King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas, it is often referred to as King's within the university.

History

King's was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. His first design was modest, but by 1445 was intended to be a magnificent display of royal patronage. There were to be a Provost and seventy scholars, occupying an substantial site in central Cambridge whose drastic clearance involved the closure of several streets. The college was granted a remarkable series of feudal privileges, and all of this was supported by a substantial series of endowments from the King.

Related Topics:
1441 - King Henry VI - Feudal

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The college was to be specifically for boys from Eton College, which he had also founded. The connection with Eton remained strong for many years: it was not until 1865 that the first non-Etonian undergraduates arrived to study at King's, and the first fellow to have not attended Eton was elected in 1873.

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The very first buildings of the college, now part of the Old Schools, were begun in 1441, but by 1443 the decision to build to a much grander plan had been taken. That plan survives in the 1448 Founders Will describing in detail a magnificent court with a chapel on one side. But within a decade, civil war meant that funds from the King began to dry up. By the time of his deposition in 1461, the chapel walls had been raised 60ft high at the east end but only 8ft at the west; a building line which can still be seen today as the boundary between the lighter stone below and the darker above. Work proceeded sporadically until a generation later in 1508 when the Founder's nephew King Henry VII was prevailed upon to finish the shell of the building. The interior had to wait a further generation until completion by 1544 with the aid of King Henry VIII.

Related Topics:
Old Schools - King Henry VII - King Henry VIII

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It has been speculated that the choice of the college as a beneficiary by the two later Henry's was a political one, with Henry VIII in particular concerned to legitimate a new, post civil war, Tudor regime by demonstrating patronage of what was by definition the King's College. It is certainly true that the later building work is marked by an uninhibited branding with the Tudor rose and other symbols of the new establishment, quite against the precise instructions of the Founders Will.

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