A Tale of Two Cities

History

The University of Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world – so old, in fact, that no one knows precisely when it was founded. Teaching began as far back as the 11th century and the institution grew rapidly after 1167 after King Henry II banned English students from going to Paris to study instead.

The town of Oxford was established in the 9th century when Alfred the Great created a fortified network of burghs across England. Sitting at the junction of the rivers Cherwell and Thames, it soon became one of the largest in England and King Charles I briefly moved parliament here during the English Civil War in 1644.

For centuries, Cambridge was a far smaller settlement, only finally gaining city status in 1951, even