A portion of drawing depicting seven men on gallows (Wikimedia Commons)

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How a Murder and Lynching Helped Create Cambridge University

Early 13th-century events led members of Oxford University to flee

Tim Gebhart
Published in
5 min readJan 28, 2022

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Although founded in the 12th and 13th centuries, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge are among today’s most prestigious universities. Oxford is the oldest English-speaking university and Cambridge is the second oldest; they rank second and fourth among the world’s oldest universities. Yet it was a murder in Oxford that helped spur Cambridge’s existence.

Oxford University developed gradually in the 12th century as a loose association of masters and scholars, according to the multi-volume A History of the County of Oxford. There was no physical campus. Teachers, called masters, gave lectures in whatever space they could find. Students, called scholars, lived among the town’s residents. Because most of the students were clerics, they were also known as clerks.

Both the state and the church granted privileges to masters and scholars, which allowed them to regulate themselves and be free from secular control. Such privileges, the economic disparity between townspeople and university members, and students drinking, fighting, and the like led to conflicts between the university and town residents. This “town and gown” problem still exists today in college towns.

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Exploring History
Exploring History

Published in Exploring History

Exploring History is a publication about history. Instead of focusing on any particular time period of history, we explore anything about the past that helps our readers understand the world they live in today. We pay special attention to historiographical rigor and balance.

Tim Gebhart
Tim Gebhart

Written by Tim Gebhart

Retired Lawyer. Book Addict. History Buff. Lifelong South Dakotan. Blog: prairieprogressive.com

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