William of Wykeham's
school, St. Mary College of Winchester in Oxford was the
prototype. The curriculum was civil law, canon law, medicine, with
astronomical instruments that students made, theology, and the
arts. The arts textbooks were still grammar, logic, Donatus, and
Aristotle. Many laymen were literate, for instance country gentry,
merchants, and craftsmen. Laymen instead of clerics were now
appointed to the great offices of state.
Parliament met about twice a year and lasted from two weeks to
several months. There was a well-defined group of about fifty
barons and a few spiritual peers who were always summoned to
Parliament and who composed a House of Lords. "Peer" now meant a
member of the House of Lords. All peers had the right to approach
the king with advice. The baron peers reasoned that the custom of
regular attendance was a right that should be inherited by the
eldest son, or by a female heir, if there were no male heirs.
However, the theory of nobility by blood as conveying political
privilege had no legal recognition. No female could attend
Parliament; the husband of a baronness attended Parliament in her
stead. Edward III and Richard II created new peers with various
titles of dignity, such as duke and marquess, which were above
barons and earls. The dukes and marquesses were identified with a
territorial designation such as an English county or county town.
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