The colleges and halls: King's

KING'S COLLEGE

Foundation.

King's College was founded by King Henry VI by letters patent dated 12 February 1441. (fn. 1) Preparations must have begun considerably earlier, for the first portion of the intended site—a garden belonging to Trinity Hall—was conveyed to the King's commissioners as early as 14 September 1440. (fn. 2) The circumstances in which the King's scheme was conceived are obscure, but John Langton, Master of Pembroke and Chancellor of the University, was from the first the King's chief agent in its execution, and probably played a leading part in its origin. A very early list of benefactors states that Langton, by his pleadings and special labours (per instancias suas & labores speciales) procured the foundation of the College by the King's grace. (fn. 3) Langton, moreover, had recently been promoting the establishment of a 'University College', to be founded by the University by the King's assent and grant. (fn. 4) It is not unlikely that the idea of a royal foundation grew out of this plan for a University foundation under royal patronage, and that in the founding of King's Langton played John Fisher to King Henry's Lady Margaret.

The College established by the letters patent of 1441 was to consist of a Rector and twelve scholars, though the number of scholars might be increased or diminished according to the state of the College revenues. Its title was to be 'Rector et Scholares Collegii Regalis Sancti Nicholai de Cantebrigia'. The patent named the first Rector, William Millington (probably a fellow of Clare Hall), (fn. 5) and the first two scholars, John Kirkby and William Hatclyffe. The making of statutes was entrusted to William Alnwick Bishop of Lincoln, William Aiscough Bishop of Salisbury, William Lyndwood (the civilian and canonist) Keeper of the Privy Seal, John Somerseth Chancellor of the Exchequer, and John Langton. (fn. 6) King Henry himself laid the foundation stone of the college buildings on Passion Sunday, 2 April 1441. (fn. 7)

This was King Henry's first design: not a college of unusual size, nor especially privileged, nor explicitly connected with Eton. The King's preparations at Eton, however, had begun almost simultaneously with his preparations at Cambridge, in August 1440. (fn. 8) Eton College had been founded on 11 October 1440; (fn. 9) and in his letters patent of 10 July 1443 (fn. 10) the King stated that he had determined long since (iam pridem) that the scholars of Eton, when sufficiently instructed in grammar, should proceed to King's. By these letters patent of 1443 the title of the College was changed to 'Collegium Regale Beate Marie et Sancti Nicholai de Cantebrigia' and the title of Rector to Provost, in order to strengthen the bond with the Provost and College Royal of Blessed Mary of Eton by Windsor. The commissioners of 1441, at their own request, were released from the task of making statutes, and the King assumed it himself. (fn. 11) The reason given was the commissioners' lack of leisure, but their release may indicate that the Founder contemplated a radical change of plan. The conclusion, in the following year, of an Amicabilis Concordia, or treaty of perpetual friendship and alliance for mutual support in lawsuits, between Winchester College, New College, Eton College and King's, (fn. 12) suggests that the model of William of Wykeham's linked foundations was already before King Henry's eyes.

Certainly the King already contemplated a much larger college, and more splendid buildings. It must have been very soon after 10 July 1443 that the Provost and Scholars, 'considering their own numbers and those of others daily flocking together to the said College', petitioned for a larger site; (fn. 13) for by 26 August the purchase of the new site had begun. (fn. 14) By 1445, if not earlier, King Henry was planning a college, not of 12, but of 70 scholars. (fn. 15)

Meanwhile the endowments of the College, already large, were being greatly increased. By the spring of 1443 King Henry had already granted, in possession or in reversion, some eleven manors and alien priories and two appropriated rectories, as well as other property. (fn. 16) In the next three years he added another ten manors and priories, and three more appropriated rectories. (fn. 17) By two charters, of 24 February 1444 and 3 March 1446, (fn. 18) he conferred upon the Provost and Scholars, their servants and tenants and all resident on their lands, a remarkable series of privileges, making of the College and its estates a great feudal immunity. (fn. 19) From Eugenius IV he secured a series of nine bulls, dated 29 November 1445, (fn. 20) confirming the foundation and conferring more privileges: in particular exempting the College, its members and servants and all their goods, from the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop and Archdeacon of Ely, the Chancellor of the University and all other judges ordinary, and placing them under the sole jurisdiction of the Bishop of Lincoln; (fn. 21) and giving the Provost the authority of a diocesan in the execution of the wills of members and servants of the College. (fn. 22) Thus the College (though not its estates) became also an ecclesiastical and academic immunity; and the Archbishop of York and the Abbots of Westminster and St. Albans, as Conservators and Judges of the College, were required to defend its rights and property against all who infringed them. (fn. 23)

By 1446 King Henry's plans had reached maturity. On 16 March they received the sanction of Parliament. (fn. 24) The foundation, (fn. 25) the change of title, (fn. 26) and earlier grants of endowments (fn. 27) were confirmed; further endowments and part of the new site were granted, and the College was empowered to acquire the remainder of the new site in mortmain; (fn. 28) papal bulls already procured, and others to be procured in future, were legalized. (fn. 29) The two charters of privilege, however, were not confirmed. Instead, many of the privileges they conferred were specifically granted afresh, and new privileges were added; but some (notably the more extravagant legal immunities granted a fortnight earlier by the charter of 3 March 1446) were omitted. (fn. 30) The omission may be significant. Five years later, in 1451, the Commons petitioned the King to revoke certain (unnamed) liberties of the College which were thought prejudicial to king and people; but their petition was rejected. (fn. 31)

On St. James's Day, 25 July 1446, according to a contemporary record preserved in the College, (fn. 32) King Henry laid the first stone of the new chapel. Millington was still Provost at the time, but he was soon to be Provost no longer. Next year a commission came to Cambridge, consisting of the Marquess of Suffolk, William Alnwick Bishop of Lincoln, Walter Lyhert Bishop of Norwich, Thomas Beckington Bishop of Bath and Wells, Richard Andrew the King's Secretary, and possibly also William Aiscough Bishop of Salisbury, bringing the new statutes. (fn. 33) Millington refused to swear obedience to them. Many of the statutes, he said in his written answer to the commissioners, were in his opinion unwise and not to the advantage of the College; but there were two only which he could not accept: one concerning the election of persons chosen into King's and Eton, the other concerning exemption from the jurisdiction of the Chancellor. The latter, he implied, he might have been prepared to accept if dispensation had been offered him from the oath which he had sworn long since to the Chancellor; but to the first his objection was fundamental: it involved the sin of acceptance of persons. (fn. 34) The exact points in this statute to which he objected are not specified in his answer, nor, in the absence of any surviving text of the statute, can they now be determined. He may have objected to a provision, similar to that in the surviving Founder's Statutes of Eton and King's, giving preference to candidates from parishes in which the two colleges owned property, and thereafter to candidates born in Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire; (fn. 35) perhaps also to a provision, similar to that in the surviving Founder's Statutes, restricting elections to King's to scholars of Eton. (fn. 36) Refusing the oath, Millington was deprived. (fn. 37) He was succeeded in the Provostship by John Chedworth, a fellow of the College since 1443. (fn. 38)

The exemption of the College from the jurisdiction of the Chancellor was long contested. On 31 January 1448 the University did indeed concede exemption from the judicial authority of all its officers, reserving obedience in matters concerning scholastic acts; (fn. 39) but the concession was made conditional on the pronouncement of the Bishops of Salisbury, Lincoln and Carlisle that it contained nothing offensive to the consciences of the gremials and against the statutes, privileges and customs of the University. Whatever the bishops' decision may have been, the controversy did not end. In the summer of 1454 there were riotous attacks on the College, and on 26 June the University made statutes which prevented Kingsmen from taking degrees until they had renounced their privilege. (fn. 40) The College was forced to withdraw a part of its claims; and on 14 February 1457 the concession of 1448 was superseded by a composition with the University, limiting exemption from University jurisdiction to matters arising within the College precint. (fn. 41) This is still in force.

A further step taken by King Henry, in the years 1446–8, was to transfer King's Hall from his own control to the joint control of King's College and Eton. Hitherto the Crown had nominated the Warden and all the scholars of the Hall. (fn. 42) By letters patent of 26 January 1446 the nomination of scholars was granted to King's and Eton; (fn. 43) the nomination of the Warden was added by letters patent of 24 February 1447. (fn. 44) On 24 January 1448 the two Provosts were empowered to revise the statutes of the Hall and to hold visitations. (fn. 45) The King's purpose was to provide an education at Cambridge for Etonians who did not obtain scholarships at King's, for the scholars were to be chosen from the grammar schools of Eton College. (fn. 46) Scholars were nominated by the two Provosts alternately, (fn. 47) but appointments of Wardens were made in the joint names of the two colleges. (fn. 48) Thus King's Hall was added, for a time, as a third though subordinate member to King Henry's family of sister colleges. The arrangement lasted until 3 February 1462, when Edward IV restored the independence of King's Hall. (fn. 49)

New statutes for King's College were received in 1453; as will be shown below, these were substantially the same as the Founder's Statutes now extant. (fn. 50) By this date the foundation was virtually complete. The number of fellows and scholars, already over 40 by 1447, (fn. 51) had reached the full complement of 70 in 1451. (fn. 52) The endowment of the College had likewise been completed. Some fifteen manors and three rectories, with other property, had been added between 1446 and 1453. (fn. 53) No further new grants of importance were made during the remainder of the Founder's reign, but the income of the College continued to rise as reversions fell in and appropriations were authorized. By 1460 it was over £1,000 a year. (fn. 54)

Disaster followed. The deposition of the Founder, in the spring of 1461, seemed to threaten ruin. On 30 May the revenues of the College were ordered to be paid into the Exchequer. (fn. 55) On 16 October the Provost and Fellows, fearing that the College estates would be resumed by the Parliament summoned for the coming November, and the College itself shattered and made desolate for ever, appointed a committee to distribute the College valuables in 'rewards', or to sell or pawn them to raise funds for defence. (fn. 56) The November Parliament confirmed the foundations of the Lancastrian kings, and excepted the sites on which they stood from the general resumption; it did not except their estates. (fn. 57) On 22 February following, however, Edward IV made a fresh grant to King's of thirteen of the manors granted by King Henry, with three more which Henry had granted to Eton. (fn. 58) The College was saved, but much reduced. In 1464 its income was about £500 a year, (fn. 59) and in 1465 the number of its fellows and scholars, recorded for the first time after the Founder's deposition, was only 23. (fn. 60) Further property was recovered later in the reign, and under Henry VII; but a great part of the Founder's endowment was lost for ever, and it was not until the middle of the following century that the full complement of fellows and scholars was again achieved.

Endowments.

Most of the College estates were acquired between 1441 and 1453. Kersey Priory (Suff.) was granted by Sir Henry Grey, Lord Powis, in 1447. (fn. 61) The two manors of Grantchester Burwash and Jakes (Cambs.) were purchased by the College in 1452 from the executors of Henry Somer, late Chancellor of the Exchequer and one of King Henry's agents in the foundation. (fn. 62) As far as is known, all the remainder were given by King Henry. (fn. 63) They were chiefly lands of the alien priories annexed to the Crown, and were widely scattered over 21 counties, from Lancashire and Yorkshire to Sussex, Dorset, Devon and the far west of Cornwall. A few of the Founder's gifts were abortive. A grant of the three manors of Sotes, Yonges and Marchalles in Standon (Herts.), made in 1447, (fn. 64) does not seem to have taken effect; nor does the grant in 1448 (fn. 65) and appropriation in 1449 (fn. 66) of the prebend of Iwerne (Dors.); nor the grant in 1448 of the advowson of Hinchingbrooke Priory (Hunts.), with licence to take possession if the priory became desolate; (fn. 67) nor yet the grant in 1449 (fn. 68) of the advowson of Berden Priory (Essex), with licence to appropriate granted in 1452. (fn. 69) Winghale Priory, South Kelsey (Lincs.), granted in reversion in 1441, (fn. 70) was regranted in 1443 to Michaelhouse, in return for tenements in School Street granted by Michaelhouse to King's. (fn. 71) The reversion of the manor and advowson of Cheshunt (Herts.), granted in 1447, (fn. 72) did not fall in soon enough to be taken up by the College before the Founder's deposition. By 1459, however, the College was in possession of the following manors: Farley (Beds.); Combe (Berks.); Ludgershall (Bucks.); Merton Hall in Cambridge, Grantchester Burwash and Jakes, and Isleham Shrewsbury Fee (Cambs.); St. James's Priory by Exeter (Devon); Stour Provost (Dors.); Dunton Waylett and Felstead (Essex); Compton, (fn. 73) Prestonupon-Stour and Welford-on-Avon (Glos.); Monxton (Hants); Willoughton (Lincs.); Ruislip (Mdx.); West Wretham (Norf.); Overhall in Barking, Great Bricett, Borehouse in Edwardstone, and Kersey (Suff.); Withyham (Suss.); Atherstone, Wootton Wawen, and the manor of Mockley in Wootton Wawen parish (Warws.); Brixton Deverill, Ogbourne St. George and St. Andrew, and Tilshead (Wilts.); Allerton Mauleverer (Yorks.). By the same date the College was also in possession of a mansion known as Garderobe Duke Humphrey in Baynard Castle, London, (fn. 74) once the town house of the Prior of Ogbourne, afterwards in the tenure of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, and at this time used as a town house for the Provost; of the priory of St. Michael's Mount and of the deanery of St. Burian (Cornw.); of the church of Corsham (Wilts.), and of the following appropriated rectories: Felstead (Essex); Ringwood (Hants); Prescot (Lancs.); Chalke (Wilts.). (fn. 75) The advowson of the rectory of Fordingbridge (Hants) had been granted in 1447 with licence to appropriate, (fn. 76) but the appropriation was not completed until 1463. (fn. 77) The College claimed the hospital of Biggin in Barkway (Herts.) at this period, but was seldom able to make its claim effective. (fn. 78) The manor of Homington (Wilts.) seems to have come into the possession of the College shortly before 1461. (fn. 79)

On the appropriation of Fordingbridge, the Provost and Scholars became lords of the manor of Woodfidley in right of the rectory; (fn. 80) and they were also the lords of rectorial manors at Chalke, Prescot and Ringwood.

After the Founder's deposition, some of the College property passed directly into private hands. The College had already been at law with the nuns of Syon, who claimed certain estates as part of the endowment given them by Henry V, (fn. 81) and on 26 February 1462 it released to them its title in St. Michael's Mount, the manor of Tilshead, Felstead manor and rectory, the church of Corsham and other property. (fn. 82) Merton Hall, Cambridge, had been acquired by the Founder from Merton College, Oxford, by exchange for the manor of Stratton St. Margaret (Wilts.), with the proviso that if Merton College should be expelled from Stratton St. Margaret by reason of any act of Parliament, it might re-enter Merton Hall. (fn. 83) Accordingly, on 16 January 1464 Merton Hall was surrendered to Merton College. (fn. 84) Other property reverted to the Crown, by which it was granted out afresh. The deanery of St. Burian was re-established on an independent footing; (fn. 85) Atherstone was granted in 1462 to the Carthusian priory of Mountgrace; (fn. 86) Preston-uponStour, Compton and Welford-on-Avon in 1467 to Tewkesbury Abbey. (fn. 87) All these, with the manors of Farley and Ludgershall, were permanently lost. Dunton Waylett passed to the newly founded college of Ashford (Kent), (fn. 88) and Ogbourne was granted in 1462 to the Charterhouse; (fn. 89) these were lost for nearly 40 years. Of the other manors and appropriated rectories which the College had held in King Henry's time, some escaped resumption, (fn. 90) others were regranted to the College by Edward IV's letters patent of 22 February 1462, (fn. 91) and the remainder had been recovered before the end of the reign. (fn. 92) The manors of Horstead, Lessingham and Toft Monks (Norf.), transferred by Edward from Eton to King's in 1462, (fn. 93) partly compensated the College for its losses; and by 1478 it was sufficiently prosperous to purchase another Norfolk manor, Coltishall. (fn. 94)

A grant of the manors of Stratton St. Margaret (Wilts.), Panfield (Essex) and Huntingfield (Kent), made by King Henry in 1471, on his restoration, (fn. 95) had naturally been without effect; but in 1490, after the accession of Henry's nephew to the throne, Parliament appointed a commission, on the petition of King's College and Eton, to determine the title to the estates which were still withheld from the two colleges. (fn. 96) After prolonged negotiations, Dunton Waylett was recovered about 1497, (fn. 97) and Ogbourne about 1500. (fn. 98) In 1500 also Biggin Hospital, with the manor of Balons, was surrendered to the College by its last Master. (fn. 99) In 1505 the College was awarded an annual pension of £16 in lieu of its claim to the manor of Atherstone. (fn. 100) The remainder of the lost estates were not recovered.

During the next four centuries the estates of the College were extended by gifts, bequests and purchases of lands, but there were few major changes. In 1544 the College sold its manor of Allerton Mauleverer to Thomas Mauleverer, (fn. 101) and purchased from the Crown the manor of Barton (Cambs.), formerly the property of Barnwell Priory, and the appropriated rectory of the same place, formerly the property of the priory of Merton (Surr.). (fn. 102) In 1570 the manor and advowson of Withyham were exchanged with Sir Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, and afterwards Earl of Dorset, for the manor and advowson of Sampford Courtenay (Devon). (fn. 103) In 1617 Richard Day, a former fellow, gave the appropriated rectory and advowson of the vicarage of Weedon Lois (Northants.). (fn. 104) John Hungerford of Lincoln's Inn, M.P. for Scarborough, who died in 1729, bequeathed two-thirds of his residuary estate in reversion to the College, subject to the life interest of his widow. In 1765 his trustees conveyed to the College his estate at Upavon (Wilts.), which included the appropriated rectory of that place. (fn. 105) In 1820 the manor of West Wretham was exchanged by Act of Parliament with Wyrley Birch of East Wretham for the manor of Caston Hall in Shipdham and lands in Shipdham, Carbrooke and Ovington (Norf.). (fn. 106)

Advowsons which were certainly in the possession of the College by 1461, and were either retained or recovered after the Founder's deposition, were these: (fn. 107) the rectories of St. John Zachary, Cambridge, and Kingston (Cambs.); Dunton Waylett rectory (Essex); Ringwood vicarage (Hants); Prescot vicarage (Lancs.); Willoughton vicarage (Lincs.); West Wretham rectory (Norf.); (fn. 108) Wootton Wawen rectory (Warws.); Alvediston, Broad Chalke and Bower Chalke vicarages (Wilts.). By the same date the College almost certainly possessed the advowsons of the rectories of Stour Provost (Dors.), Monxton (Hants) and Withyham (Suss.), (fn. 109) and the right of appointing chaplains to serve the churches of Tiverton (Devon) (fn. 110) and Great Bricett, Little Finborough, (fn. 111) Kersey, Lindsey and Wattisham (Suff.). These also were retained after the Founder's deposition. The advowson of Fordingbridge rectory (Hants) had been granted with licence to appropriate in 1447, (fn. 112) and on the completion of the appropriation in 1463 (fn. 113) the advowson of the vicarage vested in the College. Advowsons in the possession of the College in 1461, but lost under Edward IV, certainly included the rectories of Compton, (fn. 114) Preston-upon-Stour and Welford-on-Avon (Glos.) and the vicarage of Corsham (Wilts.), and probably the vicarage of St. Clement (Cornw.). Before 1461, but not after, the College also collated to prebends in the collegiate church of St. Burian (Cornw.), and appointed to the office of archpriest of St. Michael's Mount. The advowson of the rectory of Stow-cum-Quy (Cambs.) was in the possession of the College from 1453 to 1457, when it was exchanged for that of Kingston (Cambs.). (fn. 115) The grant of the advowson of Wednesbury rectory (Staffs.) in 1448 (fn. 116) may not have taken effect.

Edward IV's grant of the manors of Horstead, Lessingham and Toft Monks (Norf.) (fn. 117) seems to have carried with it the advowsons of the rectories of those places; from Edward's reign onwards the College presented to all three. The advowson of Haddiscoe rectory (Norf.) probably came into its possession during the same reign. (fn. 118) The title to the advowson of Coltishall rectory (Norf.), purchased with the manor in 1478, was long in dispute. (fn. 119) The College first successfully presented in 1522.

The advowson of Sampford Courtenay rectory (Devon) was acquired in 1570 by exchange for that of Withyham; (fn. 120) that of Weedon Lois vicarage (Northants.) in 1617 by gift of Richard Day; (fn. 121) that of Milton rectory (Cambs.) in 1642 by bequest of Roger Goad, sometime Provost. The following advowsons have been acquired since 1700, for the most part by purchase: Todbere rectory (Dors.) (1711); Honeychurch rectory (Devon) (1923); Chalton-cum-Clanfield rectory (Hants) (1826); Buckland rectory (1702), Great Munden rectory (1866), (fn. 122) Walkern rectory (1702) (Herts.); Sutton vicarage (Lancs.) (1849); (fn. 123) Hemingby rectory (Lincs.) (1731); Great Greenford rectory (Mdx.) (1700); Gressenhall rectory (1830), Hempstead rectory (1740), (fn. 124) Eccles-next-the-Sea rectory (1923), Woodton rectory (1846) (Norf.); Hepworth rectory (1790), (fn. 125) Wortham rectory (1852) (Suff.); East Molesey perpetual curacy (1781), Ham vicarage (1895), Kew, (fn. 126) Kingston-on-Thames, Petersham (fn. 126) and Richmond vicarages, and Thames Ditton perpetual curacy (all in 1781) (Surr.); Ewhurst rectory (Suss.) (1826). The rectory of Harbridge (Hants) has long been attached to the vicarage of Ringwood and in the gift of the College, (fn. 127) but the period and manner of acquisition of this advowson are uncertain.

After the end of the war of 1914 many of these advowsons were surrendered to the appropriate diocesan authorities. At the same period the greater part of the agricultural estates of the College, except those in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, were sold; but the manorial rights were retained. The proceeds of these sales of agricultural land were in part invested in other forms of real property and in securities, in part in the purchase, in 1925, of a large agricultural estate in the north of Lincolnshire, including the manors of Elsham and Worlaby. (fn. 128) From 1919 to 1946 the College investments and property were in the care of Lord Keynes, by whose financial genius the endowment of the College was very greatly increased. As much by his brilliant and devoted bursarship as by his own munificent bequest, Lord Keynes ranks, after King Henry himself, as the greatest benefactor in the history of the College.

Constitution and Statutes.

Only one set of early statutes for King's College survives. These are known as the Founder's Statutes, and were in force until 1861. (fn. 129) They cannot be the statutes which were the occasion of Millington's deprivation in 1447, (fn. 130) for new statutes were brought to the College in 1453. (fn. 131) Probably three official copies had been made, two to be kept at King's and one to be kept at Eton, as the statutes themselves direct. (fn. 132) In the College Muniment Room there are two fine 15th-century manuscripts of the Founder's Statutes, which are probably the two official copies brought to King's in 1453. They are strikingly similar to one another in format, suggesting that they were companion copies simultaneously prepared. The same scribal errors are sometimes made and corrected in both, suggesting that they were written by two scribes working together. Threads such as formed part of the cord of the Founder's Great Seal are laced into the sewing of each, and one of them was known in later times as 'the copy under the Broad Seal'.

Immediately after the arrival of the new statutes, three scholars of the College were employed to transcribe them. (fn. 133) One of the three, John Combe, soon afterwards made a further copy; this was probably completed in July or August, and certainly before Michaelmas 1454. (fn. 134) One or other of the copies made by John Combe in 1453–4 can be identified with a manuscript of the Founder's Statutes in the College library, in which the scribe's name and the date are given in a colophon after the 'Amen': 'Hec scripsit Johannes Coombe Anno RR Henrici vj^ti xxxij^o'; (fn. 135) completed therefore by 31 August 1454, when Henry's thirty-second year ended. By this colophon the text of the Founder's Statutes—apart from a few later modifications now to be described— can be identified with the statutes given in 1453.

Some revision was certainly undertaken before the end of the Founder's reign. In 1455 William of Waynflete and John Chedworth were empowered to reform the statutes of King's and Eton, in consultation with their Provosts. (fn. 136) In 1459 Walter Field, Bursar and afterwards Provost, carried the Founder's Will and the sealed books of the statutes to London; and later in the same year a scribe wrote amendments of the statute books. (fn. 137) Yet those which found their way into the traditional text were not extensive. With certain unimportant exceptions, John Combe's dated manuscript agrees with the printed text of the Founder's Statutes, (fn. 138) so that changes made after 1454 must appear in it either as additions or as alterations. One small alteration of substance seems to have been made by erasure both in Combe's manuscript and in the two sealed books, at the end of the tenth statute; it affects the conditions on which ecclesiastical benefices might be held with the Provostship. (fn. 139) Two brief clauses have been added: the clause which requires scholars on their admission to forswear the errors of Wyclif and Pecock, and the clause which follows, establishing the annual sermon on Lady Day. (fn. 140) Even from the printed text it is clear that these are postscripts, for they follow the 'Amen'; and in the two sealed manuscripts, which elsewhere are written in different hands, Statute X has been altered, and the postscript clauses added, by the same hand in both. The first postscript cannot be earlier than 1457, when Pecock was condemned; and most probably all these revisions were inserted in 1459. (fn. 141)

A more significant revision, which seems to have been contemplated about this time, was never incorporated into the traditional text. In Combe's manuscript the postscript clauses are followed by a variant version of a long passage from Statute LXVI. (fn. 142) Among other changes, the Founder here adds a new injunction: that if after his death the building of the College is still not finished according to his intent and will, and if no outside resources are available for its completion, then an expenditure of at least 300 marks a year on building shall be a first charge on the College revenues. So the Founder foresaw, in his last troubled years, something of the difficulties and delays that lay ahead.

The Founder's Statutes were modelled on William of Wykeham's statutes for New College, Oxford. The College was to consist of a Provost, 70 fellows and scholars, 10 chaplains, 6 clerks or singing-men, and 16 choristers. (fn. 143) The scholars were to be recruited from scholars of Eton, not less than 15 nor more than 20 years of age. For this purpose an examination in grammar, morals and general fitness was to be held at Eton every year in July or August by the Provost and two fellows of King's (later known as Posers), and the Provost, Vice-Provost and Headmaster of Eton; first preference was to be given to candidates from parishes in which the two colleges owned property, and second preference to candidates born in Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire. (fn. 144) The same examiners were to select the scholars of Eton, (fn. 145) giving the same preferences as for scholarships at King's, and special preference to the choristers of the two royal foundations. (fn. 146) After three years of probation, scholars of King's, if approved by the Provost and a majority of the graduate fellows, were to be admitted as true and perpetual fellows of the College. (fn. 147) After graduating as Masters of Arts, two fellows were to study civil law, four canon law, two medicine and two astronomy; the rest were to study theology. (fn. 148) Theologians were to take priest's orders within three years of beginning the study of theology, jurists within nine years of beginning the study of law. (fn. 149)

The Provost was to be elected by the fellows; only fellows and former fellows were eligible. (fn. 150) He was to govern the College and superintend its affairs in every department, more especially the management of the College estates. (fn. 151) Whereas the early statutes of other colleges usually made little distinction between the head and the fellows, at King's the Provost was to be a dignitary of consequence. (fn. 152) He was to have a separate dwelling-house, a household consisting, at the least, of one gentleman-in-waiting and five manservants, a stable of ten horses maintained by the College, and a stipend of £100 a year—something like a tenth of the College revenues. (fn. 153) In the 15th century he was commonly known as 'the Provost of Cambridge'.

The remaining College officers were concerned with internal affairs. The Vice-Provost was to assist the Provost in the internal government of the College, and in superintending the conduct and studies of its members, and to act as his deputy in these matters in his absence. (fn. 154) A Dean of Theology and two Deans of Arts were to assist the Provost and Vice-Provost in the supervision of conduct and studies. (fn. 155) Three Bursars were to receive the College revenues and pay out moneys for day-to-day expenditure, but were to have little if any further responsibility. (fn. 156) External business was the concern of the Provost, assisted, in his absences from Cambridge, by a fellow especially elected for the purpose. (fn. 157)

The thirteen senior fellows (otherwise described as the Vice-Provost, Deans, Bursars and the six other senior fellows, for it seems to have been assumed that the officers would always be chosen from the thirteen Seniors) held an important place in the constitution of the College. With the Provost, they chose the Posers. (fn. 158) With the Provost, the ViceProvost and the six Seniors not in office audited the accounts of all officers and ministers. (fn. 159) With the Provost, the thirteen Seniors chose the Vice-Provost, Deans and Bursars; though here there was an appeal to the whole body of fellows in case the Seniors were not unanimous, and the Provost and a majority of the Seniors could not agree. (fn. 160) On the other hand, the fellow chosen to assist the Provost in external business was to be elected, like the Provost himself, by the whole body. (fn. 161) In business of major importance also, such as leasing of estates, presenting to benefices and beginning lawsuits, the Provost was to consult the whole body, and the matter was to be decided either by common consent, or by a majority of the Seniors. (fn. 162)

Great power was entrusted to the Provost, especially in matters of discipline. Conduct was to be rigorously scrutinized and faults severely punished. For lesser offences such as negligence in studies or minor acts of disobedience, scholars and even fellows were to be sharply rebuked and whipped. (fn. 163) More serious offences were to be punished by withdrawal of commons; (fn. 164) persistent fomentation of discord, or such serious crimes as heresy, simony or notable theft, by expulsion. (fn. 165)

Behind the authority of the Provost stood that of the Visitor, the Bishop of Lincoln, whom the Provost was to call in if his orders or punishments were resisted. (fn. 166) The Visitor, if invoked by the Provost and officers, or by the Seniors, or by common consent, or on his own initiative, might hold a visitation, reform and punish what he found amiss, and deprive the Provost or any other member of the College. (fn. 167) The Bishop was also Ordinary of the College, guardian of its statutes and charged with the conservation of its rights and possessions. (fn. 168) This last duty he seems to have shared with the three Conservators. (fn. 169)

The statutes copied and extended the tutorial system which William of Wykeham had introduced into New College. (fn. 170) Wykeham had provided teaching for men in their first three years. At King's, not only were undergraduate scholars to be taught by graduates in arts, but fellows who were Bachelors of Arts were to hear lectures in philosophy by Masters of Arts, and for Masters of Arts themselves there were to be lectures in theology and civil and canon law. (fn. 171) Lecturers or tutors were to be appointed by the Provost and the Dean or Deans of the appropriate faculty, and the College was to pay for each pupil taught on a scale graduated according to his standing. (fn. 172) Tutors (informatores) of scholars and junior fellows were also expected to maintain discipline among their pupils, and were authorized to beat them. (fn. 173) From 1456 to 1459 payments for teaching are recorded in detail, and the tutorial system can be seen coming into operation. (fn. 174) Already in 1456 either the Dean of Theology or another graduate in theology was giving theological lectures to Masters of Arts in most terms of the year; by 1458 lectures in civil and canon law had been added. Bachelors of Arts and undergraduates were at first divided into classes by years, each class under its own tutor; there were usually from five to nine in a class. From 1457, however, each freshman year as it came up was divided into two classes under different tutors, and so continued. Undergraduates in their first and second years, and sometimes in their third, were taught in the Long Vacation as well as in the other three terms. In the fourth year, in which they graduated as Bachelors of Arts, little college teaching seems to have been given them; but it was resumed, though less intensely, in the following year, and it usually continued until they graduated as Masters of Arts. The teaching staff in arts consisted of six or seven fellows. At first the two Deans of Arts and other Masters of Arts acted as tutors to undergraduates in their second and third years, and Bachelors of Arts only to freshmen; but by 1458 all tuition of undergraduates had been entrusted to Bachelors. Payments for teaching were dropped in 1461, no doubt as a measure of economy; and although they were resumed in 1467, after 1472 they ceased once more. (fn. 175) College teaching seems to have continued none the less; for college lectures were still being given to both fellows and scholars in 1483. (fn. 176)

The privileges and immunities conferred on the College and its estates (fn. 177) were so numerous that only a few can be mentioned. Judicial privileges conferred by Parliament included the right of the College to deodands, wreck of the sea, waifs and strays and treasure trove, chattels of felons and outlaws, escapes of felons and murderers, and fines and amercements levied in the king's courts on its men and tenants and residents upon its property; view of frankpledge throughout its estates, return and execution of writs by its own bailiffs, and the right to appoint its own coroners. (fn. 178) Judicial privileges conferred by the charter of 3 March 1446 included cognisance of all pleas and actions and of the assizes of novel disseisin and mort d'ancestor in the College's own courts, the right to erect gallows, with liberty of infangthief and outfangthief, and the right to appoint its own justices of the peace. (fn. 179) Fiscal privileges conferred by Parliament included exemption for the College, its members, men and tenants from all Parliamentary and clerical taxation, and from a great variety of tolls. (fn. 180) Other privileges conferred by Parliament included free warren and free chase throughout the College estates, even within royal forests, and ward and custody of the lands of its tenants by knight service, being under age, even though they held elsewhere in chief of the Crown. (fn. 181)

How far all these privileges were exercised is not clear. Letters close of 1 September 1447, ordering the execution of such of the privileges conferred by Parliament as redounded to the benefit of College tenants, were (and still are) preserved at Prescot (Lancs.), where they were highly prized as the 'privilege' of the town, and played a leading part in its history; exemption from the tolls of Liverpool was especially valued. (fn. 182) At their own expense the men of Prescot, in 1614, procured a confirmation of their privilege; but even they, in 1685, told James II that its benefit was so great 'that sometimes wee wave the claiming of all its rights and good as not having been made use of'. (fn. 183) Nowhere else on the College estates does a local interest seem to have taken upon itself the vindication of the College privileges; but there is evidence that some of them were at times exercised. In 1508 the College made a grant of the wardship and marriage of the heir of a tenant by knight service at Grantchester. (fn. 184) Wards and marriages, waifs and strays, chattels of felons and outlaws, free warren and free chase, and amercements imposed on manorial tenants by the King's justices, were either demised or reserved in leases of profits of courts at Toft Monks, Ringwood and Fordingbridge in 1613. (fn. 185) Justices of the Peace were appointed for Atherstone, Ruislip, Monxton and Combe in the reign of Henry VI. (fn. 186) Further appointments of justices for Atherstone in 1493 (fn. 187) and for the College estates in Suffolk and Norfolk in 1572 (fn. 188) were probably ineffective; likewise the appointment, in 1572, of an aulnager to inspect cloth made on the College estates in Suffolk. (fn. 189) In Elizabethan and early Stuart times, however, the College appointed coroners for its Cambridgeshire estates with great regularity, and from time to time coroners and escheators for estates elsewhere. (fn. 190) At Prescot the franchise coronership survived until the Coroners (Amendment) Act of 1926 came into operation; (fn. 191) the last coroner appointed by the College resigned his office in 1953.

The ecclesiastical immunities granted by Papal bull and confirmed by Parliament (fn. 192) were regularly observed. Probate jurisdiction was exercised, not only over the wills of members and servants of the College, but also over the wills of other persons dying in houses within the College precinct. In the 18th century, however, enrolled wills in the College Ledger Books grow fewer, and the jurisdiction was abolished by the Probate Act of 1857. (fn. 193) The other ecclesiastical immunities remained in force, and the College is still a peculiar.

The final settlement, in 1457, of the controversy over the exemption of the College from the jurisdiction of the Chancellor of the University has been described above. (fn. 194) This exemption cannot have been the ground of the privilege by which, in later times, scholars and fellows of King's proceeded to the degree of Bachelor of Arts without undergoing a University examination or performing any of the prescribed exercises; for even in the more liberal concession of 1448 the University had expressly reserved the obedience of Kingsmen, 'tanquam veri scholares et gremiales eiusdem vniuersitatis', in all that concerned scholastic acts. (fn. 195) The privilege can scarcely have arisen from Nicholas V's bull of 8 June 1448, allowing scholars and fellows, in time of interdict, to perform their exercises within the College and be admitted to degrees by the Provost and Deans; (fn. 196) for Kingsmen were admitted to degrees by the University authorities. Certainly no such privilege can have been intended by the Founder, for his statute de tempore assumendi gradus explicitly required the completion of all the forms for the Bachelor's degree then customary in the University; and his statute de disputationibus required the candidates to rehearse in their College exercises the matter which they were afterwards to dispute in the University exercises for that degree. (fn. 197)

The privilege, indeed, like the corresponding privilege of the fellows of New College, Oxford, (fn. 198) seems to have arisen after, and perhaps long after, the Founder's time. There is some evidence that the Founder's intentions were at first carried out. As late as the early 16th century, the Grace Book occasionally records that a fellow of King's, before taking the degree of Bachelor of Arts, has heard the ordinary lectures and kept the required oppositions and responsions—and does so in a form exactly similar to that in which it records these things for the men of other colleges. (fn. 199) In 1574 Matthew Stokys's Book expressly mentions the presence of the determiners of King's College in St. Mary's church on Ash Wednesday, with no suggestion in the context that they did not perform all the exercises in exactly the same way as other candidates. (fn. 200) It is possible, however, that by 1574 these determiners, though Kingsmen, were fellow commoners, pensioners and sizars, not scholars or fellows. The exercises described by Stokys, moreover, were by this time 'probably little more than a matter of form', and the serious test was the preliminary examination by the proctors, posers and regent masters. (fn. 201) Whether scholars and fellows of King's underwent this examination is not known. Dr. Venn made the attractive suggestion that the placing of Kingsmen at all levels of the Ordo Senioritatis down to at least 1589 indicated that they did, and were ranked according to their performance in it; (fn. 202) but the relative positions of scholars and fellows in the Ordo correspond so closely to their relative seniority in College that this cannot be. Just when the privilege arose cannot be determined. All that can safely be said is that it was in existence by 1748, the date of the earliest printed tripos lists, for the names of scholars and fellows of King's do not appear in the tripos until 1853, (fn. 203) two years after the privilege had been voluntarily surrendered by the College. (fn. 204)

In addition to the University exercises, the Founder required his fellows and scholars to pass a College examination for the Bachelor's degree, conducted by the Provost and Seniors. (fn. 205) This was still being held in Elizabethan times. A College order of 1582 provided that it should take place in the chapel, between the first and tenth of May in every year, and that it should last for two days. On each day the junior fellows were to be examined by the Seniors for two hours at a time; and no grace was to be proposed for any Bachelor of Arts degree until the candidate had been thus examined. (fn. 206) The later history of this examination is obscure. It had certainly lapsed by the 1830's; its revival in 1836 was regarded as a novelty. (fn. 207)

Site.

At the time of the foundation of the College the Schools of the University (the buildings sur- rounding the eastern court of the present Old Schools) were partly completed. The north range seems to have been finished and the west range in progress; the south range was in contemplation, but not yet begun; (fn. 208) on the eastern side, along the ancient School Street, stood buildings which were to be replaced by the east range completed about 1475. (fn. 209) The ground north of the Schools as far as Gonville Hall Lane (now Senate House Passage), including the frontage on School Street, was occupied by gardens and buildings belonging to Michaelhouse and to a chantry in Great St. Mary's church. All the ground west of the Schools, southward from Gonville Hall Lane and westward as far as Milne Street (now Trinity Hall Lane), was occupied by a garden belonging to Trinity Hall. To the south, covering the ground now occupied by the northern side chapels of King's College Chapel and the lawn between the chapel and the present Old Schools, and extending from Milne Street back to School Street, lay the site of Crouched Hostel, which the University had purchased in 1432, (fn. 210) no doubt for the extension of the Schools. Except for a narrow strip along the north of the eastern portion of the Crouched Hostel site, which was retained by the University and became part of the site of the south range of the Schools, (fn. 211) all this ground surrounding the Schools, with the Grammar School or Glomery Hall to the south-east of Crouched Hostel, was acquired by King Henry as the original site of his College. The first site of King's thus lay almost wholly to the north of the present College chapel, and extended as far as Senate House Passage. It enclosed the Schools, as completed about 1475, on all sides except the east. (fn. 212) The greater part of this site, consisting of the garden of Trinity Hall, Crouched Hostel and the Grammar School, was acquired by the King's commissioners in September, October and November, 1440, (fn. 213) conveyed to the King in the following January, (fn. 214) and by him conveyed to the College by his letters patent of foundation on 12 February 1441. (fn. 215) The acquisition of the small remaining portion to the north-east, between the Schools and Gonville Hall Lane, does not seem to have been completed until 1449. (fn. 216)

Long before this, in the summer of 1443, the enlargement of the original site had begun. King Henry had set about the purchase of a solid block of property, immediately to the south of it and some six or seven times its size, extending from the river on the west to the High Street (now King's Parade) on the east, and southward to approximately the line of the northern fronts of the present Wilkins' Building, Library and Old Lodge. Here he intended to build an entirely new court on a far grander scale. Through the middle of the new site, southward from Trinity Hall Lane to join up with the present Queens' Lane, ran Milne Street. West of the High Street, east and west of Milne Street, the site was thickly built up with houses and hostels; and from Milne Street other thoroughfares ran to the High Street on the one hand and the river bank on the other. On the west side of Milne Street, either near or partly or wholly upon the site of the west end of the chapel, stood the parish church of St. John Zachary; (fn. 217) on the east side, occupying the centre of the chapel site, stood the college of Godshouse, lately founded by William Byngham. (fn. 218) All this the Founder proceeded to buy up. He demolished the old church of St. John, and rebuilt it on the northern boundary of the original College site, beside Gonville Hall Lane. (fn. 219) Godshouse was removed to its present site on the farther side of the town. (fn. 220) In 1445 the Mayor and Corporation of Cambridge granted to the King all the streets within the site, and also the common land by the river and the quay called Salt Hithe, which lay slightly to the north of the present College bridge. (fn. 221) With one exception, the numerous pieces of private property lying within the site seem to have been acquired with little difficulty; but Robert Lincoln, a draper, who owned two houses near the east end of the site chosen for the chapel, held out until 1452, and then sold only at a high price, and subject to a tenancy for the lives of himself and his wife. (fn. 222) The Founder's purchases were conveyed to the College by letters patent of 16 March 1446 and 10 February 1449, (fn. 223) and the right to build on the whole site was confirmed by letters patent of 30 May 1449. (fn. 224) In all the recorded history of Cambridge, so drastic a clearance of buildings and closing of thoroughfares in the heart of the town has only one parallel: the clearing of the site for the Castle by William the Conqueror. In 1446 the Mayor and Corporation obtained a remission of taxation on the ground of the annexation of dwelling houses to the College. (fn. 225)

West of the river, the Mayor and Corporation granted to the College, in 1447, the common meadow afterwards known as Butt Close, extending from Garret Hostel Lane on the north to the line of the present College ditch on the south, and westward as far as the line of the present ditches of King's and Clare. (fn. 226) This ground must have been unsuitable for building, and was intended as a place of recreation. The portion of Butt Close to the north of what is now Scholars' Piece was leased to Clare in 1651, (fn. 227) and conveyed to Clare, in exchange for additions to the site elsewhere, in 1823. (fn. 228)

The period at which the College came into possession of the walks along the Backs is uncertain. The right of soil in the land afterwards known as Clare Hall Piece and Crotches, lying between the King's and Clare ditches on the one hand and Queen's Road on the other, and extending northward to Garret Hostel Lane, has belonged to the College since early times; but the land was and is common pasture. Beyond Garret Hostel Lane, Trinity Piece, lying between Queen's Road, Trinity College ditch and St. John's College Wilderness, was in the possession of the College by the early 17th century. (fn. 229) By a friendly arrangement between the two colleges, this was sold to Trinity in 1938. (fn. 230)

By the St. Giles's parish enclosure award of 1805 the College received a block of some 16 acres lying west of Queen's Road and north of West Road, in exchange for lands elsewhere in the western fields of Cambridge. In 1925 3 acres in the north-western portion of this block were sold to the University. (fn. 231) These had formed part of the King's and Clare Cricket Ground until this was occupied by a military hospital in the war of 1914. They are now part of the site of the University Library. The remainder of the block is occupied by the Fellows' Garden, tennis grounds, two private houses, the Garden Hostel completed in 1950, and the King's College School.

East of the river, the site has gradually been extended southward till its boundary has come to march with those of Queens' and St. Catharine's Colleges from the river to Trumpington Street. For some distance to the east of Queens' Lane, the Founder himself, by his grants of the new St. Austin's Hostel in 1449 (fn. 232) and of the Boreshede in 1446, (fn. 233) had already carried the southern boundary of the College property beyond the limits of the site as defined in the letters patent of 30 May 1449, (fn. 234) and as far as its present position. From Queen's Lane to the river the present line was reached not long before 1542, by the purchase of a garden which had formerly belonged to the Carmelite Friars. (fn. 235) About the same time, in 1535, the property between St. Austin's Hostel and Trumpington Street was purchased from Corpus Christi College. (fn. 236) By this the Trumpington Street frontage was carried about as far as the south side of the present Wilkins' Building; but it did not reach the boundary of St. Catharine's until the 19th century. The White Horse Inn, just north of the St. Catharine's boundary, was obtained by the exchange with Clare in 1823. (fn. 237) In the same year an unsuccessful attempt was made to secure Cory's House, the one remaining property on Trumpington Street between the College and the 'White Horse'; this was finally purchased in 1870. (fn. 238)

Elsewhere the only important addition to the site since the Founder's time has been that of the ground lying between the east front of the Old Court of Clare, the north porch of the chapel and the gate into Trinity Hall Lane. This was leased by Clare to King's in 1651, and conveyed by Clare, with the White Horse Inn, in 1823, in exchange for the northern part of Butt Close. (fn. 239) Between Trinity Hall Lane and King's Parade, however, much ground had been ceded to the University. By a series of transactions between 1769 and 1798, the University gained a strip some 70 ft. wide and 140 ft. long between King's Parade, the south-east corner of the Old Schools and the north-east corner of the chapel. (fn. 240) In 1829 it gained a much larger area to the west of this, when the College sold it the site and buildings of the Old Court, and withdrew its northern boundary to the present line along the south side of the Old Schools. (fn. 241)

By the sale of the Old Court the College parted with more than half of the site of the first College buildings planned by King Henry in 1441. That site, and those comparatively modest buildings, were in the tradition of the little colleges of medieval Cambridge: of no great extent, of no great magnificence, hidden away on a back street, hemmed about by streets and houses, and capable, except by the power of a king, of no great expansion in the future. King Henry's decision, in 1443, to enlarge the site of his College, was momentous in the architectural history of Cambridge. Great buildings to dominate Cambridge High Street; grounds running down to the river and beyond; above all, the spaciousness of the College that he now conceived: this was a new architectural vision. The great design for King's was not to be completed until the 18th and 19th centuries; but its completion then was inspired and only made possible by King Henry's vision in 1443. In other colleges the vision was earlier fulfilled; and perhaps through King Henry's example. The spaciousness of Trinity, the spaciousness of St. John's, may well owe their inspiration to the Founder's still unfinished design for King's. King Henry, in all three royal foundations, was perhaps the first begetter of the royal splendour of the Backs.

Buildings.

The earliest College buildings, on the original site beside the University Schools, were begun on 2 April 1441; (fn. 242) the master mason and architect was almost certainly Reginald Ely of Cambridge, (fn. 243) afterwards the first master mason of the chapel. The College court was to lie between the Schools and Milne Street, its south range abutting east on the south range of the Schools Quadrangle, its west range running along Milne Street, its north range along Gonville Hall Lane, and its east side formed by the west range of the Schools. The main gate of entrance was to stand in the centre of the Milne Street front. While the work was in progress, however, the Founder decided to erect new and larger College buildings on the ground newly purchased to the south; therefore the Old Court (as these earliest buildings came to be called) was never finished according to the original design. Only the south range, and the west range as far as the entrance gateway, were completed. The gateway itself, and the part of the west range to the north of it, were carried to the level of the second story, and then roughly finished off with a third story of a makeshift character; the north side came to be occupied by miscellaneous buildings in picturesque confusion. It was expected, no doubt, that the College would soon move to its new home. In the event, this Old Court of King's continued in use until 1828; and until the second quarter of the 18th century it provided nearly the whole of the College's living accommodation. (fn. 244)

Besides the Old Court, the first buildings included a chapel; this was in existence by 1448. (fn. 245) It stood between the south side of the Old Court and the north side of the present chapel; it included antechapel, nave, and chancel, but Dr. Caius described it as humile et angustum. It collapsed in 1536 or 1537, and no trace of it now remains. (fn. 246)

By 1450 a Provost's Lodge, containing eight or nine rooms, had been built on a site east of the present chapel. (fn. 247) This building had a complicated history of alterations, demolitions and reconstructions; (fn. 248) southward extensions at various times carried it nearly as far as the present Front Gateway. It was finally demolished in 1828, after the Lodge built by Wilkins had been completed. (fn. 249)

East again of the Provost's Lodge, from a point opposite the south-east tower of the chapel to a point opposite the present Front Gateway, ran one wing of the 'Clerks' Lodgings'; from there another wing ran west about as far as the site of the Gateway itself, overlapping the southern part of the Provost's Lodge and forming the 'Conducts' Court'. This court was in existence by 1467; it was probably formed by converting existing houses to collegiate purposes. (fn. 250)

The decision to erect larger buildings was taken in 1443. (fn. 251) The foundation stone was laid on 25 July 1446, (fn. 252) and the designs for the buildings, with those for the buildings of Eton, were set out in great detail in the document known as the Founder's Eton Will, dated 12 March 1448. (fn. 253) A magnificent court, on a scale without precedent in Cambridge, was to stand on the site of the present Front Court of the College. The chapel, in its present position, was to form its northern side. The east range, approximately on the site of the present screen, was to consist of living-rooms in three stories, with a gate-tower at the centre. The south range, just north of the site of Wilkins' Building, was likewise to contain livingrooms in three stories, and part of the Provost's Lodge at its western end. The west range, on the site of Gibbs' Building, was to contain the rest of the Provost's Lodge to the south; then the hall, buttery, and pantry; and, at its northern end, the library, with a store room above it, and with chambers and a room for lectures and disputations beneath it. The east and west ranges were to close up into the eastern and western bays of the south front of the chapel, and the whole was to form a closed court. West of the hall, and closing up to it, a smaller court was to be built, containing the College kitchen, the kitchen of the Provost's Lodge, the bakehouse, brewhouse, stables and other offices. Detached from all these, between the chapel and the river, there was to be a great cloistered cemetery, with a lofty bell-tower in the middle of its western side. (fn. 254) The work was to be financed by an annual pension of £1,000 from the revenues of the Duchy of Lancaster. (fn. 255)

Work was begun on the chapel and the east range. Considerable progress must have been made before the outbreak of the civil war; but soon after 1455 payments from the Duchy of Lancaster became irregular, (fn. 256) and the work slackened. In 1459 Provost Wodelarke, though severely handicapped by shortage of funds, made a valiant effort to stimulate the work; (fn. 257) but his endeavours were cut short by the Founder's deposition in 1461. By this time the eastern walls of the gate-tower and of the east range had been begun through nearly if not quite the whole of their length, and had been raised some feet above the ground; portions of the north-eastern turret of the range, and of the inner staircase turret opposite to it, abutting on the south walls of the chapel, had been carried considerably higher. Farther than this they were never to go; but a great deal of this work was still to be seen at least as late as the middle of the 18th century. (fn. 258) The stonework of the chapel had probably been raised to a height of some 60 or 70 ft. at the east end, but it sloped away westward to no more than 7 or 8 ft.: a truncated, roofless fragment. (fn. 259) The two north-eastern side chapels, however, had probably been completed and vaulted; by 1470 at least one of them seems to have been in use. (fn. 260) Thus far Reginald Ely was the master mason in charge of the work, and in all probability the architect. (fn. 261)

For fifteen years little more was done; but in 1476, with the help of private donations, work on the chapel was slowly resumed. (fn. 262) Reginald Ely had died in 1471; (fn. 263) John Worlich, who had probably worked under him on the Old Court and on the chapel, at first acted as master mason in his place. (fn. 264) By the summer of 1477, however, Worlich had been superseded by Simon Clerk of Bury St. Edmunds, master mason to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey, who for some years before 1461 had been in charge of the building of Eton. (fn. 265) From 1480, when Edward IV promised a contribution of 1,000 marks, the work once more proceeded rapidly; (fn. 266) by 1483 the five eastern bays had been carried up to the base of the pierced battlements and covered with their present timber roof, designed by the master carpenter, Martin Prentice. (fn. 267) Richard III also contributed largely to the work; (fn. 268) but his death in 1485 brought this second period of active building to an end. At this time, as several features of the fabric combine to suggest, (fn. 269) the five eastern bays were probably closed off with a temporary western wall, a temporary south doorway was constructed through the fourth southern side chapel from the east, and the half-finished building, though still unvaulted and open to the timbered roof, was made ready for use.

An attempt may have been made to carry on the work in the years immediately following Richard's death; (fn. 270) but without substantial help from outside sources the College, financially crippled by the losses of 1461, was powerless to bring it to completion. In 1499 the Provost and Scholars reminded Henry VII of his uncle's great work abandoned, the splendid beginning left to stand an unsightly fragment: 'structura regiis sumptibus magnifice inchoata iam turpe in spectaculum deserta est'. (fn. 271) In 1506 Henry saw for himself; he came to Cambridge in April, and kept St. George's Day in King's. (fn. 272) To John Argentine, the Provost, he gave £100 'towards the bildings of the Church of the said College'; and other gifts followed. (fn. 273) Some work may have been undertaken immediately, under the direction of the mason Henry Smyth. (fn. 274) Two years later, in the spring of 1508, building operations were once more in full swing. (fn. 275) In that summer King Henry made a princely contribution of £4,000; (fn. 276) he had already set masons to work 'vpon the bilding and making of the saide Churche', and had no doubt taken his decision 'incessauntly to persever and contenue till it be fully fynisshed and accomplisshed'. (fn. 277) The architect was now John Wastell of Bury St. Edmunds; from May 1509 he was assisted in the work of building, though probably not in the design, by John Lee as joint master mason. (fn. 278) As a young mason Wastell had worked in partnership with Simon Clerk in the rebuilding of Saffron Walden church, and perhaps also at Lavenham; he may have been Simon Clerk's pupil, and probably succeeded him as master mason to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. It is possible that he had worked under Clerk on the building of the chapel before 1485; and the College had certainly kept in touch with him through the earlier years of Henry VII. (fn. 279) He was probably advised by other eminent masons of the day: William Vertue, architect of Bath Abbey and of King Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster, and Henry Redman, architect of Hampton Court and Cardinal College, Oxford; (fn. 280) but to Wastell himself, the architect, among other works, of the Bell Harry Tower at Canterbury and the retrochoir of Peterborough Cathedral, belongs the credit of the completion of King's College Chapel. (fn. 281)

In March 1509, three weeks before his death, King Henry gave another £5,000 towards the building, and instructed his executors to provide, if necessary, further sums sufficient for its completion. (fn. 282) By the early months of 1512 the shell had probably been finished; and on 8 February in that year the executors paid over a second sum of £5,000 to provide for the vaulting, the stalls, the glass, and all other works necessary for the completion of the whole chapel. (fn. 283) In the following summer John Wastell and Henry Semark, one of the wardens of the masons, contracted to build the great vault, and finish it within three years. (fn. 284) Meanwhile the timber roof was being carried westwards, by the master carpenter Richard Russell, from the point where it had stopped in 1483; it was completed and leaded by December 1512. (fn. 285) Beneath its shelter, between October 1512 and August 1513, the carving of the stonework in the antechapel went forward, directed by the master carver, Thomas Stockton the King's Joiner. (fn. 286) Between January and August 1513 John Wastell entered into three further contracts, for the pinnacles, the towers, the battlements above the porches and side chapels, the vaults of the porches, and of those side chapels which had not been vaulted by Reginald Ely. (fn. 287) All this work, with the pierced battlements above the main walls, was finished by 29 July 1515. (fn. 288) So the fabric stood completed at last. One who may not have lived to see it was John Wastell himself; there is reason to believe that he had died some two months earlier. (fn. 289)

Still there remained the fittings. The sum of £5,000 paid over by the executors in 1512 had been intended to suffice for all of these, including the window glass and stalls. (fn. 290) This it clearly did not do, for an undated petition addressed to Henry VIII (fn. 291) speaks of this work, and the paving of the chapel, as still unperformed for lack of money, and beseeches the King to cause the executors to see it finished. An undated estimate of work remaining to be done (fn. 292) speaks also of the doors, the roodloft, and various embellishments as not yet executed. Most of this work was in fact carried out, but not without further delay. The glazing of the great windows was probably finished by 1531. (fn. 293) The chapel was probably being paved in 1535. (fn. 294) The roodloft or organ screen, and the stalls against it, can be dated between 1533 and 1536, from the initials and insignia of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn which they bear; one Philippus sculptor, apparently a foreigner, was probably one of the principal carvers at work on these in 1535, but his surname and nationality remain a mystery. (fn. 295) The stalls north and south of the choir (though not the panelling behind them and the canopies above them, which date from the 17th century) are of the same period, but perhaps slightly later, for they bear the initials and insignia of Henry without those of Anne. Much of this work was no doubt the gift of Henry VIII. (fn. 296) Of the embellishments described in the estimate, the carving of stone images for the niches beside the outer doors and inside the chapel and the gilding and painting of the great vault remained unperformed.

The chapel was thus completed on the very brink of the Reformation. This brought great loss of vestments, service books and plate. (fn. 297) Although some of the side chapels seem to have been intended for vestries, others had clearly been intended for chantries, for the Founder had directed that there should be an altar in each of the side chapels provided for in his Will. (fn. 298) Altars had in fact been erected in several of the chapels, and chantries established in some of them: (fn. 299) these were suppressed. A high altar was erected in 1544, (fn. 300) only to be thrown down under Edward VI, briefly restored under Mary, and finally destroyed in the first year of Elizabeth I. (fn. 301) By the reign of James I, Puritan practice prevailed: a communion table stood in the middle of the choir; a screen, just beyond the north and south choir doorways, closed off the two eastern bays; and before the screen, in place of an altar, stood the organ. (fn. 302) This gave place to a Laudian arrangement: in 1634, under Provost Collins, a new screen was completed, one bay further east, and the 'holy table' was set against it and railed off. (fn. 303) This screen survived until 1770, and was described by William Cole in 1742. (fn. 304) Between 1770 and 1776 the screen was removed, a new altar was erected beyond it, against the eastern wall, and the sanctuary was panelled in the Gothic manner, in imitation of the chapel stonework, under the direction of James Essex. (fn. 305) Essex's treatment survived until the end of the 19th century; it was replaced by a Renaissance stone altar by Thomas Garner, completed in 1902, and Renaissance woodwork by Detmar Blow and Fernand Billerey, completed in 1911. (fn. 306)

In general, however, the effects of religious changes in the chapel have been transient or moderate, especially those of the 17th century. Incense was used in Laudian times, and again after the Restoration. (fn. 307) The organ was removed in 1643; (fn. 308) a new organ was installed in 1661. (fn. 309) William Dowsing visited the chapel on Boxing Day 1643; his incoherent comments on '1 thousand Superstitious Pictures' (fn. 310) are generally taken to imply an intention to destroy the coloured glass. (fn. 311) Happily the glass survived. Indeed, little damage of any kind seems to have been done during the Civil Wars and Interregnum, (fn. 312) nor is there much trace of deliberate defacement either by Puritans or by Reformers. Three probable exceptions are the mutilated carvings of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, St. Catharine and St. Margaret, in the spandrel head and on the label stops of the south choir doorway. (fn. 313)

The chapel had been finished in the reign of Henry VIII; but three centuries more were to pass before the rest of the Founder's great court was completed. Meanwhile the Old Court was seriously overcrowded, and pressure must have increased as the College grew in numbers in the later 16th century. In 1573–4 St. Austin's Hostel (fn. 314) was enlarged, and its hall converted into rooms for pensioners; (fn. 315) it was afterwards known as 'the Pensionary'. Yet room for all the fellows and scholars had still to be found in the Old Court. (fn. 316) More drastic measures were needed; the inchoate walls of the east range were a standing reminder of the Founder's unfinished design; nor was the hope of completing that design forgotten. It was in the mind of the College in the reign of Charles I; (fn. 317) but it was not until Lord Dartmouth, in 1686, urged the Col- lege to start a building fund, if necessary felling timber for the purpose, and himself promised to recommend a scheme of building to the patronage of James II, that the first steps were taken. (fn. 318) The Provost and Fellows immediately appropriated 900 timber trees on their Norfolk manor of Toft Monks to the building of the College; (fn. 319) but the fall of James II in 1688, and the imprisonment and death of Dartmouth in 1691, no doubt frustrated their hopes of influential patronage; and all that was erected at this period was the Brick Building, completed in 1693. This stood on a site between the present screen and King's Parade, just north of the present Front Gate, and contained the choristers' school, offices for the Provost's Lodge, four sets of chambers for fellow-commoners, and garrets above for sizars. (fn. 320)

The project of completing the Founder's design was however taken up with energy by Provost John Adams, soon after his election in 1712. Nicholas Hawksmoor, with the advice of his master Sir Christopher Wren, prepared a scheme which included not only the Founder's great court to the south of the chapel, but also his cloister and belltower between the chapel and the river; although the buildings were to be in the Palladian and not the Gothic manner. (fn. 321) The Toft Monks timber was cut and sold; on 8 May 1714 the Provost and Fellows confirmed the appropriation of the proceeds to the continuation of the Founder's design; (fn. 322) and by the end of the year a building fund had been established. (fn. 323) Yet the project was again postponed; (fn. 324) and when it was put in hand at last, in 1724, four years after Adams's death, it was to a new design by James Gibbs, from which the cloister and bell-tower were omitted. (fn. 325) The foundation stone of the west range of Gibbs's intended court was laid on 25 March 1724; (fn. 326) the building seems to have begun to be occupied in the summer of 1732. (fn. 327) Although the College building fund was substantial, and was augmented by subscriptions, it was exceeded by the cost of this one range; no more was built, and the debt was not fully paid off until 1768. (fn. 328)

Plans for completing the rest of the court were prepared by Robert Adam in 1784, and by James Wyatt in 1795, but were not carried out; (fn. 329) and the task devolved on William Wilkins, the winner of a competition organized by the College in 1822. (fn. 330) Wilkins built the present gatehouse and screen on the east front; the south range of the Front Court, with the hall in the centre and the kitchens behind; and the library and Provost's Lodge (now the Old Lodge), prolonging the south range towards the river. These works were begun in 1824, (fn. 331) and finished about 1828. (fn. 332)

The Founder's great court, completed at last, sufficed for the old society. There was no further building until after the Victorian reforms had taken effect, and the number of undergraduates had begun to increase; (fn. 333) since that time, more living space has continually been required. In 1871, the College approved a design by Sir George Gilbert Scott for a building on the King's Parade front, continuing the line of Wilkins' Building to the south; this was completed in 1873. (fn. 334) In 1877, designs were prepared by Sir G. G. Scott, William Burges and G. E. Street for a building on the site of Wilkins's screen; but none of them was adopted. (fn. 335) Instead, three smaller courts were built to the south and west: Chetwynd Court, of which the east range was formed by Scott's building of 1873, and the west range by W. M. Fawcett's building, completed in 1885; (fn. 336) Bodley's Court, between the Old Lodge and the river, of which the east and south ranges, designed by G. F. Bodley, were completed in 1893; (fn. 337) and Webb's Court, south of the library and the western part of Wilkins' Building, of which the south range, designed by Sir Aston Webb, was completed in 1909. (fn. 338) In 1927 G. L. Kennedy added a north range to Bodley's Court, and a west range (the present Provost's Lodge) to Webb's Court. (fn. 339) More recently, two hostels have been built outside the College precinct: the Peas Hill Hostel, on the west side of Peas Hill, designed by G. L. Kennedy and completed in 1936, (fn. 340) and the Garden Hostel, between the Fellows' Garden and the grounds of the University Library, designed by Geddes Hyslop and completed in 1950. A new wing to the south of the south-west corner of Bodley's Court, designed by Sir William Holford, was completed in 1955. (fn. 341)

Library.

The original College library, in the Old Court, was already in existence by 1448, when books were being bought, bound and chained; (fn. 342) and in the following year it was visited by the Founder. (fn. 343) By 1508, if not earlier, it included both a great and a small library. (fn. 344) At the time of its abandonment in 1570, it must have been about 45 ft. long, for it was then converted into two chambers for fellows. (fn. 345) Willis and Clark conjecture that it was situated in the top storey of the south range. (fn. 346)

In 1570 Provost Goad, with money realized by the sale of the Popish vestments which his predecessor Provost Baker had hoarded, fitted up a new library in the southern side chapels, and stocked it with works of divinity and other books. (fn. 347) Here the College library remained until about 1828. In 1744, when it was described by William Cole, (fn. 348) the library occupied the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth side chapels on the south side, counting from the west. Until 1777 the books were chained. (fn. 349) Some of the handsome 17th-century presses described by Cole remain in position, including one made in 1659 with moneys bequeathed by Nicholas Hobart, sometime fellow, (fn. 350) and two made in 1680 with moneys bequeathed by Thomas Crouch, also sometime fellow; (fn. 351) these bear the donors' arms and initials. They have been altered, however, by the removal of the reading-desks. In 1851 some of the other presses were taken from the side chapels and placed in the Provost's study in the Old Lodge, where most of them still remain; others again were broken up and converted into seats which are now at the west end of the choir of the chapel. (fn. 352)

The present library, completed by Wilkins about 1828, has been gradually extended, since 1922, (fn. 353) by the addition of rooms on the upper floor of the Old Lodge, and of the attic floor of the new Provost's Lodge built in 1927. Since 1921 (fn. 354) the presses in the side chapels have again been used for books from the College library.

A number of the books collected by Humphrey Duke of Gloucester found their way, soon after his death in 1447, to King's College; for a catalogue of the library, made about 1452, includes classical and neo-classical books 'which could hardly have been derived from any other source'. (fn. 355) In consequence, King's College was at this time 'the only place in Cambridge where a collection of valuable Renaissance texts could be found'. (fn. 356) In all, the 15th-century catalogue lists 175 manuscripts; (fn. 357) but by 1600, only one of them remained: the orations of Athanasius, translated into Latin for Duke Humphrey by his secretary, Antonio da Beccaria. (fn. 358) This is still in the College library. (fn. 359) The others had disappeared by degrees during the period of the Reformation; and Provost Goad, in 1576, could say with justice that 'before my tyme, the librarye was utterly spoiled'. (fn. 360) With him it made virtually a new beginning.

In 1788 Edward Ephraim Pote, a fellow of the College who had entered the service of the East India Company, presented to King's College and Eton, to be divided equally between them, a collection of manuscripts in Persian, Arabic, Hindi and Hindui in the Persian character, and Urdu, from the library formed in India by the 18th-century orientalist Colonel Polier. (fn. 361) A catalogue of the portion at King's College, by Professor E. H. Palmer, was published in 1867. (fn. 362) In 1804 Jacob Bryant the mythologist, sometime fellow, bequeathed to the College the greater part of his library, including many early printed books and works of travel. (fn. 363) Mary Ann Elizabeth Thackeray, in 1879, bequeathed the library of her father, George Thackeray, Provost from 1814 to 1850, and a collector of early English printed books and works of natural history. (fn. 364) Lord Keynes, in 1946, bequeathed his great collection of early editions of works important in the history of thought, his collection of contemporary editions of works of English literature of the Elizabethan and Stuart periods, and a large group of manuscripts by Sir Isaac Newton. (fn. 365)

A catalogue of the western manuscripts in the Library by M. R. James, afterwards Provost, was published in 1895, (fn. 366) and a catalogue of the incunabula, edited by George Chawner, fellow and librarian, in 1908. (fn. 367)

General History.

The deposition of the Founder, in 1461, postponed the completion of the chapel for two generations, and the completion of the rest of the projected great court for more than three centuries and a half. The effects on the society itself, though less enduring, were not less serious. The revenues of the College, over £1,000 a year in 1460, were halved; the fellows and scholars reduced from the statutable number of 70, already achieved in 1451, to only 23 in 1465. (fn. 368) The recovery was gradual, and took almost exactly a century to complete. By the latter part of Edward IV's reign the number of fellows and scholars had risen to between 40 and 47; in the 1480's the annual income averaged about £750. (fn. 369) At the turn of the century some of the lost estates were recovered. (fn. 370) Within a few years, numbers were again increasing, until by the late 1520's they were verging on 70; and in 1546 the Henrician commissioners estimated the net College revenue at £1,010 12s. 11½d.: (fn. 371) approximately the level at which it had stood in 1460. A brief setback followed in the late 1550's: perhaps caused by the religious troubles of the times, perhaps by the financial crisis which the College, in common with others, suffered in the reigns of Edward VI and Mary through the impact of rapidly rising prices on revenues derived from fixed rents. By 1560 the number of fellows and scholars had fallen below 50. In 1562, however, it rose again to 70; and at or very near that level it was thereafter maintained. (fn. 372)

In this society the Renaissance of classical studies had taken firm and early root: assisted, perhaps, by the presence in the College library of the Renaissance texts derived from the collection of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester. (fn. 373) As early as the 1460's, John Dogget, fellow and afterwards Provost, travelled and studied in Italy; before 1486 he had written a commentary on Plato's Phaedo. (fn. 374) Robert Aldrich, a junior fellow, accompanied Erasmus on his famous pilgrimage to Walsingham in 1511, and afterwards helped him by collating manuscripts, and kept up a learned correspondence with him. (fn. 375) In 1515 he became Headmaster of Eton, and probably introduced the teaching of Greek into the school. (fn. 376) In 1518 another young friend of Erasmus and fellow of the College, John Bryan, began to lecture on Aristotle, abandoning the scholastic method and basing his teaching on the Greek text. (fn. 377) In the same year Richard Croke, a former scholar of the College, began to lecture on Greek; in the year following he was appointed Greek Reader to the University. (fn. 378) Croke had studied Greek in London under Grocyn and in Paris under Aleander, and had won a great reputation by his teaching at Leipzig, where he was remembered as the founder of Greek studies in the university. (fn. 379) To Cambridge he rendered equal service; for when, in 1522, he was appointed first Public Orator, and for life, it was on the ground that primus invexit litteras Graecas. (fn. 380)

According to Strype, the White Horse Inn (whose site is now occupied by the Chetwynd Court and the College buildings in King's Lane) (fn. 381) was chosen for a meeting place by the first Cambridge Reformers 'because they of King's college, Queen's college, and St. John's, might come in with the more privacy at the back door'. (fn. 382) By 1525 Lutheran opinions had certainly found a footing in the College. In that year three young fellows of King's, John Fryer, Henry Sumptner and Richard Cox, were chosen members of Wolsey's new foundation of Cardinal College, Oxford; in 1526 they were joined by John Frith, an Etonian scholar of Queens' who had migrated to King's. (fn. 383) At Oxford, heretical opinions soon brought all four into trouble. Sumptner, according to Foxe, died of the effects of imprisonment in the cellars of Cardinal College; (fn. 384) John Frith was burned at Smithfield in 1533. (fn. 385) At King's the Reformers were soon to rule. Edward Fox, who became Provost in 1528, was one of Henry's chief agents in procuring the divorce; by 1534 he had taken his stand with the Reformers. (fn. 386) George Day, Provost from 1538 to 1548, seems to have been moderate and conservative in his religious opinions; (fn. 387) but his successor, the great scholar Sir John Cheke, from St. John's College, was a zealous Protestant. His rule, however, was brought to an abrupt end by the death of Edward VI. Cheke took up the cause of Lady Jane Grey, and entered her service as Secretary of State. At Mary's accession he was cast into prison, and resigned; (fn. 388) his successor, Richard Atkinson, restored the old religion.

Meanwhile a new element had been added to the society. At other colleges the middle years of the 16th century saw a great increase in the number of undergraduates who were not scholars; at King's the first clearly established entries of fellow-commoners, scholar-commoners, and poor scholars date from the closing years of Henry VIII's reign. (fn. 389) By 1545 all three classes were represented; (fn. 390) one of the earliest fellow-commoners was the future Sir Francis Walsingham, who was in residence in 1548. (fn. 391) At most periods their number was small. Only nine 'pensioners or commoners' were listed in the enumeration of members of the College presented to Queen Elizabeth I in 1564, and the number clearly included fellow-commoners and poor scholars as well as scholar-commoners. (fn. 392) To the poor and ambitious, King's was less attractive than other colleges, for the Founder's scholarships and fellowships were restricted to Etonians, (fn. 393) nor were any additional scholarships or fellowships established during the whole period in which the Founder's Statutes were in force. Moreover, the College, compelled as it was to find room for a large body of scholars and fellows in narrow quarters, (fn. 394) deliberately imposed a limit: in 1578 the number of fellowcommoners and scholar-commoners was ordered 'to be according to their chambers provided or at the moste not to be above xij at one time'. (fn. 395) A generation later the limit was relaxed, and for a short time undergraduates not on the foundation outnumbered scholars. Afterwards their numbers declined; in the last days of the old regime they disappeared altogether. (fn. 396) None the less, since fellow-commoners, scholar-commoners and poor scholars might be drawn from any school, for more than two centuries, at the least, non-Etonian undergraduates were being admitted to the College.

The College statutes were not revised at the Elizabethan visitation of the University in 1559; (fn. 397) indeed, all through the changes of the 16th century the original Founder's Statutes passed scatheless, to remain unaltered until Victorian times. Provost Brassie, recommended to the College by Mary, (fn. 398) predeceased his sovereign by a few days; (fn. 399) but Provost Baker, his successor, though recommended by Elizabeth, (fn. 400) seems to have tried to preserve as much as possible of the Marian order. In 1565, the Puritan opposition to the wearing of surplices found no support in the College; (fn. 401) but in the same year a group of fellows appealed to the Visitor against their Provost's neglect of his religious duties, and his manifest leanings towards Popery. A visitation took place, and the Provost was enjoined to mend his ways; but four years later the same complaints were renewed, and with additions. This time Provost Baker fled; and on 19 March 1570 he was succeeded by Roger Goad: a firm Protestant, masterful and energetic, and destined to rule over the College for the next forty years. (fn. 402) Goad not only carried through a thoroughgoing reformation of religion in the College; he also effected important educational reforms. He reorganized the College library. (fn. 403) He maintained all the old lectures and disputations, and instituted new lectures. He lectured himself three times a week. In accordance with the Founder's Statutes, (fn. 404) he provided lectures, not only for undergraduates, but also for Bachelors and Masters of Arts; even senior fellows attended. (fn. 405) In 1576 he instituted weekly catechizings in the Chapel, to be conducted in turn by each ordained member of the College, which all who in any way belonged to the College were required to attend. (fn. 406) In 1578, Goad and the Seniors imposed regulations for the examination of fellow-commoners and scholar-commoners before admission, and for their education and discipline while in residence. (fn. 407) In 1582, they gave orders for the conduct of the College examination of junior fellows for the degree of Bachelor of Arts which the Founder's Statutes prescribed. (fn. 408) As for punishments, no Provost inflicted more. (fn. 409) Roger Goad's autocratic disposition provoked frequent revolts in the College, and his juniors accused him of many malpractices; but his energy and zeal, and the efficiency of his government of the College, cannot be questioned.

At Provost Goad's death in 1610 the number of undergraduates not on the foundation, poor scholars included, was still little more than a dozen. (fn. 410) Almost immediately it began to rise; in twelve years the dozen had been trebled. Between 1622 and 1624 the undergraduate population of King's reached a higher level than it was to reach again until the year 1878. In the Michaelmas term of 1623 there were 5 fellowcommoners, 16 scholar-commoners and 16 poor scholars in residence—37 in all; (fn. 411) while the number of scholars and undergraduate fellows was 22. The period of the expansion and the date of its climax correspond exactly with the period and climax of the maximum expansion of the University before the 19th century. (fn. 412) By this time Samuel Collins was Provost—'the famous Dr. Collins, so celebrated for his fluency in the Latin tongue'; (fn. 413) and under Dr. Collins the College attained also a climax of intellectual distinction. In the year 1635 the Provost himself was Regius Professor of Divinity, Ralph Winterton, fellow, was Regius Professor of Physic, and Thomas Goad, sometime fellow, was Regius Professor of Civil Law. (fn. 414)

That golden time was ended by the wars, the Covenant and the Earl of Manchester. Four fellows were ejected in the summer of 1644: Henry Edmonds, Charles Mason, William Barlow, William Franklin. A fifth, Stephen Anstey, followed in the next spring. (fn. 415) Meanwhile Provost Collins himself had been deprived: probably in January 1645. (fn. 416) On 19 March Manchester appointed a former fellow of Emmanuel to be his successor: Benjamin Whichcote, gentle, wise and generous, the noblest spirit among the Cambridge Platonists, who ruled over the College, to its very great advantage, throughout the Interregnum. (fn. 417) Whichcote took care that the aged Samuel Collins, more than 30 years his senior, should continue to receive a dividend from the College until his death, in honoured retirement at Cambridge, in 1651. (fn. 418) As Richard Love, Master of Corpus, testified at the Restoration, Whichcote was ever 'ready and industrious to relieve all such deserving persons as were either in trouble or danger for their duty and loyalty to the King's majesty'. (fn. 419) Archbishop Tillotson affirmed that Whichcote used his influence with Manchester's commissioners to secure the exemption of the greater part of the fellows from the obligation to take the Covenant; (fn. 420) and indeed many retained their fellowships while serving in the armies of the King. (fn. 421) Yet as Whichcote had been powerless to save those who had been ejected before he took office, so he could not prevent further ejections in 1650, when the Engagement was imposed. Among all the fellows who left the College in that year, it is not easy to determine precisely who left under compulsion. Henry Molle, Thomas Crouch, Christopher Wase, Nicholas More and Thomas Jones seem to have been ejected. Anthony Allen is probably correct in stating that William Rawson, John Williams, Ralph Taylor and Hugh and William Losse resigned to escape ejection; and he adds that Richard Johnson, fellow and first bursar, whose death occurred while the ejections were in progress, died of grief on being denounced. There may have been one or two more forced resignations. According to Allen, Thomas Almond, fellow (and appointed Vice-Provost by order of Parliament), and Matthew Mead, scholar (afterwards a well-known nonconformist divine), acted as informers. Both these also left the College, in 1651: probably under pressure. (fn. 422)

Benjamin Whichcote had not only been intruded into the Provostship by unlawful authority; under the Founder's Statutes he was not qualified to hold it, since he had never been a fellow. (fn. 423) He was therefore removed by Charles II in 1660, and replaced by James Fleetwood. (fn. 424) He continued to hold the College living of Milton (Cambs.), to which he had been presented on the death of Samuel Collins in 1651. (fn. 425) Only one fellow seems to have been deprived at the Restoration: William Duncombe, ejected in 1662 for nonconformity. Nor were the ejected fellows restored. (fn. 426)

Charles II's nomination of Fleetwood for election to the Provostship, (fn. 427) though in accordance with established usage, was a breach of the Founder's Statutes. Statute VIII not only vested the right of electing the Provost in the fellows: it bound each fellow by a categorical oath, from which no manner of dispensation was admitted, to cast his vote for that candidate whom in his own conscience he judged the fittest. (fn. 428) Nor had the fellows ever forgotten their right and duty. From time to time they had discreetly brought them to the notice of the Sovereign, even while the Sovereign was a Tudor. (fn. 429) Yet the statute had been so long, so regularly and so successfully disregarded that a lawful right of appointment was widely held to vest in the Sovereign, as perpetual founder of a royal foundation. (fn. 430) To the fellows, however, such a claim to override the statutes could only rest on an abuse of the Sovereign's dispensing power, and in no way differed from those other unwarranted interventions by the Crown in college affairs to which (among other things) the Revolution of 1688 was intended to put an end.

As it happened, Provost John Coplestone died in 1689, on Saturday, 24 August. (fn. 431) The occasion could not have been more opportune. The affair of Magdalen College, Oxford, was still fresh in memory. King William was but lately come over. The Parliament which had debated but not yet passed the Bill of Rights had gone into recess only four days before; it was to meet again in the autumn. Any attempt to impose a head on an unwilling body of fellows, anything which savoured of the dispensing power 'as it hath been assumed and exercised of late', (fn. 432) would be fraught with danger for King William and his ministry. The king and his ministers seem to have known from the first that a nomination would be resisted; (fn. 433) and they knew that they must act at once; (fn. 434) for, by the terms of the Founder's Statutes, the fellows must make their election between 3 and 8 September. (fn. 435) The moment the news arrived, the king and his ministers made their decision: to maintain, if possible, the claim of the Crown (and the king in particular seems to have been most unwilling to yield it); but to make no nomination until the arguments of the fellows had been heard. On Sunday, 25 August, the day after Coplestone's death, the king appointed a hearing for the following Thursday, 29 August, at Hampton Court. (fn. 436) He intended to nominate Isaac Newton: (fn. 437) a generous choice, but a tactical mistake. The king's right of nomination was already in dispute; and the king created fresh difficulties for himself by putting forward an unqualified candidate: trebly unqualified, for Newton had never been a fellow of the College, nor was he in priest's orders, nor was he Bachelor or Doctor in Divinity or Doctor in Canon Law, as the Founder's Statutes required. (fn. 438) The fellows' candidate, Charles Roderick, Headmaster of Eton, was likewise unqualified. He was indeed a fellow of King's; but he was not in priest's orders, nor had he any of the necessary degrees. (fn. 439) These defects seem to have been promptly supplied. The University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws; (fn. 440) and Thomas Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, is said to have given him private ordination. (fn. 441)

According to College tradition, there were stormy debates, that Thursday at Hampton Court, between the law officers of the Crown and the representatives of the College; and the voice of a deaf and indignant fellow, sounding through the galleries, reached the ears of the astonished queen: 'Mr. Attorney General, if we must bear the grievances of former reigns, then is the King in vain come in!' (fn. 442) If the king and his ministers persisted, many would echo that cry.

The king and his ministers tried to compromise. They dropped Newton; (fn. 443) and on Monday, 2 September, the eve of the first day set for election, royal letters of nomination issued in favour of John Hartcliffe, who brought them that evening to Cambridge. (fn. 444) Presumably the king's advisers thought they had found in Hartcliffe a qualified candidate. They had not. Hartcliffe was indeed a fellow; but he was neither a Doctor, nor yet Bachelor in Divinity; (fn. 445) nor (which was more important) was he persona grata in College. With Hartcliffe's nomination, all hope of a Crown victory was lost; for now the Crown had shot its bolt; and the bolt was flawed. On the Tuesday morning the fellows proceeded to election. Hartcliffe received three votes, including, it is said, his own. (fn. 446) Roderick was elected, and posted forthwith to Buckden Palace to seek his admission at the hands of the Visitor. (fn. 447) The Visitor temporized; and for a time the king and his ministers held on their course. On 17 September belated letters of recommendation issued for Hartcliffe's missing degree; (fn. 448) it was conferred six days later. (fn. 449) But another time limit was now in sight: the meeting of Parliament, fixed for 19 October. Nottingham, one of the Secretaries of State, was clearly convinced that the Crown had no case, and feared the effects of an adverse decision in Westminster Hall. (fn. 450) By the end of the month Nottingham himself, John Tillotson (then exercising the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury), and probably also Shrewsbury, the other Secretary of State, were all pressing the king to yield. (fn. 451) Tillotson, through Zachary Cradock, the Provost of Eton, was in touch with the fellows; and Tillotson staged a little comedy, in which the king's yielding should appear to best advantage. The king, at Newmarket for the October Meeting, was to come over to Cambridge and pay a visit to the chapel. One of the fellows was to seize the opportunity to make him a humble speech of apology (concerted in advance with Cradock and Tillotson, and submitted in draft to the king himself a week beforehand); and the king was then to give his free consent to the admission of Provost Roderick. (fn. 452) On Monday, 7 October, all went according to plan. At the chapel door, the king's favourable construction on the late proceedings was besought by one of the society (according to tradition, the same who had startled the queen); and the king's gracious assurance, that he willingly granted all that the fellows desired or could wish, was received, according to the London Gazette, 'with the greatest joy and Gratitude imaginable'. (fn. 453) So William was deftly extricated by Tillotson from the brink of the pitfall into which James had fallen; and so the College lost Isaac Newton, but recovered in perpetuity its right of free election.

In the course of the 18th century the number of undergraduates not on the foundation dwindled to vanishing-point. It had not long maintained the comparatively high level of the 1620's. Even in the decade before the Civil War it was seldom above 20; more commonly about 15. It fell further under the Commonwealth, but recovered to about the same level in the last years of the Protectorate. In the decade 1663–73 it probably never exceeded a dozen; later, it may have fallen still lower. In the six years following the completion of the Brick Building in 1693 (fn. 454) there was again a limited recovery: the number usually ranged between a dozen and sixteen. From that point information is wanting, (fn. 455) and the stages of the final decline cannot be traced. Poor scholars were still being admitted at King's in the 1740's and even the early 1750's. (fn. 456) A register started in 1753 (fn. 457) records admissions of nine fellow-commoners of undergraduate age in the first eight years; most of them Etonians. Between 1762 and 1809, there were only twelve more. The last fellow-commoner of the old line was Thomas Gustavus Dickinson, perhaps an ex-service man, admitted in 1814; he soon migrated to Oxford. He died on 26 November 1865. (fn. 458) One month before, the first pensioner of the new line had been admitted at King's. (fn. 459)

So King's became what it had not been since the Reformation, what it was to be on the eve of the Victorian reforms, a little closed society of Etonian fellows and scholars. Even the scholars were fewer now. At other colleges the statutes fixed separate totals for each category; at King's they only fixed a total of 70 for fellows and scholars together; and the lengthening tenure of fellowships—a consequence of licensed non-residence, and perhaps of increasing longevity—automatically reduced the number of scholarships. In the early 17th century, the average number of undergraduates on the foundation was probably 20 or more; (fn. 460) in the early 19th, it was about 15; and in some years the number fell below 10. (fn. 461)

W. H. Tucker, in his King's Old Court, 1822–25, by a Scholar of the Period, (fn. 462) wittily portrayed the college of his undergraduate days: a society more entertaining by its oddity than impressive by its industry; such as Dickens would have satirized with cruel gusto, and Trollope would have chosen for satire and kept for sympathy. Charles Simeon dwelt apart, in King's but not of it. The dons were bachelors of the old brigade, who outgunninged Gunning's Cambridge of 40 years before. The undergraduates were gentlemen of leisure, exempt from University examinations, incompetently taught, and whiling the years away in careless indolence. It was not a society in which the academic virtues notably flourished.

Of King's throughout the old regime, some have supposed that Tucker's picture is typical; among others, Tucker himself. (fn. 463) Yet even as a picture of King's in the early 19th century, there is reason to think it exceptional. For Tucker and his friends, leisure might mean leisure for guns and dogs and balls at Bury St. Edmunds. For undergraduate generations before and after his time, it could mean leisure for humane studies: freedom from the tyranny of mathematics, and King's a temple of the classics undefiled. And in those generations—even in the earlier ones—the academic quality of Kingsmen is capable of proof. Debarred though they were from the Senate House Examination, they could yet compete for University prizes and scholarships. In the 20 years to 1821, that little band won five scholarships and 20 prizes: a score that was only surpassed, in the field open to Kingsmen, by the great college of Trinity: more than St. John's, far more than any other college of Cambridge: nearly one award to every three undergraduates admitted. Tucker came into residence in 1822; a Kingsman won a Browne medal in 1823; and the flow abruptly ceased. (fn. 464)

Yet the age of Tucker was not long; which has led others to doubt his trustworthiness. 'It must be an unworthy picture', wrote Sir Frederick Bosanquet, 'of a college that had in the years immediately following Mildred Birch, Abraham, Balston, Simonds and Rowland Williams.' (fn. 465) Precisely: in the years immediately following. For these were Kingsmen of the thirties; and the Kingsmen of the thirties were men of a different stamp. Five out of the twelve undergraduates who came into residence in the years 1831–3 were to be noticed in the Dictionary of National Biography. (fn. 466) After Rowland Williams won the Battie Scholarship in 1838, the flow of University distinctions was resumed in greater strength than ever; (fn. 467) and in the forties the men of Trinity, the leading classical college, looked upon the Kingsmen as formidable rivals. (fn. 468) The verdict is clear: Tucker's period was a lean period, following an age of better things, and followed in turn by a great revival. Some who remembered the King's of the twenties came face to face with the Kingsmen of the forties; they recognized their quality, and marked the contrast. When six Kingsmen were examined for ordination at Lincoln in 1842, Bishop Kaye and J. A. Jeremie, his chaplain, observed that 'no set of men came so well prepared; they now did as well as they once did badly'. (fn. 469)

Yet while the old statutes and customs prevailed, there could be no security against relapse; nor could the College achieve the far greater things of which it was capable; nor could Kingsmen win the public recognition to which their talents entitled them. Some there were who had long resented their shackles. As early as 1813, Dr. Keate himself had attacked the election of Eton Collegers to scholarships at King's by mere seniority, the almost automatic succession of King's scholars to King's fellowships, and the want of examinations for degrees. (fn. 470) The abuses in scholarship elections were the first to be tackled. John Lucius Dampier and John Tompkyns, the Posers of 1821, instituted a serious examination for scholarships. (fn. 471) It was maintained; but for many years it was usually little more than a pass examination; for even in the thirties and forties the electors still seldom departed from the order of seniority. (fn. 472) Soon after 1834, however, E. C. Hawtrey, Headmaster of Eton, introduced the examination known as Intermediates. This was henceforward taken by each candidate for King's in his seventeenth year; this determined the order of seniority; and that order was henceforward an order of merit. (fn. 473) Nor were the reforms of Provost Hodgson at Eton of less importance for King's. The horrors of Long Chamber were abolished in the early forties. No longer were there more vacancies in College than candidates to fill them, but many more candidates than vacancies; (fn. 474) and King's as well as Eton profited by the increased competition. Hawtrey and Hodgson, Kingsmen both, sowed reform at Eton, to be the seed of further reform at King's; for they bred a generation of reformers.

Educational reform at King's had already begun. Annual College examinations for all scholars were instituted in 1829, with prizes for those who headed the class list; (fn. 475) and in 1836 College degree examinations were revived. (fn. 476) 'Our examinations cannot be stricter than they have been for some years', wrote Rowland Williams, then an undergraduate, 'but we are now to have degree examinations in addition to the others.' (fn. 477) By this time there were even mathematical lectures; (fn. 478) but in mathematics Kingsmen made slow progress, and even in 1844, after the College had strengthened its mathematical teaching, (fn. 479) C. A. Bristed was much amused by the struggles of that distinguished classic, William Johnson, with elementary algebra. (fn. 480)

Yet the most important reform lingered still. New College, in 1834, had relinquished the right of her undergraduate fellows to degrees without University examination. (fn. 481) 'The eyes of all men acquainted with the circumstances were immediately directed to Cambridge'; (fn. 482) but the sister foundation at Cambridge did not follow suit. By that impolitic exception the greatest sufferers were the undergraduate Kingsmen, debarred as they were from University honours: a restriction which may have meant little while the only honours were mathematical honours, but was bound to be felt after the Classical Tripos was established in 1824. Some of their seniors saw the injustice: 'we deny our Undergraduates the opportunity of rendering their degree an ornament to them . . .; that is wanting which makes the first degree so valuable to others'; (fn. 483) and they now sought to amend it. It seems that about 1836 or 1837 they made an attempt to bring the matter before the governing body; but the silence of the Congregation Book shows that they were denied a hearing. (fn. 484) It is likely that they carried the attempt further, in an informal approach to the Visitor; (fn. 485) but again without result; and when they published their views in a printed pamphlet, the only answer of the opposition was masterly inactivity and masterly silence. Edward Thring, the future Headmaster of Uppingham, who could have expected a high place in the Classical Tripos of 1845, (fn. 486) renewed the attack in 1846, and again in 1848: 'surely there must be some good reason, some grave impediment in the way'. (fn. 487) As far as appears, the only reason of any substance was a reluctance to submit Kingsmen to the burden of compulsory mathematics under which other classical men still groaned. (fn. 488) In 1849, when men were allowed to qualify for the Classical Tripos by other means than the gaining of mathematical honours, (fn. 489) much of the substance was removed, and reformers rejoiced. (fn. 490) But the walls of Jericho were still unshaken; for there was a grave impediment: the Provost, George Thackeray. (fn. 491) And he was insurmountable; for the Provost alone had the power to propose business to the governing body; he could veto, not only the passing of a Vote, but even the discussion of a motion. Thackeray's stubborn will defied the trumpets to his dying day: 20 October 1850. On 12 November Richard Okes was admitted Provost. On 25 March 1851 the Provost, Seniors and Officers, on 1 May the governing body, voted to abandon the practice of claiming degrees without University examination. (fn. 492) Both votes were unanimous. (fn. 493)

'Unus homo nobis cunctando . . .'—there was peril, not salvation, in delay; for by now the Royal Commission of 1850 was sitting; and the Provost had died in the nick of time. Yet the situation of the fellows was delicate and unenviable. Reforming sentiments were strong among them; but they were bound hand and foot by their statutes, and by their oaths of admission. One and all had sworn, as the Founder required, never to accept any change in the statutes which he had given, and to resist and hinder all attempts at change to the utmost of their power; (fn. 494) and as men of conscience, they took their oaths seriously—as long as human nature permitted. (fn. 495) The new Provost, indeed, had probably not yet been converted to thoroughgoing reform: (fn. 496) his replies to the commissioners' inquiries indicated conscientious resistance to change. (fn. 497) The commissioners, for their part, although they were well aware of the nature of the admission oaths, (fn. 498) do not seem to have grasped the situation in the College. Their lengthy exposition of the various ways in which the Founder's Statutes were no longer observed (fn. 499) was an error of judgement, for it diverted men's efforts and tempers into recrimination over what the strongest party among the fellows were determined should for ever be bygones. (fn. 500) But by January 1854 the fellows had been goaded past endurance, and their feelings got the better of their consciences. The same meeting which considered the first draft of the College reply to the commissioners' report—and referred it to a new committee for modification in a less resistant sense —authorized an answer to Palmerston's letter to Prince Albert of 12 December 1853 (fn. 501) in guarded but scarcely statutable language. On the suggested modification of the rules governing fellowships, the meeting instructed the Provost to say that the Founder's orders forbade his College to express any opinion; nevertheless they were not insensible to the expediency of some modification of their statutes; and should they by any legislative enactment feel themselves free to consider the matter, 'they would be prepared to meet as well the recommendations of the University Commissioners as the requirements of the times in a Spirit, which they ventured to think would be congenial with the views of Her Majesty's Government and not repugnant to the intentions of their Founder'. (fn. 502) This was not the strenuous resistance to change which the statutes commanded.

Two and a half years later, legislative enactment set them free: the Cambridge University Act of 1856 declared their oaths illegal. (fn. 503) The Provost and Fellows promptly elected a committee of seven to prepare a scheme of reform under the Act. Their votes showed their temper. (fn. 504) The Provost, now fully prepared for reform, naturally headed the poll. William Johnson (afterwards Cory), an Eton master and a leader of the young reformers, came second; and the rest of the committee (fn. 505) were of the same persuasion—with one exception. The Vice-Provost, George Williams, an antiquary and a Tractarian, was a reformer too, but with a difference. He scrupled to make any alterations in the Founder's Statutes; instead, he stood for their stricter observance: a return, as nearly as might be, to the practice of the 15th century. (fn. 506) After sitting through several meetings, and declining to vote on most of the motions, he realized that the effect of his colleagues' decisions would be 'to secularize the College, as Mr. Johnson well expresses it', (fn. 507) and resigned.

The report which his colleagues presented (fn. 508) (probably early in May 1857) did more than this. The first chapter of their recommendations proposed a college consisting of a Provost, 46 fellows and 48 scholars: 24 of the scholarships to be appropriated to Eton Collegers (making up, with the fellowships, the traditional number of 70), and the other 24 to be open. All scholars were to be eligible for fellowships, Etonians and non-Etonians alike; and fellowships were to be competitive, 'the reward of merit ascertained at the University'. (fn. 509) This went far beyond the proposals of the Royal Commissioners, who had suggested the admission of non-Etonian pensioners to the College, and of Oppidans as well as Collegers to scholarships and fellowships, but had not ventured to recommend the admission of non-Etonians to the foundation. (fn. 510) By 4 June, 'after some loud discussion', all these recommendations had been carried by the governing body, without substantial amendment; and it had also been decided (as the committee intended) to admit pensioners to the College. (fn. 511) The revolution had come; and it had come by the initiative of the fellows themselves.

The rest of the report was considered in a series of meetings which extended until 28 October. (fn. 512) The governing body accepted the principle that the number of fellowships and scholarships should be further increased as the College revenues improved. It accepted the committee's recommendation that the tenure of fellowships should not be dependent on admission to holy orders. (fn. 513) By striking out the requirements that the Provost should be in priest's orders and should be chosen from among fellows and former fellows of the College, it amended the committee's proposals in a more liberal sense. It approved a series of motions which considerably increased the advantages offered to choristers. On the committee's recommendations for the government of the College, however, there was much dissension. Some were approved. The Provost's sole power of proposing business for discussion by the Congregation was abolished, although Johnson, in a minority on the committee, had argued strongly for its retention. (fn. 514) Nor did the veto on motions in Congregation which each fellow then enjoyed, under a 'doubtful interpretation' of the statutes, (fn. 515) find any support. The Seniors' additional emoluments were abolished, with a saving of vested interests; (fn. 516) and no attempt seems to have been made to retain their special constitutional powers. An Educational Council was approved, to consist of the Provost and ViceProvost, the Deans and the educational officers, with power to superintend the studies of undergraduates. But there was hesitation over the restriction of the governing body to fellows who were Masters of Arts, or of an equal or superior degree, in a College in which fourth-year undergraduates as well as bachelors had hitherto been admitted to College meetings; (fn. 517) and the Provost's veto on motions in Congregation, which the committee had proposed to retain, since 'it could not be entirely abrogated without impairing the dignity of the office, and destroying the essentially monarchial character of Collegiate government', (fn. 518) was strongly opposed. On neither of these last points was it possible to carry any motion.

In a society so large, with so many non-resident members, it became increasingly difficult, in the later meetings, to secure the absolute majority of the governing body which the Act required; (fn. 519) and this was probably one main reason why King's, almost alone among the colleges of Cambridge, submitted no draft statutes for the commissioners' approval before 1 January 1858, when the statutory period for such approval expired. (fn. 520) Instead, the Provost and Fellows sent up their committee's report and the minutes of the proceedings of the governing body. Thereby they lost nothing; for very few of the drafts sent up by other colleges were in fact agreed and approved before the period ended; (fn. 521) and the statutes which the commissioners ultimately made for King's were almost entirely based upon the recommendations of the governing body and its committee. From January 1858 onwards, however, the commissioners were preoccupied with their losing battle with Trinity and St. John's; (fn. 522) and it was not until February 1859 that they sent down their first proposals. (fn. 523) They added little to what the College had suggested. They followed the committee in excluding fellows below the degree of M.A. from the governing body; but they substituted for the Provost's veto a right of appeal to a subsequent meeting; and these were the solutions adopted in the statutes. (fn. 524) In deference to opinion in Cambridge, the commissioners had already abandoned their original aim of throwing fellowships of all colleges open to competition among all members of the University of the appropriate standing; (fn. 525) instead, they proposed that the College should have power to throw open its fellowships if it chose. (fn. 526) This was accepted; but at a later stage a formal objection from the governing body of Eton caused the power to be limited to occasions on which, in two successive years, no candidate of sufficient merit had been found within the College. (fn. 527) The commissioners also proposed a scheme for terminable fellowships, baiting the hook with a very limited offer of lawful matrimony (fn. 528) — and perhaps intending to make the bait bigger if the fishes nibbled. This the College declined. On one point only did the commissioners and the College fail to agree—the taxation of College income for the benefit of the University. The expansion of the College would require large expenditure; and the committee of 1856 had recommended that contribution to University funds should be postponed until the Senior Fellowships lapsed and their emoluments could be diverted to general College purposes. (fn. 529) King's College, like most others in Cambridge, formally protested against the provision for University taxation; (fn. 530) and it was omitted from the new statutes which were approved by the Queen in Council in 1861. (fn. 531) None the less, the commissioners expressed their gratitude for the 'candid and friendly spirit' in which the negotiations had been conducted, and for 'so much spontaneous liberality shewn by the Provost and Fellows'. (fn. 532)

Carrying the reforms into effect was to prove less easy; and it was nearly 20 years before they were fully accomplished. The reformers of 1857 had hoped to make an early start. The committee had been prepared to borrow money, and to tax the fellows' dividends to the extent of £2,000 a year, to provide new buildings for the new scholars and pensioners; (fn. 533) and the College had appointed an architect to report. (fn. 534) But other interests had to be considered. The Provost and Fellows of Eton, mindful of their duty to their own scholars, had misgivings about the changes, even on points to which they made no formal objection; (fn. 535) and accordingly there was an understanding that all 24 Eton scholarships should be filled up before any open scholarships were offered. (fn. 536) For financial reasons, the pace at which Eton scholarships could be filled depended on the pace at which the number of fellowships—which by 1864 had risen to 60 (fn. 537) —could be reduced to the 46 for which the statutes provided; in the interests of fellowship candidates, the College decided to fill each alternate vacancy until the number fell to the statutory level. (fn. 538) None the less, a conservative element in the governing body was at first successful in limiting the number of scholarships offered each year; (fn. 539) and in 1868, when the advocates of more rapid progress had begun to get the upper hand, and more scholarships were being offered, Thomas Bendyshe, an eccentric barrister, appealed to the Visitor against this diversion of funds from his fellowship dividends. The Visitor's decision was grotesque. It gave an altogether unwarranted extension to the vested interests of fellows under the old statutes; had it been enforced, its effects would have crippled the College for a generation. (fn. 540) Fortunately every fellow but Bendyshe forbore to claim what the Visitor offered; and in 1872, by the settlement known as the Eirenicon, the College agreed to finance the open scholarships from a fund into which the whole saving effected by the reduction in the number of fellowships was to be paid year by year. (fn. 541)

Pending the creation of open scholarships, entrance exhibitions had been provided by private subscription, on the initiative, and largely through the generosity, of William Johnson. (fn. 542) The first of these had been awarded, and the first pensioners admitted, in 1865; (fn. 543) though at first pensioners came slowly. (fn. 544) From 1871, when Chancery sanctioned the use of certain ancient trust funds for the purpose, exhibitions were permanently endowed. (fn. 545) By 1873 the new system was fairly under way. All 24 Eton scholarships had now been filled, and the first four open scholarships were offered. (fn. 546) The first nonEtonian was elected to a fellowship in 1873: W. P. Brooke, father of Rupert Brooke, who had been admitted as an exhibitioner in 1869. (fn. 547) In the same year the College formally resolved to admit none but candidates for honours: a principle which it was never to abandon, and which was soon to bear abundant fruit; (fn. 548) and the first building erected to house the growing number of undergraduates— Scott's Building in Chetwynd Court—was completed. (fn. 549) From this time on, Augustus Austen Leigh (afterwards Provost), who had been appointed Tutor in 1868, began to gather round him a staff of teaching officers: Percival Frost, J. E. Nixon, G. W. Prothero, Oscar Browning and J. E. C. Welldon among the rest. By 1880 all the open scholarships had been filled, (fn. 550) and the number of undergraduates, which had been 21 when Austen Leigh became Tutor, had increased to 71. (fn. 551) In 1876, moreover, by the opening of a boarding school for the choristers, (fn. 552) another aim of the reformers of 1857 had been achieved; and in 1880 the first undergraduate choral scholarship was established. (fn. 553)

In 1877, when the Oxford and Cambridge Universities Act came into force, the College had already been at work on the revision of its statutes for more than five years; (fn. 554) and the code approved by the Statutory Commissioners was based on the draft which the College submitted. (fn. 555) At King's as elsewhere, the new statutes of 1882 were chiefly notable for effecting the two great innovations which the commissioners of 1856 had attempted and the colleges had then rejected: terminable fellowships, not vacated by marriage, (fn. 556) and college contributions to University finances. Both of these had been accepted in principle by the College before the Act of 1877 was passed; (fn. 557) and in 1876 a common policy had been agreed with Trinity. (fn. 558) Under the statutes of 1882, fellowships were to be vacated after six years, except by fellows who held certain College or University offices, or whose tenure was prolonged by the governing body on the ground of their services to learning and science. (fn. 559) There were to be four professorial fellowships, and the College was to pay University taxation. (fn. 560) Against the basis on which its tax was assessed the College appealed to the Universities Committee of the Privy Council, but without success. (fn. 561)

Among other changes, Eton scholarships, on the initiative of Oscar Browning, were now thrown open to Oppidans as well as Collegers; (fn. 562) and the government of the College was greatly simplified. Since 1861 there had been a complicated and ill-defined division of powers between Ordinary College Meetings to which only residents were summoned, General Congregations once a term to which all members of the governing body were summoned, (fn. 563) and two executive bodies: the Provost and Officers and the Educational Council. The Provost and Officers had probably been intended to play only a minor part in College government, (fn. 564) but they had come to enjoy greater prestige than the Educational Council; and this was particularly unfortunate, since the Tutor, unless he held some other office with the Tutorship, did not attend their meetings. (fn. 565) Under the new statutes, certain carefully defined powers of the governing body were reserved to the Annual Congregation held in November, while the remainder might be exercised by Ordinary Congregations summoned as occasion required; and a single elected Council was entrusted with the combined powers of the old Educational Council and the Provost and Officers, as well as such others as the governing body might choose to delegate. (fn. 566)

The university reforms of the mid-Victorian age were carried through against a background of unexampled prosperity, expected to endure; they were completed in the beginnings of financial collapse. King's College had never been wealthier than it was in the 1870's. The Cleveland Commission found that in 1871 its net income from endowments was over £30,000 a year; (fn. 567) and from 1875 to 1877 the annual dividend of an ordinary fellow was £280 (fn. 568) —a figure which it was not to reach again for more than 40 years. It is to the everlasting credit of the reforming generation that when agricultural depression struck, and they saw their work threatened with ruin just as it was reaching fulfilment, they sacrificed their own interests that the work might go forward. Not until 1895, after they had cut down their dividends again and again till they were no more than £80 a year, (fn. 569) was the appropriation for scholarships and exhibitions diminished by one penny; and in all the years to 1914, when the dividend never rose above £130, the money spent on scholarships was only once reduced by more than 20 per cent. (fn. 570) Meanwhile the College was spending great sums in building, to make room for the increasing body of undergraduates —who by 1905 numbered more than 150. (fn. 571) Fawcett's, Bodley's and Webb's Buildings more than doubled the number of undergraduate sets; these the fellows of that time bequeathed to those who came after—and something more besides. In the first years of the new century, 'the college was entering on a period of memorable brilliance'. (fn. 572) Names such as Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson, M. R. James, Walter Headlam, J. H. Clapham, J. M. Keynes and Rupert Brooke speak for themselves; and Kingsmen can add others—W. H. Macaulay, Nathaniel Wedd—to whom the College owes as much. That such as these were Kingsmen was the direct outcome of the policy which the Victorians had laid down and their successors had steadily followed. To the vision of the men of 1857, the persistence and patient hard work of Austen Leigh and his friends in the years before 1882, and the persistence, self-sacrifice and courage in adversity of those who ruled and taught in the years before 1914, the College owes in a manner great part of what it now is.

The interruption of the war of 1914 was followed by the Royal Commission of 1919, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge Act of 1923 (fn. 573) and the new statutes made by the Statutory Commissioners under the Act: these were approved in 1926 and 1927. (fn. 574) The changes they made were not comparable in moment to the reforms of 1861 and 1882. Some of those reforms were indeed carried further. The principle of professorial fellowships was greatly extended by the institution of reserved fellowships, to be held by University officers other than professors. (fn. 575) The tenure and emoluments of unofficial fellowships were made more strictly conditional on study and research, (fn. 576) and the rules for elections to fellowships became more flexible. The only major new principle, however, concerned scholars and exhibitioners: the greater part of their emolument was henceforth to be conditional on financial need. (fn. 577) At the same time two changes were made in the government of the College. Membership of the governing body was restored to fellows below the degree of M.A.; (fn. 578) and another executive body, parallel to the Council, was formally instituted. The Estates Committee had existed since 1888; (fn. 579) the governing body was now empowered by statute to entrust it with authority in the management of College property and investments. (fn. 580) A third executive, the Electors to Fellowships, derives its authority directly from the statutes, as it has done since 1861. (fn. 581) None the less, the government of the College remains very democratic, and a wide range of business still comes before the whole governing body.

Meanwhile the financial stringency which had handicapped an earlier generation had passed away. By the brilliant financial administration of Lord Keynes, and by a long series of benefactions, notably from some who had been fellows in the age of the Victorian reforms, it became possible to achieve the unrealized aims of the Victorian reformers. The principle that the benefits of the foundation should be progressively extended as the College revenues improved, for which William Johnson had argued strongly in 1857, (fn. 582) had been written into the statutes of 1861. (fn. 583) A considerable extension had already been achieved by a wider spreading of resources, through the multiplication of exhibitions and the institution of minor scholarships. (fn. 584) Now Johnson's principle could itself be applied. In 1929 the open foundation scholarships were increased from 24 to 40, besides scholarships endowed from other sources; (fn. 585) nor was this the last addition to their number. Since 1882 the College had been empowered to offer fellowships for competition among all members of the University of the appropriate standing, (fn. 586) without the limitation imposed by the statutes of 1861. (fn. 587) Two such elections were made in 1923; (fn. 588) and in 1931 four permanent open fellowships were established. (fn. 589) At the same time the number of choral scholarships was being increased. (fn. 590) From 1928, when the last of the lay clerks died, the choir consisted entirely of choristers and choral scholars; (fn. 591) and in 1930 an organ studentship was founded in memory of Dr. A. H. Mann, for 53 years Organist of the College. (fn. 592)

All these innovations, except the last, had been foreshadowed by the Victorians. Others were more lately conceived. The first studentship for members of the College of B.A. standing was founded in 1911 by A. H. A. Morton, Senior Fellow, in memory of Provost Austen Leigh; (fn. 593) and other studentships followed. The most recent innovation has been the establishment of overseas studentships for undergraduates and research students from the Dominions and other countries of the British Commonwealth and Empire, the United States and Israel; the latest, the Stephen Behrens Cohen Studentship, was founded from a bequest by Miss Hannah Cohen in 1949. (fn. 594)

In these years the College has inevitably grown. Its policy has always been, not to grow for growing's sake, but to limit the undergraduate body to an optimum size. Over the last 60 years, however, the concept of optimum laid up in the mind of the governing body has itself grown by progressive stages. In 1904, for instance, the optimum for undergraduates in the first three years had recently, and somewhat painfully, grown from 130 to 150. It may once have been 80. (fn. 595) In the years after the war of 1939 the current optimum was naturally exceeded, and in 1949 the junior members of the College, including B.A.s and undergraduates in the fourth year, reached a total of 376; (fn. 596) but in 1952 the number of undergraduates in the first three years was stabilized at a new optimum of 270, corresponding to a total of about 330 junior members. (fn. 597) The number of fellows has been governed by the principle that the College, while fulfilling its duty to the University, should offer year by year a sufficient number of fellowships for competition among its junior members. In the last fifteen years, and particularly since 1949, this has led to a rapid expansion of the governing body, to its present total (in January 1958) of 77.

A hundred years have nearly passed; five centuries were gone in 1941. The ancient bond with Eton, as the first reformers wished, (fn. 598) is modified but still preserved. King Henry's college in Cambridge, as an Etonian prophesied on the Fourth of June in 1857, (fn. 599) has become once more 'a great educating body'; fulfilling still, in the ceaseless renewal of its youth, 'the Mens et Institutio Fundatoris, which was the maintenance of true religion with sound learning'. (fn. 600)

Notable Pictures.

The following is a list of notable pictures in the possession of the College. Apart from tapestries, all are painted in oil on canvas, except where otherwise indicated in notes. (fn. 601)

Portraits:

Christopher Anstey (1724–1805) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Thomas Beach; Charles Robert Ashbee (1863– 1942) (fn. 642) by William Strang; (fn. 602) Thomas Ashton (1716– 75) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Augustus Austen Leigh (1840–1905) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) by (1) Hon. John Collier, and (2) F. Lynn-Jenkins; (fn. 603) Francis Basset, 1st Baron de Dunstanville of Tehidy (1757–1835) (fn. 642) by Lemuel Abbott; Sir William Sterndale Bennett (1816–75) (fn. 643), artist unknown; (fn. 604) Henry Bradshaw (1831–86) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Sir Hubert von Herkomer; Alan England Brooke (1863–1939) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) by Henry Lamb; Rupert Chawner Brooke (1887–1915) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) Frau C. Ewald, and (2) Miss M. Massey; (fn. 605) Oscar Browning (1837– 1923) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) Ignacio Zuloaga, and (2) Naum Loi; (fn. 606) Stratford Canning, 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe (1786–1880) (fn. 642) by Sir Hubert von Herkomer; John Harold Clapham (1873–1946) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by James Gunn; (?) Samuel Collins (1576–1651) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645), artist unknown; William Coxe (1748–1828) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Sir William Beechey; Oliver Cromwell (1599–1658), artist unknown; (fn. 603) Thomas Dampier, Bishop of Ely (1749–1812) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by James Northcote; William Day, Bishop of Winchester (1529–96) (fn. 642) (fn. 644), artist unknown, dated 1593; (fn. 604) Edward Joseph Dent (1876–1957) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Lawrence Burnett Gowing; Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson (1862–1932) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Roger Eliot Fry; (fn. 642) (fn. 644) Sir Walter Durnford (1847–1926) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) by (1) Sir Leslie Ward ('Spy'), (fn. 607) and (2) Sir William Orpen; King Edward VI (1537–53), artist unknown; Edward Morgan Forster (1879– ) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) Edmund Nelson, and (2) Sir William Rothenstein; (fn. 602) Roger Eliot Fry (1866–1934) (fn. 642) (fn. 644), two self portraits, and by Vanessa Bell and Max Beerbohm; (fn. 608) Thomas Hardy (1840– 1928) by Alfred Wolmark; (fn. 609) King Henry VI (1421– 71) by (1) Unknown artist, (fn. 604) and (2) Unknown artist, and (3) Unknown artist, (fn. 610) and (4) Unknown artist; (fn. 611) King Henry VII (1457–1509), artist unknown; (fn. 604) Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) by Michael Wright; Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (1748–1825) (fn. 642) by George Romney; William Ralph Inge (1860–1954) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) Mrs. Campbell Dodgson, and (2) Sir William Rothenstein; (fn. 602) Sir Charles Edward Inglis (1875–1952) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Henry Lamb; Montague Rhodes James (1862–1936) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) by (1) Glyn Philpot, and (2) Sir William Rothenstein; (fn. 612) John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes of Tilton (1883–1946) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) Benno Elkan, (fn. 613) and (2) Benno Elkan, (fn. 606) and (3) Sir William Rothenstein, (fn. 612) and (4) Joseph William Ginsbury; (fn. 614) George Legge, 1st Baron Dartmouth (1648–91) (fn. 642) by John Riley; William Herrick Macaulay (1853–1936) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Roger Eliot Fry; (fn. 642) (fn. 644) Sir James Mansfield (1733–1821) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by George Romney; The Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) by Antonio Canova; (fn. 603) Richard Okes (1797-1888) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) by Sir Hubert von Herkomer; Thomas Okes (1731–97) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by John Downman; (fn. 615) Arthur Cecil Pigou (1877– ) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Edmund Nelson Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714–94) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Nathaniel Dance; Sir George Walter Prothero (1848-1922) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Sir William Rothenstein; (fn. 616) Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (1861–1922) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Francis Dodd; King Richard III (1452–85), artist unknown; Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York (1423 1500), (fn. 642) (fn. 644) artist unknown: pious fabrication of the 18th century; Sir John Tresidder Sheppard (1881- ) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) by (1) Henry Lamb, and (2) Miss Jill Crock ford; Charles Simeon (1759–1836) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) James Northcote, and (2) Augustin A. C. F. Edouart; James Kenneth Stephen (1859–92) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by (1) Charles Wellington Furse, and (2) artist unknown; (fn. 618) (fn. 619) John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury (1780 1862) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Eden Upton Eddis; George Thackeray (1777–1850), (fn. 642) (fn. 644) (fn. 645) artist unknown; Edward Thring (1821–87) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by A. C. Lucchesi; (fn. 605) Unknown Girl aged 12, 1644, by Cornelius Jansen; Unknown Woman, 16th century, possibly Jane Shore (d. 1527 ?) or Diane de Poitiers (1499–1566), artist unknown; (fn. 604) Unknown Woman, 16th century, possibly Lady Jane Grey (1537–54) or Queen Jane Seymour (1509 ?–37), artist unknown; Unknown Woman, 16th century, possibly Mary Queen of Scots (1542-87), artist unknown; (fn. 604) Edmund Waller (1606–87) copy by Miss M. I. Lefroy, 1904, after John Riley; (fn. 617) Horace or Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (1717-97) (fn. 642) by (1) Jonathan Richardson (1665–1745), and (2) Copy by C. M. Newton (fn. 642) after Sir Joshua Reynolds; Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (1676–1745) (fn. 642) by (1) Hans Hysing, and (2) Michael Dahl, and (3) Unknown artist; Sir Francis Walsingham (1530 ?–90) (fn. 642), artist unknown, dated 1587; (fn. 644) Stephen Weston, Bishop of Exeter (1665–1742) (fn. 642) by (?) Thomas Hudson; Benjamin Whichcote (1609– 83) (fn. 642) (fn. 645), artist unknown; Frederick Whitting (1835– 1911) (fn. 642) (fn. 644) by Charles Wellington Furse; Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York (1475 ?–1530), artist unknown; John Wycliffe (d. 1384), artist unknown probably 17th cent.

Religious Subjects:

Virgin and Child in a glory, artist unknown: Westphalian School (probably Soest), c. 1480; (fn. 604) The Deposition, by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta (formerly attributed to Daniele da Volterra). (fn. 604)

The College Buildings.

The College from Trumpington Street, 1794, by James Malton; (fn. 617) Chapel: west front, 1796, by J. M. W. Turner; (fn. 617) Chapel: interior, looking west from altar, 1797, by Richard Bankes Harraden; (fn. 617) Chapel: interior, looking east from screen, a service in progress, 1797, by Richard Bankes Harraden; (fn. 617) Chapel: south porch, c. 1814 (the original of Ackermann's print), by Augustus Charles Pugin; (fn. 618) Chapel: interior, looking east from west end, 1831, by Richard Bankes Harraden; (fn. 617) Chapel: interior, looking east from Provost's stall, c. 1830, by Richard Bankes Harraden; Old Court: the gateway, 1828, by Henry Sargent Storer. (fn. 617)

Landscapes.

Landscape with Windsor Castle, 17th cent., artist unknown; Landscape with Eton College and Windsor Castle, c. 1700, artist unknown: after Jan Griffier; Landscape with Windsor Castle, c. 1750, by George Lambert; Landscape with Eton College, Windsor Castle and the railway, mid-19th cent., artist unknown; (fn. 622) Back gardens, Pembroke, 1953, by John Piper; (fn. 623) Towyn near Rhyl, by John Piper. (fn. 624)

Tapestries.

The clemency of Scipio (?), Flemish (probably Brussels), late 16th or early 17th cent.; Cyrus saving Croesus from the burning tower (?), Flemish, late 16th or early 17th cent.; The angel appearing to Hagar, Dutch, Flemish, or North German, 17th cent.; Pastoral scene, Beauvais, 18th cent.

Pictures By Roger Fry.

Besides the portraits listed above, the College also possesses a collection of landscapes and other paintings by Roger Eliot Fry, sometime fellow. Most of these were given in 1935 by Miss Margery Fry in memory of the artist.

Seals.

The common seal of the College is circular, 2⁷/8 in. in diameter. It contains an elaborate Gothic tabernacle of three principal canopied niches resting on a carved and arcaded corbel table, and flanked by two smaller canopied penthouse niches each resting on an arcaded corbel rising from the corbel table below. In the central and largest niche is a representation of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. She is shown full length, crowned, with her hands folded in prayer, and surrounded by a vesica of clouds: two angels below and four above bear her up to God the Father, whose head and hands appear above her. In the left-hand niche, on an arcaded pedestal, stands St. Nicholas, mitred and robed as a bishop, a pastoral staff in his left hand, his right hand raised in blessing. In the right-hand niche, on a similar pedestal, kneels King Henry VI, crowned and robed as a king, his hands folded in prayer. In the penthouse niche to the left of St. Nicholas a figure bears a shield of the arms of France (modern); in the penthouse niche to the right of King Henry a similar figure bears a shield quarterly of 1 and 4 France (modern), 2 and 3 England.

The corbel table below the principal niches is interrupted in the centre by an almost flat arch: beneath the arch is a shield of the arms of the College. In the original state of the seal this was charged with a mitre pierced by a crozier (for St. Nicholas) between two lilies (for the Blessed Virgin) with a chief party per pale with a flower of the French and a leopard of England. By letters patent of 1 January 1449 (fn. 625) the College was granted its modern bearings: sable three roses silver with a chief party of azure with a gold flower of the French and of gules with a gold leopard of England; and these bearings were substituted in the seal by removing the original College shield and engraving a new shield in the metal underneath it.

The canopies above the three principal niches extend to the edge of the seal. The legend, in black letter, begins to the right of the canopies; it is interrupted by the College shield of arms, which likewise extends to the edge of the seal; and it ends to the left of the canopies. It reads: sigillū: cōē prepositi [..] scolarium: collegii: rigalis [sic] b[eat]e marie [..] scī nicholai de cantebr.

Impressions showing the seal in both states, presented by Professor J. H. Middleton, fellow, are preserved in the College, as is the original silver matrix. In 1929, however, the Governing Body authorized the purchase and use of an impressed seal, and this is now normally used at sealings. (fn. 626)

The Provost's seal of office is octagonal, 1 in. across. Within a cable border, it bears a shield of the College arms as granted by the Patent of 1449, and above it the date '1588'. The matrix is of silver. (fn. 627)

Provosts of King's College (fn. 628)

William Millington: (as Rector) 12 Feb. 1441; (fn. 629) (as Provost) 10 July 1443. (fn. 630)

John Chedworth: between 12 Mar. and 8 Oct. 1447. (fn. 631)

Robert Wodelarke: [17 May?] 1452. (fn. 632)

Walter Field: soon after 15 Oct. 1479. (fn. 633)

John Dogget: soon after 18 Apr. 1499. (fn. 634)

John Argentine: 4 May 1501. (fn. 646)

Richard Hatton: 21 Mar. 1508. (fn. 646)

Robert Hacomblen: 28 June 1509. (fn. 646)

Edward Fox: 26 Sept. 1528. (fn. 646) (fn. 635)

George Day: soon after 6 June 1538. (fn. 636)

John Cheke: 1 Apr. 1549. (fn. 646) (fn. 637)

Richard Atkinson: 25 Oct. 1553. (fn. 646)

Robert Brassie: 3 Oct. 1556. (fn. 646)

Philip Baker: 12 Dec. 1558. (fn. 646)

Roger Goad: 19 Mar. 1570. (fn. 646)

Fogge Newton: probably 15 May 1610. (fn. 638)

William Smith: 22 Aug. 1612. (fn. 646)

Samuel Collins: 15 Apr. 1615. (fn. 646)

Benjamin Whichcote: 19 Mar. 1645. (fn. 639)

James Fleetwood: 29 June 1660. (fn. 646)

Thomas Page: 16 Jan. 1676. (fn. 646)

John Coplestone: 8 Sept. 1681. (fn. 646)

Charles Roderick: 12 or 13 Oct. 1689. (fn. 640)

John Adams: 2 May 1712. (fn. 646)

Andrew Snape: 21 Feb. 1720. (fn. 646)

William George: 30 Jan. 1743. (fn. 646)

John Sumner: 18 Oct. 1756. (fn. 646)

William Cooke: 8 Apr. 1772. (fn. 646)

Humphrey Sumner: 11 Nov. 1797. (fn. 646)

George Thackeray: 14 Apr. 1814. (fn. 646)

Richard Okes: 12 Nov. 1850. (fn. 646)

Augustus Austen Leigh: 11 Feb. 1889. (fn. 646)

Montague Rhodes James: 18 May 1905. (fn. 646)

Walter Durnford: 17 Nov. 1918. (fn. 646)

Alan England Brooke: 1 June 1926.

John Tresidder Sheppard: 16 Nov. 1933. (fn. 646)

Stephen Ranulph Kingdon Glanville: 5 Oct. 1954. (fn. 646) (fn. 641)

Noel Gilroy Annan: 27 June 1956. (fn. 646)