forward on this occasion by the Lancastrian party, as a prelate acceptable to the king, and with a view to obtain the naming of him to one or both of the high stations then vacant. If he was disappointed, which is only surmise, he had at least the consolation of knowing, that the see in his possession had been prized above the primacy by the predecessor of Wykeham, who refused it when he was elected, saying, as Budden relates, though Canterbury had the higher rack, Winchester had the deepest mangert. On the 2d of April the coffer containing the seals was brought into the parliament chamber, placed on the bench where the lord lieutenant sat, and, after an interval, opened by lord Salisbury, who accepted the office of chancellor. The next day the seals were put to letters patent, appointing the duke of York protector and defender of the realm, and chief counsellor during the royal pleasure, or until prince Edward should attain to years of discretion ". SECT. VII. THE Yorkists, who now possessed the whole power of the crown, con t Budden, p. 87. ducted ducted the public business under the sanction of the council, and Waynflete subscribed several of its acts. One of these was an agreement (15th March 1454) that the lord chancellor should empower, by commission, the king's physicians and surgeons to prescribe for and administer assistance to him. He was summoned on the affairs of Calais and the Marches. He signed the writ for the chapter of Canterbury to proceed to the election of an archbishop; the form of a letter for the privy seal, to be carried by a herald to the king of the Scots, complaining of injuries and depredations committed by his subjects; another to be sent to the state of Venice, concerning certain ordinances; and one to the Pope, for a jubilee-year in England and Ireland; a petition to the king in consequence of a request from the grand master of Rhodes; a rescript to the Roman emperor on the war with the Turks, who had taken Constantinople; and an order for the raising of money by the exportation of wool, to defray the expenses of the royal household. Acta Concilii 32 Hen. VI. The commission to the physi cians is a curiosity, being the original, with the signatures. See also Rymer, t. xi. p. 349. 351. 355. In February (1454) the new primate, Bourchier, was inthroned at Canterbury, where he was received as usual at the church door by the prior and his convent in white copes, with the responsory Sint lumbi. Two bishops and several abbats were in the procession. He came between the bishops of London and Winchester; and after the ceremony sat at dinner, in the middle of his table, with the bishops of London and Rochester and the prior on his right; and on his left, the bishops of Winchester and Ross and the lord treasurer of England. On the recovery of the king in the following year, (1455,) the duke of Somerset was by advice of the council sent to the Tower; but he was released the next day by royal warrant. Waynflete was one of the lords present, as also at the discharge of his bail. A bond was entered into by York and Somerset to submit their variance to arbitration; but the former raising an army, a bloody battle ensued (May 23d) near St. Albans, when Somerset was slain, and the king wounded and taken prisoner. The confederate lords asked his forgiveness on their knees! y MS. C.C.C. C. No 417. Rymer, t. xi. p. 361, 362, 363. Stow. Parliam. Hist. vol. ii. SECT. SECT. VIII. KING Henry had already endeavoured to secure the completion of the buildings, and the endowment of the two colleges he had founded at Eton and Cambridge, when, alarmed perhaps at his recent illness and his present situation, he resolved, with similar wisdom and foresight, to provide for their future good government. The statutes accepted by the visitors in July 1446, had been found, on carrying them into execution, to be incomplete, and to need reformation. He therefore deemed it expedient to delegate to persons in whom he could confide, a privilege hitherto reserved; and by letters patent, dated the 12th of July, 1455, setting forth, that the many and great concerns of his kingdom rendered him unable to attend continually on the remedying of the defects, as they were noted, empowered the bishop of Winchester and the bishop of Lincoln to correct, alter, and improve their statutes, with the advice of the provosts, as they should think proper, during his lifetime. So highly did the king esteem the merit and services of Waynflete, as to ordain that both his colleges should yearly, Acta Concilii. Rymer, t. xi. p. 367. Parliam. Hist. within the twelve days preceding the feast of the Nativity, celebrate solemn exequies for his soul after bis decease, with commendations and a morrow mass; a distinction not conferred on any person besides, except king Henry the Fifth, queen Katherine his wife, and his own queen Margaret, for whom obits are decreed; with one quarterly for the founder d. SECT. IX. ABOUT this time (in January 1455) died Ralph lord Crumwell, one of the executors of the famous duke of Bedford, the regent; whom, he succeeded as master of the mews, and falconer to the king. He had married Margaret, daughter of lord Dayncourt; who dying without issue in September 1454, he then enfeoffed bishop Waynflete in his manors of Candlesby and Boston, and in some in other counties; one of which, that of East-Bridgeford, Nottinghamshire, was disputed by Francis lord < Budden, p. 71. Statut. Coll. Eton. xxxi. Coll. Regal. xlii. Huggett, vol. iv. p. 132. His obit was kept at Eton, 13 Jan. Huggett, vol. iii. d To the keeper of the obits, viz. quarterly obits of king Henry VI. etc.... 14. 0. 0. Survey of Chantries, &c. in the Augmentation Office. Huggett, vol. ii. p. 251. • 14 Henry VI. f Candlesby, 41. Index. Lovell, |