Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Pembroke College is the third exisiting college (fifth overall: anticipated by St. Peter's House [Peterhouse], King's Hall, Michaelhouse and University Hall[pre-1340-ish]/Clare Hall[post-1340-ish]) founded in the University of Cambridge. The Foundress of the College was Mary de St Pol, daughter of Guy de Chatillon and wife of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. It was on Christmas Eve 1347 that Edward III of England granted her the licence for the foundation. The name of the college was Marie Valence Hall, at least at the very beginning of its existence. The original buildings comprised in a single court (now called First Court) all the component parts of a college - chapel, hall, kitchen and buttery, Master's lodgings, students' rooms - and the statutes provided for a manciple, a cook, a barber and a laundress. Both the founding of the College and the building of the chapel - the first College chapel in Cambridge - required the grant of a Papal Bull. Famous alumni of Pembroke College Thomas Gray (Poet) Ted Hughes (Poet) Eric Idle (Entertainer) Clive James (Novelist) William Pitt (Politician) Tom Sharpe (Novelist) Edmund Spenser (Poet) George Gabriel Stokes (Physicist) William Turner (Physician) External Links Official Website This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.