1542 Magdalene College founded

Following the dissolution of the monastries, Buckingham College was empty and incomplete. The Lord Chancellor, Thomas Audley, bought the College in 1542 and initiated its refoundation as Magdalen (sic) College.

He stipulated that the Masters of the College were to be chosen in perpetuity by the owners of his property in Audley End near Saffron Walden. He also gave the College its motto 'Garde ta Foy'. But other than that he made little contribution to the College before he died two years later and left the bulk of the task of foundation to the executors of his will, in particular Sir Thomas Pope.

It was possible that Audley was a lay student at Buckingham College. He was a career lawyer and politician, and became speaker in 1539. Soon after that he was Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations, with responsibilities for the redistribution of the wealth of the dissolved monastries. He personally obtained land from Walden Abbey in Essex and the Augustinian Priory of Holy Trinity, Aldegate, then just outside London. Ironically, Walden Abbey was one of the Benedictine monastries that had built a house at Buckingham College. From 1533 to death, he was Lord Chancellor, and served at the trials of Anne Boleyn and his predecessor Thomas More.

Storylines using this article

College Foundations 1401-1600 [prev] [next]