John Whethamstede

Last updated

John Whethamstede (died 20 January 1465) was an English abbot and one of the leading literary figures in fifteenth-century England. [1]

Contents

Life

He was a son of Hugh and Margaret Bostock, and was born at Wheathampstead in Hertfordshire, owing his name, the Latin form of which is Frumentarius, to this circumstance.

After early schooling at the Abbey School (now St Albans School) he entered St Albans Abbey when only sixteen. He was chosen abbot of this Benedictine monastery in 1420. In 1423, Whethamstede attended the Council of Siena. In the Kingdom of England, his time was mainly occupied with lawsuits, several of which he carried on to defend the property and enforce the rights of the abbey.

In 1440, he resigned his post but, in 1451, on the death of his successor John Stoke, he became abbot for the second time. He died on 20 January 1465, and his tomb was recently discovered during archaeological excavations prior to the construction of the new Welcome Centre at St Albans Abbey.

Whethamstede was an energetic and successful abbot. He greatly improved the buildings at St Albans. He was an eyewitness of the First Battle of St Albans in 1455, the first open conflict of the Wars of the Roses. It is also likely that he was in attendance when Richard, Duke of York made his claim for the throne in October 1460, which resulted in the Act of Accord. He also did some building at Gloucester College, Oxford.

He was also closely, if clumsily, associated with the humanistic activities of Henry V's youngest brother, Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, who died in 1447 and was buried in St Albans Abbey, where he was honoured as a benefactor.

Writings

Whethamstede was 'shy and bashful in public, yet egotistical and boastful in his writings'. [2] He read widely - as well as commonplace medieval texts, works in Latin, Greek and Italian were in his library.

Related Research Articles

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick 15th-century English noble

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, and military commander. The eldest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, he became Earl of Warwick through marriage, and was the wealthiest and most powerful English peer of his age, with political connections that went beyond the country's borders. One of the leaders in the Wars of the Roses, originally on the Yorkist side but later switching to the Lancastrian side, he was instrumental in the deposition of two kings, which led to his epithet of "Kingmaker".

Tewkesbury Abbey Church in England

The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, Tewkesbury–commonly known as Tewkesbury Abbey–is located in the English county of Gloucestershire. A former Benedictine monastery, it is now a parish church. Considered one of the finest examples of Norman architecture in Britain, it has the largest Romanesque crossing tower in Europe.

Aldhelm 8th-century Bishop of Sherborne, Abbot of Malmesbury, poet, and saint

Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the son of Kenten, who was of the royal house of Wessex. He was certainly not, as his early biographer Faritius asserts, the brother of King Ine. After his death he was venerated as a saint, his feast day being the day of his death, 25 May.

Thomas Bourchier (cardinal) 15th-century Archbishop of Canterbury, Chancellor of England, and cardinal

Thomas Bourchier was a medieval English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor of England.

William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. He has been ranked among the most talented English historians since Bede. Modern historian C. Warren Hollister described him as "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical, patristic, and earlier medieval times as well as in the writings of his own contemporaries. Indeed William may well have been the most learned man in twelfth-century Western Europe."

Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester 15th-century English noble

Humphrey of Lancaster, Duke of Gloucester was an English prince, soldier, and literary patron. He was "son, brother and uncle of kings", being the fourth and youngest son of Henry IV of England, the brother of Henry V, and the uncle of Henry VI. Gloucester fought in the Hundred Years' War and acted as Lord Protector of England during the minority of his nephew. A controversial figure, he has been characterised as reckless, unprincipled, and fractious, but is also noted for his intellectual activity and for being the first significant English patron of humanism, in the context of the Renaissance.

John Neville, 1st Marquess of Montagu was a major magnate of fifteenth-century England. He was a younger son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, and the younger brother of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, the "Kingmaker".

John Dunstaple English composer (1390–1453)

John Dunstaple was an English composer whose music spans the transition from the medieval to the Renaissance periods. The central proponent of the Contenance angloise style, Dunstaple was the leading English composer of his time, and is often coupled with William Byrd and Henry Purcell as England's most important early music composers. His surviving music is exclusively vocal, and frequently uses isorhythms, while pioneering the prominent use of harmonies with thirds and sixths. His style would have an immense influence on the subsequent music of continental Europe, inspiring composers such as Du Fay, Binchois, Ockeghem and Busnois.

Ælfric of Eynsham was an English abbot and a student of Æthelwold of Winchester, and a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography, homilies, biblical commentaries, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian, Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist. In the view of Peter Hunter Blair, he was "a man comparable both in the quantity of his writings and in the quality of his mind even with Bede himself." According to Claudio Leonardi, he "represented the highest pinnacle of Benedictine reform and Anglo-Saxon literature".

John Capgrave English hagiographer and theologian (1393–1464)

John Capgrave was an English historian, hagiographer and scholastic theologian, remembered chiefly for Nova Legenda Angliae. This was the first comprehensive collection of lives of the English saints.

Robert Bloet was Bishop of Lincoln 1093–1123 and Chancellor of England. Born into a noble Norman family, he became a royal clerk under King William I. Under William I's son and successor King William II, Bloet was first named chancellor then appointed to the See of Lincoln. Continuing to serve the king while bishop, Bloet remained a close royal councillor to William II's successor, King Henry I. He did much to embellish Lincoln Cathedral, and gave generously to his cathedral and other religious houses. He educated a number of noblemen, including illegitimate children of Henry I. He also was the patron of the medieval chronicler Henry of Huntingdon, and was an early patron of Gilbert of Sempringham, the founder of the Gilbertine monastic order.

St Albans School, Hertfordshire Public school in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England

St Albans School is a public school in the city of St Albans in Hertfordshire. Pre-sixth form admission is restricted to boys, but the sixth form has been co-educational since 1991. Founded in 948 by Wulsin, St Albans School is the oldest school in Hertfordshire and one of the oldest schools in the world, being located on a 500 acre site. The school is known for its academic prowess, achieving excellent results and gaining several places at the top universities, specifically Oxbridge. The school now has state-of-the-art science facilities unlike any other school in the country, also having educated a multitude of scientists, a few examples being Stephen Hawking, who dedicated some of his success to the school and Ian Grant. It is considered to be an amazing nationally reputed institution that hates to follow the traditional and one-sided view of a public school.

Thomas Allen (mathematician) English mathematician and astrologer (1542–1632)

Thomas Allen was an English mathematician and astrologer. Highly reputed in his lifetime, he published little, but was an active private teacher of mathematics. He was also well connected in the English intellectual networks of the period.

Lionel Welles, 6th Baron Welles

Lionel de Welles, 6th Baron Welles, KG was an English peer who served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Joint Deputy of Calais. He was slain fighting on the Lancastrian side at the Battle of Towton, and was attainted on 21 December 1461. As a result of the attainder, his son, Richard Welles, 7th Baron Welles, did not succeed him in the barony of Welles until the attainder was reversed by Parliament in June 1467.

William of Wallingford was the 47th abbot of St Albans Abbey. He was a Benedictine monk at Holy Trinity Priory, Wallingford, Berkshire, England and like John of Wallingford and Richard of Wallingford, moved from this cell of St Albans Abbey to the abbey itself. He was a favourite of John Stoke, 44th abbot of St Albans, also from Wallingford. On his deathbed in 1451, Stoke was supposed to have given William and Thomas Wallingford, his senior chaplain, charge over 1000 marks but after his death they could only account for 250 marks. The abbot John Wheathampstead who succeeded Stoke suspected the two over the money. Nevertheless, William of Wallingford was later appointed abbot in 1476, after the death of William Albone, apparently for his financial acumen, at a time when the abbey was in debt. William of Wallingford managed to get rid of the debt whilst also spending on the abbey. He built the high altar known as the Wallingford Screen at a cost of £733 and completed the chapter house. The statues on it were destroyed during the Dissolution but were replaced in Victorian times.

Robert King (bishop)

Robert King was an English churchman who became the first Bishop of Oxford.

Hugh Candidus was a monk of the Benedictine monastery at Peterborough, who wrote a Medieval Latin account of its history, from its foundation as Medeshamstede in the mid 7th century up to the mid 12th century.

Hugh of Amiens

Hugh of Amiens, also known as Hugh de Boves, monk of Cluny, prior of Limoges, prior of Lewes, abbot of Reading and archbishop of Rouen, was a 12th-century Picard-French Benedictine prelate.

John of Tynemouth was a medieval English chronicler who flourished in the mid-14th-century.

Henry Thomas Riley was an English translator, lexicographer, and antiquary.

References

  1. Hicks, Michael (1991). Who's who in late medieval England (1272-1485). London: Shepheard-Walwyn. ISBN   0-85683-125-5.
  2. Hicks, p. 264.