Oriel College, Oxford

Oriel College, Oxford

Oriel College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1324 by Adam de Brome, under the patronage of Edward II. During the English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the King’s Oxford Parliament. Oriel was the last of Oxford’s men’s colleges to admit women in 1985, after more than six centuries as an all-male institution.

About Oriel College, Oxford in brief

Summary Oriel College, OxfordOriel College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1324 by Adam de Brome, under the patronage of Edward II. During the English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the King’s Oxford Parliament. Oriel was the last of Oxford’s men’s colleges to admit women in 1985, after more than six centuries as an all-male institution. Today, the student body has almost equal numbers of men and women. The college has nearly 40 fellows, about 300 undergraduates and some 250 graduates. As of 2019, the college’s estimated financial endowment was £88. 3 million. The reigning monarch of the United Kingdom is the official visitor of the college. The King called for Oriel’s plate, and almost all of it was given to the college for the fortification of Oriel Square, and the college was given the total of £1.43 a year for the upkeep of the fort. The main site incorporates four medieval halls: Bedel Hall, St Mary Hall,. St Martin Hall, and Tackley’s Inn, the last being the earliest property acquired by the college and the oldest standing medieval hall in Oxford. The name ‘Oriel’ comes from an oratoriolum, or oriel window, forming a feature of the earlier property. It is from this property that the college acquired its common name, \”Oriel\”; the name was in use from about 1349. The notable alumni include two Nobel laureates; prominent fellows have included founders of the Oxford Movement.

In the early 1410s several fellows took part in the disturbances accompanying Archbishop Arundel’s attempt to stamp out Lollardy in the University. The Lollard belief that religious power and authority came through piety and not through the hierarchy of the Church particularly inflamed passions in Oxford, where its proponent, John Wycliffe, had been head of Balliol. In In 1442, the town was to pay the college £25 a year in exchange for decayed property, allegedly from a farm, which the college could not afford to keep. In 1643, a general obligation was imposed on Oxford colleges to support the cause of the Royalist cause in the English civil War. In that year, the College was assessed at £1 of the weekly sum of £40 and charged £40 for fortification and repair of the halls and fortification. The College has been known as King’s College and King’s Hall in recognition of this royal connection. It has also been historicallyknown as King’s College andKing’S Hall. The current name is Oriel College and it is also known as Oriel University College and Oriel Hall. In 1329, theCollege received by royal grant a large house belonging to the Crown, known as La Oriole, on the site of what is now First Quad. The word ‘Oriel’ means ‘oratoriol’ in English.