Matthew de Stratton was Archdeacon of Buckingham from about 1219 and became a very wealthy man during this time. After falling into disrepair and passing through several owners, the Chantry Chapel came under his control and he restored it. This Chantry later became the home to the first pupils of the Royal Latin School.
In 1349, the Black Death struck causing heavy mortality in the Buckingham area, especially among the clergy and members of monastic orders. Virtually all of the community at nearby Luffield Priory perished. The plague returned several times in the course of the next century. By 1500 there were probably fewer people living in the area than in Roman times.
Documents show 1423 to be the first record of a teacher (John Barton (Snr) being paid a salary. This is taken as the official founding date of the school. The school was originally established to teach boys the ‘Trivium’ (Latin grammar, logic and rhetoric).
Our School was given its motto "Alle May God Amende" by John Ruding, Archdeacon of Lincoln, following extensive restoration of the Chantry Chapel.
On a voyage west to build new trade routes, Christopher Columbus is the first European to sight the Bahamas archipelago.
The Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci (Cenacolo Vinciano) is one of the most famous paintings in the world. This artwork was painted between 1494 and 1498 under the government of Ludovico il Moro and represents the last "dinner" between Jesus and his disciples
William Shakespeare - a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor - was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most commonly celebrated on 23 April which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.
Gabriel Newton originally refounded the Chastillon Chantry in Thornton as a school for six poor boys. In 1597, an order was made to transfer the school endowment of £10 8s ½d from the chantry in Thornton to the school at St John the Baptist in Buckingham. From this date, RLS inherited Royal Status, a requirement to teach six boys, and a fixed annual income.
Alexander Denton rebuilt the schoolmasters' house (attached to the Chapel) at his own expense, following a fire thirteen years earlier.
Disaster came in 1725 with a terrible fire. Most of Castle Street and parts of Market Hill, West Street and Well Street were ablaze. According to one account, the fire destroyed 138 houses and left over a third of Buckingham homeless. The 1725 fire explains why, apart from the Chantry Chapel, there are few centuries-old buildings in the centre of Buckingham.
