A palace for education

In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at the origins of Winchester College and the inspiration for its superb medieval buildings 

-  John Goodall

Winchester College, Hampshire, part 1 

The Warden and Fellows of Winchester College

ON October 30, 1356, a man of modest parentage from the village of Wickham (or Wykeham), Hampshire, was appointed Surveyor of the King's Building Works in the castle and park of Windsor. How this man, William, by now in his early thirties, had recommended himself for this role remains a mystery, but it placed him in charge of what was about to become one of the most ambitious building projects in 14th-century Europe: the reconstruction of the Upper Ward of the castle by Edward III, paid for out of the ransom of Jean II, King of France, captured at the battle of Poitiers less than six weeks earlier.

William of Wykeham's appointment marked the beginning of a spectacular career in royal service made possible by the King's favour. He immediately displayed a voracious appetite for lucrative appointments both secular and ecclesiastical and, in 1360-61, legitimised the latter by taking clerical orders. Then, in October 1366, he was elected Bishop of Winchester and secured the office of Chancellor. Shrewd investment, speculation and peculation, meanwhile, made him vastly wealthy. It also brought him powerful enemies and, in 1376, he was nearly destroyed by the King's son, John of Gaunt.

The Bishop's full political rehabilitation followed the accession of Richard II in 1377. It may have been the experience of his change in fortune-not to mention the tumultuous politics of the next three decades or more that encouraged a new focus for his activities. This was the establishment of two colleges, both dedicated to the Virgin, that could offer between them a complete education for future generations of priests in grammar and theology.