Michaelhouse, Cambridge

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Full name

The Hall and College of Michaelhouse

Motto

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Named after

St. Michael

Previous names

(merged with King's Hall to form Trinity College in 1546)

Established

1324

Sister College(s)

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Master

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Location

Trinity Street

Undergraduates

N/A

Postgraduates

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Michaelhouse is the name of one of the former colleges of the University of Cambridge, that existed between 1324 and 1546, when it was merged with King's Hall to form Trinity College. Michaelhouse was the third college to be founded, after Peterhouse (1284) and King's Hall (1317).

Hervey de Stanton, Edward II's Chancellor of the Exchequer, bought the houses owned by Roger Buttetourte and Dera of Madingle on the site of what is now the southwest corner of Trinity's Great Court and named it Michaelhouse, after St Michael and the nearby church on Trinity St. St Michael's was used as the college chapel, and Hervey de Stanton is buried there. It is now used as a church hall by Great St Mary's and houses a restaurant known as the Michaelhouse Cafe.

Hervey de Stanton is believed to have been in his late fifties by the time he established the college, and had amassed some wealth. The statutes stipulated that mass be said several times annually for his soul, suggesting that, like many others of the time, he felt that the establishment would help to atone for past sins.

Michaelhouse slowly expanded, buying houses around the present south-west corner of Great Court and New Court, and bought the lands where Scholar's Lawn and the Wren Library are now - at that time they had navigable streams running through them which provided the college with some money. The hall was quite small - only around 26 metres by 12, although this was enough for the small numbers of scholars then.

The college enjoyed very modest growth until the sixteenth century when the whole university was thrown into chaos by the crisis that had changed the country. With the country's friaries and monasteries having already been destroyed, in 1544 an act was passed by parliament enabling the king, Henry VIII, to dissolve any institution whatsoever and appropriate its wealth. The Cambridge colleges, understandably, feared for the future of the university, and used their contacts to petition the queen, Katharine Parr, who in turn persuaded Henry not only to spare the colleges, but to found a royal college to reflect his grandeur, and to endow it with vast tracts of land acquired from the dissolution of the monasteries. Thus in 1546 Michaelhouse was merged with King's Hall to form Trinity, that has remained the largest and wealthiest college in the university.

Unlike King's Hall, nothing now remains of the original Michaelhouse buildings, the last being demolished when Great Court was completed in the early seventeenth century, though much of the stone may have been reused in making the current buildings.

Between 1497 and 1505 the Master of the college was John Fisher, who was instrumental in the foundation of St John's and Christ's.

This article derives some information from an edition of 'Trinity College - An Historical Sketch' by GM Trevelyan, along with information from various individuals associated with the College and the University.