Henry VI

by Bertram Wolffe

  Henry’s personal assumption of responsibility, for new statutes for King’s College hardly produced quick results and when these did ultimately emerge they turned out to be almost entirely verbatim copies of the Wykehamist statutes of 1382. These statutes gave the rector his new title of provost and changed the name of the college to the Royal College of the Blessed Mary and Saint Nicholas, specifically because of the new affiliation to Eton.28 They were delivered to King’s in 1447 by a commission consisting of the marquis of Suffolk, Bishop Alnwick, Bishop Lyhert of Norwich, Beckington, now bishop of Bath and Wells, Richard Andrew, his successor as Henry’s secretary, and possibly Aiscough. The first and only rector and first provost since the 1443 foundation, William Millington, found some of them so objectionable that he refused to swear obedience to them and was forced to resign.29 The mention of prayers for Wainfleet as bishop of Winchester in the comparable Eton statutes indicates that they also cannot be earlier than 1447. The most notable differences between the new Eton statutes and the Winchester statutes from which they were copied arose from the contrast between a mere college chapel at Winchester and the vast collegiate church of the royal foundation envisaged at Eton; also in the greater emphasis at Eton on the priestly vocation of the 70 scholars, together with a rigid insistence that they should not be villein born or illegitimate, have visible bodily defects or any incurable disease, and that immediate expulsion should fall on any who were subsequently discovered to have got in under false pretences on any of these points. The intended grandiose scale of Eton is further indicated by a proposed addition to the somewhat earlier ‘St John’s College’ version of these statutes,30 one apparently never adopted, that an annual Maundy distribution there should be made to one thousand paupers!

  Henry had intended personally to lay the foundation stone of his first chapel at King’s College, Cambridge, next to the Old Court, on 29 September 1444, but because of pestilence in Cambridge he finally sent Suffolk to do it instead.31 After his change of plan much of the original building design was abandoned, in anticipation that the college would soon occupy its grander new home, though owing to the misfortunes which befell their founder from 1461 this original chapel survived until 1536 and the Old Court buildings, in the event, provided the major part of the college’s living accommodation until well into the eighteenth century.32 On St James’s Day, 25 July 1446, Henry did lay the first stone of his second chapel, the beginning of the existing splendid King’s College building,33 which was to form the northern side of a magnificent new quadrangle of unprecedented size, with a smaller court of domestic offices and a great cloistered cemetery between the college and the river, with a lofty four-storied bell and muniment tower in the centre of its western side. The details of the plan were all minutely specified in Henry’s ‘will’ of 1448, to be financed by annual payments of £1,000 from the duchy of Lancaster revenues, but from 1455 funds began to dry up and by 1461 only the eastern range of the great quadrangle had been started and raised several feet above ground for most of its length, with more substantial parts of two turrets standing at its northern end. The roofless shell of the great chapel then stood sixty or seventy feet high at the east end, sloping down to seven or eight feet westwards, with only two side chapels completed.34 Within these buildings the full complement of fellows and scholars was reached in 1451 and the income of the college exceeded £1,000 a year by the time of Henry’s deposition, when it possessed lands in twenty-one counties by royal grant.35

  More frequent, drastic changes of plan dogged the construction of the Eton college minster, which remained throughout the very heart of all Henry’s interests and ambitions for his foundations. The original draft from his ‘will’ or intention of 12 March 1448 contained a specific comparison of his then intended measurements for the Eton minster choir with the chapel of New College (called Winchester College), Oxford, expressing Henry’s satisfaction in its superiority over the Wykehamist design. But this ‘will’, for all its solemnity, tone of finality and no less than five separate impressive royal seals,36 was soon altered. Had it been carried out it would have involved the complete demolition of the northern and eastern sides of the domestic cloister buildings which had already been constructed.37 Not that this in itself would have been any obstacle to Henry’s burgeoning ambitions. Within the next nine months he decided further to enlarge the minster, but this in such a way as to involve the demolition of all the seven years’ continuous work already done on that building, since he now required both the choir and nave to be lengthened by fifteen feet each and widened by three feet, with the aisles widened by one foot. This wanton sacrifice was indeed carried out, but only after Henry had yet again changed his mind, to a plan on an even grander scale. In January 1449 he sent the Eton clerk of works, Roger Keys, with three servants, on a nine-day tour to measure the choirs and naves of Salisbury and Winchester cathedrals. The result was a third and final design,38 with the Eton minster choir increased by a further twenty-two feet in length and a further five feet in width, and the nave by a staggering further thirty-nine feet and five feet respectively. The present building at Eton is the choir only of this ultimate, vast design, with a small ante-chapel added later, in lieu of a nave, by Wainfleet at his own expense to accommodate the parishioners as a stop gap completion when royal funds ran out. Had the whole ever been completed, across the Eton High Street, it would have been comparable to any of the medieval cathedrals, with a nave as long as Lincoln’s, and would have been exceeded in width only by York Minster, the whole being thirty feet longer than the comparable design for King’s College chapel as it now stands.39

  This final design required the demolition of the first choir, which was already being roofed, and its stalls constructed, from Michaelmas 1448. Only the foundations below ground were retained and a new start was made outside them. This was apparently done ‘for dread of hurting and impairing of the said grounds’, especially to be feared in view of an initial ‘enhancing’ or artificially raising of the site by some three feet as a precaution against floods.40 This final rebuilding was begun in 144941 and understandable doubts about the foundations for the huge new structure provide a perfect explanation why Henry now sent a yeoman of the chamber to Wykeham’s college at Winchester, which lay on a similar, potentially unstable river-side site, to obtain a sample of soil dug from its foundation, together with an account of what was found in the course of the necessary excavations. He had already had the Winchester buildings surveyed once before by a royal mason in July 1443, at the time of his previous major changes of plan.42 This incident thus gives no support to the other more romantic explanation, hazarded by Leach and chiming in with the early-Tudor hagiographic portraits of Henry, that he was here seeking to transfer the spirit of Winchester to Eton by a symbolic mixing of the soils!

  Thus Henry’s achievements in brick and stone at Eton, by the time of his deposition, considerable as they were, would obviously have been very, much greater still but for his frequent changes of plan and his destruction of a full seven year’s work on his first new church in 1448, to make way for the huge replacement of which only the choir was ever to be built. The east window of this choir was ready to receive its iron-work in 1458–9, but the west end seems to have been still unfinished when Wainfleet resumed building at his own expense in 1469, and the roof had only just been completed in 1475.43 Demolition of the old parish church in the cemetery to the south of the present chapel, itself repeatedly altered, enlarged and embellished to meet the needs of the new foundation during its protracted wait for its new church, could only be begun after 1476 when Wainfleet had added his small nave or ante-chapel for the use of the parishioners to Henry’s choir.44 £15,000-£16,000 had been spent on building, demolition and rebuilding by 1461.45 Over one and a half million bricks were delivered to the site between 1442 and 1444, with as many as 140 pressed building workers employed at the peak time of 1442, rising again to 118 in 1448, but from 1453 there was a considerable accumulation of unused materials on the site
and building operations declined dramatically.46

  It seems that the full complement of 70 poor scholars and 16 choristers was already reached by 1447 and when 15 scholar vacancies were filled in 1453 a waiting list of a further 65 was compiled.47 The more modest domestic building in the college, all in brick, must clearly have progressed much more rapidly by these dates than the stone church building and did not suffer anything like the same delays and set-backs occasioned by demolitions to make way for Henry’s ever increasing, more ambitious plans. The north and east sides of the existing cloister building (called the quadrant in the ‘will’) were built between 1443 and 1448 and the whole quadrant finished by 1459–60. The ancient red brick range containing ‘Lower School’, with the dormitory called ‘Long Chamber’ above, on the north side of School Yard, is most probably the building where Beckington held his banquet in 1443, after his consecration as bishop of Bath and Wells within the rising walls of the first chapel. The ‘almshouse’, to house the poor men and college servants, and the granary were finished in 1447; the hall, in its present position on the southern side of the cloisters, was built between 1443 and 1450, but only after it had been converted to a new design begun in 1447. A new kitchen was begun in 1449 and was being floored in 1451.48

  As is well known, evil days descended upon Eton, as upon King’s, in the founder’s lifetime with Henry’s deposition in 1461. This was not a possibility which he had anticipated could occur before his death. His final Eton statute was designed to provide against any drying up of funds after his demise. This confirms in which portion of his twin foundations his very heart and ambitions really lay. For when he defined his absolute, irreducible minimum for the survival of the Eton establishment, he considered the provision for scholars not worthy of mention. The fact that he could contemplate that, in extremities, the school would completely disappear, shows that he should not be considered primarily as an enlighted promoter of education. His final Eton statute provided for four chaplains, four clerks, of whom one should be skilled in playing the organ, and eight choristers. In this ultimate injunction, laid on the provost and fellows under the penalties of perjury, he required 400 marks per annum, or at the very least 300 marks, to be applied, before all other charges whatsoever, to the completion of the minster.49 No such provision at the expense of all else was ever written into the King’s College statutes.50 From the windows of his birthplace, Henry’s eyes were undoubtedly fixed on the most highly privileged, vast, projected minster, rising so slowly under his vacillating direction from the fields of Eton.51 In spite of what was said in the early sixteenth century, when Henry VII was labouring for his canonization, one cannot doubt that if his own wishes had been fulfilled neither Chertsey nor Windsor nor Westminster, who squabbled over them, would have received his mortal remains. He would surely have been buried by choice in his most glorious and most privileged minster of the Assumption of Our Lady at Eton. The foundation of Eton and King’s thus throws considerable light on the character and interests of the king. That he should choose this means to symbolize his assumption of power, rather than some martial exploit, sets the tone of his personal rule. His constant changes of plan, regardless of expense, show his impractical nature and lack of steadfast purpose. His ambition to surpass all other foundations in privileges and grandeur reveals the ostentatious nature of his piety. His slavish modelling of Eton and King’s on Winchester and New College reveals no originality of concept, nor does his addition of scholars as a less important appendage suggest any Renaissance interest in learning. Nevertheless, Henry’s foundations at Eton and King’s were the only great achievements of his reign, so although his prime interest in them was not as centres of scholarship, it is just that these foundations, with their splendid buildings, should perpetuate his memory.

  1 Preamble of letters patent for the foundation of Eton College dated at Sheen 11 October 1440. Correspondence of Thomas Bekynton, ed. G. Williams (R.S., 1872), II, 279785.

  2 Eton College Charter of 17 July 1446 printed by M. R. James in Etoniana, April 1920, 387.

  3 R. Willis and J. W. Clark, The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge … and Eton (C.U.P., 1886), I, 313–14, citing Eton College muniments.

  4 Correspondence of Bekynton, II, 287–90.

  5 P.R.O., E.28/65/4: Henry Chichele, archbishop of Canterbury, John Stafford the chancellor and bishop of Bath, John Lowe, bishop of St Asaph, William Aiscough, the king’s confessor and bishop of Salisbury, Suffolk, John Somerset, Thomas Beckington, the king’s secretary, Richard Andrew, first Warden of All Souls and destined to be Beckington’s successor in office, Adam Moleyns, the two household squires John Hampton and James Fiennes and the lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons, William Tresham (their appointment on 12 September being indicated in this petition for letters patent under the great seal without charge, granted under the sign manual and signet in the presence of Suffolk and Moleyns and minuted by Beckington).

  6 Correspondence of Bekynton, II, 274–8: Aiscough, Beckington and Andrew.

  7 Ibid., 279–85.

  8 Etoniana, April 1920, 387.

  9 J. Saltmarsh, ‘King’s College’, in V.C.H. Cambridge, III (1959), 376, citing King’s College muniments; Arch. Hist., I, 317–18. The Commissioners were John Fray, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Master John Somerset, here described as of the exchequer and John Langton, Chancellor of the University. There is a plan of the Old Court in Arch. Hist., I, 322. The refoundation charter of 1443 (J. Heywood and T. Wright, The Ancient Laws of the Fifteenth Century for King’s College Cambridge and … Eton College, [London 1850], 1–13), recites the foundation charter of 12 February 1441 (C.P.R. 1436–41, 521–3).

  10 E. F. Jacob, Archbishop Henry Chichele (London 1967), 87–90; Nicholas Orme, English Schools in the Middle Ages (London 1973), 198; V.C.H. Northamptonshire, II, 170–7 (Fotheringay, 1411), 177–9 (Higham Ferrers, 1422).

  11 Arch. Hist., I, 317, 321–3 quoting verses in King’s College muniments. John Capgrave, Liber de Illustribus Henricis, ed. F. C. Hingeston (R.S., 1858), 133 is the other authority for Henry’s performance of the Eton ceremony, but he gives no date.

  12 Correspondence of Bekynton, I, lxxxi-lxxxviii and letters and bulls cited there.

  13 P.R.O., C.81/1370/13 dated 4 August 1444 under the sign manual.

  14 P.R.O., C.81/1370/52 dated 25 August 1447 under the sign manual addressed to the chancellor for the constable of the castle, replacing a recent similar writ to the Lord Chief Justice Fortescue who had sentenced him but who had replied that he had no power to order Carver’s release. H. C. Maxwell Lyte, History of Eton College (London, 4th edn 1911), 24, citing Patent Roll 25 Hen. VI pt. 2 m.18 and m.12, the second entry being printed in Foedera. The bull is printed in Correspondence of Bekynton, II, 309–11, misdated 1446.

  15 Maxwell Lyte, op. cit., 25; Anc. Laws, 619–20.

  16 Henry’s ‘will’ or intention of 1448 in Arch. Hist., I, 353, from Eton College records Vol. 39/75.

  17 Subsequently in 1444, 1445, 1446, 1447, 1449 (twice), 1451, 1452 (see Itinerary).

  18 C.P.R., 1441–1446, 46.

  19 A. F. Leach, ‘Eton College’ in V.C.H. Buckinghamshire, II, 153, with no reference given, but he was discussing the incident described rather differently by Maxwell Lyte, op. cit., 18, on the authority of Eton College muniments Drawer 46 no. 1, now E.C.R. 54/10. An early reference to Wainfleet, the former headmaster of Winchester, as Provost is in P.R.O., E.28/71 dated 30 September 1442.

  20 They are not the much annotated and altered copy, mentioned in Heywood and Wright op. cit., xxxiii-xxxiv, as disappearing from the library of St John’s College, Cambridge in the early eighteenth century, which has recently been rediscovered and donated to Eton College by St John’s. These date from July 1446, if not earlier, but are of the second foundation.

  21 Saltmarsh, op. cit., 377, quoting the second foundation charter of King’s College printed in Anc. Laws, I.

  22 Printed by M. E. C. Walcott, William of Wykeham
and his Colleges (1852), 141–3, cited by Saltmarsh, loc. cit.

  23 Arch. Hist., I, 337, Saltmarsh, op. cit., 377, 386.

  24 Ibid., 386.

  25 Ibid., citing Papal Letters 1431–1447, 479.

  26 Arch. Hist., 315–16.

  27 Anc. Laws., 478, 540, 541, 601.

  28 Ibid., 6–7.

  29 Correspondence of Bekynton, II, 159, 164, 171, where Suffolk is described as Great Chamberlain of England, an office he only received after the death of Duke Humphrey in 1447; Saltmarsh, op. cit., 378.