Walter de Merton was Lord Chancellor of England, Archdeacon of Bath, founder of Merton College, Oxford, and Bishop of Rochester. For the first two years of the reign of Edward I he was – in all but name – Regent of England during the King's absence abroad. He died in 1277 after falling from his horse, and is buried in Rochester Cathedral.
Wilhelm Sonmans's fictitious portrait of Walter de Merton, c. 1670
Tomb of Walter de Merton in Rochester Cathedral
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.
South facade as seen from Merton Field
Walter de Merton, (c. 1205 – 27 October 1277), founder of Merton
Henry Savile, Warden from 1585 to 1621, had great influence on the development of the college
St Alban Hall, pictured in 1837, engraving by John Le Keux from a drawing by F. Mackenzie
