While domestic business was conducted between the Corn Mar ket and the High, within the walls, the wool fair and strangers' market, outside the north gate, had, about 1200, a church of St. Giles, its patron. Beyond it lay the leper house (later St. Giles' parsonage), and east of it other establishments mainly for strangers, the Scots college of John de Balliol, Durham college (afterwards Trinity), a Cistercian house (afterwards St. Ber nard's, then St. John Baptist's college) ; and, when Beaumont palace was granted by Edward II. to the Carmelites, the Bene dictines occupied the site they had left with the older "cottages" of Worcester college. Other Cistercians built Rewley abbey be yond Hythe bridge; Dominican and Franciscan houses in the poorer south-west quarter leave their names in Blackfriar street, Preacher's bridge and Friars wharf ; and the Austin Canons of St. Frideswide acquired endowments for teaching and added the Latin chapel to their church. By the mid 13th century then mediaeval Oxford had taken permanent shape. The walls were reconstructed, and probably extended from an older line in Cat street, to include St. Peter's in the east, with an East gate span ning the High near the hotel of that name, between the splendid north-east stretch of wall conserved by New college, and the south-east angle around Merton.
But before this, in the old north-east angle, now occupied by the Bodleian and Radcliffe libraries, "School street" traversed a kind of "Latin quarter" frequented by wandering scholars, whose universitas or guild comes into history with the visit of Giraldus Cambrensis in 1185, and the nomination of a chancellor in (See OXFORD UNIVERSITY.) On the south frontage of this resort of scholars, St. Mary's church became their meeting hall and lecture room; its bell tower and spire, congregation house and library were built about 132o; a new nave and aisles replaced, in 1388, the old Faculty chapels; and the Renaissance porch marks Archbishop Laud's reconstitution of the university, and still dates "in parviso" the certificates of satisfactory "responsions" of nov ices to the "masters of the schools" who controlled their admit tance. For the history of this university, and the several fortunes of its colleges, see below.
The 13th century was the great age of mediaeval Oxford. Sev eral parliaments were held here, notably the "Mad Parliament" of 1256, with its "Provisions of Oxford." But the growth of the university, and the wealth and influence of its colleges, were un favourable to normal development as a mediaeval borough, with its guilds of craftsmen and traders. The "liberties" of the uni versity, in relation with the city, were defined by charter in 1248, and revised in favour of the "chancellor, masters and scholars" after the town-and-gown riots of St. Scholastica's day, and other occasions; in 1523 the university was even allowed to incorporate all kinds of tradesmen, exempting them from civic jurisdiction. These unusual but once necessary provisions were only revoked or became obsolete with the modern transformation of the university itself, which retains, however, magisterial au thority over its students, a censorship of public entertainments, and direct representation on the City Council and Guardians.
The Renaissance and the Reformation affected Oxford mainly through academical controversies, the foundation of a fresh se ries of colleges, and the creation by Henry VIII. of a bishopric, with St. Frideswide's church as its cathedral, and a chapter, the dean and canons of Christ church, economized out of Wolsey's "Cardinal college." But in the Civil War, Oxford's strategical
importance made it the Royalist headquarters. The king retired hither after defeats at Edgehill, Newbury and Naseby ; Prince Rupert made hence his raids in 1643. Not till May 1644 was the king forced by the concerted advances of the earl of Essex and Sir W. Waller to evacuate this fortress, and after Cropredy bridge he re-occupied it. Only in May 1646, when all other strongholds were lost and Charles himself had escaped in dis guise, was Oxford besieged by Fairfax and surrendered on June 24. The extent of the city at this time beyond the mediaeval wall is outlined by traces of the "Kings Mound," enclosing Holywell, Wadham college (161I) and St. Giles. Though the university was mainly Royalist, the citizens had been secretly Parliamentarian ; on both sides were losses, and party feelings were disastrous; and though Cromwell himself was chancellor (1651-57), his suc cessor, Gilbert Sheldon, had much work to restore efficiency; his monument is the Sheldonian theatre, for the business and cere monies of the reconciled masters; the Clarendon press and the Ashmolean museum, Christ church library and Peckwater quad rangle, large additions to New college and Magdalen, and the total rebuilding of Queen's college, are academical counterpart to a general rebuilding of mediaeval and Tudor Oxford, in the next half century. Though Charles II. held a parliament here in 1681, the restored Stuarts temporarily alienated university loyalty, but in the 18th century the university became Jacobite, and the city strongly Hanoverian. This feud, however, was reconciled at the visit of George III. in 1785, and Oxford passed out of national politics. The city, however, grew but little, until the reform of the university in J858 admitted "married dons," while restricting membership of congregation to residents within LI m. from Car fax. The obstinate opposition of the university to Brunel's project for a "great western" railway system radiating from Oxford ; and the restrictive policy of St. John's college, which owned almost all land north of St. Giles', had already aggravated urban conges tion. The modern Oxford which emerged includes : (I ) northward, a compact residential area, not wholly academic, along the Ban bury and Woodstock roads beyond St. Giles', Keble, the Museum and laboratories, and the university parks and college playing fields; (2) eastward, beyond Magdalen bridge, the diverging roads to Marston, Headington, Cowley and Iffley, already enclosed fan shaped suburbs mainly of small dwellings, when the establishment of the Morris motor works at Cowley introduced a new and stren uous element into Oxford's industrial life, hitherto almost con fined to the Clarendon press and private printing firms, robe mak ing and tailoring, and the distribution of local dainties, sausages, marmalade, and the like; (3) to west and south, "ribbon develop ment" along the trunk roads has disfigured the water meadows without adding to health or convenience. The real suburban areas here lie beyond, around or upon the Boar's-hill-Cumnor-Wytham upland. The Oxford Preservation Trust, established almost too late in 1927, a town planning scheme, 1925, and a new Incorpo ration Act, 1928, are attempts to adjust to the strict and peculiar circumstances of the site and its past, the requirements of "post war" Oxford, with its partially modernized university, its intermi nable "summer schools" and vacation-conferences, its growing in dustries, trade, and professional interests, and the perennial stream of tourists. ( J. L. MY.)