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 WILLIAM

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WILLIAM

Thomas Bourchier. Within a year of his receiving the great seal ho found himself involved in the prose- cution of his old friend and fellow-student, Reginald Peaeorke, Bisliop of Chirliestcr, who was tried at Lambeth for teaching and preaching the Lollard errors. Peacocke was deposed from his see, and his books biu-ned not only in London but also in Oxforfl, in pursuance of a decree obtained by Wayneflete from the convocation of the university. The War of the Hoses, which broke out in earnest in 14.58, placed the chancellor in a difficult position. The triumpli of Henry at Ludlow was followed by a new outbreak of the Yorkists. Wayneflete's efforts for peace and con- ciliation were fruitless, and he resigned his chancellor- ship in July, 1460, a few days before the defeat of the Lancastrians at Northampton. A still more decisive victory of the Yorkists on Palm Sunday, 1461, resulted in the proclamation of the Duke of York as king (Edward IV), and Wayneflete, after lying in hiding for a year, recognized the new order of things and received a full pardon from King Edward. For a few years, released from the cares of state, he busied himself with the administration of his diocese and the supervision of Eton College; but in 1470, the revolt of Warwick "the king-maker" having released Henry VI from prison, Wayneflete performed the second coronation of his old master. The hopes of the Lan- Ciistrians were, however, finally destroyed by their total defeat at Barnet and Tewkesbury, and by tlie deaths of Henry and his son Edward. \\'ayneflete asked for, and obtained, another full pardon from Edward IV, swore fealty to him and his son, enter- tained him at Magdalen College, and assisted at his funeral in 14S3. Richard III was also received by him at \LagdaIen, immediately after his coronation, and assigned certain estates to the college in memory of his visit. It was about this time that the venerable bishop, now in the thirty-eighth year of his episcopate, founded and endowed a grammar-school at Wayne- flete, his native village, in Lincolnshire. Not long afterwards he retired to his palace of South Waltham, where he drew up and signed his will on 27 April, 14S6, leaving all his lands to his beloved college at Oxford. He died less than four months later, and was buried in the chant rj- chapel built by himself behind the choir of Winchester Cathedral, where .5000 ma.s.ses were by his direction celebrated for the repose of his soul, in honour of the Five Sacred Wounds. The effigy on his tomb has been thought by his biographers to be an authentic portrait ; it is in any case a work of singiilar power and beauty.

BcDDEN, Life of William of Wayneflete (Oxford, 1602); Chand- ler, Life of William Wameftele (London, 1811); Campbell, Lives of the Lnrit Chancellors, I (London, 1846-47), 360-66; Drane. The Three Chancellors (London. 1882); Wilson-. Mag- daltn College in College Ilisl. Series (London. 1899) ; Hounshed, Chron. of England, III (I^ndon, 180S). passim; Peacocke, Re- jiressoT of the Clergy, ed. Babinoton in Roth Series (London. 1860), introduction, i-lxnv; Caporave, De illuslribus Henricis, ed. HiNOESTON in Rolls Series (London, 1858), 133. etc.

D. O. Hunter-Blair.

William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, Chancellor of England and founder of Winchester College; b. between .July and Sept., 1324; d. 27 Sept., 1404. A native of Wickham, in Hampshire, he was educated at Winchester Grammar School, became secretary to the constable of Winchester Castle, through whom he came under the notice first of the bishop (Edington) and then of King Edward III, into who.se service he pas,sed at the age of about tw-enty- three, in the capacity of architect anrl surveyor. He superintended much important building, including the reconstruction of Windsor Castle, and was rewarded, according to the bad custom of the times, by receiving valuable ecclesiastical preferments, although not even in minor orders. Between 13.57 and 1361 rectories, prebends, canonries, an arch- deaconry, and a deaconry were conferred on him, as XV.^1

well as the keepership of a dozen royal castles and manor.s. It was not, however, until Dec., 1361, that he received minor orders from Bisliop Edington, who ordained him priest in the following year. At the same time he became warden of the royal forests in the south of England, and advanced rapidly in the favour of the king, who gave him his entire confidence, consulted hira in everything, and named him, in 1364, keeper of the privy seal, an office which so increased his power and influence that, according to Froissart, he "reigned in England, and without him they did nothing". In Oct., 1366, he was elected, on the king's recommendation, to succeed Edington as Bishop of Winchester. The election was, after some delay, confirmed by Pope Urban V, and Wykeham was consecrated on 10 Oct., 1367, having been, a month previously, appointed chancellor of fhekingdom. Raised thus in a few weeks to the richest bishopric and the highest civil office in England, \A'ykeham was unfortunate in the coincidence of his chancellorship with the serious reverses sustained in the war with France. A cry for the removal of the great offices of state from the hands of clerics led to Wykeham resigning the great seal in 1372, and gave him more leisure for his episcopal duties. In 1373 he personally visited every church and monastery in his diocese, reformed abuses at Selborne Priory, the hospital of St. Cross, and other religious houses, and made plans for the great educational foundations which were to be the glory of his ei)iscopate. In 1376, however, his work was interrupted by the troubles brought on him by the hostility of John of Gaunt. He was impeached for misgovernment and for mi.sappropriation of state funds; and though only a single minor charge was said to be proved against him, the temporalities of his see were seized, and not released until the death of Edward III. The accession of Richard II saw Wyke- ham restored to favour; a full pardon was granted to him both by king and parliament, his revenues were restored to him, and he was able to resume the project of founding his college at Oxford. The charter was issued, with royal and pap;il licence, in 1379; the foundations were laid in 1.380; and six years later the college (New Col- lege, Oxford) was solemnly inaugu- rated, the build- ings and the en- dowment being on a scale equally magnificent, and the tot.al number of members on the foundat ion amounting to no less than a hun- dred. Side by side with this splendid in.stitution, and closely connected with it, grew up the equally famous grammar school of St. Mary at Win Chester, the foundation of which was author- ized bv i>apal Bull in 1378, and the charter i-ssued in 1382, providing for the educa- tion of seventy-four scholars in preparation for their entering the founder's college at Oxford. This union of grammar school and university was later imitated by Henry VI when founding Eton and King's College, Cambridge; and there are other examples of it. Wykeham was the first founder of a college in which the chapel was an essential part of the