A Conversation for Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

The founder of Corpus

Post 1

Gubernatrix

The Duke of Lancaster?

This may be completely right, but that's not the story I have heard.

I always thought that Corpus was founded by the Guilds of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and is very proud of being the only college in Oxford or Cambridge founded by the town's citizens.

So where does the Duke of Lancaster fit in? Did he put up the cash or something?


The founder of Corpus

Post 2

neilfish, purveyor of the finest confusion since 1442

My research says that Gonville probably persuaded The Duke of Lancaster to "help found Corpus", so it's possible that he was they guy with the cash and he merely supported the townsfolk as they founded Corpus. I see that period of founding of colleges (probably somewhat naively) as a few people founding colleges, then others jumping on the band-wagon of a fashionable idea. But I don't study history, so what do I know?


The founder of Corpus

Post 3

Catwoman

What do history students know?


The founder of Corpus

Post 4

neilfish, purveyor of the finest confusion since 1442

I imagine a fair bit. Considering that one of the fellows has just been paid approx 4.5 million for a book he's writing about nazi history. either that's a lot of money per unit of knowledge (as an aside, what is the SI unit of knowledge?) or lots of knowledge.


The founder of Corpus

Post 5

Catwoman

Doesn't mean that they know anything about founders of colleges, they probably get enough names and dates that they don't want any more.


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