Articles THE EAGLE
husband was under the management of the wife. Mary, we come to appreciate, had her ways.
The Countess’s court did not and does not impress everyone – Thomas Baker thought it ‘slight and crazy’ – and parts of it have slumped or fallen down over the centuries. But it nevertheless possesses a grandeur that First Court has never really enjoyed. In the Shrewsbury Tower it has one of the most imposing gatehouses in Cambridge. And that was of course the point. For just as generations of Johnians and their visitors passed to and fro through Lady Margaret’s gatehouse into Lady Margaret’s court, so too did they pass through the Countess’s gatehouse into the Countess’s even larger court. A second foundress indeed! Some donations are best left unpublicised. Associations with those who fall out of favour can be difficult for any College. And now we see another of those curious half parallels between the first and the second foundress. Lady Margaret Beaufort and Mary Cavendish were both political creatures, who thrived on the
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ARTICLES
One of those ways was subterfuge. When it came to parting with family cash, wealthy Tudor husbands had to be caught at the right moment, and brought to generosity by persuasion. And Gilbert was immensely wealthy – blessed with extensive estates and a consequently impressive income from land, he took the proper, aristocratic view that debt was ‘but a moth in your garment’. Mary was herself persuaded to support the College by a former Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury Fellow – in her case the earl’s steward, Robert Booth. Once persuaded, the Countess knew how Gilbert – an Oxford man3 – would instinctively react to the idea of helping a Cambridge college, and so she and Booth insisted at first that no names were mentioned, that the matter be kept under wraps until an opportune moment came. Happily for St John’s Mary took her chance, in the end. She found her husband in a good mood, and the College built the three new ranges of Second Court at a cost of a little over £3,000. Both Gilbert and Mary were thanked, of course, but soon the Countess was given sole credit. It seems that both donors preferred it that way.