as if by this
motto he would point to the real cause of his rise—virtue,
or moral character. If so, both the arms and the motto
would show that Wykeham was not ashamed of his lowly
birth ;—the surest sign of true greatness of mind.

' He is commonly said to have made this change on being made bishop (See
Wykeham-Martin, p. 14). But there is a seal in the British Museum of ‘ William
of Wykeham, archdeacon of Lincoln,” which bears two chevronels, not one only.

?In the church at Bradford Peverell, in Dorset (which was one of the advow-
sons left by Wykeham to Winchester College), is some painted glass with a
Tepresentation of these arms and their motto, singularly spelt. The arms are said
to belong to ‘'Willam Wikkam,” and the motto is spelt ‘‘ Manare makythe
man." The spelling of ‘‘manner” in Middle English, as given by Skeat (quoting
Old English Homilies, ed. Morris, i, 50, line 30) is ‘‘ manere,” and thus the word
might be singular, not plural. But on the other hand, the motto is given as
‘‘Mores componunt hominem” in a New College MS. lately printed.
APPENDIX B.
WYKEHAM’S COLLATERAL RELATIONS.

HE direct authorities for Wykeham’s relations are :—
1. His will—Lowth’s Appendix, No. XVII.

2. The document given in Lowth’s Appendix, Nos.
II—IV; ze, Il: an indenture demising the manors of
Burnham and Brean, with successive remainders; III:
record from the Court of King’s Bench, concerning
claimants to Eling manor; IV: agreement between
Wykeham and his heir, from records of Court of Common
Bench.

3. An anonymous entry on the first flyleaf of the
same volume with Heath’s MS., which appears itself (from
internal evidence) to be taken from three different sources.
Given in Lowth’s Appendix, No. I.

The brother of John Long was called Henry Aas, or
Ays: he had three sons, by one of whom (Ralph) he was
grandfather to Felicia Aas, or Ays, nun and eventually
abbess of Romsey.

John’s sister was called Alice, who married John
Akemore (Oakmoor?), and had thirteen daughters, of
whom (1) Emma, married a Carpenter and had a son
William and a daughter Joan, who married Thomas
Warenner, or Warner.!. This couple had a son Thomas
(who again had a son Reginald) and a daughter Agnes,

1 Sheriff of Hants in 1394 with John Sandes.
280 William of Wykeham.

 

who married Sir Walter Sandes.! (2) Margery, married a
man named Rokle (Rockwell?) and was the mother of
John, and three daughters: (i) Edith, who married William
Ringborne, and was mother of another William Ringborne,
the “ domicellus,” or steward, of the diocesan land in 1403 ;
(ii) Agnes who married twice,—first Guy Aynho, and
secondly a man named Woodlock ; (iii) Isabel, who married
William Mavyell (Mayfield?) and was.the mother of
William, whose wife was called Joan, and who had children,
and probably Edith, the wife of William Croyser (Crosier).
(3) Alice, who married Robert Mayfield, and was the
mother of another Robert Mayfield. (4) Maud, the grand-
mother, through an Agnes, of a Joan who married John
Bolney. (5) Joan, the mother of Zelot (Sallot) who married
a Purbeck.

Wykeham’s mother, Sibill Bowade (Boyatt ?),3 was the
daughter of William Bowade and Alice, eldest daughter of
Sir William Stratton and Amice, daughter of another
Stratton, who probably left Stratton to her and her
husband. All the sons of this William and Amice died
childless ; besides Alice they had two more daughters, one
of whom, Gillian, married Richard Botley, and left an
heiress, Emma, who brought Botley to her husband,
Richard Bennet ; and the other, Eleanor, married Richard
Kerswell, and had a daughter Elizabeth, who married
Roger Goring.

Besides William, the future bishop, John Long and Sibill
had a daughter, Agnes, who married a Champneys, and
was mother of Alice, who married William Perrot. This
couple had three sons, of whom the eldest who survived

1 Sheriff of Hants in 1410 and r4r4.

? She is not owned by the anonymous MS. ; but the reason why I insert her
here is that she is inserted between (her sisters?) Edith and Isabel in the document
given in Lowth, App. II.

* The Domesday spelling of Boyatt is ‘ Boviete.”
Appendix. 28F

 

him was intended by bishop Wykeham for his heir, and
who, therefore, all took the name of Wykeham ; William,
who married Alice the daughter of John Uvedale, and died
before 1403; Sir Thomas, Wykeham’s heir, who married
the daughter of William Wilkins ; and John, probably ! the
rector of Crondall, 1403, to whom bishop Wykeham left
£100.

But there are many kinsmen of uncertain relationship.
Such are :—

1. Nicholas Wykeham, probably not nearer to the
bishop than his second cousin, tracing descent from his
great-grandfather. He was made prebendary of Apple-
dram in Bosham church, Chichester, 1370; archdeacon of
Winchester, 1372, and resigned it 30th November, 1381 ;
chancellor of Oxford, 1373 ; locum tenens for the master
of St. Cross, 1374, and resigned 1382; warden of St.
Nicholas’ hospital, Portsmouth, and rector of Witney,
1378; ordained acolyte and sub-deacon, and made war-
den of New College, Oxford, 1379, which last he resigned
26th April, 1389 ; archdeacon of Wilts, probably in 1381,
certainly before 1385; ordained priest, 1383; prebendary
of Bedwin in Sarum cathedral 1388; of Timbersbury in
Romsey church. Died 1406.

2. ffelen, sister to Nicholas Wykeham, living 1403.

3. Richard Wykeham, prebendary of Peasmarsh in
Hastings church 1st October, 1371 ; warden of St. Nicholas’
hospital, Portsmouth. Died 1378.

4. John Wykeham, acolyte, 1379, sub-deacon, 1380,
under the name of Fyvyan; afterwards assumed the name
of Wykeham. Rector of Adderbury and Broughton.

5. John Wykeham, acolyte and sub-deacon, 1395 ;
rector of Stockton, diocese Sarum, of Calbourne, Brighstone,

' This I infer from his being named in the will next to his mother (?), who is first
of the bishup’s relations.
282 Wiliam of Wykeham.

 

South Waltham, and Mapledurham or Buriton. To him
the bishop leaves £50, to pay for his “inception” in
theology at Oxford.

6. John Wykeham, rector of Bishopstone, 1379.'

7. Adam

8. Ldward Bell, all had letters dimissory for the

9. John J
first tonsure,? 6th October, 1366, and were specified to be
of Wykeham’s kindred. The last of them, John Bell, may
be the same who is rector of Stockton, 1397; possibly
the same with John Wykeham (5) above, in which case
he would have changed his name from Bell to Wyke-
ham. There was a family of Bells at Bramley in North
Hampshire ; probably they would have been relations of
Wykeham’s mother, as she came from the same neighbour-
hood.

10. Kzuchard \

11. Henry s
Richard may possibly have been Wykeham’s first cousin,
the son of his uncle Henry.

12. William Aas, admitted to Winchester, 1398, fellow
of New College, 1404. Possibly the brother of Felicia Aas
the abbess of Romsey, and therefore Wykeham’s first cousin
once removed.

- Aas, also first tonsured October, 1366.

' Archdeacon Lear informs me that this name and date are on a stone in the
flooring of Bishopstone Church.

? I take the fact from Lowth ; but I cannot find it recorded either at the end of
Edingdon’s Register, or the beginning of Wykeham’s.
APPENDIX C.

Certificatorium Episcopt Londoniensis factum domino Archi-
episcopo Cantuarienst xvij™ Kal. Decembr. Pontificatus
domini nostri domini Urbani Pape quinti anno quinto.

.... ITEM sub eisdem anno et mense dominus Willelmus.
de Wykeham, Archdiaconus Lincoln, et domini nostri
Regis Angliz illustrissimi,! et custos privati sigilli sui, in
civitate ac diocesi Londoniensi ratione officii sui preedicti
moram trahens et ut con[stat ?] larem fovens, nobis Simoni
London Episcopo intimavit et in scripto exhibuit clare,
particulariter, et distincte, ut dixit, quod obtinet Arch-
diaconatum Lincoln, nullum beneficium ecclesiasticum nec
mansum eidem habentem annexum, qui reputatur dignitas.
in ecclesia Lincoln, et est beneficium curatum et incom-
passibile cum alio curato, non taxatum: verus valor et
communis annuus ejusdem, si Archidiaconus personaliter
visitet omnes ecclesias Archidiaconatus sui et solidas.
procurationes percipiat ubique in pecunia immediata, se
extendit ad cccl libras sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prebendam de Sutton in dicta.
ecclesia Lincoln, et est beneficium non curatum et com-.
passibile? cum curato beneficicio ; taxa ejusdem cclx marce
sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prebendam de Laghton in
Ecclesia Eboracensi, et est beneficium non curatum et:

' Some word like ‘‘secretarius omitted.

2 First written ‘‘curatum et incompassibile;" but ‘‘non” is inserted above:
3 ee ae
the line before ‘‘curatum,” and ‘‘in” erased before ‘‘ compassibile.
284 William of Wykeham.

 

compassibile cum curato, et sic habitum et reputatum ;
taxa ejusdem cx marce sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prabendam de Donham in ecclesia
collegiata de Suthwell Eboracensi diocesi, et est beneficium
non curatum et compassibile cum curato; taxa ejusdem
lv marca sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prebendam Altaris beate Mariz
in ecclesia collegiata Beverlaciensi Eboracensi diocesi, et
est beneficium non curatum et compassibile cum curato:
taxa ejusdem xvj libre sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prebendam de Totenhale in
Ecclesia Londoniensi, beneficium utique non curatum et
compassibile cum curato beneficio; taxa ejusdem xvj
marce sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prabendam de Fordyngton in
Ecclesia Sarum, beneficium etiam non curatum et com-
passibile cum curato beneficio; taxa ejusdem xxv marce
sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et praebendam de Werwell in
monasterio monialium de Wherwell Wyntoniensi diocesi,
et est beneficium non curatum et compassibile cum
curato ; taxa ejusdem |x marce.

Item Canonicatum et prebendam de Iwerne in monas-
terio monialium Shafton Sarum diocesi, beneficium utique
non curatum et compassibile cum curato, et [sic] est habitum
et reputatum ; taxa ejusdem xxx marce sterlingorum.

Item Canonicatum et prebendam de Swerdes in ecclesia
Dublinensi in Hibernia, et est beneficium non curatum et
ccompassibile cum curato; taxa ejusdem 75x marca ster-
lingorum.

Item preposituram Wellensem cum przbenda in ecclesia
Wellensi eidem annexa; preepositura praedicta est simplex
-officium et non curatum et compassibile cum alio beneficio,
et sic est habitum et reputatum. Taxa prepositure cum
Appendix. 285

 

prebenda ei annexa Ix viij marce sterlingorum. Et de
fructubus et proventubus ejusdem prepositure solvitur
xiiij Canonicis pro prebendis suis, et vicariis ac aliis
ministris illius ecclesia, singulis annis clxxv_ marce
sterlingorum.

Item prefatus dominus Willelmus de Wykham obtinuit
tempore date monitionis praedicte ex collatione domini

2 Regis Angliz illustrissimi Canonicatum et
prebendam de Alnethle in libera capella prafati domini
nostri . . .' Regis de Bruggenorth Coventriensi et
Lichfeldiensi diocesi, et est beneficium non curatum et com-
passibile cum beneficio curato. Et eosdem de patronatu

. J Regis existentes resignavit penitus, et simpliciter
in forma juris dimisit re et verbo. Et quia de taxa
ejusdem scrutatis Registris tam Episcopalibus quam etiam
domini nostri . . . Regis et Nuncii domini nostri
pape in Anglie, ac omni diligentia requisita per me
adhibita, mihi constare non poterat neque constat ; ideo
dictae pracbende verum valorem nobis Simoni Londoniensi
Episcipo sepedictus exhibuit, qui se extendit annuatim ad
xxiij libras vj solidos viij denarios sterlingorum.

Idem dictus dominus Willelmus obtinuit virtute dispen-
sationis apostolicee sibi in hac parte sufficienter facta et
concesse tempore date monitionis predicte etiam ecclesiam
parochialem de Manyhynet Exoniensi diocesi, de patronatu
tamen laicali, et est beneficium, et eandem ecclesiam resig-.
navit penitus, et simpliciter in forma juris dimisit re et
verbo, Taxa ejusdem viij libra sterlingorum.

Item obtinuit unum rescriptum seu bullam apostolicam
de tempore fere domini Innocentii Pape quinti? domino:
. , . 38 Electo Menevensi, directam ad examinandam
personam ipsius Willelmi, et si idoneus esset repertus ad

' Written thus in MS.
2 Really, Innocent VI. 3 Written thus in MS.
256 William of Wykeham.

 

permissionem dandam sibi de Canonicatu et prebenda
ecclesia Sancti Andree de Aukelond Dunelmensi diocesi,
quas quondam Thomas de Bridekylkt, alias de Carlelis, in
ipsa ecclesia dum viveret obtinebat ; sed vigore ejusdem
nec collationem inde habuit, nec eosdem Canonicatum et
prebendam est vel fuit assesiatus [vel] assecutus, nec
intendit assequi in futuro, nec dicto rescripto apostolico
sive bulla uti quovismodo, De taxa seu valore non
constat.
APPENDIX OD.

“AYLWARD'S MS.1

ETERUM?® gesta nobilium, morum modestiam, artium
notitiam, jura ecclesiz, trivium theologicarum virtutum

et quadrivium cardinalium, ac vitas patrum investigare et
capere nostra modicitas minime suffecisset, nisi in reme-
dium imperfectionis humane literarum usum_ divina
miseratio providisset, et longitudo scriptorum nostra im-
peritiz transfudisset memoriam transactorum. Siquidem
vita brevis, sensus hebes, animus torpens, memoria labens,
inutilis demum occupatio nos impediunt multa scire,
nocitante semper oblivione pestifera inimica. Quis quzeso
mortalium hodie Czsares nosceret, philosophos miraretur,
apostolos sequeretur, nisi eos scriptorum historiz insig-
nirent? Benedictus igitur Deus, volens omnes homines
salvos fieri et in agnitionem veritatis venire, ostendit nobis
in Scripturis mirabilia magna ad posteritatis memoriam
profutura, ex quibus non solum nobis cura oriretur
salutis, verum etiam historia salutaris ad doctrinam pie-
tatis conderetur, qua virtutis iter agere volentibus gestorum
precedentium fide tramitem pandet amplissimum. Ut
+demum+ bonorum unusquisque inflammatus exemplis
honescere quidem mundi illecebras, veramque mentis sectari
quietem, ac pietatis exercere officia invitetur, merita ergo
et opera felicis recordationis domini Willelmi de Wyke-
ham nuper Wyntonie episcopi, qui dixit communiter
! The division into paragraphs is not in the original, but is merely for purposes

of reference.
2 The first letter omitted in the MS.
288 William of Wykeham.

 

“ Operibus credite,’ ad Dei laudem ex cujus dono fuerunt,
et ad instrumenta ac exempla vivorum, sunt merito hic
commendanda memorize.

II. Erat enim Willelmus pater venerabilis ante-
dictus a primzevo literarum studio Wyntoniz traditus,
Deo non modicum et ecclesie sacrosancte devotus ;
necnon basilica majoris Wynton, in qua ut speratur
miseratione divina postmodum prefuit, ubi jam humatus
corpore requiescit, limina frequentans devote, et coram
beate Virginis Mariz imagine, stante in capella in qua
traditus est ecclesiasticee sepulturze, suas speciales fundens
orationes quotidie, missam matutinalem [cujusdam
monachi!] Pekismasse tunc dictam vulgariter, in dies.
consuevit andire; et sic in pueritia a se pigritudinis*
somnum excutiens, secundum beati Petri apostoli doc-
trinam, incepit in orationibus vigilare.

III. Postquam vero puerilem decurrebat ztatem, et
discretionis annos attigeret, in minoribus approbatus ad
altiora gradatim ascendens, assumptus est ad recolende
memorie regis Edwardi tertii digna obsequia, propter
ipsius eximiam probitatem, per ipsumque regem in
diversis officiis, videlicet officiis clerici novorum operum
Castrorum de Wyndesore et Queneburgh, secretarii, ac
privati sigilli, tandem Cancellarius scepius est effectus, toto
que tempore sui regiminis, tam’ temporibus Edwardi quam
Ricardi, ipsorum utrique obsequiosus exstitit et fidelis, ac
populo regni favorabilis et plurimum gratiosus ipsum a
subsidiis et exactionibus et aliis oppressionibus preeservans,
continue forsitan sua mente in ejus officiis retinebat. Hzec
beati Petri eloquia “Deum timete, regem honorificate
fraternitatem diligite:” et quia spectat ad prelatos esse
valide solicitos de studio litterarum nec existentes in

8 These words are inserted in the margin.
* MS. pignitudine.
Appendix. 289

 

regno sint tenebris ignorantiz involuti, ea propter duo
magna construxit collegia, unum videlicet, velut scientize
luminare minus, in loco illo quo litterarum studium
Wynton frequentare et hospitari consueverat, in honorem
beate Marie virginis gloriose, ad perpetuum refugium
pauperum, et ad augmentum juvenum fundavit studentium.
Et +ad+ venerabile collegium, tanquam scientiz luminare
majus, in universitate Oxoniz ad cultum divinum necnon
ad exaltationem fidei Christiane laudabiliter instituit,
+proptereat et dotavit ; ut sic scholares, in minori collegio
scientiis primitivis sufficienter instituti, in aliis scientiis
liberalibus postea imbuendi, atque ad gradus ecclesiasticos
essent idonei insuper promovendi ; per hoc sane advertens,
quod ubi viget fons sapientiz Scripturarum, oportet quod
inde totus populus aliquam eruditionem accipiat qua
prudentiores fiant illicita pracavere.

IV. Et non solum in premissis nunc insistens operibus,
verum etiam in relevationem pauperum suorum tenentium
pro episcopatu Wynton magnam summam pecuniz, pro.
recognitione in principio sui adventus debita et solvenda.
gratiose remisit, et etiam condonavit usque ad summam
quingentarum duarum librarum et novemdecim denariorum.
Ac diversis ministris episcopatus ejusdem, ad inopiam ver-
gentibus et non modicum depauperatis, grandes pecuniarum
summas sibi deditas ab eisdem repetitis vicibus, usque ad
summam ij millium marcarum, pro Deo liberaliter relaxavit.
Et tribus solutionibus de subsidiis in parliamentis domino.
Regi concessis, eosdem tenentes solvenda subsidia hujusmodi
misericorditer relevavit. At omni die, a tempore erectionis
suz ad episcopatum Wynton, viginti quatuor pauperes ad
minus pavit sua elemosina abundante. Fratres ecclesie
pauperes in vita et in morte sua visitavit gratia valde larga,
habeas pre mentis oculos illud quod Luce sexto discipulis
dixit Jesus, “ Estote misericordes, dimittite et dimittemini,

U
290 William of Wykeham.

date et dabitur vobis.” Ad incarceratos vero diversis car-
ceribus vel gaolis pro debitis existentes compassionis oculos
dirigens, a tribus mille marcarum pro summa hujusmodi
divinculatos cum eorum creditoribus componendo fecit piis-
sime liberari: advertens’ quod judicio-dicit Christus cum
magna veniens potestate: “In carcere eram et venistis ad
me.” Quantum vero hospitalis fuerit, tam in susceptione
pauperum quam divitum, hujus regni incolas tanquam
manifestissimum creditur non latere; forte recolebat illud
Scripture “Oportet Episcopum hospitalem esse”; et alibi
“ Hospitales invicem sine murmuratione.”

V. Cantariam etiam perpetuam de quinque presbyteris
ordinavit in ecclesia de Suthwyke pro animabus Johannis
et Sibille parentum suorum, tanquam in hoc bonus et
dignus eis filius, sic affectans eorum animas omni die
missarum juvari suffragiis; ac nomina parentum fore in
memoria sempiterna: et sic honorando patrem et matrem
puto juxta verbum Domini “meruit longevus esse super
terram.” Erat insuper in ejus animo super itinerantes pia
compassio, nam inter London et civitatem Wynton et
alibi, locis quampluribus vias lutosas, aquaticas, atque
turpissimas fecit mundari, exaltari, atque humanis gressibus
reparari: quatenus ipse viam universe carnis hujus per-
transivit, viam quo mandatorum Dei melius curreret, et
viam devotius versus patriam ccelestem arriperet: nonnullus
enim itinerans, qui olim locis pradictis vias ambulavit
difficiles, etiam latus dicere valet de eo, “ Viam fecit pedibus
meis,” Habacuc I°.

VI. Ecclesias et loca quamplura, paupertate depressa,
venerabilis pater praedictus gravibus sumptibus et laboribus
reparavit, ac fecit mirifice decorari, in libris, vestimentis,
calicibus, atque aliis ecclesiasticis ornamentis ; nam centum
et tresdecim calices argenteos, ac centum paria vestimen-
torum ecclesiis pauperioribus sui episcopatus donavit:
Appendix. 291

 

et precipue sponsam suam ecclesiam Wynton, tam in
vita quam in morte, rebus pretiosis ditavit. Ac novam
ejus fabricam liberaliter renovavit, quam incepit die
Mercurii proximo post Festum omnium Sanctorum, anno
regni regis Ricardi secundi xviij°®, et anno consecrationis
dicti patris xxviije, quare Deo dicere merito potest illud
psalterii, “Domine dilexi decorem domus tue.” Non
‘sunt oblivioni tradenda, quod claustrum domus capitalis
ac corpus ecclesie collegii sancti Martini London ibidem
dum prefuit honorifice reparata fuere; et quod in aliis
novis edificiis et reparationibus domorum antiquarum,
molendinarum, et stagnorum maneriorum Episcopatus
sui, videlicet de Suthwerk, Esshere, Farnham, Suton,
Waltham, Clere, Downton, Meones, Twyford, Byttone,
Taunton, Adderburi, Wytteneye, Wergrave, et aliorum,
per xxxvij annos quibus eis prefuit, xx mille marcas
et amplius expendidit super eadem, prout clare constare
poterit per rotulos compotorum maneriorum predictorum ;
prater expensas alias quas fecit in perquisitionibus
terrarum et tenementorum suze mensz episcopali adqui-
sitorum in perpetuum, usque ad summam valoris annui
cc marcarum: etiam hoc reliquit heredi suo proximo,
scilicet Thomas de Wykeham, maneria terras ac tene-
menta de perquisitu suo ad valorem annuum sexcentarum
marcarum. Necnon et consecrationis sue anno x° amu-
lorum suorum malitia sua temporalia erant ablata, omni-
bus computatis decem millium marcarum passus est
damna, post quorum temporalium restitutionem omnia
facta laudabilia et opera ‘fecit preemissa.

VII. Et nedum sua, sicut premittitur, et ille semet-
ipsum Deo vivum sacrificium obtulit, ubi inter missarum
solemnia, presertim ea parte misse qua pro vivis et mortuis
specialiter agitur memoria, lacrimas abundantius effundebat,
ex cordis humilitate reputans se indignum, ut frequentius
292 William of Wykeham.

 

suis secretariis jam expressit, quod tantum perageret
officium, et tam dignum tractaret ecclesia Sacramentum,
secundum illud Matthzi octavo, “Domine non sum dignus.
ut intres sub tectum meum.” Postquam vero debilitate
corporis impeditus misse officium complere non potuit, in
dominicis et festis duplicibus communionem Dominici
corporis cum veneratione non modica et cordis com-
punctione, et frequenter ad lacrimarum effusionem devote
suscepit, forsitan illud mente contemplatus quod ad eccle-
siam szpius decantatur: “O sacrum convivium, in quo
Christus sumitur, recolitur memoria passionis ejus, mens
impletur gratia, et future gloria nobis pignus datur. De
Christo enim pane ccelesti, qui se posuit in forma panis,
sacramento mirabili, et non de aliquo pane materiali est
veraciter intellectum, quod qui manducat hunc panem vivet
in zternum.” Magne etiam retributiones suis facte
familiaribus intrinsecus atque extrinsecus tribus vicibus
essent merito eorum memorize commendande, qui aliter
ingrati dicere poterunt sui minime recordanti, “Reduc me
in memoriam tu bona que feci tibi,” etc.

Hec primo ad laudem Dei, qui predicta et alia bona
fecit per eum, sunt scripta; dicitur enim, “Lauda post
mortem, magnifica post consummationem; lauda post
periculum, preedica securum; lauda ducis virtutem, scilicet
cum perductus fuerit ad triumphum.” Secundo scripta
sunt ista ut quilibet hac videns magis excitetur ad Deum
diligendum exemplo ejus, etiam et pauperes Christianos,
et ad orandum pro eo, dicens devote “Anima domini
Willelmi de Wykeham et fidelium anime per misericordiam
Dei requiescant in pace. Amen. Amen.”
APPENDIX E.
HEATH’S MS.

Prologus libelli seu tractatus de prosapia, vita et gestis
venerabilis patris et domini domini Willelint de Wyke-
ham nuper episcopi Wyntoniensis.

Pe rubigine humana contaminata con-

ditio sic cellula memorialis eclipsatur officio, ut perdet
quod non szpe perspicit, vel jugiter meditatur quem, uno
velut de preetenso sacculo, aliunde excidit quod non aliunde
immittitur, sic profecto quod aure una ingeritur altera
protinus erigitur. Unde, velut nature speculator imaginis
secedens a speculo considerate jam effigiei non meminit,
sic profecto quod oculata lectio tribuit momentanei actus
interpositio intercipit et excludit. Proinde reverberate
considerationis oculo animadvertens ego, servus humilis
et alumnus reverendi patris et domini domini Willelmi
Wykeham nuper episcopi Wyntoniensis, quod non hominis
sed numinis proprium esse convincitur cuncta tenere memo-
riter; inconcusseque considerans quod nihil magis ad
zemulationem perfectionis animum humanum provocat et
accendit, quam quorum licet perfectionem legere vel audire
virtutes ; cum impossibile sibi nullus debeat arbitrari quod
alium fecisse cognovit. Et quod etiam laus post mortem
sine adulatione impenditur, et gloria post triumphum,?”

' Protoplausti MS.

* An allusion toa Latin anthem quoted at length by Aylward sud. fiz.—See
Appx. D.
294 William of Wykeham.

 

ejusdem venerabilis patris Willelmi Wykeham vitam
operibus insignem cum aliis ejus gestis a mea pauper-
tate utcunque litteris traditam, vobis carissimi socii qui
communiter vivitis in- collegiis beate Maria per eundem
patrem Oxonie et Wyntonie fundatis, ad honorem Det
et beatissimz Mariz genetricis ejusdem, ac instructionem
futurorum, sub hoc brevi compendio credidi commend-
andam. Quis tamen ego, vel qualis ego, vel que scientia,
vel qualis facundia mea, ut tantum patrem meis litteris.
proditum meis commendatum sermonibus efferre vellem
in publicum, cui hoc estimatur ascribendum, fidei an
affectui? cur non et utrique? Et ego neutrum judicans
contemnendum, conjunxi fidem fidei, affectum affectui,
et hinc desiderio illinc presumptione concepta, inspexi
codices et chronicas, assensuque eorum non_ recedens,
pauca que vel ex chronicis verissimis transtuli, vel ex
certa veterum et vera relatione didici, non inutiliter ut
mihi videtur in hoc libello apposui. Unde non doctrine
literatorie suffultus adminiculis hoc opus aggredior, sed in
Domino confidens Spiritum suggestorem veritatis imploro,
metrice sic dicendo:

Omnia cum nequeam Willelmi scribere gesta,
Pauca brevi calamo scribere nitar ego:
Nam si cuncta velim diffusius illa referre,
Que mora, quis calamus, sufficit hoc ad opus?
Ingenio vires inspiret Spiritus almus,
Menti fundat opes hoc opus ejus ope,
Ut meliore modo sic prosequar ore fideli,
Hoc opus inceptum fine bono peragens.

In laboris igitur mei principio vos carissimi socii exoro, ut
quod meritis non meretur cunctum mihi gaudium vestris
opitulantibus precibus condonetur.
Appendix. 295,

 

I. De prosapia efusdem patris, et ubi et ex quibus
originem Auxtt.

Reverendi in Christo patris et domini domini Willelmi
Wykeham nuper episcopi Wyntoniensis originem literis
traditurus, ex verbis beatissimi patris apostolorum principis
sumo exordium, qui beati centurionis fidem admirans, “In
veritate” inquit “comperi quod non est personarum acceptor
Deus, sed in omni gente qui timet Deum et operatur justitiam
acceptus est illi.” In omni itaque gente, in omni ordine, et
omni gradu novit Deus qui sunt ejus, et miseratur cui voluit,
misericordiam prestat in quem sibi placuit, attingens a fine
usque ad finem fortiter, et disponens omnia suaviter. Neque
emin ex sui ipsius natura vel paupertas prestat vel adimunt
divitiz divinam gratiam. Fuit igitur de quo loqui disposui
Willelmus Wykeham Christiane professionis heres, apud
oppidum de Wykeham in comitatu Suthampton felici
momento enixus; et sic a loconomen assumpsit, et nomen
cum loco eulogio perpetuo decoravit. Cujus ortus primordia
ex parte matris nomine Sibillae generosa prosapia natalibus
legis insignivit. Pater vero ejus Johannes nomine, progeni-
torum libertate dotatus, honestum moribus et gesturis se
omnibus exhibebat. O quam felices non opibus sed
virtutibus ; o quam generatio casta cum claritate !

2. De anno nativitatis et de gestis usque ad annum
@tatis sue vigesimunt.

Operum Dominus creator omnium, Deus fons et origo
totius bonitatis, sua sapientia disponens et dirigens uni-
versa, sic natum puerum Willelmum, videlicet anno Domini
M™ CCC”® XXITJ°, et regni regis Edwardi secundi anno XVIIJ°,
papatum Rome tunc tenente Johanne papa XXIJ”, feliciter
gubernavit, ut sacri baptismatis unda perfusus et sacro
perunctus chrismate plenius incorporetur, effectusque sacri
Spiritus domicilium in ejus disciplina nutrietur. Crevit
296 William of Wykeham.

 

autem puer Willelmus, et confortatus est, fuitque Dominus
cum eo, et omnia ejus opera dirigebat. Parentes vero ejus
licet honesti genere, opibus tamen non affluebant ; unde
filius, non ex eorum patrimonio sed aliorum patrocinio
nutritus, literis sacularibus parvulus primitivis scientiis
traditur imbuendus, qui tamen primitive scientiz limites
non transcendit. Postquam animi maturitatem adesset,
probis et preeclaris viris adherens prudentiz szculari se
commisit, et officium Marthe in se suscipiens panem
otiose non comedit, ambulans de virtute in virtutem: unde
vice tabellionis cuidam armigero, Constabulario  scilicet
castri Wyntoniensis, adherebat. Exinde cepit in florem
secularis prudentiz pubescere, et fructum  discretionis
polliceri. Nunc secundum utrumque hominem multiplici
naturalium gratia donorum bonitas Dei ditavit, ut in
ministerium magnum vas videretur excisum, et ex nature
beneficiis futurus preedicatur antistes. Nam dispensatione
divina quem vocavit ad majora erudiebat et exercebat
in minoribus, quasi in quibusdam futurorum praeparatoriis.
Non est igitur postponendum quod in hac ztate frequen-
tare ecclesiam dulce habuit, crebrius orationi incumbere,
sacris missarum interesse solemniis. Unde et specialem
devotionem habuit ad beatam Dei genitricem; ob cujus
honorem seepius visitavit ecclesiam sancti Swithuni, coram
imagine ejusdem tunc posita in quadam columna ejusdem
ecclesiz, genibus flexis eam humiliter deprecans, ut suis
precibus ad talem statum mereretur assumi, ut non solum
ipsam sed filium ejus Jesum Christum in ecclesia militante
dignius honoraret.

3. De translatione ejus ad curiam regis; et quam ordi-
natur omnium supervisor operum regis, et de promotione ejus
ad diversa beneficia et officia.

Biennio vel triennio elapso post annum scilicet etatis
Appendix. 297

 

suze vicesimum, translatus est in curiam domini regis
Edwardi tertii, qui promerente sua bonitate gratisque
suffragantibus obsequiis inter primos et pracipuos regis
familiares in brevi est admissus. Unde anno Domini
m™? ccc™ Lx®, et regni regis Edwardi tertii anno XXIIJ°,
ztatis vero dicti Willelmi Wykeham anno XXXVJ°, rex
castrum suum de Windesore, ubi natus fuerat, pulchris edi-
ficiis splendide decoravit, et in eodem liberam capellam
collegialem ordinavit, quam multis possessionibus tam
temporalibus quam ecclesiasticis magnifice dotavit. Et
predictorum operum supervisorem constituit Willelmum
Wikeham antedictum, ad cujus dispositionem omnia regis
zdificia tunc temporis erant peracta. Illius igitur pruden-
tiam attendens, rex Edwardus ditavit eundem pinguibus
beneficiis, ac procedente tempore experta illius ingenti
discretione suum privatum sigillum fecerat deportare. Sic
igitur largifluus dator rerum ipse Deus servo suo Willelmo
antedicto dum vixerat divitias contulit copiose, quatenus et
sua familia in manum ejus augmentaretur quotidie, et unde
singula consummarentur que proposuit in honorem Dei et
beatissimz Marie virginis, matris Domini nostri Jesu Christi,
facere copiosius largiretur, ut liquet ! in sequentibus.

4. De procuratione regis ut idem Willelinus promoveretur
in episcopum Wyntontensent.

Edwardus rex Angliz tertius anno Domini M™° ccc™
LXVJ°, civitate Wyntoniensi privata suo antistite disponente
divina gratia, videns et considerans Willelmum predictum
suum officium prudenter agentem et fidelissimum sibi, sedi
Wyntoniensi viis et modis licitis prout decuit preeficere
procuravit. Credidit enim ipsum Willelmum qui tanti
honoris onus portaret, quem totiens magnanimum in magnis
periculis expertus fuisset, suis heredibus profuturum si se

1 MS. linquet.
298 William of Wykeham.

 

fatalis dies immature rebus humanis eximeret, speraverat-
que rex seipsum per eundem Willelmum ecclesiastica et
secularia negotia prout utilitas exposceret prudenter gestu-
rum, si vita diuturniore ex Dei beneplacito frueretur ; quod
rei eventus postmodum approbavit.

5. De avisamento et deliberatione ejusdem Wrillelmi, st
susciperet in se dignitatem episcopalem si contingeret ipsum
ad illam eligi.

Regi autem Edwardo non statim alludens predictus
clericus Willelmus Wykeham, qui experientissimus fuerat
et solitus futura metiri, tantz cure sarcinam satis acute
ponderavit. Cognovit enim onera pastoralis officii, regi-
men animarum, laborum sollicitudinem, negligentize pocenam,
mores vanos succedentium regum, et quicquid exosum
liberisset inferre, delatorum calumnias, malignantium machi-
nationes invidorum, morsus ambitiosorum, enormitates
curie regis considerabat, et conferebat universa in corda
suo. Unde et visum est sibi minus esse periculi respuere
sublimia, quamvis pro fragilitate humana facilius respueret
humilia. Nam si oblatum subiret officium credebat quod
regem vel regum omnium Dominum cogeretur offendere,
presertim cum nemo possit duobus dominis servire quorum
precepta discordant. Non autem videbatur sibi regem
Edwardum dominum suum et beneficiorum collatorem ad
iram provocare, et notam ingratitudinis incurrere. Scilicet
vel maximam reputabat insaniam, mandata Regis regum
contemnere sub cujus signis militaret, Dominumque diffiteri
cujus se servum profiteretur officio. Continuo sciens scrip-
tum “Qui episcopatum desiderat bonum opus desiderat,”
preeesse desiderabat et prodesse. Memorque professionis
suz quasi cruorem curiz saecularis abhorrebat, vitam secre-
tiorem appetebat, que competentius ad Rachaelem intraret,
Helyam non desereret, que vicissim in campos cum Jesu
Appendix. 299

 

et cum Moyse descenderet de monte. Scilicet hoc cogitanti
reclamabat alia scriptura, scilicet qui invitatus renuit
quesitus refugit sacris altaribus admittendus ; sic qui ultro
aut importune se ingerit proculdubio est repellendus.
Itaque regi aliisque eum promovere volentibus aliquan-
diu reluctatus est, nolens in se aliquo modo pontificalis
officii suscipere dignitatem, nisi prius ei de electione ejus-
dem canonice facta per eos ad quos de jure pertinebat jus
et potestas eligendi patefieret manifeste.

6. De electione ejusdem in episcopum facta per religiosos
viros ecclesia cathedralis Wyntoniensis.

Tandem providens Dominus domui sue quem novo.
sole apud australes Anglie partes illuminare disposuit
viros religiosos ecclesia Wyntoniensis specialiter excitavit
qui antedictum Willelmum eligerent in pontificem. Proce-
dentes igitur quorum interfuit super electione futuri pontificis
non alium magis ecclesiz cathedrali vel ipsis expedire verius
estimantes, inito consilio sepedictum Willelmum in pasto-
rem suum juxta communis juris formam canonice elegerunt,
quem regi noverant acceptum rebusque divinis et humanis
expertum. Qua electione regi-presentata cujus auctoritate
roboraretur, ut ei suffragator in expediendis existet, ultra
quam credi potest gavisus est et letatum est cor suum.
Gratias igitur egit Deo qui talem super suum gregem elegit
pastorem, in totius regni et praecipue diocesis Wyntoniensis
consolationem ; quem ab ipso Domino, plebe nesciente quod
fecit, nullus dubitaret electum.

7. Quomodo dictus Willelnus per electionem et confirma-
tionem se disposuit renovare, et induere novum hominem que
secundum Deum creatus est.

Vir enim pradictus videlicet Willelmus Wykeham in
omnibus his in gloriam non est elatus humanam scilicet.
300 Wiliam of Wykeham.

 

Dei in se bonitatem altius recognoscens, illud Sapientis
sedulo meditabatur “Principem te constituerunt, noli extolli;
sed esto in illis quasi unus ex eis.” Consecratus igitur in
episcopum Wyntoniensem anno Domini M°CCc™ LXVIJ°, et
anno regis Edwardi tertii XL°, atatis vero dicti Willelmi
XLIIJ°, ut cum sacramento rem sacramenti consequeretur,
veterem hominem renovare disposuit, et induit se novum
hominem qui secundum Dominum creatus est, record-
atusque quz ardua conscenderet, que szcularis antea
neglexerat, tempus redimere contendit; unde tanquam
transfiguratus in virum alium hanc sibi vivendi formam
proposuit, ut scilicet suis se domesticis praberet aqua-
lem, sacerdotibus humilem, plebi gratum, compatientem
miseris, largum egenis. Et ut illi cura Dei cultus foret
devotio major quam ante, seque sollicitaret in ecclesiis et
aliis locis diversis ad divinum honorem pertinentibus con-
stituendis et reparandis ; quod quidem propositum fideliter
adimplevit, prout in sequentibus sermo lucidus reserabit.

&. De conversatione ejus postquam electus est et con-
Jirmatus in episcopum.

Spiritus sancti institutu doctus pradictus Willelmus,
considerans se patrem multarum gentium constitutum,
zestimavit rectum renovationis progressum a scipso incipere,
et tunc se recte aliis dominari posse, si sibi ipsi prius didi-
cisset imperare. Corpus igitur suum servituti subjiciens
docuit ancillari et spiritui dominari, sciensque quod caritas
non querit que sua sunt, non solum in se sed in proprio
primum venari cepit. Nam lares egrorum et debilium per
Suos scrutabatur, et beneficiis visitabat, victu vestituque
Sustentabat quamplurimos eorundem. Quotidie etiam
centum numerum pauperum per se vel per alios plena
refectione et argenteorum largitione singulos exhilarabat.
In omnibus igitur agendis Deum ante oculos habebat, nec
Appendix. OL

 

in aliquo desidiosus erat, turpis lucri cupiditatem a se
extricabat, et in singulis legaliter sibi imperabat. Ecclesia
Anglican in quantum potuit et pracipue ecclesia suze
cathedrali Wyntoniensi per omnia fideliter patrocinabatur,
pacem inter discordes reformando. Consultus erat in
ambiguis, in responsis promptus, alacer et affabilis,! nec
erat sermo sterilis nec otiosus, quem commendabat lauda-
bilis verborum et operum comitatus ; de quo non incongrue
potest sic metrice dici:
Willelmum triplici probasse dicuntur honore
Lingua modesta, manus commoda, mensque pia.
In verbis verax, prece fervens, strenuus actu,
Judicio justus, consilioque potens :
Et nitida morum fama preeclarus in omni,
Principibus meruit complacuisse viris.
Preecurrit magnos modico sub tempore parvus,
Doctos indoctus arte, senesque puer.
Interius fervent, foris ejus pectora lucent,
Interius votis, muneribusque foris.
Si queris similem, similis vix invenietur ;
Qualis quantus erat fructu testante docetur.
O miranda Dei virtus, O gratia magna,
Tam cito que talem efficit esse virum.
Hoc exemplari parvi gaudete scholares,
Hoc vos instruat, hoc ad meliora trahat.

9. De injurits eidem illatis propter episcopatum susceptum,
et ejus patientia in ersdein.

Hostis antiquus invidens novum hominem multiplici
virtutum gratia pullulare, ne flores meritorum prodirent in
fructus preemiorum, anno Domini Me CCC™ LXXVJ, et regni
regis Edwardi tertii anno XLIX®, etatis vero dicti patris
Willelmi Wykeham anno LII°, consecrationis sua anno IX°,

'MS. effabilis.
jo2 William of Wykeham.

 

per quosdam zizania superseminavit que fructum veteris
amicitie regis et pontificis penitus suffocarunt. De his
tamen injuriis sibi illatis, propter diversas causas me
moventes magis sentio fore tacendum quam loquendum.
In his igitur tribulationibus et angustiis pater pradictus
Willelmus patientiam observabat, gratias agens gratie Lar-
gitori qui se sic misericorditer flagellavit. Consideransque
quod omnis cordis aut corporis afflictio citra meritum, et
fructus salutis est sine patientiz condimento, cum ipse
virtutes nisi patientiz habeant fundamentum virtutis nomen
perdunt, nam mundana est virtus que non patientiam
servat, cum sancto Job istas tribulationes et angustias sus-
tinuit patienter, semper paratus multo plura pro justitia
pati, illud Scripturae commemorans, “Beati qui persecu-
tionem patiuntur propter justitiam.” Donum igitur Dei
altissimi et quicquid circa eum benigne disposuit gratanter
acceptavit, votis suis reputans plenissime satisfactum, sper-
ansque quod per afflictiones hujusmodi succederet sibi et
solatio grata, quod rei eventus postmodum approbavit,
ut in sequenti capitulo brevibus reserabo.

ro. De veformatione injuriarum sibi ilatarum; et
quomodo proposutt fundare duo collegia, unum videlicet
Oxonie et alteruim Wyntonie.

Ex dispositione divina anno proximo subsequente,
videlicet XJ kalendas Junii anno Domini M° ccc™® LNXVI]°,
decedente rege Edwardo, successit sibi rex Ricardus
secundus, cui predictus pontifex multum acceptabilis
fuerat. Unda et ab exilio sue miserie et angustie est
reversus, et sic subsequuntur gaudium post merorem,
post laborem requies, post amaritudinem dulcedo, et post
persecutionem prosperitas ; et ccetera alludebant sibi ad
votum. Succedentibus igitur prosperis dicbus pater Wil-
lelmus Wyntoniz antistes, volens sibi divini favoris gratiam
Appendix 303

 

misericordiis pauperum conciliari propensius, cogitans quo-
que et recogitans quanta fecerat illi Deus, qui ditavit
egenum, sublimiavit humilem, apertis thesauris suis duo
collegia clericorum, unum videlicet in universitate Oxonie,
et aliud prope civitatem Wyntonie ad laudem Dei et.
gloriosissimz matris ejus, ecclesiz sancte profectum, divini
cultus liberaliumque artium scientiarum et facultatum
augmentum, proposuit ordinare perpetuis futuris tempori-
bus divina favente gratia firmiter duratura; que opera,
divinitus sibi ut creditur inspirata, ut in sequentibus
dicetur feliciter consummavit.

rz. De fundatione collegii beate Marie Wynton in
Oxonia.

Erexit igitur titulum et posuit primum lapidem in
collegio beate Marie Wynton in Oxonia Lincolniensi
diocesi, vulgariter nuncupate “ Seynt Mary College of Wyn-
chestre in Oxenforde,’” anno Domini M° CCC™® LXXIX°, hora
IllJ ante meridiem quinti diei mensis Martii, qui fuit dies
Lune tertiz septimane XL, anno regni regis Ricardi
secundi tertio, «tatis vero dicti patris anno LV°, et
consecrationis suze anno XIJ°. In quo quidem collegio
constructa est capella cum ceteris domibus et officinis
necessariis, sicut patet. cuilibet intuenti. Constructis igitur
zdificiis ejusdem collegii in spatio VIJ annorum, constituit
idem pater in eodem numerum LXx* scholarium in diversis
scientiis et facultatibus studere debentium, decem capella-
norum, trium clericorum, et sexdecim puerorum choristarum
pro divinis officiis in capella predicti collegii quotidie per
eosdem sollemniter celebrandis, necnon et unius custodis qui
praeesset omnibus et singulis supradictis ac suis fruentibus.
Hec enim pater predictus ad laudem, gloriam, et honorem
nominis Crucifixi et gloriosissimee Marie matris ejus, susten-
tationem et exaltationem fidei Christiane, ecclesia sancte
304 William of Wykeham.

 

profectum, divini cultus liberaliumque artium scientiarum
et facultatum augmentum, auctoritate apostolica et regia
ordinavit, instituit, fundavit, et stabilivit, prout in cartis et
literis patentibus super ordinatione et institutione et funda-
tione collegii pradicti continetur. Quorum quidem custodis
et scholarium et ceterorum predictorum primus ingressus
in locum antedictum ad inibi habitandum fuerat hora tertia
ante meridiem X1IIJ° die mensis Aprilis, die videlicet
Sabbati proximo precedente Dominicam in Ramis Palma-
rum, anno Domini M° CCC™ LXXXVJ°, cum cruce erecta et
litania sollemniter cantata processionaliter gradiendo. Quod
quidem collegium sic per eundem patrem fundatum pos-
sessionibus temporalibus et spiritualibus dotavit dictus
fundator ad sustentationem commorantium in eodem, ut
dicam in capitulo subsequent.

12. De fundatione collegit beate Marie prope civitatem
IVyntonie.

Tandem predictus pater recogitans in seipso cultum
Dei ampliare, juxta propositum suum alias hoc diffiniens
ut in preecedentibus dixi, nondum anno elapso post operis
consummationem in collegio suo Oxonie, aliud collegium
fundare et dotare incepit prope civitatem Wyntonie,
vulgariter nuncupatum ‘“Seynt Mary College of Wyn-
chestre.” Cujus quidem primi lapidis positio fuerat facta
XXvjJ° die mensis Martii, hora autem IIJ ante meridiem, anno
Domini M° CCC™? LXXXVIJ°, regni vero regis Ricardi secundi
anno XJ°, et consecrationis dicti patris anno XX°, ztatis vero
suze anno LXVIIJ®. Demum istius collegii edificiis necessariis
sic constructis in spatio sex annorum, videlicet post primi
lapidis positionem, ordinavit et constituit fundator antedictus
in eodem collegio numerum LXX* scholarium parvulorum in
etate tenera existentium grammaticam addiscere deben-
tium, unius magistri in grammatica et hostiarii sub ipso
Appendix. 305

 

eisdem intendere debentium propter instructionem eorun-
dem in moribus et scientiis, decem etiam sociorum
perpetuorum! in ordine sacerdotali constitutorum, et
trium aliorum capellanorum conductitiorum, trium cleri-
corum, et XVJ puerorum choristarum pro divinis officiis
in capella dicti collegii quotidie relevandis, necnon et
unius custodis qui preesset omnibus supradictis et suis
fruentibus, ad laudem et gloriam majestatis divine, et
specialiter in honorem beatissimz Marie Virginis genctricis
Dei, ut in superiori capitulo proximo declaravi. Quorum
quidem custodi sociorum scholarium ceterorumque omnium
preedictorum ingressus primus ad inibi inhabitandum fuit
hora IlJ ante meridiem XXVIIJo die mensis Martii anno
Domini M° CCC™? XCIIJ°, regni vero regis Ricardi XVIJ°, cum
cruce erecta precedente, sollemni cantu processionaliter
gradiendo. Eia jam quis hunc olim mendicum, quis
hunc olim indignum, quis hunc olim pauperem non teste-
tur nunc divitem? dives siquidem fuit cui nihil quod
multis sufficiet defuit. Dives inquam ‘fuit qui supra-
dicta collegia pauperibus scholaribus edificavit propter
Christum, ut superius tetigi, eademque dotavit posses-
sionibus tam spiritualibus quam temporalibus, nonnulla
etiam vero mobilia, videlicet libros, calices, vestimenta,
pannos aureos, et cetera necessaria ad divinum cultum
spectantia, que omnia longum esset hic enarrare, eisdem
collegiis condonavit. Plusquam ducentos servos Det
instituens in eisdem deductis suis provenientibus quam-
vis in tam brevi spatio annorum quibus pradicta facta
sunt, magnis regibus difficillimum sic facere videretur.
Et audacter dico, ut verius loquor, per se ista non potuit
scilicet ut facta fuerant evidenter pronunciant. Deus igitur
largitor, et Willelmus dispensator et minister; alter dapsiliter
stillabat, alter divitias stillatas fideliter dividebat ; de quo

'MS. ‘'perpetuatorum.”
306 William of Wykeham.

 

non immerito potest dici illud Scripture, “Fidelis servus:
et prudens quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam.”

13. De opibus et beneficiis que fecit et exhibuit sue
cathedrali ecclesi@ et alits locts.

Est insuper non immerito inserendum quod predictus
pater, ultra magnifica opera istorum collegiorum praedic-
torum que ipse Wyntoniz et Oxonie ad Dei laudem et
cleri augmentationem sicut praedixi sumptuose fundavit,
plura memorize digna ecclesie cathedrali Wyntonie fecit.
Nam ecclesiam illam pluribus donis quam hic inseri possunt
munifice decoravit, corpusque dictz ecclesia cum duabus.
alis,!’ et omnibus fenestris vitreis a magna occidentali
fenestra capitali usque ad campanile, a fundo usque ad
summum de novo reparavit, et voltas in eisdem opere
curioso constituit; quod quidem opus feliciter consum-
mavit. Qui etiam talem immunitatem predicte ecclesie
adquisivit, quod singulos de eadem inibi commorantes,
et suos successores, ab omnimoda jurisdictione civitatis
penitus liberavit; ut sic exempti, quamvis infra civitatem
situantur, de civitate tamen quantum ad territorium nulla--
tenus dicerentur. Scilicet ab omnibus que incolis hujus.
civitatis solent imponi reddebat immunes, ut eo liberius.
Deo interius obsequerentur quo se exterius ex actionibus
conspiciunt non gravatos. Vestimenta quoque de panno:
aureo cum aliis jocalibus nonnullis eidem ecclesie# contulit,
ut mysterium Dei eo amplius dulcesceret in cordibus
hominum quo nobilius exterius veneretur. Quantas autem
expensas circa reges et proceres continuo effundebat, quot:
vias lutosas, quot pontes fractos et debiles, quot ecclesias.
rumosas et exiles sine sumptibus emendabat, quot etiam
calices, libros, et vestimenta diversis ecclesiis in suo diocesi
et alibi constitutis largiter condonavit, non stilo poterit.

'MS. 'elys.”
Appendix. 307

 

brevi comprehendi. O refugium pauperum, cleri alumnus,
Deitatis cultor, pietatis amator, hospitalite largus, liberali-
tate plenus, opere magnificus, et omni morum probitate
feccundus, ministerium suum implevit bona Domini sui
fideliter dispensando.

14. De morte et loco sepulture ejusdem patris.

Omnibus supradictis juxta dispensationem divinam
completis, venerabilis pater praedictus, qui cum plenus esset
dierum octogenarius complete totum se Deo commendans,
in fide Christi sub sacramentis ecclesiz in senectute vero cum
patribus requievit, videlicet anno Domini M° cccc™ IIIJ° et
consecrationis suze anno XXXVIJ°, anno regni regis Henrici
quarti vy*?, xx° die mensis Septembris in festo Sanctorum
Cosme et Damiani, die scilicet Sabbati, qui est dies requiei ;
quem speramus de labore ad requiem, de triumpho ad
gaudium, de miseria ad beatitudinem veraciter expirasse.
Cujus corpus jacet tumulatum in oratorio beate Marie
Virginis in navi ecclesiz cathedralis Wyntoniz, quod ipse
superstes ad honorem ejusdem Virginis fieri ordinavit. In
quo ad minimum tres misse speciales pro anima ejusdem
patris, parentum, et benefactorum suorum ac omnium
fidelium defunctorum quotidie celebrantur, una in ejus
laudem. Ut finis detur operi possum sic metrice fari:

Ecce tot expletis in prosperitate diebus,
Parva mori magnum conspicit homo virum.
Subtrahitur sed non moritur, quia semper habetur
Ipsius egregium nomen in orbe novum.
Omnis conditio, professio, sexus, et ztas
Willelmi Wykeham luget obesse virum.
Preecipue lacrimas effundunt pauper inopsque
Hujus larga manus quos refovere solet.
Nam pietatis opus quod distribuebat egenis
Enarrare satis nostra loquela nequit.
308 William of Wykeham.

Oremus quod vera Dei lux luceat illi,
Et det ei requiem perpetuumque diem. Amen.

Explicit tractatus seu libellus de prosapia vita et gestis
venerabilis patris et domini Willelmi Wykeham nuper
episcopit Wyntonia, editus anno Domini M™° CCCC™? XXIVe,
gui fuit annus XX“ post obitum ejusdeim patris, et regnt

Henrict VJ" anno ty.

THE END.
INDEX.
INDEX.

A.

Aas, Henry, uncle of Wykeham, 4.

Anne of Bohemia, queen of Richard
II, favours Lollards, 182; dies, 249.

Apedale, John, forfeits land granted to
Wyk., 86.

Arundel, Richard Fitz-Alan, earl of,
constable of Porchester Castle, 10;
on commission for Scotland, 30;
assessor to king’s council, 123;
commissioner to reform household,
154; appellant, 164; dismissed from
privy council, 215; re-admitted, 219;
accused of treason, and pardoned,
249; quarrels with king, 249; seized,
250; beheaded, 252.

Arundel, Thomas Fitz-Alan called,
bishop of Ely, 170; chancellor, 162;
resigns, 213; chancellor, 230; made
archbishop of Canterbury, 185, 250;
impeached and banished, and goes
to Rome, 252; to Paris in disguise,
254; lands with duke Henry at
Ravenspur, 255; replaced by the
pope, 263; orders thanks for the
revolution, 263.

Askeby, Wm., archdeacon of North-
ampton, enthrones Wyk., 66.

Aston, John, Wicliffite at Oxford, 178.

Aston, Sir Richard, king’s chamber-
lain, speaks in parliament, 139.

Atwood, Peter, co-warden with Wyk.
of Arden Forest, 26.

Audoin, abbot of Clugni, papal envoy
at Calais, 28.

Aylsham, Robert, abbot of Hulme,
dies, 18.

Aylward, Thomas, executor of Wyk.’s
will, 266.

B.

Baketon, Thomas, commissary to try
four masters of St. Cross, 100;
gives sentence, Io!.

Barnet, bishop of Ely, treasurer,
on commission for Scotland, 30;
Tesigns treasury, 72 7.

Barton, Walter, rector of Wickham, 3.

Basing, Hugh, prior of St. Swithun’s,
Winchester, 235; elects Wyk. bis-
hop, 55; withholds customary bread
and wine, 236.

Beach, Henry, first fellow of Win-
chester College, 202.

Beauchamp, Roger, lord of Bletsoe,
assessor to king’s council, 123.

Beaufort, cardinal Henry, succeeds
Wyk. as bishop of Winchester, 267.

Bedeman, Wicliffite at Oxford, 180.

Boniface IX, pope, claims adhesion of
England, 218; remonstrates against
statute of Provisors, 227; Wyk.asks
leave for coadjutor from, 267.

Botreaux, Sir William, leaves son
ward of Wyk., 19.

Bourbon, duke of, sent to Avignon
to plead for Wyk., 60; ransomed,
61, 74.

Bowade, ‘William,
Wyk., 4.

Boys, Thomas, provost of St. Eliza-
beth’s, Winchester, 244.

Bramber, Sir Nicholas, mayor of
London, 157; appealed of treason,
164; hanged, 16s.

Bramdean, Richard, prior of South-
wick, 3 7.

grandfather of

Brampton, John, buys glass for
Windsor Castle, 24.
Brantingham, Thomas, bishop of

Exeter, treasurer, 81; resigns, 84;
on commission of regency, 163;
treasurer, 215; resigns, 200.

Braybrooke, bishop of London, chan-
cellor, 156; Wyk.’s executor, 266.

Brill, John, bishop of Ennachdun,
made suffragan by Wyk., 264, 265.

Brinton, Thomas, bishop of Rochester,
pope’s delegate to license Wyk. to
build, 195.

Bryan, lord, assessor to king’s council,
123.

Buckingham, John, elected bishop of
Lincoln, 46; prayers for, at New
College, 208.

Buckingham, John, buys land for New
College, 107, 189; witnesses inden-
jie

Lndex.

 

ture with Herton, 109; pardoned
for purchases without license, 189.

Buildwas, John, fine abated to, by
Wyk., 130.

Burley, Sir Simon, guardian of prince
Richard, 157; hanged, 165.

Butler, Thomas, bishop of Christo-
polis, suffragan to Wyk., 264.

Cc.

Campden, John, canon of Southwell,
witnesses indenture with Herton,
109; Wyk.'s executor, 266.

Castleford, rector of St.
Winchester, 100.

Castro, Gervase de, bishop of Bangor,
takes first ordination for Wyk., 89.

Chambre, Roger de la, commissioned
to bishop of Rochester, 196.

Charles V, king of France, astute
policy of, 71; summons prince
Edward to Paris, 74; declares war,
and occupies Ponthieu, 75.

Childrey, Thomas, executor to Wyk.’s
will, 266.

Clanvow, Sir John, Lollard king’s
chamberlain, 183.

Clarence, Lionel duke of, 70.

Clement VII, antipope, 175.

Clifford, Sir Lewis, Lollard privy
councillor, 183; envoy to Rome,
219.

Clifford, Roger lord, lord marcher,
158.

Clown, Roger, master of St. Cross,
95 ; cited to Southwark, 96; appeals
to pope, 97; cited to Cathedral,
99; condemned and submits, ro1;
dies, 102.

Cobham, John, lord, letter addressed
to, by Wyk., xviii; commissioned
to Bruges, 113; on commission of
regency, 251; in peril, 251.

Cook, Walter, prior of Taunton, 234.

Courtenay, William, bishop of Here-
ford, works under Wyk. as a nation-
alist, 170; bishop of London, asses-
sor to king’s council, 122; insists on
Wyk.’s restoration to convocation,
140; disputes with duke John in
St. Paul’s, 172; quells ensuing riot,
173; excommunicates two of duke
John’s followers, 174; made arch-
bishop of Canterbury, 178; holds
synod of Blackfriars, 179 ; mandate

Pancras,

for government of Oxford Univer.
sity, 180; excommunicates Lollards,
184; dies, 185.

Cranlegh, Thomas, warden of tem-
porary college at Winchester, 201.
Crumpe, Henry, Cistercian monk,
strives with mendicants, 182; con-
demned by bishop of Meath, 183;
cited to Stamford, and condemned,.

184.
D.

Dacre, Hugh lord, lord marcher, 158.

Dallingridge, Sir John, envoy to
Rome, 219.

Daundely, Sir Robert, succeeds Sir J.
Scures as constable of Winchester
Castle, 10.

David, king of Scotland, Wyk. com-
missioner to settle ransom of, 29, 30.

Derby, Henry, earl of. See Henry IV.

Despencer, lord, one of second appel-
lants, 250.

Deymede, Joan, abbess of St. Mary’s,
Winchester, 243.

Driby, John lord, dies seised of land
in Lincolnshire, 130.

Dunkeld, Nicholas, bishop of, con-
secrates bells at New College, 195.

E.

Edingdon, John, master of St. Cross,
93; exchanges with Stowell, 94;
declines to make inventory, 96.

Edingdon, William, bishop of Win-
chester, employs Wyk., 11, 19;
ordains him sub-deacon and priest,
45; elected to Canterbury, but de-
clines it, 54; dies, 55; restores west
end of Winchester Cathedral, 261.

Edmund, duke of York. See York.

Edward III, king of England, Wyk.
introduced to, 11; builds Round
Table at Windsor, 15; builds Col-
lege of Order of the Garter, 19;
appoints Wyk. surveyor, 20, 21;
ill success in French war, 27; makes
treaty of Bretigni, 28; passes sta-
tutes of Provisors and Przemunire,
34; quarrels with bishop Lisle of
Ely, 36; confiscates his temporals,
37; gives Wyk. Pulham rectory,
37, 39; becomes unpopular, 69;
attaches himself to Alice Perrers,
113; falls ill, 123; dies, 147.
Index.

 

Edward, prince of Wales, expedition
to Spain, 70; takes Limoges, and
returns to England, 80; acts with
national party, 115; dies, 121.

Ellis, William, merchant, impeached
by Good Parliament, 120.

Elmer, John, Wyk.’s officiary, 244;
coadjutor before his death, 274.

Erghum, bishop of Salisbury, on
Richard II's first privy council, 152.

Eynsham, John, abbot of Hyde, Win-
chester, 242; mitred by pope, and
dies, 243.

F.

Foxley, Sir John, of Bramshill, leaves
gold ring to Wyk., 21.

Foxley, Thomas, of Bramshill, con-
stable of Windsor Castle, intimate
with Wyk., 20; dies, 23; Wyk.
orders prayers for soul of, 208. .

Froissart, Jehan de, estimate of his-
tory, 14; testimony to Wyk.’s
influence, 30, 53.

Fromond, John, Wyk.’s steward, builds
cloister at Winchester College, 202.

G.
Gilbert, John, bishop of St. David's,

treasurer, 216.

Gloucester, Thomas, duke of, youngest
son of Edward III: earl of Buck-
ingham, 157; made duke of Glou-
cester, 160; leader of opposition,
161; on commission of regency,
162; appellant, 164; defeats Ireland
at Radcot Bridge, 165; virtual dic-
tator, 166; dismissed from privy
council, 215; readmitted, 219;
seized, 250; carried to Calais, and
dies there, 252.

Grateley, Walter, prior of Taunton,
retires, 234.

Gregory XI, pope, assembles confer-

ence at Bruges, 112; dies, 174.

Grey, John lord, of Rotherfield, Wyk.
remits fine to, 129, 133; Wyk. con-
demned for remitting it, 135.

Joly
H.
Harewell, bishop of Bath and Wells,.
234, 235.
Hastings. See Pembroke.

Hatch, William, appointed abbot of
Hulme, 18.

Henry IV, king of England, born, 71 ;
earl of Derby, appellant, 164; won
to Richard’s side, 213; uneasy,
251; made duke of Hereford, 252;
quarrels with Norfolk, and banished,
253; succeeds as duke of Lancaster,
264; lands at Ravenspur, 265;
elected king, 266.

Hereford, Henry duke of. See Henry
IV.

Herford, Nicholas, Wicliffite at Ox-
ford, 178; preaches before Univer-
sity, 179; condemned, 180.

Herton, Richard, Wyk. makes inden-
ture with to teach boys, 108.

Hopwas, Hugh, guardian of spirituals
in Lichfield diocese, 41; inducts
Wyk. under protest, 42.

Houghton, Adam, bishop of St.David’s,
receives commission to examine
Wyk., 45; chancellor, 138; opens
parliament, 139.

Hungerford, Sir John, speaker, 137.

Huntingdon, John Holland earl of,
murders friar at Salisbury, and
Stafford’s son at York, 159; on
second appeal, 250.

I.

Innocent VI, pope, refuses leave for
consecration to Stretton, 40; gives
way, 41; requires Wyk. to be ex--
amined, 45; dies, 46.

Ireland, Robert de Vere, duke of:
earl of Oxford, favourite of king,
157; made marquis of Dublin and
duke of Ireland, 160; appealed of
treason, 164; defeated at Radcot,
and hanged, 165.

Isabella of France, queen of Richard
II, 250.

Islip, Simon, archbishop of Canter-
bury, advises bishop Lisle, 37
dies, 53.

Ivinghoe, Nicholas, Wyk.’s proxy for
induction to stall at Lichfield, 42.
Index.

 

J.

John, king of France, captured at
Poitiers, 27 ; ransomed by treaty of
Bretigni, 28.

John, duke of Lancaster.
caster.

Jervis, Andrew, prayers ordered for at
Winchester College, 208 2.

See Lan-

K.

Kelsey, John, notary public, 10g.

Kent, Thomas Holland earl of, on
second appeal, 250.

Kingsbury, John, prior of Taunton,
234.

Kingston, Nicholas, coadjutor to
Clown as master of St. Cross, 99;
commission to gather rents, 100.

Kirton, John lord, occupies land in
Lincolnshire, 130.

Knight, Thomas, third fellow of Win-
chester College, 202.

Knyvett, Sir John, chancellor, 114;
opens Good Parliament, 116.

Knollys, Sir Robert, commands in
France, 79; defeated, 80.

L.

Langham, Simon, bishop of Ely and
chancellor, makes Wyk. his privy
seal, 29; on commission about
Scotland, 30; made archbishop of
Canterbury, 59; consecrates Wyk.,
64; accepts cardinal’s hat, and
retires, 73.

Latimer, Sir Thomas, Lollard privy
councillor, 183.

Latimer, William, lord, impeached by
Good Parliament, 118; imprisoned,
119; summoned to privy council,
123; on Richard II's first privy
council, 132; on commission to
reform household, 154.

Lavington, Thomas, sells house to
Wyk., 198.

Lemansworth, Robert, fourth fellow
of Winchester College, 202.

Lionel, duke of Clarence. See
Clarence.

Lisle, Thomas, bishop of Ely, quarrels
with king, 36; forfeits temporals
and flies to Avignon, 37; prosecutes
Wyk., 38; dies, 39.

Louvain, Sir Nicholas, governor of
Ponthieu, captured, 75.

Lyntesford, Richard, master of St.
Cross, sequestration against issued
by Wyk. 94; exchanges with
Clown, 95; cited to Southwark, 96;
submits, 98.

Lyons, Richard, merchant, impeached
by Good Parliament, 118.

M.

March, Edmund Mortimer, earl of,
on committee for conference with
commons in Good Parliament, 117;
assessor to kxing’s council, 122.

March, Roger Mortimer, earl of, de-
clared heir to crown, 160; murdered
in Ireland, 264.

Mare, Alice, abbess of St. Mary’s,
Winchester, 243.

Mare, Sir Peter de la, states commons’
grievances in Good Parliament, 118;
imprisoned, 123; speaker in Richard
II's first parliament, 152.

Melton, John, first headmaster of
Winchester college, 261.

Membury, Simon, treasurer at Wol-
vesey castle, 244; surveyor of work
in cathedral, 261.

Merks, Thomas, deprived bishop of
Carlisle, Wyk.’s last suffragan, 265.

Montagu, or Montacute, William
earl of Salisbury, commissioned to
Bruges, 113.

Montagu, or Montacute, John lord,
Lollard privy councillor, 183.

More, John, fifth fellow of Winches-
ter college, 202.

Mortimer, earlof March. See March.

Moulsoe, William, dean of St. Mar-
tin’s le Grand, on commission to
enthrone Wyk., 67.

Mowbray, Thomas, earl of Norfolk.
See Norfolk.

N.

Neville, Alexander, archbishop of
York, on commission of regency,
163; appealed of treason, 164.

Neville, John lord, See Westmoreland.

Neville, Thomas, prior of St. Swithun’s,
Winchester, 235; agreement with
as to rights of priory, 236.
Index.

STS

 

Neville, Sir William, Lollard privy
councillor, 183.

Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray, earl of;
as earl of Nottingham, appeals
favourites, 164; dismissed from
privy council, 215; re-admitted,
219; appeals former appellants,
250; quarrels with Hereford, and
banished, 253.

Northburgh, Michael, bishop of Lon-
don, consecrates Stretton to Lich-
field, 41.

Northburgh, Roger, bishop of Lich-
field and Coventry, dies, 40.

Northumberland, Henry Percy, earl
of; as lord Percy, on committee of
conference, 117; assessor to king’s
council, 123; made lord marshal
by duke John, 124; made earl of
Northumberland, 158; warden of
west marches, 218; advises king
about pope, 219; joins Henry of
Lancaster, 255.

Nottingham, earl of. See Norfolk.

oO.

Oxford, earl of. See Ireland.

P.

Patrington, Stephen, on orthodox side
at Oxford, 181.

Peach, John, merchant, impeached by
Good Parliament, 120.

Pechy, Thos., abbot of Hyde, Win-
chester, on commission to enthrone
Wyk. 66; receives Wyk. in his
disgrace, 137.

Pekis, Richard, monk of St. Swithun’s,
Winchester, says ‘‘ Pekismass,” Io.

Pembroke, John Hastings, earl of,
commands in France, 78; leads
anti-clericals in parliament, 82;
captured at sea, 110.

Percy, Henry lord. See Northumber-
land.

Perrers, Alice. See Windsor.

Philipot, John, commissioner to re-
form king’s household, 154.

ENED queen of Edward III, death
of, 79.

Pilgrim, Raymund, proctor for car-
dinal Roger, 66.

Pole, Michael de la, earl of Suffolk.
See Suffolk.

Prophet, John, clerk to privy council,
216 2.

R.

Reading, Nicholas, vicar of St. Peter’s
in the East, Oxford, sells house to
Wyk., 107.

Repington, Philip, Wicliffite at Oxford,
preaches before University, 179;
condemned, 180.

Richard II, king of England; produced
before parliament, 122; receives
temporals of see of Winchester,
142; taken away, 143; disperses
insurgents, 155; gathers new favour-
ites, 157; angry with duke John,
159; secretly prepares for war,
164; battle of Radcot, 165; gives
leave to found New College, 192;
and Winchester College, 197; gives
Great Seal to Wyk., 213; disputes
about governors of Scottish marches,
217; sends for duke John, 219; re-
news truce with France, 249; seizes
Warwick, Arundel, and Gloucester,
250; banishes Hereford and Nor-
folk, 264; captured, 265; abdicates,
266; dies. 267.

Ridge, Peter, convert to Wicliffism,
178; chancellor of Oxford, 179;
declines to publish Blackfriars’
decree, 179; cited to Blackfriars,
and asks pardon, 180; suspends
heretics, 181.

Roger, cardinal Peter, archdeacon of
Canterbury, inducts Wyk. by proxy,
66.

Rouceby, John, buys land for New
College, 107, 189, 190; pardoned
for doing so, 189.

Rudborne, Robert, prior of St.
Swithun’s, Winchester, 235.

Rutland, earl of, son of duke of
York, appeals appellants of treason,
250.

8.

Salisbury, Wm. Montacute, earl of,
appeals appellants, 250.

Salvein, John, king’s escheator for
Oxfordshire, enquiry before, 190.
316

index.

 

Scrope, Henry, lord of Masham, on
commission for conference in Good
Parliament, 117.

Scrope, Richard, lord of Bolton,
treasurer, 84; chancellor, 153; re-
signs, 156; on commission of re-
gency, 163; pardoned for it, 251.

Scrope, Sir William, appeals appel-
lants, 250.

Scures, Sir John, constable of Win-
chester Castle, puts Wyk. to school,
6; takes him as secretary, 8; resigns
his sheriffship of Hants, 10; prayers
ordered for soul of, 208.

Sheppey, bishop of Rochester, ex-
amines Stretton, 41.

Shepton, John, provost of St. Eliza-
beth’s, Winchester, 244.

Shipton, Thomas, commissioned to
enquire about Clown; reports, gg.
Skipwith, Sir William, justice of
King’s Bench, withstands Wyk.
pleading for delay of trial, 125;
pronounces sentence on Wyk., 135.

Somerset, earl of, appeals appellants,
250.

Spencer, Henry, bishop of Norwich,
commands crusade against Flem-
ings, 157.

Stafford, earl of, on committee for
conference in Good Parliament, 117.

Stafford, lord, on committee for con-
ference in Good Parliament, 117.

Stamerne, Henry, buys glass for
Windsor, 24.

Stokes, Peter, Carmelite friar, leads
party against Wiclif at Oxford, 178;
tries to prevent Wicliffite preaching,
179; summoned to Blackfriars, 180.

Stratford, Andrew, Wyk.’s successor
in Pulham rectory, 39.

Stratton, Amice, Wyk.’s great grand-
mother, 4.

Stratton, William, Wyk.’s great grand-
father, 4.

Stretton, Robert, nominated bishop
of Lichfield, 40; examined and
rejected, 40, 41; consecrated, 41;
institutes Wykeham to Flixton stall,
and insists on his induction, 42.

Sturmy, Henry, makes Wyk. his
attorney, 19.

Sturry, Sir Richard, Lollard privy
councillor, 216.

Sudbury, Simon, bishop of London,
receives Wyk.'s return of benefices,
49; consecrates Wyk., 64; commis-

sioned to Bruges, 103; archbishop
of Canterbury, assessor to king’s
council, 122; chancellor, 154; mur-
dered, 155.
Suffolk, earl of, on committee for
conference in Good Parliament, 117.
Suffolk, Michael de la Pole, earl
of: chancellor, 157; made earl of
Suffolk, 160; impeached, 162; ap-
pealed of treason, 164; hanged, 165.
Sutton, Edmund, gives land at Sutton
Scotney to Southwick priory, 3.
Sutton, Sir Ralph, first benefactor of
Wyk., 5; prayers ordered for soul
of, 208.

Ts

Tanner, Thomas, sells house to Wyk.,
198.

Thirning, Sir William, announces his
deposition to Richard II, 256.

Thomas, duke of Gloucester. See
Gloucester.

Thorp, Sir Robert, chancellor, 84.

Tiffur, Robert, dies leaving heir
Wyk.’s ward, 26.

Tressilian, Sir Robert, chief justice
of King’s Bench, 157; appealed of
treason, 164; hanged, 165.

Tunworth, Richard, warden of tem-
porary college at Oxford, 108;
resigns, 192.

Twillow, Henry, bishop of Ennachdun,
suffragan for Wyk., 254, 264.

Tyler, Wat, revolts, 155.

Tyrrell, Sir Henry, governor of Caris-
brooke Castle, 155.

U.

Upton, Wyk.’s proctor for trial before
Baketon, 100.

Urban V, pope, addresses Wyk. as
secretary to king, 29; demands
arrears of king John’s tribute, 47;
publishes bull against pluralities,
48; hesitates to permit Wyk.’s
consecration, 56; leaves Avignon
for Italy, 62; gives leave for
Wyk.’s consecration, 62.

Urban VI, pope, elected, 174; disgusts
cardinals, 175; writes to bishop of
Rochester about Wyk.’s foundation
of Winchester, 195.
Index. 317

 

Vv.
Vache, Philip, Wyk.’s ward, 26.

Ww.

Wake, Blanche lady, quarrels with
bishop of Ely, 36; appeals to king,

37-

‘Wakefield, Robert, bishop of Worces-
ter, treasurer, 138.

Waltham, John, exchanges prebends
with Wyk., 42.

‘Walworth, William, commissioner to
reform household, 154.

Warwick, Thomas Beauchamp, earl
of, on committee for conference in
Good Parliament, 117; appeals
favourites, 164; dismissed from
privy council, 215; re-admitted,
219; seized, 250; imprisoned, 251.

Westcote, John, first warden of Win-
chester College, 201.

‘Westmoreland, John Neville, earl of, as
lord Neville, intercedes for Latimer,
119; impeached, 120; lord marcher,
158; made earl of Westmoreland,
252; joins Henry of Lancaster, 255.

Weston, John, prior of Selborne, 245.

‘Wetwang, John, sells land at Oxford
to Wyk., 108.

Whittlesey, William, archbishop of
Canterbury, receives pall from
Wyk., 73.

‘Wiclif, John, king’s chaplain, denies
obligation to pay tribute to pope,
49; assails clerical ministry, 68,
168; speaks contemptuously of
Wyk., 168; envoy to Bruges, 170;
falls in with duke John, 171;
cited to St. Paul’s, 172, 173; opinion
as to papal tribute, 174; proposi-
tions on Eucharist, 176; effect of
villeins’ revolt on, 177; opinions
condemned at Blackfriars, 179;
dies, 182.

Windsor, Alice Perrers lady, king’s
mistress, 113, 114; impeached by
Good Parliament, 120, 121; returns
to king, 123; petition in favour of,
141; leaves king on death-bed,
147: forced to submit to her old
sentence, 152.

Windsor, Robert, prior of Merton,
receives Wyk. when in disgrace, 136.

Winford, William, mason, superin-

tends transformation of Cathedral
nave, 261.

Winton, John, prior of Selborne, 245.

Woodlock, John, prayers ordered for
soul of at Winchester, 208.

Worminghall, John, Wyk.’s commis-
sary before consecration, 59; offici-
ary, 88.

Wykeham, John, Wyk.’s father, 3, 4;
chantry to memory of, 86.

Wykeham, Nicholas, vice-master at
St. Cross, 102; first warden of
New College, 192; coadjutor to
Wyk., 264; executor, 266; account
of, 281.

Wykeham, Sibill, Wyk.’s mother, 3, 4;
chantry to memory of, 86.

Wykeham, Sir Thomas, Wyk.’s heir,
206; executor, 266.

WYKkEHAM, WILLIAM, bishop of Win-
chester: born, 2; to Winchester, 6;
frequents Pekismass, 10; introduced
to king, 11; transferred to Windsor,
12; rector of Irstead, 18; surveyor
at Windsor Castle, 20, 21; builds
Queenborough Castle, 25; keeper
of privy seal, and king’s secretary,
29; rector of Pulham, 37, 39; pro-
secuted at Avignon, 38; resigns
Pulham, 39; prebendary of Flixton
in Lichfield Cathedral, 40, 41; re-
fused institution, 41; inducted under
protest, and resigns prebend, 42;
ordained acolyte, 43; loaded with
prebends by king, 44; archdeacon
of Lincoln, 46; returns benefices to
bishop of London, 49; elected bishop
of Winchester, the pope demurs, 55;
made chancellor, and consecrated
bishop of Winchester,64; enthroned,
66; opens parliament, 75, 81;
attacked as a clerical, 82; resigns,
84; grants commissions about St.
Cross, 95, 96, 99, 100; writes to
pope, 98; first idea of colleges,
103; buys site.of New College, 107,
190; agrees with Herton to teach
boys, 108; heads national party,
114; refuses to let Latimer post-
pone trial, 119; great council sum-
moned to try, 124; articles against
him, 125-131; condemned on fifth
article, 135; temporals forfeited,
and sent to a distance from court,
136; Courtenay insists on his sum-
mons to convocation, 140; excepted
from amnesty, 141; temporals re-
3I8

Index.

 

stored, 143; at coronation of Richard
II, 148; pardoned, 149, 153; on
commission to reform household,
153, 155; Opposes lords marchers,
158; on commission of regency, 162;
ceases to encourage papal taxation,
175; pleads for Oxford Chancellor
at Blackfriars, 180; judges Crumpe
at Stamford, 184; begins to build
New College, 193; and Winchester,
199; prepares statutes for both,
203; again chancellor, 214; disputes
with king, 217; opens parliament,
220, 227; statute of Provisors, 223;
rules for privy council, 226; resigns
office, 229; corrects irregularities at
St. Swithun’s priory, 237; guardian
of St. Giles’ fair, 240; reproves
canons of Selborne, 245; uneasy
at king’s moves, 251; engaged in
political business, 254; attends par-

iament, 256; ailing for some years,
et ee uae to Cathedral,
258; undertakes transformation of
nave himself, 259; appoints suffra-
gans, 264, 265; dedicates his chan-
try, 265; dies, and is buried in it,
266.

Wykham, Thomas, of Swalcliffe, 150.

¥.

Yonge, Thomas, commissary to try

four masters of St. Cross, 96;
pronounces sentence, 99.

York, Edmund, duke of : commands

in Poitou as earl of Cambridge, 78 ;
made duke of York, 160; on com-
mission of regency, 162; pardoned
for it, 251; advises Richard’s de-
position, 255.
RR AT As

Preface, p. xvii, line 9, read ‘‘best” for ‘‘ but.”
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p.
p. 42, 2. 4, read ‘‘decani” for ‘‘decan ;”

Pp. 44, 7. 7, and p. 59, ~. z, read ‘‘ Rich-Jones” for ‘‘ Rich. Jones.”
Pp. 50, line 25, read ‘‘were” for ‘‘ was.”

p- 74, line rz, read '' 1369" for ‘' 1367.”

p. t2t, line 25, read ‘‘court”’ for ‘‘ coast.”’

p- 129, line 4, read ‘‘for” for ‘‘in.”’

p. 149, line 31, read '‘ £100,000" for '' £10,000."

p. 162, line 4 of margin, read ‘' 1386" for ‘' 1385."

p. 182, line 30, read ‘‘ council” for ‘‘ counsel.”

p. 197, line 10, read ‘‘west" for “east.”

», line 29, read ‘'an acre" for ‘‘ten acres.”

p. 199, line 4, read ‘'‘several” for ‘‘ eleven.”

p. 212, line 9, read ‘‘represses” for ‘‘ reproves.”’

p. 219, line 26, read ‘‘days” for ‘' day.”

226, line 30, read ‘'sheriff” for ‘“‘ steward."

p. 228, line 36, read '‘ December” for ‘‘ March.”

p- 233, line 9, read ‘‘south”’ for ‘ north.””
» line rr, read ‘‘south-easterly” for ‘‘ north-easterly.’
+ line 12, read ‘' mill-stream”' for ‘‘ Lock-pond.”

9

p. 251, line 17, read ‘‘regency” for ‘‘ his household.”
p. 257, line 2, read ‘‘lords'"” for ‘‘lord’s.”
p. 261, line 8, read ‘‘second” for ‘' third.”