WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM (1323 ?-14o4), English lord chancellor and bishop of Winchester. William Wykeham was born at Wickham, Hants, in 1323 or 1324, son of John, whose name was probably Wykeham, but nicknamed Long. He was educated at Winchester, probably at the grammar school there, and be came undernotary to the constable of Winchester castle, prob ably Robert of Popham, who was appointed in 1340. He was transferred to the king's court in 1343. In 1350 he appears to have been keeper of the manor of Rochford, Hants. His name appears in various other transactions in the county during the next few years; in 1356 he is first recorded as being directly employed by the king as clerk of the works to the manors of Henley and Easthampstead. In October he was appointed to the same office at Windsor, which he held until 1361.
Wykeham was already receiving wages as king's clerk in 13 57, and he was richly rewarded for his various services by a series of benefices. He received the rectory of Pulham, Norfolk, in a canonry and prebend at Lichfield in 1359, though he did not obtain actual possession in either case without a struggle. In also, after the French raid on Winchelsea, he was placed in charge of the repair of the castles on the Kent coast and of many manors.
Meanwhile he had been appointed a clerk of the exchequer (Oct. 1361) and keeper of the forests south of the Trent. In 1364 he became privy seal. On Oct. 13, 1366, Wykeham was named bishop of Winchester. He was consecrated in Oct. 1367, and en throned in 1368. Meanwhile he had been made (Sept. 17, 1367), chancellor of the kingdom. Parliament was inclined to lay the blame of the disasters of the French war on the clerical advisers of the Crown, and in 1372 Wykeham resigned the chancellorship.
Wykeham must have amassed a large fortune by his various employments and benefices; his application of that fortune has made him revered by successive generations of "Wykehamists." He began buying lands for the endowment of his great founda tions of Winchester college, Winchester, and of New college, Oxford, in 1367. In 1373 he into an agreement with the master, Richard of Herton, "Grammaticus," for ten years faithfully to teach and instruct the poor scholars whom the bishop maintained at his own cost, in the art of grammar, and to provide an usher to help him. He was diverted from his foundations by public affairs, being named by the Commons one of the eight ,peers to discuss with them the state of the realm.
Lord Latimer and Alice Perrers, the king's mistress, were im peached (1376), and Wykeham took a leading part against Lati mer. At the dissolution of parliament a council of nine, of whom Wykeham was one, was appointed to assist the king. But on June 8, the Black Prince died. Alice Perrers returned. John of Gaunt called a council (Oct. 16) to impeach Wykeham on articles which alleged misapplication of the revenues, oppressive fines on the leaders of the free companies, taking bribes for the release of the royal French prisoners, especially of the duke of Bourbon, who helped to make him bishop, failing to send relief to Ponthieu and making illegal profits by buying up Crown debts cheap. He was condemned on one only, that of halving a fine of £80 paid by Sir John Grey of Rotherfield for licence to alienate lands, and tampering with the rolls of chancery to conceal the transaction.
Wykeham's answer was that he had reduced the fine because it was too large, and that he had received nothing for doing so. Skipworth, a judge of the common pleas, cited a statute under which for any erasure in the rolls to the deceit of the king 1 oo marks fine was imposed for every penny, and so Wykeham owed 960,00o marks. Wykeham was convicted, his revenues were seized and bestowed (1377) on the young prince Richard.
On June 21, 1377, Edward III. died. Wykeham received full pardon, and at once took an active part in the financial affairs of the new king, giving security for his debts and himself lending 500 marks, afterwards secured on the customs (Pat. 4 Rich. II. pt. i. m. 4). He then set to work to buy endowments for Win chester and New colleges. On Nov. 26 he issued his charter of foundation of "Seynt Marie College of Wynchestre in Oxenford" for a warden and 7o scholars to study theology, canon and civil law and arts, who were temporarily housed in various old halls. On March 5, 1380, the first stone was laid of the present build ings, which were entered on by the college on April 14, 1386. The foundation of Winchester was begun with a bull of Pope Urban VI. on June 1, 1378, enabling Wykeham to found "a cer tain college he proposed to establish for 7o poor scholars, clerks, who should live college-wise and study in grammaticals near the city of Winchester," and appropriate to it Downton rectory, one of the richest livings belonging to his bishopric. The bull says that the bishop "had, as he asserts, for several years administered the necessaries of life to scholars studying grammar in the same city." On Oct. 20, 1382, "Seinte Marie College of Wynchestre by Wynchestre" was founded for a warden and "70 pore and needy scholars studying and becoming proficient in grammaticals or the art and science of grammar." The first stone of the buildings was laid on March 26, 1388, and they were entered by the scholars on March 28, 1394, not, as supposed at the quincentenary cele bration in 1893, in 1393. While the new buildings were being erected, the college remained in the parish of "St. John the Bap tist on the Hill" of St. Giles, supplying scholars to New college then as since. The foundation was on the model of Merton and Queen's colleges at Oxford, to which grammar schools were at tached by their founders, while fellows of Merton were the first wardens of both of Wykeham's colleges. The severance of the school which was to feed the college exclusively, placing it not at Oxford, but at Winchester, and constituting it a separate col lege, was a new departure of great importance in the history of English education. Ten fellows and 16 choristers were added in 1394 to the 7o scholars, the choristers attending the school like the scholars, and being generally, during the first three centuries of the foundation, promoted to be scholars. The original statutes have not come down to us. Those which governed the colleges until 1857 were made in 1400. They state that the colleges were provided to repair the ravages caused by the Black Death in the ranks of the clergy, and for the benefit of those whose parents could not without help maintain them at the universities.