celebrated architect, ecclesiastic, and statesman of the fourteenth century. He was born at Wickham, near Bishops Waltham, in Hampshire, in the latter part of 1324. From researches made by Glover, the Somerset herald, we are told his father was of humble origin, but the Winton MSS. assert, of honest repute. The name given to him in a pedigree still preserved at Winchester is John Longe; his mother's name was Sibylla, and she, we are informed, was of gentle birth. It appears, from all accounts, they were in straitened circumstances; still, either by the assistance of others, or by their own exertions, he was sent to a place where the present school now stands, and there, says his early biographer, he was instructed in French, logic, arithmetic, and geometry. Common tradition states that his patron and benefactor was Sir Nicholas Uvedale, lieutenant of Southampton, governor of Winchester Castle, and lord William of the manor at Wykeham. The Winton MS. speaks Wykeham highly of his abilities and piety, and states that when he left the school he was appointed Uvedale's secretary, and by him introduced first to the notice of Edyngdon, bishop of Winchester, and afterwards to that of King Edward III. Attempts have been made by some of his later biographers to show that he studied at Oxford for six years, but the MSS. make no mention of such a thing. The MSS. state, that at the age of twenty-two or twenty-three years he was "transferred" to the court of our lord king, Edward the Third. His first public appointment seems to have been clerk of all the king's works in his manors of Henle and Yeshampsted. The patent is dated 10th May 1356. On the 30th October, in the same year, he is appointed "chief keeper and surveyor of the castles of the king at Windsor, Ledes, Douer, and Hadlee," and of a great number of manors enumerated in the patent. He appears to have received a shilling a day as his salary while at Windsor, two shillings at other places, and three shillings a week for his clerk. In the next year he received a grant of an additional shilling per day, unless he should happen in the interim to be presented to a benefice. He had absolute power to press any number of workmen into his service, and obtain timber and stone in any quantity to carry on the works. By his advice the greater part of the old castle was pulled down, and rebuilt in a much stronger and more splendid style. He also built a very strong castle at Queenborough, in the Isle of Sheppey—a work carried out with great difficulty, on account of the swampy nature of the soil. We have every reason to believe the chronicler, that his success as an architect, and his general talents as a man of business, strongly recommended him to the king, who, among other preferments, gave him the rectory of Pulham in Norfolk, although he was then a layman. He took the order of subdeacon about four years after this, and was ordained priest in June 1362. The "fat benefices" alluded to by the chronicler now flowed in so fast on him that they amounted to more than L.800 per annum. To his credit, however, it should be said they were all, with but one exception, without cure of souls. We have now the testimony of Froissart of the high esteem in which he was held by the king. In 1364 he was made Privy Seal, and, in 1366, nominated Bishop of Winchester, on the death of his old friend and patron Edyngdon. But here occurred a most singular difficulty. The pope, by a bull dated 3rd December, directed to Wykeham, recites that he has been recommended to him on account of his probity, and commends the diocese to his care. In other words, both the king and pope wished him to be bishop, but could not agree as to which should ostensibly have the

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1 Report in the Fiennes and Wickham case, March 1572. 2 "Ex parte matris nomine Sibillae, generosa prosapia," &c. (MS. Chandler.) The Winton pedigree gives her the name of Bowade and shows her descent from the Lords of Stratton. 3 That he was in the bishop's service is more than probable, as in two instances we find him acting as attorney for him, in taking and delivering seisin of certain lands. In fact, Chaundler, in his short Chronicle, written only fifty years after his death, tells us "he occupied himself very little with speculative science, nor exercised in the schools of arts, theology, and laws; how could he indeed do so without an exhibition, on account of the poverty of his parentage? but in practical matters he was a man of the highest wisdom." It is said, however, by some, that he studied six years at Oxford, attending the mathematical lectures of Carleton and the civil law of Dorach. 4 Biennio vel tricentenario elapsio post annum statis sum vicecentum, translatus est in curiam domini regis Edvardi III. (Winton MS.) 5 Harl. MS. 6960. 6 Ibid., et Rot. Pat. 33 Ed. III. 7 "About the year 1359, our Lord the King, at the instigation of William Wykeham, clerk, in the castle of Wyndleshore, caused many good buildings to be pulled down (prosterni), and other more beautiful and sumptuous to be built; . . . and after a short time built a new castle in the isle Shepeye, . . . though the site was bad. On account of which the King enriched (ditavit) the said William with many good and fat (pinguis) benefices, and after a short time made him carry his privy seal, and in succeeding time procured that he should be Bishop of Winchester; and at last, as the cope-stone (cumulum) of his honor, constituted him Chancellor of England." (Chronicle of Ranulf of Chester, continued by John of Malverne.) 8 It must be remembered our kings at that time rewarded their servants less with salaries than by gifts of any preferments they might have the disposal of. 9 He is repeatedly called "Clericus," but that designation, like the Arabic Efendi, was then applied to every learned man, whether in order or not. 10 "There was a preest about the Kyng of England, called Sir Wylyam Wycan, who was so great with the Kynge that all thynge was done by hym, and without hym nothing done." (Lord Berners' Froissart, vol. i. p. 244.) William of Wykeham.

William of appointment. The matter was arranged at last, and Wykeham was consecrated 10th October 1367. About a month previous to which he had been created chancellor.

In this capacity he seems to have distinguished himself by his desire for justice, and by the terseness and vigour of his addresses to parliament. As a bishop he visited his diocese, and his various estates, and set everything in order. Our space will not permit us to enlarge on partial reforms among the religious houses; general improvements, as bridges, roads, and causeways, and public and private charities; but two great works must be recorded. Feeling acutely the state of decay of discipline among the monastic bodies, and how impossible it was to carry out the intention of their founders, he conceived the magnificent idea of founding a noble college at Oxford, now called New College, and a school at Winchester, on the site where he himself, as a poor lad, had received his education; not by bequeathing money after he had no longer any use for it in this world, but by erecting and endowing them during his life at his own cost, and bringing them to maturity by his own personal care and example. But the king was becoming old, and was entirely governed by the notorious favourite, Alice Piers. The Duke of Lancaster was suspected of having an eye to the sovereign power. A parliament, generally known as the good parliament, was called, and Alice Piers, Lord Latimer, and the chief favourites and Lancastrians, were banished. The Black Prince, the idol of the nation, who had been sinking under a slow disease, died shortly after. Immediately the duke returned to court, and recalled the favourites, with whom he surrounded the doting monarch, and proceeded to avenge himself on those who had opposed him. By his instigation articles were exhibited against Wykeham, charging him with misappropriation to the amount of a million of money, and other very serious malversations. All these charges dwindled at last into one of having, as chancellor, forgiven a fine of half of L80 to one John Grey. But this was enough; the whole of his property was seized, and he was banished from his see, first to Merton, and then to Waverley Abbey. The king had now reigned fifty years, and, as usual, a jubilee was kept, and an act of general pardon for all criminals was passed; but such was the malice of his enemies, that Wykeham alone was specially excepted from its benefits. These repeated acts of persecution roused the spirit of the clergy, particularly of Courtney the archbishop, who never rested till he got him restored to his dignities and temporalities.

Shortly afterwards the great precursor of the Reformation, Wycliffe, was cited before the Convocation, at which the Archbishop and Bishop of London presided, and at which the good intentions of the reformer were much impeded by the violence of his patron, the Duke of Lancaster. It does not appear that Wykeham took any active part in this celebrated scene, and though, in common with the principal bishops, he signed the condemnation of many of Wycliffe's doctrines, to his great credit he appears to have taken no part whatever in the persecution of the Lollards, which followed shortly after: on the contrary, we have the authority of Fox, that when Dr Rygge fell under censure for preaching these doctrines, Wykeham personally interceded for him, and with difficulty obtained his pardon. On the 18th June 1377 he was restored to full favour, and, in three days after, the pride of England and the terror of France, the great king Edward the Third expired in a state bordering on dotage. On his death the insolent tyranny of his mistress, Alice Piers, ceased at once. The new king received Wykeham into his confidence, and, in 1389, again created him lord chancellor. This office he resigned after three years, during which he had done much to conciliate the king and the parliament; but it was impossible to curb the extravagance, or to steady the conduct of the weak and vacillating prince. Foreseeing the storm that approached, Wykeham seems gradually to have retired from public life, busying himself with bringing to perfection his two noble foundations at Oxford and at Winchester. His last and favourite work was the entire alteration of the old Norman nave at the cathedral of the latter place. Many have thought he entirely rebuilt it; but recent researches have shown it to be the old Norman work of Walkelyn, converted with very great skill to its present form. The time of trouble he had foreseen now arrived, and he, among others of the great ones of the land, was present when Richard abdicated the throne. He had every respect from the successor, but old age, which was creeping on him, gave him a better excuse to devote himself more exclusively to his beloved pursuits. Our limits will not allow us to follow him in all his goodness and charity: we can only record that he was called to his final rest on the 27th September 1404, at Long Waltham, and that he lies in his loved cathedral, under the beautiful chantry designed by himself. His character must be summed up in few words. As an architect he seems almost the only person not in orders who devoted himself in early years to that profession; for, as it has been shown, it was late in life before he entered even the lowest orders of the Church. That he was employed, while a layman, as "clerk of the works," upon several important buildings, particularly the castles, which in that day were half-palaces and half-fortresses, is clear. In addition to the authorities before stated, we have the very curious fact of a sort of testy allusion, from the pen of the great Wycliffe, that he was celebrated in his art. Any commentary on his taste and skill would fill a long

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1 The Duke of Bourbon was then one of the hostages for the King of France, and under ransom to the King of England. The latter promised him an easy ransom if he could arrange matters with the pope. The duke accordingly went to Avignon, and managed the affair so that the dignity of neither was encroached upon. The ransom is said finally to have been fixed at 40,000 crowns. Freissart, vol. i. p. 630. 2 Before his time the chancellors used to commence with a text, and preach a sort of sermon to the parliament assembled. 3 St Cross among other places, which seems to have been a sort of bête noire to the Bishops of Winchester for ages. Wykeham was in litigation with this place for six years before he could reform it. 4 See the prefaces to his statutes. 5 He always had an esteem for Wykeham, and left him one of the executors of his will. 6 He was charged with embezzling the public revenues, although he was never treasurer, and not a penny ever reached his hands in any way. 7 The words of the statute are, "that always it is the kyng's mind, that Sir William Wykeham, Byshop of Wynchester, shall nothing enjoye of the said graces, grants, and pardons, nor in no wise be comprised within the same." 8 Saddled, however, with a payment of 4000 marks a year to the young Prince Richard, and with the fitting out three ships of war with fifty men-at-arms and fifty archers each. 9 He talked of pulling down the archbishop by the hair of his head. 10 Acts and Monuments, p. 437. 11 This woman was Wykeham's implacable enemy; and yet, because it is known he had a niece named Alice Perrot, writers have been found ignorant enough to confuse one with the other, and to insinuate he owed his advance to the solicitations of a favourite. 12 Wycliffe says, complaining that poor priests have no preferment, "Yet lords wosten not present a clerk able of knuning of God's law, but a ketchin clerk, or a penny clerk, or wise in building castles, or worldly doing, though he kunne not reade well his sauter." Against whom this can be pointed but he to whom the architecture of the goodly list of castles from Windsor to Queenborough was intrusted, it is impossible to say. As a statesman, he had the confidence of two princes of opposite tempers, but both of whom, it is to be regretted, were ruled by unworthy favourites; however, in good or evil report, he is shown to have held the scale justly between them and the people. As a churchman, he seems to have been not only liberal of his goods to his friends, but kindly of heart to his opponents. In that intolerant age, no stain of cruelty or persecution attaches to his name. Tradition, that is oftener wrong than right as to facts, is often correct as to character; and while some may have left behind them a more profound, some a more acute, some a more dazzling reputation, his memory is more cherished and loved than that of any founder on record. There is a bond of union among those educated in his foundations it is difficult to describe: the very name of Wykehamist is a sort of clanship of the closest nature; and though the chronicles of the middle ages are dull and obscure, compared with the bright lights reflected from the multiplicity of collected and recorded facts in later times, few names are remembered among British worthies with greater pleasure and respect than that of William of Wykeham.