to suffer the loss of royal favour owing to the death of the Black Prince and the rise into power of his enemy, John of Gaunt.  The bishop was charged with the misappropriation of a small sum of money, and, judgment being given against him, the temporalities of the see of Winchester were seized, and he was forbidden to come within twenty miles of the Court.  He retired to Waverley Abbey, of which some picturesque ruins remain, near Farnham; and although on the King’s jubilee pardon was granted to all offenders, a special exception was made in the case of “Sire William de Wykeham”.

[Illustration:  Wykeham’s chantry]

This was more than the heads of the Church could stand, especially as the original charge was an unjust one; so at the ensuing meeting of Convocation, Courtenay, then Bishop of London, declared boldly that unless their favourite bishop was reinstated in office, no money would be forthcoming from the clergy.  In less than a month the pressing need of funds caused the King to send a messenger to Waverley and beg Wykeham to return to his house at Southwark.  This was the first step, which, however, did not mean an immediate return to the temporalities, as these had been settled on the youthful heir apparent, Richard; but the people took up Wykeham’s cause, and on June 18, 1377, in the presence of the little Richard, his uncle, and the King’s council, Wykeham promised to fit out three galleys for sea, in return for the temporalities of Winchester.  Two days later Edward III died, forsaken by his mistress, Alice Perrers, and estranged from the one man who had served him so long and so faithfully.

The architectural genius of Wykeham as exhibited at St. Mary’s College and the cathedral at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, originally founded as “St. Maries’ College of Winchester at Oxenford”, marks a very decided epoch in the development of English architecture.  His works, in an architectural style found nowhere but in England, are the outcome of a mind free from triviality, and full of common sense.  His buildings are admirably suited to their purpose, and at first sight they appear to be so simple in design that it has been suggested that Wykeham cared more for the constructive than the artistic side of building.  It is true that he considered sound construction and good proportions of greater importance than a profusion of detail, yet such ornament as is found in his work is highly effective and most carefully studied.  To this bishop-architect we undoubtedly owe much of the dignity and simplicity which mark the Early Perpendicular buildings, qualities which make the style such a contrast to the exuberance of that which immediately preceded it, or the over-elaboration of the Tudor buildings that followed it.

With few exceptions, practically the whole of Wykeham’s work, both here and at Oxford, remains much as he left it; so that, good bishop, wise administrator, generous founder, and pioneer educationist though he was, it is mainly as a munificent builder and architectural genius that his fame has lived in the past, and will continue to live in the future.