‘Manners Makyth the Man’

The motto of William Wykeham, Archbishop of Winchester, d. 1404, his motto lives on with his three educational foundations: Winchester College, New College, Oxford, and New College School, Oxford. And if true, my what a man Wykeham was. I am, at the moment, translating his household account book from April-Sept. 1393. For the most part it consists of a record of what they ate and how much it cost. As discussed earlier, medieval England was administered from the dinner table, I mean, as many as 7 hours of the day were spent at meals! Anyhow, as his records show, the man could host a mean dinner party. And, as it were, his benevolence lives on in that the record of it sustains my time here in Oxford between degrees. As such, his accounts not only record his historical generosity but they also, rather generously, still support young scholars in Oxford. Albeit in ways differing from Wykeham’s vision. Perhaps later I will post my translation of his accounts for 16 September 1493 when had the king and queen for dinner.