WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM, wik'am (1324 1-104 . An English prelate, statesman, and archi tect, one of the most remarkable men of the Middle Ages. He was born at Wickham ( or Wyke ham), in Hampshire, and was educated at Win chester School. Having won the favor of Bishop Edington and of Sir John Scuffed, by whom he was recommended to the notice of King Edward III., he was appointed royal chaplain in 1349 and made surveyor and chief warden of Windsor, Leeds. Dover, and Hadleigh 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 series of clerical posts and offices of State to be Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor in 1367, being at that time the foremost subject in the kingdom, "without whom they did nothing." as Froissart declares. Ile promoted education by founding New College at Oxford and Saint Mary's College at Winchester. In 1376, 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 H. ( 1377) he was pardoned. He
was :1:::Z1111 (11;111(.0/Mr, 1389-91, after which he retired from public life, residing at his seat of South Waltham, Hampshire, until his death, September 27, 1101. Ilis last years were spent in remodeling the interior of Winchester Cathedral, though he (lid not live to witness entire com pletion. 'This emisisted in nothing less than to hew the heavy masonry of the Norman nave and aisles into the lighter and more elegant forms of the early Perpendicular style then emning 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, Wykeham effected his trans formation without destroying the Norman struc ture, by a skillful reeutting 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 .Moberly, Life of Wil liam of Wykeham (London, 1893).