The Education of John Tiptoft
Tiptoft’s education began in earnest when, aged thirteen, he went to study at University College, Oxford. ‘Univ’, as it is affectionately known, has a claim to be the oldest college at Oxford, being founded in 1249 by William of Durham (a document pertaining to be a foundation deed from the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon king, Alfred the Great, is known to be a forgery). In Tiptoft’s day, Univ only taught theology, which seems to have left a lasting impression on the confusingly-pious Butcher of England. Tiptoft studied at Univ for three years, and shortly after leaving began his political career.
In the same year as being made Earl of Worcester, Tiptoft married Cecily Neville (a Yorkist – an important detail to bear in mind for the next section), who died after only a year of wedlock. He was made Lord High Treasurer in 1452, and then Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1456. The dates of these appointments straddle the first shift in power from Lancaster to York in the War of the Roses, when Richard, Duke of York was made Protector of the Realm after defeating Henry VI in 1455. Tiptoft remained fiercely loyal to the Yorkist cause after this date.
In 1457 and 1459, he was sent on a mission to the Vatican, where Pope Pius II was struck by Tiptoft’s intelligence and intellectual curiosity. After the latter meeting, Tiptoft went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem before spending three years studying in Italy. He chose to continue his education at the University of Padua, which had a far wider curriculum than Univ, being noted for its pioneering work in medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and law. It was also slightly older, having been founded in 1222. At Padua Tiptoft dedicated himself to Greek, Latin, and law, and also visited Ferrara and Florence.
It is owing to his time studying in Italy that Tiptoft has also been dubbed ‘England’s First Renaissance Prince’. The sobriquet, however, is not entirely complimentary. No less an authority than Niccolò Machiavelli called Italy ‘the corrupter of the world’, and Tiptoft’s enemies believed that his egregious cruelty came from his time on the continent. Although clearly a xenophobic charge, it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the skulduggery of late-medieval Italian politics influenced Tiptoft: one has only to consider the fearsome Medici dynasty, with whom he would have been familiar from his time in Florence.
However, we find the most compelling evidence that Tiptoft’s cruelty came from his time in Padua from the Classical texts to which he dedicated himself. Renaissance humanism – which dictated the curriculum at Padua – looked back to the Ancient World for instructions on how to behave and govern in the present. Roman law, in particular, was mercilessly cruel and efficient in order to maintain civilised order. As a student of law, and a known owner of Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita (History of Rome), Tiptoft would doubtless have been familiar with the Romans’ brutal approach to dealing with crime and rebellion.