... William of Wykeham or William of Wickham, 1324-1404, English prelate and lord chancellor, thought to have been the son of a serf and when entering the service of the royal court in 1347, he supervised the building of additions to Windsor Castle and rapidly gained influence at the court of Edward III, becoming royal secretary and lord privy seal thus receiving benefices in all parts of England but not being ordained a priest until 1362, which was four years before he was appointed bishop of Winchester, and he was made lord chancellor the following year, which forced him to deal with the debility of the aging Edward III and the strife of factions, making his political position extremely difficult, and, in 1371, William was dismissed, largely as a result of the rising tide of anticlericalism, leaving him to oppose John of Gaunt, supporting the attack made on Gaunt's court party in the Good Parliament, and, as a result he was charged with previous misuse of government funds, deprived of his temporalities, and harried for almost a year until Richard II's accession, when he was exonerated and devoted most of his remaining life to his episcopal duties, although from 1389 to 1391 he again served as chancellor, and for all he accomplished, he most lasting importance lies in his two great foundations, New College at Oxford and Winchester College (opened 1394), one of the most famous English public schools and his rebuilding of the Norman nave of Winchester Cathedral and the repairation of many churches of his diocese, and, to sum up, William was a conservative, conscientious and vigorous clerical reformer, who's only real fault was the occassional consumption of large portions of uncooked...
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Ham-fisted ham fisting.
