Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/624

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WILLIAM OF SAINT-AMOUB. 532 WILLIAMS. to arouse themselves. It was one of the earliest pieces printed, both in Latin and in a French translation, and on the basis of its contents the wits of the day built up their satirical verses against the mendicant Orders. William's works, lacking, however, the important treatise on Anti- christ, and containing at least one piece which was falsely attributed to him, appeared with a memoir in Paris (1G32). WILLIAM OF TYRE, tir (c.ll37-c.84) . A mediteval historian and Archbishop of Tyre. He was born perhaps in Palestine, but of his famih' and early life nothing is known. In HOT he was appointed Archdeacon of Tyre, and about 1170 tutor to Baldwin, son of Amalric, King of .Jerusa- lem. Upon the accession of his jnipil as Baldwin IV. (1174) he was made Chancellor of the king- dom, and in the following year Archbishop of Tyre. He was one of the commission which met Philip of Flanders in 1177, and in 1179 he represented the Latin Church of the East at the Lateran Council. The date of his death is only to be conjectured from the fact that his great Eistoria licntm in Pal^tihus Traiismariiiis Gesta- rurn, from which most of the events of his career are gleaned, breaks off at the end of 1183. This work, the only one of his now extant, is one of the best histories of the Middle Ages. It is our chief authority for the history of the Latin kingdom in the East between 1127 and 1184, and except for somewhat faulty chronology is re- markably accurate as well as painstaking and clear-sighted. William had the power of depict- ing the characteristics of men, countries, and events in a manner which few media-val his- torians approached. WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM, wik'om ( 1324- 1404). An English prelate, statesman, and archi- tect, one of the most remarkable men of the Middle Ages, He was born at Wickham (orWyke- hani), in Hampshire, and was educated at Mn- chester Scliool. Having won the favor of Bishop Edington and of Sir Jolin Scured. by whom he was recommended to the notice of King Edward III., he was appointed royal cliaplain in 134!1 and made surveyor and cliief warden of Windsor. Leeds, Dover, and Hadlcigh castles. Windsor Castle is largely his work, and he was also the builder or architect of Queensborough Castle. Turning from architecture again to divinity, he was promoted through a scries of clerical posts and offices of State to be Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor in 13G7, being at that time the foremost subject in the kingdom, "without whom they did nothing." as Froissart declares. He promoted education by founding Is'ew College at Oxford and Saint Mary's College at Winchester, In 1370. by reason of his patri- otic opposition to .John of Gaunt and his party, he was deprived of his offices; but on the acces- sion of Richard II. (1377) he was pardoned. He was again Chancellor, 1389-91, after which he retired fioni public life, residing at his seat of South Waltham, Hampshire, until his dcatli, September 27, 1404. His last years were spent in remodeling the interior of Winchester Calliedral. though he did not live to witness its entire com- pletion. This consisted in nothing less than to hew tile heavy masonry of the Norman nave and aisles into the lighter and more elegant forms of the early Per|)endicular style then coming into use and already applied by his predecessor, Edington, to the rebuilding of the four bays next the tran- septs. But while the latter tore down the old work before rebuilding, W^'keham etieeted his trans- formation without destroying the Norman struc- ture, by a skillful recutting of the masonry and the addition of a rich vault of masonry in place of the earlier wooden ceiling. This achievement did much to fix the tendencies of the style which developed into the perfected Perpendicular of the fifteenth century. Consult iloberly, Life of Wil- liam of Wyhcham (London, 1893). WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL. A noted pre]K>ratory school lor boys in Philadel- phia, Pa., founded in 1089, incorporated in 1698, and chartered by William Penn in 1701, on the same day on which he chartered the city. The original corporate title was "the overseers of the public school fotinded in Philadelphia at the re- quest, costs, and charges of the people of God called Quakers." Subsequent cliarters from Penn, in 1708 and 1711, broadened the scope of the school and freed it from denominational control. The school is organized in nine classes, each covering one year, four classes constituting the senior school, three the junior, and two the lower school. In the senior school the course provides for a classical and a modern side. The school has well-equipped buildings in the heart of the city and playing fields of six acres in the suburbs, together valued at .$2.50,000, with scholarship funds amotmting to .$50,000. The school has about 500 students. WILTLIAMS, Alpiiel-s StarivEY (1810-78). An American soldier, born at Saybrook, Conn. He graduated at Yale in 1831: studied law in the same institution, and in 1830 began practice in Detroit, where at dift'erent times he held the positions of recorder, postmaster, and other offices. During the Mexican War he served as colonel of the First Michigan Regiment. In May, ISfll, after the otitbrcak of the Civil War, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volun- teers. He commanded a division at Cedar Moun- tain and a corps at South Mountain. Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chaneellorsville, and Gettys- burg. He then served luidcr General Sherman in the Atlanta campaign and in the march to the sea, and after the capture of Savannah was brevetted major-general of volunteers. From 1806 until 1869 he was United States Minister to Salvador: in 1870 was the Democratic candi- date for the Governorship of Micliigan: and from 1874 luitil his death was a member of Congress. WILLIAMS, Sir Cii.hles Hanbiry (1708- 59). An English diplomatist and satirical writer. He was born proliably at Pontypool, Monmouthshire. His fatlior w:is .John Hanbury, whose friend, Cliarles Williams, left liim an estate of £70,000 in 1720, with remainder to his son Charles, on condition that the latter should assume the name of Williams when he came of age. The boy was educated at Eton, where he was intimate with Henry Fox, Lyttel- ton, and Fielding. He was a member of Par- liament from 1734 to 1747 and again from 1754 to 1759. In 1740 appeared his Isabrlld. or the Morninfi: in 1742. The Cuinitrii iliii : and in 1743, several elegant satires, of which the Letter to Mr. D<iilsle;i. t^olomoii'x I'nreh. and I'eter and My liorrl Qiiidrn were among the best. In 1746 Wil- liams entered upon a successful diplomatic ca- reer, being sticcessivcly envoy at Dresden, at