WILLIAM
641
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
