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Page 6
As bishop, Wykeham found plenty to do, apart from his ecclesiastical
duties, in repairing his various palaces, and in housing the
predecessors of his Winchester scholars in a house on St. Giles's Hill,
until such time as he could give them fitting buildings and a chapel of
their own. But before Wykeham could see his schemes take an
architectural form, he was to suffer the loss of royal favour owing to
the death of the Black Prince and the rise into power of his enemy, John
of Gaunt. The bishop was charged with the misappropriation of a small
sum of money, and, judgment being given against him, the temporalities
of the see of Winchester were seized, and he was forbidden to come
within twenty miles of the Court. He retired to Waverley Abbey, of which
some picturesque ruins remain, near Farnham; and although on the King's
jubilee pardon was granted to all offenders, a special exception was
made in the case of "Sire William de Wykeham".
[Illustration: WYKEHAM'S CHANTRY]
This was more than the heads of the Church could stand, especially as
the original charge was an unjust one; so at the ensuing meeting of
Convocation, Courtenay, then Bishop of London, declared boldly that
unless their favourite bishop was reinstated in office, no money would
be forthcoming from the clergy. In less than a month the pressing need
of funds caused the King to send a messenger to Waverley and beg Wykeham
to return to his house at Southwark. This was the first step, which,
however, did not mean an immediate return to the temporalities, as these
had been settled on the youthful heir apparent, Richard; but the people
took up Wykeham's cause, and on June 18, 1377, in the presence of the
little Richard, his uncle, and the King's council, Wykeham promised to
fit out three galleys for sea, in return for the temporalities of
Winchester. Two days later Edward III died, forsaken by his mistress,
Alice Perrers, and estranged from the one man who had served him so long
and so faithfully.
The architectural genius of Wykeham as exhibited at St. Mary's College
and the cathedral at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, originally
founded as "St. Maries' College of Winchester at Oxenford", marks a very
decided epoch in the development of English architecture. His works, in
an architectural style found nowhere but in England, are the outcome of
a mind free from triviality, and full of common sense. His buildings are
admirably suited to their purpose, and at first sight they appear to be
so simple in design that it has been suggested that Wykeham cared more
for the constructive than the artistic side of building. It is true that
he considered sound construction and good proportions of greater
importance than a profusion of detail, yet such ornament as is found in
his work is highly effective and most carefully studied. To this
bishop-architect we undoubtedly owe much of the dignity and simplicity
which mark the Early Perpendicular buildings, qualities which make the
style such a contrast to the exuberance of that which immediately
preceded it, or the over-elaboration of the Tudor buildings that
followed it.
With few exceptions, practically the whole of Wykeham's work, both here
and at Oxford, remains much as he left it; so that, good bishop, wise
administrator, generous founder, and pioneer educationist though he was,
it is mainly as a munificent builder and architectural genius that his
fame has lived in the past, and will continue to live in the future.
Here for the moment we must leave the great prelate of Winchester and
begin our perambulation of the city that received him as a youth,
welcomed him as a bishop, mourned him when dead, and that still bears on
the long nave of its cathedral, and on its famous college, the impress
of his manly, robust, and essentially English mind.
By way of a footpath leading from the London and South-Western Railway
station, the upper part of the famous High Street can be reached,
although the thoroughfare now possesses but few features of interest
until we arrive at the old West Gate, a reminder, if such were needed,
that Winchester was a heavily fortified and strongly walled city. On the
right is Castle Hill, the site of the ancient castle wherein Stigand,
Archbishop of Canterbury, was imprisoned and Matilda besieged, and from
whose courtyard William Rufus set out on the hunting expedition to the
New Forest which was attended by such fatal consequences. All that now
remains of this stronghold is the fine old hall built by Henry III.
For some time this apartment was used as the County Hall, and here Judge
Jeffreys opened his Bloody Assize before proceeding to Dorchester,
Exeter, and Taunton. Alice Lisle was the widow of John Lisle, who had
been Master of St. Cross Hospital, and member for Winchester in the Long
Parliament. Although the men of Hampshire had taken no part in
Monmouth's Rebellion, many of the fugitives had fled thither, and two of
them, John Hickes, a Non-conformist divine, and Richard Nelthorpe, a
lawyer, found refuge in the house of Alice Lisle, where they were
eventually discovered. At her trial, Alice Lisle stated briefly that,
although she knew Hickes to be in trouble, she was quite ignorant of the
fact that he had participated in the rebellion. When the jury said they
doubted if the charge had been made out, Jeffreys was furious, and after
another long consultation they returned a verdict of "Guilty". The next
morning the judge pronounced sentence, and ordered the prisoner to be
_burned alive_ that same afternoon. When remonstrances had poured in
from all quarters, Jeffreys consented to the execution being postponed
for five days; and the sentence was eventually commuted from burning to
hanging. So the first victim of Monmouth's ill-fated rebellion was
hanged on a scaffold in the market-place of Winchester.
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