Борьба университетской и городской корпораций: столкновения школяров и горожан (на примере Оксфорда и Кембриджа XIII—XIV вв.)
The struggle of university and city corporations: clashes of schoolchildren and townspeople (on the example of Oxford and Cambridge of the XIII—XIV centuries)

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the contradictions between university and city corporations in Oxford and Cambridge. The main reason for the conflicts was the strengthening of the position of the academic community and the infringement of the rights of citizens. These processes were taking place from the middle of the thirteenth century for a century with the support of the papal curia and, to an even greater extent, on the part of the royal power. It was the royal charters issued to the university corporations of Oxford and Cambridge that greatly limited the rights of the city authorities. This situation, of course, did not suit the townspeople, and this in turn led to bloody conflicts between the city and university corporations. They were most clearly manifested in the events of the middle of the XIV century. In Oxford in 1355, a riot on St. Scholasticism’s Day led to the deaths of dozens of people and the looting of the property of university colleges. However, the city authorities, headed by the mayor, were on the same side with the university administration. The events in Cambridge in 1381 took place against the backdrop of a peasant uprising. This, in turn, influenced the specifics of events in this city, where the municipal authorities, headed by the mayor, were the initiators of the revolt of the townspeople. It should be noted that in both cases, the townspeople turned to the peasants of neighboring villages for help. The consequences for the city corporation and the university of Oxford and Cambridge were the same. The firm and consistent support of university corporations on the part of the royal authorities in the confrontation with the city contributed to the further settlement of disputes by peaceful means. The work uses a comparative-historical method, which involves the identification of the main causes and specific characteristics of individual collisions in the university’s towns.

• Details
• Contents