Our Origins

The history of Meister Omers goes back to the late thirteenth century. Meister  Omer,   sometimes   referred to as Magister Homers, was the name sake of the modern boys boarding house. He was an official to the Archdeacon, working as an Attorney for the Covenant and being referred to as Magister in most sources, indicating his status as a dignified secular priest and lawyer. This special position allowed him to amass considerable wealth and influence - according to official treasurer’s documents his stipend equalled that of the Archdeacon himself. He was the first to fund the building of a pilgrim’s lodge which was referred to as Mansum Master Homers, and later know as the House of Meister Omers.

The building knew many iterations and hosted many important historical figures over the centuries of its existence. After multiple repairs and changes over the centuries, the first major expansions to the building came under the direction of Cardinal Beaufort, the Bishop of Winchester, an immensely influential and powerful figure who was one of the main advisors to the king during the Hundred Years’ War, most importantly being present at the trials of Joan of Arc.

While staying in the lodgings between 1433 and 1447, the Cardinal had built a new hall to the south of the lodgings, and it is this building that has survived and is now known as Meister Omers. According to multiple sources, the mansum then briefly passed ownership to the second Duke of Somerset, before he was killed at the first battle of St Albans in 1455 and the building returned to the Convent’s care. King Edward IV held his parliament in the hall in 1470, right in the midst of the War of the Roses due to the turbulent situation around London, while the building itself was itself also reinforced with defences in case of attack.

The building then is mentioned in a truly fascinating and until this day unsolved murder mystery of Cardinal Coligny. Coligny, a French ex-catholic cardinal and a convert to Protestantism, had fled France for the English court after the beginning of the wars of religion and the persecutions of the Huguenots in France. He was excomunicated soon after by the French parliament and an order for his arrest was published. Coligny spent the next decade gaining support for the French protestant cause at Queen Elizabeth’s court, and by the autumn of 1570 was about to set out to La Rochelle, the Huguenot stronghold on the mainland, but was prevented from crossing twice by bad weather. 

He then fell ill, and died shortly after while staying at Meister Omers, with his wife insisting he was poisoned by his servant on orders from the French government, who vanished shortly after the tragedy. A formal inquiry was launched into the matter upon orders from Queen Elizabeth, but no concrete evidence could be found on the matter.