William of Wykeham

For the 16th-century bishop, seeWilliam Wickham (bishop).

William of Wykeham
Bishop of Winchester
William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, 1367-1404: from his tomb at Winchester.
Church	Roman Catholic
Appointed	12 July 1367
Term ended	27 September 1404
Predecessor	William Edington
Successor	Henry Beaufort
Orders
Ordination	1362
Consecration	10 October 1367 bySimon Langham
Personal details
Born	1320 or 1324
Died	27 September 1404
Coat of arms

William of Wykeham(/ˈwɪkəm/;1320 or 1324 – 27 September 1404) wasBishop of WinchesterandChancellor of England.He foundedNew College, Oxford,andNew College Schoolin 1379, and foundedWinchester Collegein 1382. He was also the clerk of works when much ofWindsor Castlewas built.

Early life

William of Wykeham (born William Longe) was the son of John Longe, a freeman fromWickhamin Hampshire. He was educated at a school inWinchester,and probably enjoyed early patronage from two local men, Sir Ralph Sutton, constable ofWinchester Castle,and SirJohn Scures,lord of the manor of Wickham, and then fromThomas Foxley,Constable of Windsor Castle.In 1349, Wykeham was described as a chaplain when he was appointedrectorofIrsteadin Norfolk, a position which was in the gift of the Crown.

Builder

Portrait (posthumous), showing the two colleges he founded, and hiscoat of armsand motto

William became secretary to theconstableofWinchester Castleand in that capacity learned about building. This led to architectural work for KingEdward III,for whom he reconstructedWindsor Castlewhilst residing at Bear's Rails inOld Windsor.

William developed a reputation for the administration and supervision of royal building works during the reign ofEdward III.By May 1356, he was clerk of the works for houses being built for the Crown atHenley on the Heathin Surrey andEasthampsteadin Berkshire, and he was appointed surveyor of the long-running works to developWindsor Castlein October 1356. He rapidly rose in royal service, and in July 1359 he was appointed chief keeper and surveyor of Windsor Castle,Leeds Castle,Dover Castle,andHadleigh Castle,and many royal manors, includingSheen,ElthamandLangley,effectively in the office later calledclerk of the king's works.He also took charge of the building works atQueenboroughon theIsle of Sheppeyin Kent.

State administrator under Edward III

William's career took a turn by 1361, when he became a royal secretary, part of the administration of the royal finances, and by 1363 he was a royal councillor. He was present when theTreaty of Brétignywas agreed in Calais in 1360. In January 1361, Edward III andJohn II of Francejointly to petitionedPope Innocent VI,to make William acanonatLincoln Cathedral.He was appointedJustice in Eyresouth of theTrentalong withPeter Atte Wodein 1361, a position he held until about 1367. William was ordained in 1362 and paid for his services by being given the incomes of various churches. For instance, in April 1363, Edward III presented him to thearchdeaconry of Lincoln,a move that was approved byPope Urban Vin November 1363 only after representations fromSir Nicholas de Loveyne,the king's ambassador to the papal court.By 1366, William held twobeneficesand elevenprebends,with an annual income exceeding £800.

William had shown considerable talent as an administrator and in June 1363 was appointedLord Privy Sealand then in October 1366 he was electedBishop of Winchester,Pope Urban V approved his appointment in July 1367, and he was consecrated at St Paul's Cathedral in London on 10 October 1367and enthroned at Winchester Cathedral in July 1368. In 1367 he was appointedChancellor of England.He struggled to find the funds necessary to pay the army fighting against France after conflict resumed in 1369. He lost the favour of the king, who turned toWilliam Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer,and he resigned as Chancellor in 1371.

As Edward III aged and weakened, William maintained good relationships withEdmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March,John of GauntandEdward, the Black Prince.He remained politically important, and was one of four bishops appointed to the new royal council in May 1376 after Latimer wasimpeachedduring theGood Parliament.His friendship with the Earl of March led to a long conflict withJohn of Gaunt,who supported Latimer. Latimer was pardoned by king in October 1376, and William found himself charged with financial irregularities and mismanagement towards the end of the year. He was banished from court and the income from his church properties was seized in late 1376, but he was pardoned by the new kingRichard IIin July 1377, weeks after Edward III died. (Richard was the son of Edward, the Black Prince, who had died in June 1376, a year before his father.)

Richard II

Under Richard II, William resumed his position as a royal councillor. Although he took the side of theLords Appellantin their disputes with the king in 1388, he also managed to maintain good relations with the king, and served as Chancellor again from May 1389 to September 1391.

After years of supporting poor scholars atOxford University,he foundedNew College,which was granted a royal charter in 1379. He also founded a school,Winchester College,to supply New College with students, obtaining apapal bullin 1378 and a royal licence in 1382. Construction work began in Oxford in 1380, and in Winchester in 1387, under the architectWilliam Wynford.At both colleges, William stipulated daily prayers for Richard II and his queen, William and his parents, and his former patrons, Sir Ralph Sutton, Sir John Scures, and Thomas Foxley. The funds to endow the colleges, and pay for the building works, came from William's lucrative church positions, discounting of exchequer tallies (that is, speculation on tax revenues due to the king), exporting wool, and using his influence to obtain papal approval for the acquisition of the income of the "alien priories" that belonged to monasteries in France, which were confiscated by the crown during theHundred Years' War.He also started the rebuilding of the nave of Winchester Cathedral in 1394.

William was concentrating on his foundation by the timeHenry IVdeposed Richard II in 1399, but he welcomed the new king in Winchester in 1400.

Death and legacy

Funerary effigy of William of Wykeham in Winchester Cathedral

William died atBishop's Walthamin Hampshire on 27 September 1404 and was buried in hischantrychapel on the south side of the nave in Winchester Cathedral. At the time of his death, he was one of the richest men in England. Much of his wealth went into the schools he patronised, but he also contrived to leave a fortune to a nephew, whose descendants include theTwisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes familyand theLonge family.

William's motto was 'Manners makyth man'.This, along with acoat of arms,was assumed by him and not acquired by descent. His biography was written byBishop Lowth.He was also written about by Lord Brougham in his 'Old England's Worthies' (1857) and byFroissart.'Manners Makyth Man' is also the motto of the establishments Wykeham founded,Winchester CollegeandNew College, Oxford.

References

• Partner, Peter, 'Wykeham, William (c. 1324–1404)',Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2009accessed 28 July 2013
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996).Handbook of British Chronology(Third revised ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0-521-56350-X.
• Lowth, RobertLife of William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester.London, 1759
• Moberly, George HerbertLife of William Wykeham.Warren & Son, Winchester, 1887; 2nd edition, London, 1893
• Walcott, Mackenzie Edward CharlesWilliam of Wykeham and his Colleges.London, 1897

Further reading

• John, Lord Campbell,Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England.London, 1848; I, xv, xvii
• Augusta Theodosia Drane,The Three Chancellors, or Sketches of the Lives of William of Wykeham, William of Waynflete and Sir Thomas More.London, 1882; pp. 1–112
• Thomas Kitchin,Winchester.London, 1890.
• Virginia Davis,William Wykeham: a life.London; New York: Hambledon Continuum, 2007