University of Cambridge ( foundend in 1209 )

By the late 12th century, the area was Cambridge's reputation already scientists and Canon, because of the monks from the nearby Ely Episcopal Church. However, it was an accident at the University of Oxford, which is likely to have formed the establishment of the university: the execution of two Oxford scientists by the city authorities for the death of a woman, without consultation with the church authorities, who usually take precedence (and pardon the scientists) in such a situation , but it was at that time in conflict with King John. Oxford University went in a commentary in the protest, most scientists and moved to cities such as Paris, reading, and Cambridge. After Oxford University reformed after several years, enough of scientists at Cambridge to form the nucleus of the new University remained. In order to claim precedence, it is common to Cambridge to track its founding in 1231 to the charter from King Henry III granted the right to discipline its members (additional) is prohibitive trahi, and exemption from some taxes. (Oxford will not receive a similar strengthen until 1248.).

Bull in 1233 by Pope Gregory IX gave graduates from Cambridge University the right to teach "everywhere in the Christian world." After he described Cambridge as Studium Generale in a message from Pope Nicholas IV in 1290 and confirmed as such in the Bull of Pope John XXII in 1318, it became common for researchers from universities in other European medieval to visit Cambridge to study or to give lectures.

Foundation of the colleges

Colleges of the University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself. Schools were endowed scholarships scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels. The hostels were gradually absorbed by the universities through the centuries, but have left some indicators of their time, such as the name of Garret Hostel Lane.

Hugh Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, first university of Cambridge, in 1284. Many universities were founded during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, but colleges continued to be established over the centuries to modern times, although there was a gap of 204 years between the founding of Sidney Sussex in 1596 and Downing College in 1800. newest creation is Robinson, built at the end of 1970. However, Homerton College reached the entire category University College March 2010, so it is the newest full college (which was formerly an "Approved Society" affiliated with the university).

In the Middle Ages, many universities were founded so that their members would pray for the souls of the founders, and often associated with chapels or abbeys. A change in the approach to corporate bodies occurred in 1536 with the dissolution of the monasteries. King Henry VIII ordered the university to disband its Faculty of Canon Law and to stop teaching "scholastic philosophy". In response, colleges changed their curricula away from canon law and towards the classics, the Bible, and mathematics.

Almost a century later, the university was at the center of a Protestant schism. Many nobles, intellectuals and even commoners saw the ways of the Church of England for being too similar to the Catholic Church and was used by the crown to usurp the legitimate powers of the counties. East Anglia was the center of what became the Puritan movement and at Cambridge, was particularly strong at Emmanuel, St. Catherine Hall, Sidney Sussex and Christ's College. many "non-conformist" graduates who greatly influenced by the social position or pulpit, the approximately 20,000 Puritans who went to New England and especially the Colony of Massachusetts Bay during the decade great migration of the decade occurred 1630. Oliver Cromwell, Parliamentary commander during the English Civil War and the head of the English Commonwealth (1649-1660), attended Sidney Sussex.

Modern period

After the Law of the University of Cambridge formalizes the organizational structure of the university, studying many new topics such as theology, history and modern languages ​​was introduced. Required courses for new resources in the arts, architecture and archeology were generously donated by Richard Fitzwilliam Trinity College. Between 1896 and 1902, Downing College sold part of his land to build the Downing site, comprising new scientific laboratories of anatomy, genetics and geoscience. During the same period, the new site museums was raised, including the Cavendish Laboratory, which has since moved to West Cambridge Site, and other departments of chemistry and medicine.

Cambridge University began awarding doctorates in the first third of the 20th century first doctorate in mathematics from Cambridge was awarded in 1924.

In World War I, 13,878 members of the university served and 2,470 died. Teaching and fees earned, came almost to a stop and continued serious financial difficulties. As a result, the university received the first systematic state support in 1919 and a Royal Commission appointed in 1920 recommended that the university (but not schools) should receive an annual grant. After World War II, the university saw a rapid expansion in the number of students and places available; this was due in part to the success and popularity gained by many scientists of Cambridge.