The University City of Oxford [antikvár]

THE ORIGIN OF OXFORD A BRIEF HISTORY OF OXFORD Saxon Princess Frideswide is the legendary foundress of Oxford. SAXON OXFORD 727 Priory of St Frideswide founded. NORMAN OXFORD 1070 Castle built. 1121 Christ Church ('the house of Christ in Oxford') built on the site of Priory of St Frideswide. MEDIEVAL OXFORD 1157 Richard I born in Beaumont Place. 1193 First inn probably built on site of Golden Cross Courtyard. 1249 University College endowed. 1263 Balliol College founded. 1264 Merton College founded. 1314 Exeter College founded. 1326 Oriel College founded. 1341 The Queen's College founded. 1379 New College founded. 1427 Lincoln College founded. 1438 All Souls College founded. 1458 Magdalen College established. 1483 Divinity School finished. TUDOR OXFORD 1489 Completion of Duke Humphrey's library. 1509 Brasenose College founded. 1517 Corpus Christi College founded. 1546 Christ Church established by King Henry VIII. 1555 Trinity College and St John's College founded. Trial of Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley. Latimer and Ridley burned at the stake. 1571 Jesus College founded. 1602 Thomas Bodley restores Duke Humphrey's ruined library. STUART OXFORD 1612 Wadham College founded. 1624 Pembroke College founded. 1643-7 Convocation House built. 1664 Building of Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, begun. 1683 Ashmolean Museum founded by Elias Ashmole. GEORGIAN OXFORD 1729 Oxford the birthplace of Methodism. 1774 Covered Market opened. 1825 Oxford Union Society founded. VICTORIAN OXFORD <;.1833 Beginning of the Oxford Movement. 1861 The Radcliffe Camera began to be used as a reading room for the Bodleian Library. 1870 Keble College founded. 1874 Hertford College founded. MODERN TIMES 1963 St Catherine's College founded. 1981 Green College established. U'nhealthy and low-lying as the Romans evidently found it (they ignored it), Oxford was regarded as strategically important by the Saxons, who made a settlement near the junction of the rivers Thames and Cher-well. It became so important to them that in the fifty years before the Norman Conquest Oxford was said to have seen more of the English kings and their retinues than at any other time in its history. The earliest written reference to Oxford is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD 912, but a popular legend has the Saxon Princess Frideswide as the foundress. She wanted to become a nun and in trying to escape from a royal suitor hid in the woods (at Binsey); the suitor was struck blind, she prayed for his recovery and in gratitude founded a monastery in AD 727. Later, Christ Church ('the House of Christ in Oxford' and now usually referred to as 'The House') was built on the site of the Priory of St Frideswide (1121), and she was regarded as the Patron Saint of Oxford. The Normans built a castle at Oxford and the city continued to develop during the 12th century, but how, why or by whom the University was started is still a matter for debate and uncertainty. What sort of men came to study here at the time? In The Canterbury Tales THE UNIVERSITY CITY OF OXFORD Oxford is indeed well known by all manner of mortals. Here King Harold died, Richard the Lionheart was born, Henry V was educated, Elizabeth I was entertained and feted, and this is where William of Orange refused to eat anything for fear of being poisoned! Academic Oxford has nurtured politicians, clerics, poets, philosophers and scientists, to mention a few. Oxford has been home to generations of writers, artists and publishers - and car builders. As you visit the 'dreaming spires', the influence of all these, past and present, is evident all around you. The maps on pages 14 and 15 and the back cover will assist you in your search for the romance and reality of Oxford. .'•I''3 m