Oxford, in the year 1139, was the place fixed on by King Stephen for the meeting of a general assembly,t at which a quarrel arising between the retainers of the Bishop of Salisbury, and those of Alan of Bretagne, Earl of Rich mond, one of the knights of the latter was killed, and many wounded on both sides. But the circumstance which has been more peculiarly recorded in English history as con nected with Oxford, is the escape of the Empress Matilda, who, in 1142, retired to Oxford castle to await the arrival of expected succours from Normandy. Stephen, looking upon this as a favourable juncture, hastened thither in ex pectation of having his rival in his power, and having de stroyed the greater part of the city, laid close siege to the fortress on which she relied for safety. The siege was carried on with great vigour and diligence, and the only hope of avoiding the impending disaster rested in the ap proach of winter, which it was thought likely would com pel her adversary to retire. Stephen, however, protested, that neither the hope of advantage, nor the fear of detri ment, should induce him to abandon the siege, and the garrison had already been reduced to the last extremities for want of provision, when Matilda escaped, in a manner at that time considered marvellous, and which even now we cannot contemplate without surprise and admiration. It was now Advent, the river frozen, the fields inundated, and the ice covered with snow. Taking advantage of a dark night, she ventured from her strong hold, herself clad in white linen, and attended with four knights, dis guised in a similar manner, she escaped through the pos tern gate of the castle, passed the river undiscovered, and, walking on foot to Abingdon, went from thence to Wel lingford, where she was greeted with no common joy. In 115.1 another great council was held at Oxford, in which all the nobility of England did homage to Henry, reserv ing only their fealty to Stephen for the remainder of his life. It vt ould far exceed our limits were we to mention the several kings who have made Oxford their place of retirement at one time or at others of active political con sultation, or to record the various transactions that have taken place there connected with the history of the coun try. The palace of Beaumont, built by Henry 1., and at which Henry II. chiefly resided, is celebrated as having been the birth place of King Richard I., and the residence of succeeding princes, till Edward 11. gave it to the Car melites, who had three schools here, and a spacious church. It was situated in the north suburb of the city, and the only present remains are portions of two walls with an old door-way, and a pointed and circular window. In digging a level for a new street, from St. Giles's to Worcester College, to be named Beaumont Street,(which is the property of St. John's College,) many human bones were discovered, and some few coins, but none of a very early date.
During the civil wars, Oxford was the scene of many important transactions ; after the battle of Edge-hill, King Charles 1., with his two sons, ''and Prince Rupert, and Prince Maurice, his nephews, came to Oxford. His Ma jesty, with his court and army, entered the city on the 29th of October, 1642, and he may be said to have made it his head quarters, till he delivered himself up to the Scots at Newark in 1646. The attachment of the inhabi tants to the Stuart family was firm to the last. In the reigns of William and Anne, the majority was composed of sturdy Jacobites, and to this day one of the oldest and most respectable persons in the place shows, with no lit tle pride and veneration, the arm-chair in which the pre tender sat when he visited Thomas Rowney, the honest (as the term went) member for Oxford city.
The city of Oxford is a corporate body, consisting of a mayor, high steward, recorder, four aldermen, eight as sistants, too bailiffs, two chamberlains, and twenty-four common council-men, who appoint a town clerk and a so licitor. The mayor is chosen annually from the aldermen or assistants, and this, as well as all other offices, is filled according to the suffrages of the freemen, who amount to about 1600.
The UNIVERSITY of Oxford is undoubtedly of very high antiquity. It has even been contended that there were schools here in the British and Saxon times, and that king Alfred only restored these, already gone to decay in con sequence of the barbarity and turbulence of these days, and causing them to be made places for public and gene ral study, was therefore considered as the founder of the university. That king Alfred, who, we know, resided in Oxford, was a benefactor to the schools there, we can have no doubt ; and indeed his own literary character, and the attentions he paid to science and learning, make it more than probable that he gave every encouragement to a place peculiarly devoted to education. " We will and command, (says he, in one of his public acts,) that all free men of our kingdom whosoever, possessing two hides of land, shall bring up their sons in learning till they be fif teen years of age at least, that so they may be trained up to know God, to be men of understanding, and to live hap pily ; for, of a man that is born free, and yet unliteratc, we repute no otherwise than of a beast or a brainless body, and a very sot." In the absence, however, of all satisfac tory records, it would be useless to recapitulate the argu ments for and against the antiquity and precedence of this university ; suffice it to say, that it has been known and recognised as such for a long succession of ages, and go verned by laws and regulations, and endowed with privi leges and immunities, which were acknowledged by the sovereign and the courts of law during a period of many centuries. The statutes of the university were drawn up from time to time by the chancellor, his commissary, and the senior part of the university, and these being confirm ed sometimes by papal, at others by royal authority, were entered into books appropriated to the use of the vice chancellor and proctors, and were at all times cal ried to convocations, and other meetings for public business, for reference and authorities.
In process of time the code of regulations, thus formed and thus preserved, became, as may be well imagined, confused and contradictory ; nor was it till the chancellor ship of Archbishop Laud that a regular and well digested body of statutes was compiled. Those now in force were selected or reformed, after a careful investigation into the ancient charters and books of precedent, by a delegacy of nine doctors, and seven other the most learned and expe rienced members of convocation, who, after numerous meetings and much deliberation, produced the volume en titled, Corpus Statutorunz Unit'ersitatis Oxoniensis, which was agreed to by the university at large, and finally receiv ed the royal approbation. The copy, printed upon vellum, and presented to king Charles the First, is preserved in the British Museum, and contains a Latin address in MS. to the king, by which it appears that his majesty had him self suggested the propriety of the measure, and fully ap proved of the mode in which it had been executed.