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Home / Periods / Plantagenet England / Thirteenth-Century Oxford and the Early University

Phase

Thirteenth-Century Oxford and the Early University

c. 1200–1300 CE

During the thirteenth century Oxford developed from a loose concentration of masters and students into a more recognisable university community. Teaching was organised through halls, religious houses and emerging colleges, while chancellors and masters negotiated privileges with bishops, kings and the town. Students came from across Britain and continental Europe to study arts, theology, canon law and medicine.

The university’s growth created persistent tension. Clerical scholars claimed legal and economic privileges that townspeople resented, and disputes could escalate into riots, assaults and collective departures. Oxford also contained monasteries, friaries, royal officials, merchants and a significant Jewish community whose position was made increasingly precarious by taxation, debt policy and anti-Jewish hostility.

Intellectually, the century brought debate over Aristotle, scholastic method, natural philosophy and experiment. Figures such as Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon and Thomas de Cantilupe connect Oxford learning to wider church and political networks.

Related people for Thirteenth-Century Oxford and the Early University

Edward I of England1239–1307 Henry III of England1207–1272 Kublai Khan1215–1294 Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester1208–1265

Series

Series about Thirteenth-Century Oxford and the Early University (1 series)

William Falconer Medieval Mysteries in Order

by Ian Morson 9 books 4.2(1,415)

The William Falconer mysteries follow a Regent Master at the early University of Oxford between 1261 and 1275. Falconer approaches murder through observation, logic and experiment at a time when natural philosophy, Aristotelian teaching and church authority are contested. His cases involve students, clerics, royal officials, theatrical companies,…