Behind a sumptuous gatehouse of red brick adorned with heraldic beasts, St John's College is one of the finest Tudor foundations in Cambridge. It owes its birth to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII — a woman whose piety and ambition left a lasting mark on the university.
The foundation of a great lady
Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of the first Tudor king, was one of the most powerful and cultivated women of her time. A great patron of education, she resolved, at the end of her life, to found a new college at Cambridge on the site of an old hospital. She died in 1509 before seeing it completed, but her confessor and executor, Bishop John Fisher, carried the enterprise through: St John's College opened in 1511. It is thus the joint work of a devout princess and a humanist prelate — the same Fisher who, later, would refuse Henry VIII's supremacy and die beheaded for his loyalty to Rome.
Brick and humanism
The entrance to St John's is guarded by a magnificent brick gatehouse (1516), crowned with the arms of Lady Margaret and her emblems: the heraldic beasts (part-antelope yales) and the daisies (marguerites). This gate is one of the finest works of Tudor brick in England. The college became a home of humanism and the new learning; Erasmus, who taught at Cambridge at that time, was close to Fisher. Later, St John's trained poets and scholars, among them the poet William Wordsworth. It embodies the vocation of the Tudor foundations: to unite faith, learning and the prestige of a line.
What to see
- The brick gatehouse of 1516, with the arms and emblems of Lady Margaret Beaufort.
- The successive courts and the chapel.
- The 'Bridge of Sighs' spanning the Cam (added later, but emblematic).
- The setting of the gardens running down to the river.
Did you know?
The two founders of St John's knew opposite fates before the Reformation: Lady Margaret Beaufort, who died in 1509, was the pious grandmother of the dynasty; but John Fisher, who completed her college, was executed in 1535 by Margaret's own grandson, Henry VIII, for refusing to acknowledge him head of the Church. The college was thus born from the hands of a man the House of Tudor would put to death.
Practical information
St John's College lies in the heart of Cambridge, on St John's Street, along the Cam. It is a working university college; its courts, chapel and famous bridge may be visited on varying hours, sometimes restricted. It is best to check against the official sources before visiting.
Quiz
- Which great lady founded St John's College?
- Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII
- Anne Boleyn
- Elizabeth I
- Which bishop completed the foundation before dying beheaded in 1535?
- John Fisher
- Thomas Cranmer
- Thomas Wolsey
- What guards the college's entrance?
- A brick gatehouse bearing the founder's arms
- A stone keep
- A dome