Editing University of Oxford (section)

=== Founding ===
[[File:Oxford - Balliol College - geograph.org.uk - 1329613.jpg|thumb|[[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol]], one of Oxford's oldest colleges]]
The University of Oxford's foundation date is unknown.<ref name="Preface">{{Cite web |title=Preface: Constitution and Statute-making Powers of the University |url=https://governance.admin.ox.ac.uk/legislation/preface-constitution-and-statute-making-powers-of-the-university |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240414213449/https://governance.admin.ox.ac.uk/legislation/preface-constitution-and-statute-making-powers-of-the-university |archive-date=14 April 2024 |access-date=4 January 2014 |publisher=University of Oxford |language=en-GB |publication-place=[[Oxford]]}}</ref> In the 14th century, the historian [[Ranulf Higden]] wrote that the university was founded in the 10th century by [[Alfred the Great]], but this story is apocryphal.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Firth |first=Matthew |date=2024 |title=What's in a Name? Tracing the Origins of Alfred's 'the Great' |journal=English Historical Review |volume=139 |issue=596 |pages=1–32 |doi-access=free |doi=10.1093/ehr/ceae078 |issn=1477-4534 }}</ref> It is known that teaching at Oxford existed in some form as early as 1096, but it is unclear when the university came into being.<ref name="OxHist"/> Scholar [[Theobald of Étampes]] lectured at Oxford in the early 1100s.

It grew quickly from 1167 when English students returned from the [[University of Paris]].<ref name="OxHist"/><!-- Note it is unclear whether the King ordered them to leave, or if Paris expelled foreigners. Some dispute that such an event even happened, or if it did, suggest it didn't affect much. Better analysis and citation of this is needed.--> The historian [[Gerald of Wales]] lectured to such scholars in 1188, and the first known foreign scholar, [[Emo of Friesland]], arrived in 1190. The head of the university had the title of [[chancellor (education)|chancellor]] from at least 1201, and the masters were recognised as a ''universitas'' or corporation in 1231.<ref name="OxHist"/><ref name="Early schools">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AkJO3TAxMtwC |title=The History of the University of Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-19-951011-5 |last=Hackett |first=M. B. |editor-last=Catto |editor-first=J. I. |volume=I: The Early Oxford Schools |page=49 |chapter=2 The University as a Corporate Body |access-date=14 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927195431/https://books.google.com/books?id=AkJO3TAxMtwC |archive-date=27 September 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref> The university was granted a royal charter in 1248 during the reign of King [[Henry III of England|Henry III]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ballard |first1=Adolphus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Qc2l3vpLagC&pg=PA222 |title=British Borough Charters 1216–1307 |last2=Tait |first2=James |date=31 October 2010 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-01034-4 |page=222 |language=la |access-date=13 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307161615/https://books.google.com/books?id=2Qc2l3vpLagC&pg=PA222 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |url-status=live}}</ref><!-- Please try to find a better reference than this. --> After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled from the violence to [[Cambridge]], later forming the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref name="Early records"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Davies |first=Mark |date=4 November 2010 |title='To lick a Lord and thrash a cad': Oxford 'Town & Gown' |work=BBC News |publisher=BBC |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9158000/9158705.stm |url-status=live |access-date=3 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104002457/http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/oxford/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9158000/9158705.stm |archive-date=4 January 2014}}</ref>

The students associated together on the basis of geographical origins, into two '[[Nation (university)|nations]]', representing the North (''northerners'' or ''Boreales'', who included the [[English people]] from north of the [[River Trent]] and the [[Scots people|Scots]]) and the South (''southerners'' or ''Australes'', who included English people from south of the Trent, the Irish and the [[Welsh people|Welsh]]).<ref name="British History">{{Cite book |title=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3: The University of Oxford |date=1954 |publisher=Victoria County History |editor-last=Salter |editor-first=H. E. |location=London |pages=1–38 |chapter=The University of Oxford |access-date=15 January 2014 |editor-last2=Lobel |editor-first2=Mary D. |chapter-url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol3/pp1-38 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116132507/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63862 |archive-date=16 January 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rashdall |first=H. |title=Universities of Europe |pages=iii, 55–60}}</ref> In later centuries, geographical origins continued to influence many students' affiliations when membership of a [[Colleges of the University of Oxford|college]] or [[academic halls of the University of Oxford|hall]] became customary at Oxford. In addition, members of many [[religious order]]s, including [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]], [[Franciscan]]s, [[Carmelites]], and [[Augustinians]], settled in Oxford in the mid-13th century, gained influence and maintained houses or halls for students.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Harvp|Brooke|Highfield|1988}}</ref> At about the same time, private benefactors established colleges as self-contained scholarly communities. Among the earliest such founders were [[William of Durham]], who in 1249 endowed [[University College, Oxford|University College]],<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and [[John I de Balliol|John Balliol]], father of a future [[John of Scotland|King of Scots]]; [[Balliol College, Oxford|Balliol College]] bears his name.<ref name="British History"/> Another founder, [[Walter de Merton]], a [[Lord Chancellor]] of England and afterwards [[Bishop of Rochester]], devised a series of regulations for college life;<ref>{{Cite book |last=Percival |first=Edward France |title=The Foundation Statutes of Merton College, Oxford}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Henry Julian |title=Merton College, Oxford |date=1906}}</ref> [[Merton College, Oxford|Merton College]] thereby became the model for such establishments at Oxford,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Martin |first1=G. H. |title=A history of Merton College, Oxford |last2=Highfield |first2=J. R. L. |date=1997}}</ref> as well as at Cambridge. Thereafter, an increasing number of students lived in colleges rather than in halls and religious houses.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

In 1333–1334, an attempt by some dissatisfied Oxford scholars to found a new [[University of Stamford|university at Stamford, Lincolnshire]], was blocked by the universities of Oxford and Cambridge petitioning King [[Edward III]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McKisack |first=May |title=The Fourteenth Century 1307–1399 |date=1963 |series=Oxford History of England |page=501}}</ref> Thereafter, until the 1820s, no new universities were allowed to be founded in England, even in London; thus, Oxford and Cambridge had a duopoly, which was unusual in large western European countries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boorstin |first=Daniel J. |url=http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/learn/99AHLstuff.htm/Assignments.htm |title=The Americans; the Colonial Experience |date=1958 |publisher=Vintage |pages=[http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/learn/99AHLstuff.htm/Boorstin.htm 171–184] |author-link=Daniel J. Boorstin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100624022409/http://beatl.barnard.columbia.edu/learn/99AHLstuff.htm/Boorstin.htm |archive-date=24 June 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Harvp|Brooke|Highfield|1988|page=56}}</ref>