Katharine Swynford 49 



prevent his brother, King Henry IV, from placing his own son, after- 

 wards Henry V, under his tuition in the same college.'" This was 

 about the year 1399, when Beaufort had been appointed Chancellor 

 of the University, an office which he held only one year. . . . Bred 

 up as an ecclesiastic, he received in the year of his legitimation the 

 deanery of Wells, together with a prebend in the church of Lincoln,^^ 

 and was elected''^ Bishop of the latter see on July 14, 1398. 



(2) Beaufort was a Master of Arts by Feb. 4, 1393, as appears 

 from an account — 'magistro Henrico Beaufort' — quoted by 

 Beltz.^^ As the average age of the Bachelors was 17 or 18, and 

 as it required three years more to become a Master,^^ it may be 

 supposed from this that Henry could not have been born later 

 than 1373. But it must be remembered that he might have 

 remained for years in the status of Master. 



(3) As we have seen, Henry Beaufort was made Bishop of 

 Lincoln in 1398, and that implies, in the absence of any informa- 

 tion to the contrary, that he had completed his thirtieth year 

 before Feb. 27.^' Rarely, in the English history of the period, 

 de we find this requirement dispensed with.^® Only four^^ cases 

 have come to my notice — those of William Courtenay (1370), 

 Thomas Arundel (1373), Robert Neville (1427), and George 



^- This is a tradition (Wylie 3. 263; Tyler, Henry the Fifth i. 21). 



^ 'He was made prebendary of Thame 1389, and of Sutton 1391, both 

 in the diocese of Lincoln' (Diet. Nat. Biog. 4. 41). We also find him 

 named as 'Warden of the Free Chapel in Tickhill Castle,' in Yorkshire 

 (Wylie 3. 263; cf. Diet. Nat. Biog. 51. 144), and Canon of York (Papal 

 Letters 5. 641). 



^^ Rather, consecrated (see Tyler, Henry the Fifth i. 21), His 

 approaching consecration is referred to on Feb. 27, 1398, where he is 

 called 'elect of Lincoln' (Papal Letters 5. 112; cf. 5. 115, 175). Boniface 

 IX informs him that on that day he had provided Henry to the see of 

 Lincoln, Tickhill to be retained (Papal Letters 5. 507; cf. 5. 284). 



^Memorials, p. 354, note 2. 



''"Lyte, Hist, of the Univ. of O.vford, pp. 206, 211. 



" Corpus Juris Canonici, Deeret. Greg. IX, De Electione i. 6. 7: 'NuUus 

 in episcopum eligatur nisi qui jam trigesimum annum aetatis exegerit.* 

 Cf. Realencyk. fur Prot. TheoL, 3d ed., 3. 245. The Pope, however, might 

 dispense (Wetzer and Welter, Kirchenlcxikon, 2d ed., i. 635). 



^^ Cf. Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury 4. 405. 



'"Thomas Bourchier, made Bishop of Worcester in 1434, may well 

 have attained the canonical age (Diet. Nat. Biog. 6. 15 ; Foss, Judges of 

 England 4. 297). 



