Editing Merton College, Oxford (section)

==History==
===Foundation and origins===
[[File:Walter merton d1277 painting.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Walter de Merton]], ({{c.|1205}} – 27 October 1277), founder of Merton]]
[[File:Henry Savile.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Henry Savile (Bible translator)|Henry Savile]], Warden from 1585 to 1621, had great influence on the development of the college]]

Merton College was founded in 1264 by [[Walter de Merton]], [[Lord Chancellor]] and [[Bishop of Rochester]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The history of Merton |url=https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/about/history-merton |access-date=2022-11-01 |website=Merton College, Oxford |language=en-GB}}</ref> It has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford, a claim which is disputed between Merton College, [[Balliol College]] and [[University College, Oxford|University College]]. One argument for Merton's claim is that it was the first college to be provided with ''statutes'', a constitution governing the college set out at its founding. Merton's statutes date back to 1264, whereas neither Balliol nor University College had statutes until the 1280s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hastings |first1=Rashdall |title=The Universities Of Europe In The Middle Ages, Vol. 3 |date=1895 |publisher=Oxford UP |location=Oxford |pages=177, 181, 192 |url=https://archive.org/details/universitiesofeu03hast/page/192/mode/2up?q= |access-date=31 Jan 2022}}</ref>
<!-- much more to go in here – Visitations from Cantuar – Development of secular study esp. mathematics – development of the library – Wyclif – Reformation and the destruction and restocking of the library – Savile and Bodley -->

Merton has an unbroken line of [[List of Wardens of Merton College, Oxford|wardens]] dating back to 1264. Of these, many had great influence over the development of the college. [[Henry Savile (Bible translator)|Henry Savile]] was one notable leader who led the college to flourish in the early 17th century by extending its buildings and recruiting new fellows.<ref name="DNB Henry Savile">{{cite DNB|wstitle= Savile, Henry (1549-1622) |volume= 50 |last= Carr  |first=  William |author-link=  William Carr (biographer)|pages= 369-270 |year= |short=1}}</ref>

In 1333, masters from Merton were among those who left Oxford in an attempt to found [[University of Stamford|a new university at Stamford]]. The leader of the rebels was reported to be one William de [[Barnby Dun|Barnby]], a Yorkshireman who had been fellow and bursar of Merton College.<ref name=leach>{{cite book|title=Victoria County History of Lincolnshire|volume=ii|year=1906|chapter=Stamford University|first=Arthur Francis|last=Leach|authorlink=Arthur Francis Leach|pages=468–74|url=https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/The_Victoria_History_of_the_County_of_Lincoln_Volume_2.pdf}}</ref>

===St Alban Hall===
{{Main|St Alban Hall, Oxford}}
[[File:St Alban Hall.jpg|thumb|right|St Alban Hall, pictured in 1837, engraving by John Le Keux from a drawing by F. Mackenzie]]

St Alban Hall was an independent [[academic halls of the University of Oxford|academic hall]] owned by the convent of [[Littlemore]] until it was purchased by Merton College in 1548 following the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolution of the convent]]. It continued as a separate institution until it was finally annexed by the college in 1881, on the resignation of its last principal, [[William Charles Salter]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/aboutmerton/library4.shtml|title= St Alban Hall, Library & Archives, Merton College website|access-date= 20 July 2009|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101029190910/http://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/aboutmerton/library4.shtml|archive-date= 29 October 2010|url-status= dead}}</ref>

===Parliamentarian sympathies in the Civil War===
During the [[English Civil War]], Merton was the only Oxford college to side with [[Parliament of England|Parliament]]. This was due to an earlier dispute between the Warden, [[Nathaniel Brent]], and the [[Visitor]] of Merton and [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[William Laud]]. Brent had been [[Vicar-General]] to Laud, who had held a visitation of Merton College in 1638, and insisted on many radical reforms: his letters to Brent were couched in haughty and decisive language.<ref name = DNB />

Brent, a parliamentarian, moved to London at the start of the Civil War: the college's buildings were commandeered by the [[Royalist]]s and used to house much of [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]'s court when Oxford was the Royalists' capital. This included the King's French wife, [[Queen Henrietta Maria]], who was housed in or near what is now the Queen's Room, the room above the arch between Front and Fellows' Quads. A portrait of Charles I hangs near the Queen's Room as a reminder of the role it played in his court.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Brent gave evidence against Laud in his trial in 1644. After Laud was executed on 10 January 1645, [[John Greaves]], one of the subwardens of Merton and [[Savilian Professor of Astronomy]], drew up a petition for Brent's removal from office; Brent was deposed by Charles I on 27 January 1646 and replaced by [[William Harvey]].<ref name = DNB />

[[Thomas Fairfax]] captured Oxford for the Parliamentarians after its [[Siege of Oxford#Third siege|third siege]] in 1646 and Brent returned from London. However, in 1647, a parliamentary commission (visitation) was set up by Parliament "for the correction of offences, abuses, and disorders" in the University of Oxford. Nathaniel Brent was the president of the visitors.<ref name = DNB>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Brent, Nathaniel|volume=6}}, pp. 262–4</ref> Greaves was accused of sequestrating the college's plate and funds for [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]].<ref name=Ward>[[John Ward (academic)|Ward, John]] (1740). [https://books.google.com/books?id=jp5bAAAAQAAJ ''The Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, to which is prefixed the Life of the Founder, Sir Thomas Gresham''], pp. 144–146 London: John Moore. Google Books full view, retrieved 10 May 2011</ref> Despite a deposition from his brother [[Thomas Greaves (orientalist)|Thomas]], Greaves had lost both his Merton fellowship and his Savilian chair by 9 November 1648.<ref>{{cite book |title=Biographia Britannica Or, The Lives of the Most Eminent Persons who Have Flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the Earliest Ages, Down to the Present Times, Vol. 4 |date=1757 |location=London |page=2275 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y4lDAAAAcAAJ&dq=biographica+britannica+greaves&pg=PA2274 |access-date=31 Jan 2022}}</ref>
<!-- more needed here too – Antony Wood -- 18th century Merton – gentlemen commoners -- 19th cent figures – Oxford Movement – rise of the undergraduates – Myrmidon Club (also Myrmaids - female equivalent of the Myrmidon club + the Ancien Régime) -- War time Merton (both wars) -->