William of Wykeham

William of Wykeham (1324-1404), English prelate and statesman, born of a humble family in Wickham, Hampshire, and educated at a grammar school in Winchester. In 1367, after advancing in the service of the English King Edward III, he was consecrated Bishop of Winchester and in the same year was made Lord Chancellor of England. In 1371 a wave of anticlerical feeling forced him to resign as lord chancellor. He was convicted of financial misconduct and banished from court in 1376, largely through the influence of the king's son, John of Gaunt, who was his enemy. In 1377, on the accession of King Richard II, Wykeham was pardoned and many of his preferments were restored. He subsequently devoted a large part of his personal fortune to the relief of indigent English scholars. To that end, he founded and endowed New College, Oxford in 1379 and the affiliated preparatory school, St Mary's College of Winchester, in 1382. He served again as lord chancellor from 1389 to 1391, when he retired. Wykeham has been called the “father of the English public school system”.