University of Cambridge (1209): Founded by Scholars From Oxford

The University of Cambridge traces its beginning to 1209, when a group of masters and students fled a violent dispute in Oxford and settled in the small market town of Cambridge in eastern England. The community survived, gained royal and papal protection over the following decades and founded its first college, Peterhouse, in 1284, growing into one of the world’s oldest and most famous universities.

Background: universities in the 12th and 13th centuries

Medieval universities were not founded by a single act. They grew from groups of teachers and students who organised themselves as a guild, or universitas, to protect their interests. The earliest examples were Bologna and Paris, followed in England by Oxford, which grew quickly after about 1167.

Scholars were technically clerics, subject to Church courts, and often clashed with townspeople over rents, food prices and crime. Because they owned few buildings, a dissatisfied university could simply leave and set up elsewhere.

The Oxford conflict of 1209

In 1209 a woman in Oxford was killed, reportedly by a student who then fled. The townsmen seized his housemates, two or three scholars, and hanged them, apparently with the approval of King John’s officials. England was then under a papal interdict and the king was in conflict with the Church, so the clerks could expect little protection.

In protest the masters suspended teaching and the scholars dispersed. Some went to Reading, some to Paris, and some to Cambridge. Why Cambridge was chosen is unclear; it had a castle, a river port, several religious houses and perhaps existing schools, and some of the migrating masters may have come from the area.

Most scholars returned to Oxford in 1214 after the townspeople made a settlement with the papal legate. But a group stayed in Cambridge, and their community continued.

Recognition and growth

By about 1225 the Cambridge scholars had a chancellor, the head of the university, which shows they were organised as a guild. In 1231 King Henry III issued writs protecting the scholars, ordering that lodgings be assessed at fair rents and that every student be enrolled under a recognised master, to keep out troublemakers posing as clerks.

Pope Gregory IX granted privileges in 1233, including protection from being summoned to distant church courts. In 1318 Pope John XXII confirmed Cambridge as a studium generale, a university whose degrees were recognised across Christendom.

Teaching followed the usual medieval pattern. Students first studied the liberal arts, especially logic, before advancing to theology, canon law, civil law or medicine. The Franciscan and Dominican friars arrived in the 1220s and 1230s and became important teachers.

Peterhouse and the first colleges

In the early years students lived in rented rooms or in hostels run by masters. In 1280 Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, placed a group of scholars in the Hospital of St John. In 1284 he moved them to two houses next to the church of St Peter, giving rise to the name Peterhouse, the oldest college in Cambridge.

More colleges followed in the 14th century, including King’s Hall (1317), Michaelhouse (1324), Clare (1326), Pembroke (1347), Gonville Hall (1348), Trinity Hall (1350) and Corpus Christi (1352). Colleges were endowed communities where fellows lived and studied; over time they came to dominate the university.

Relations with the town remained tense. During the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 townspeople attacked university property and burned its charters and records.

Student life in medieval Cambridge

Students usually arrived at about 14 to 16 years of age. Most were from modest families and hoped for careers in the Church, royal service or law. Lectures were given in Latin, and books were scarce and expensive, so teaching relied on masters reading and explaining set texts, followed by formal disputations in which students argued for and against a question.

A bachelor’s degree in arts took about four years, and the master’s degree several more. The higher degrees in theology took many years beyond that. Many students never completed a degree at all. Discipline was a constant concern, and the chancellor’s court dealt with brawls, debts and quarrels with townspeople.

Myths and facts

In the later Middle Ages, as rivalry with Oxford grew, Cambridge writers invented much older origins. One legend claimed the university was founded by a Spanish prince named Cantaber centuries before Christ; another credited the 7th-century East Anglian king Sigebert. In 1568 the scholar John Caius defended such claims in a book on the antiquity of the university. Historians reject these stories: there is no evidence of an organised university at Cambridge before 1209.

Timeline

• 1209: Scholars leave Oxford after the hanging of students; some settle in Cambridge.
• c. 1225: A chancellor of the university is first recorded.
• 1231: Henry III issues writs protecting the Cambridge scholars.
• 1233: Pope Gregory IX grants privileges to the university.
• 1284: Hugh de Balsham founds Peterhouse, the first college.
• 1318: Pope John XXII confirms Cambridge as a studium generale.
• 1381: Townspeople burn university records during the Peasants’ Revolt.

Why it matters

Cambridge shows how medieval universities were born not from grand plans but from mobile communities of scholars seeking safety and privileges. From a migration of refugees from Oxford grew an institution that later shaped science, theology and politics, from the Reformation to Isaac Newton and modern research.