It was doubtless through the Queen’s influence that the King in 1343 endowed the College with the advowson of Bletchingdon, and in the following year with the Wardenship of St. Julian’s Hospital, commonly called God’s House, in Southampton.
The College seems always to have been careful to secure the patronage of the Queens consort of England. In the muniment room is preserved a letter from Anne, Richard II.’s queen, to her husband, asking him to grant letters patent to the College.
In 1603, on the 3rd of August, 48s. 6d. is allowed to the Provost for his journey “ad solicitandam dominam reginam pro patronatu collegii.” This was another Anne, James I.’s wife. A bible was presented to the Queen which cost 42s. 4d.
It was through Henrietta Maria—Queen Mary, as the College delights to call her—that Charles I. was supplicated for the advowsons in Hampshire given by the King to the College in 1626. Caroline, George II.’s queen, gave £1000 towards the rebuilding of the College in the eighteenth century; and promised another £1000, which, owing to her death, still (as the Benefactors’ Book says) remains “unpaid but not unhoped for.” Charlotte, George III.’s consort, heads the list of those who subscribed towards the rebuilding of the south-west wing after the fire of 1778. Queen Adelaide was the last queen entertained within the walls of the College.
The community was to consist of a Provost and twelve Fellows, incorporated under the name of “the Hall of the Queen in Oxford,” with a common seal.
The original body was nominated by the founder, and their names are set forth in his statutes.
The number thirteen was chosen with reference to the number of our Lord and His Apostles, “sub mysterio decursus Christi et Apostolorum in terris.”
Richard of Retteford, Doctor of Divinity, was the first Provost, and the thirteen came from ten different dioceses. Several of them were, or had been, Fellows of Merton; one, a Fellow of Exeter.
It was some years before the revenues of the College allowed of the maintenance of so large a number of Fellows. The first “long roll” preserved mentions only five persons, including Eglesfield himself, as receiving a Fellow’s allowance; and eight is the largest number of Fellows named in any account up to the end of the century. In the early part of the sixteenth century the numbers rose to about ten, but dwindled again in the disturbed periods about the middle of the century. Twelve Fellows first appear in the Long Roll for 1590; and soon after the number was increased to fourteen, at which the number of the Fellows on the original foundation seems to have remained till the first of the two University Commissions of the present century.
By the ordinance of 1858, the number of Fellows of the Consolidated Foundation was fixed at nineteen; and by the statutes of 1877, the Fellowships are to be not less in number than fourteen and not more than sixteen. The actual number is fourteen.