From the very beginning of the English Civil War in 1642, Oxford had an important role to play. Almost as soon as King Charles I left London, after negotiations with parliament over reform had broken down, the Vice Chancellor and students of Oxford University rallied in favour of the King. The University of Oxford had always been staunchly Royalist, and in 1642 it wasted little time in flaunting its Royalist colours following the outbreak of conflict between the King and Parliament. Immediately after the King published his proclamation for the suppression of the parliamentary ‘rebellion’, on 9th August 1642, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University, Dr Robert Pinke, embarked on military preparations in support of the King within the university. He organised various ‘privileged men’ and scholars of the University into improvised armed bands, which he subsequently subjected to a series of military drills and roll-calls in New College Quadrangle and along High Street.[1]
While the University mobilised in support of the King, the Town Council remained ambivalent. In the summer of 1642, the Mayor and Councillors wanted Oxford to remain neutral in the conflict, in order to minimise the damages which a long, protracted war between Parliament and the King could have on the city. Two MPs from Oxford, John Whistler and John Smith, expressed disapproval at the University’s attempts to organise and muster armed squadrons of Royalist scholars, and at the Deputy Vice Chancellor’s attempts to throw up improvised fortifications around the city, claiming that such measures were disruptive to civilian life.[2] The arrival of a detachment of Royalist troops under Sir John Byron in Oxford on 28th August did little to endear the Royalist cause to the Town Council: MPs from Oxford complained that Byron’s men harassed and pillaged the citizens of Oxford, and numerous Council members, including Alderman John Nixon, even left the city out of protest.[3]
The Town Council was, however, no more accommodating to the Parliamentarians, in the early months of the war at least. Between 12th and 14th September 1642, just a month after Byron’s Royalist troops had left Oxford, a detachment of Parliamentarian troops arrived and occupied the city. Immediately, they began a systematic search of all college properties for weapons and plate which they suspected Royalists had hidden away.[4] The parliamentarian armies stayed in the city until the end of September, and their presence proved to be troublesome. Drinking and brawling were common among the soldiers[5] and Lord Saye, Parliament’s Lord Lieutenant for Oxfordshire, even attempted to interfere in the business of the town council by trying to convince the aldermen to elect John Nixon as mayor. The Council, unwilling to tolerate any interference in their jealously-guarded autonomy, refused to comply.[6] The Town Council was, therefore, unwilling to pin its colours to either the Royalist or Parliamentarian masts, opting instead to protect the interests of the town by taking a position of independence and neutrality.
Despite this ambivalent attitude, the Town Council was in no position to oppose the King’s arrival in Oxford on 29th October 1642, following the battle of Edgehill. Initially, the King was planning on staying only temporarily in the city, hoping to use Oxford as a springboard from which he could reach and reconquer London. Things were, however, to turn out very differently. After leaving Oxford for London in November 1642, the King’s army failed to penetrate the Earl of Essex’s forces at Turnham Green. This forced the King to retreat back to Oxford, which he subsequently established as the permanent royalist capital and centre of royalist military operations.[7]
Though unintended, the King’s establishment of Oxford as the new Royalist Capital was highly symbolic. The King’s decision to move his capital from London to Oxford was emblematic of his refusal to accept Parliament’s demands for reform, and of his desire to strengthen royal authority. This is shown by the fact that Charles took the various vestiges and insignia of royal power with him to Oxford, such as the Great Seal, which was used to make all orders from the King official, as well as the Royal Mint, which was moved to New Inn Hall Street.[8] The King also relocated his court, his household and the whole machinery of government – the Privy Council, the Exchequer and the central law courts – to Oxford.[9] Though he had failed to retake London, the King was far from giving in to Parliament and was determined to assert his authority from Oxford.
The King also set about preparing Oxford for a prolonged conflict. A munitions factory and store were set up in New College; a sword factory was established in Wolvercote and a mill for grinding gun powder was created in Osney. Magdalen College Grove was also used as an artillery park, while the Schools of Music and Astronomy were used as a store for cloth for coats and uniforms.[10] In January 1643, all metal-working shops in Oxford were taken over by the King and brass kitchenware was requisitioned from all citizens and melted down for ordnance. The following year, the roof of the corn market was dismantled to make bullets and foundries were set up in Christ Church and Frewin Hall.[11] Civilian life in Oxford was thus transformed beyond all recognition. It would have escaped the attention of none that war had well and truly come to Oxford.
The King also expected townspeople and members of the university alike to assist in strengthening the town’s fortifications. While the scholars and students of the university responded enthusiastically to the King’s plea, the townspeople offered much more resistance, not least because the work building and digging the King’s fortifications was unpaid, and would have taken ordinary townspeople away from their trades and crafts. Of the 62 townsmen ordered to work on fortifying the town walls, only 14 turned up![12]
With the arrival of the Royalists in Oxford, the Town Council largely complied with the King’s wishes, but they did so with reluctance. The arrival of the King placed an enormous financial burden on the city of Oxford, which the town council grudgingly accepted. As soon as the King arrived in the city, the council agreed to borrow £250 to supply the King’s ‘present wants’. Two months later, in December 1642, the council was required to raise £150 in taxation to pay for fuel and shelter for soldiers on night watch, and in June 1643 the King demanded a loan of £2,500, which the Town Council dutifully, though unwillingly, agreed to borrow. By 1644, the Town Council had decided enough was enough. In January 1644, the Council refused the King’s request for £200 per week to cover the costs of fortifications, pointing out that the Council was already paying £120 a week for the upkeep of the regiment. A request made around the same time by the royalist governor of Oxford, Sir Arthur Aston, for £10 a week to pay for the opening and closing the town gates, was also met unfavourably.[13]
Thus, while the Civil War quickly enveloped the city of Oxford – and in spite of the Royalist sentiments of the university and the King’s early decision to make Oxford his capital – the aldermen and town councillors of Oxford sought above all to protect the independence and the interests of the town in the face of the struggle between King and Parliament. While the Town Council was in no position to oppose the will of the King, they were in a position to offer little cooperation to both Royalist and Parliamentarian troops, and to resist some of the King’s more burdensome demands for taxation. In a war which was forcing the country to take sides, the Council remained resolute in protecting the town and its people.
Researched and written by Ben Kehoe for the Museum of Oxford as part of the Citizens Project.
[1] Anthony à Wood, The life of Anthony Wood in his own words, ed. Nicolas K. Kiessling (Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2009), pp. 8-9.
[2] John Barratt, Cavalier Capital. Oxford in the English Civil War (Solihul: Helion, 2015), pp. 28-9.
[3] Ibid, p. 31; The Victoria History of the Counties of England. A History of the County of Oxford, Vol. IV, The City of Oxford ed. Alan Crossley (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), p. 78.
[4] David Eddershaw, The Civil War in Oxfordshire (Stroud: Alan Sutton, 1995), pp. 42-3; Barratt, Cavalier Capital, p. 33.
[5] A History of the County of Oxford, Vol. IV, p. 79.
[6] Ibid; Barratt, Cavalier Capital, pp. 33-4.
[7] C. V. Wedgwood, The King’s war, 1641-1647 (London: Collins, 1958), pp. 140-5.
[8] Ibid, p. 148.
[9] A History of the County of Oxford, Vol. IV, p. 80.
[10] Wedgwood, King’s war, p. 156.
[11] A History of the County of Oxford, Vol. IV, p. 81.
[12] Eleanor Roberts, ‘Oxford: The Divided City’, in Eddershaw, Civil War in Oxfordshire, p. 52.
[13] Ibid, p. 58; Barratt, Cavalier Capital, pp. 80-5.
