Magdalene counted some of the most prominent men in the realm among its benefactors, including Britain's premier noble the Duke of Norfolk , the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Chief Justice Christopher Wray. Audley's successors in the mastership and as benefactors of the college were, however, prone to dire ends; several benefactors were arraigned at various stages on charges of high treason and executed. The college remains one of the smaller in the university, numbering around undergraduate and graduate students.
It has maintained strong academic performance over the past decade, achieving an average of ninth in the Tompkins Table and coming second in Magdalene is home to the Pepys Library , which holds the collection of rare books and manuscripts that belonged to the English diarist Samuel Pepys , an alumnus of the college.
Magdalene College was first founded in as Monk's Hostel , which hosted Benedictine student monks. The secluded location of the hostel was chosen because it was separated from the town centre by the River Cam and protected by Cambridge Castle. The main buildings of the college were constructed in the s under the leadership of John de Wisbech, then Abbot of Crowland.
In the 16th century, the Church of England broke away from the Papacy. With the subsequent Dissolution of the Monasteries , the parent abbey of Buckingham College, Crowland Abbey , was dissolved. However, the college remained in operation. Walden Abbey, one of the Benedictine abbeys associated with Buckingham College, came into the possession of Thomas Audley after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Thomas Audley died in aged 56, only two years after he re-founded the college.
This property would have brought enormous income had it been retained by the college. The loss of the Aldgate property left the college in extreme poverty, and the street front of the college was only completed in the s under the generosity of Christopher Wray , then Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench. The transaction was "almost certainly illegal", and was contested multiple times without success.
