Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/451

 Winchester submitting to them. In 1018 Danes and Englishmen chose Eadgar’s law at an assembly in Oxford, and in 1036, on Canute’s death, his son Harold was chosen king. Here also took place the stormy meeting following the assembly (gemot) at Northampton, in which Harold allowed Tostig to be outlawed and Morkere to be chosen earl in his place, thus preparing the way for his own downfall and for the Norman Conquest. The destruction of houses in Oxford recorded in the Domesday Survey may possibly be accounted for by the ravages of the rebel army of Eadwine and Morkcre on this occasion, there being no undisputed mention of a siege by William. Large possessions in the county fell to the Conqueror, and also to his rapacious kinsman, Odo, bishop of Winchester. The bishop of Lincoln also had extensive lands therein, while the abbeys of Abingdon, Osney and Godstow, with other religious houses, held much land in the county. Among lay tenants in chief, Robert D’Oili, heir of Wigod of Wallingford, held many manors and houses in Oxford, of which town he was governor. The importance of Oxford was already well established; the shire moot there is mentioned in Canute’s Oxford laws, and it was undoubtedly the seat of the county court from the first, the castle being the county gaol. The principal historical events between this period and the Civil War belong less to the history of the county than to that of the city of (q.v.). The dissolution of the monasteries, though it affected the county greatly, caused no general disturbance.

When King Charles I. won the first battle of the Civil War at Edgehill (23rd of October 1642), Oxford at once became the material and moral stronghold of the royalist cause. Every manor house in the district became an advanced work, and from Banbury in the north to Marlborough in the west and Reading in the south the walled towns formed an outer line of defence. For the campaign of 1643 the rôle of this strong position was to be the detention of the main parliamentary army until the royalists from the north and the west could come into line on either hand, after which the united royal forces were to close upon London on all sides, and in the operations of that year Oxfordshire successfully performed its allotted functions. No serious breach was made in the line of defence, and more than once, notably at Chalgrove Field (18th of June 1643), Prince Rupert’s cavalry struck hard and successfully. In the campaign of Newbury which followed, the parliamentary troops under Essex passed through north Oxfordshire on their way to the relief of Gloucester, and many confused skirmishes took place between them and Rupert’s men; and when the campaign closed with the virtual defeat of the royalists, the fortresses of the county offered them a refuge which Essex was powerless to disturb. The following campaign witnessed a change in Charles’ strategy. Realizing his numerical weakness he abandoned the idea of an envelopment, and decided to use Oxfordshire as the stronghold from which he could strike in all directions. The commanding situation of the city itself prevented any serious attempt at investment by dividing the enemy’s forces, but material wants made it impossible for Charles to maintain permanently his central position. Plans were continually resolved upon and cancelled on both sides, and eventually Essex headed for the south-west, leaving Waller to face the king alone. The battle of Cropredy Bridge followed (29th of Jun.), and the victorious king turned south to pursue and capture Essex at Lostwithiel in Cornwall. In the remaining operations of 1644 Oxfordshire again served as a refuge and as a base (Newbury and Donnington). With the appearance on the scene of Cromwell and the New Model army a fresh interest arose. Having started from Windsor on the 20th of April 1645, the future Protector carried out a daring cavalry raid. He caught and scattered the royalists unawares at Islip; then he pursued the fugitives to Bletchington and terrified the governor into surrendering. He swept right round Oxford, fought again at Bampton, and finally rejoined his chief, Fairfax, in Berkshire. A few days later Charles again marched away northwards, while Fairfax was ordered to besiege Oxford. In spite of the difficulties of the besiegers Charles was compelled to turn back to relieve the city, and the consequent

delay led to the campaign and disaster of Naseby. Yet even after Naseby the actual position of Oxfordshire was practically unshaken. It is true that Abingdon with its parliamentary garrison was a standing menace, but the districts east of the Cherwell and Thames, and the triangle bounded by Oxford, Faringdon and Banbury, still retained its importance, till early in 1646 the enemy closed from all sides on the last stronghold of royalism. Stow-on-the-Wold witnessed the final battle of the war. On the 9th of May Banbury surrendered, and two days later Oxford itself was closely invested. On the 24th of June the city capitulated, and three days later Wallingford, the last place to give in, followed its example.

The war left the county in an exceedingly impoverished condition. Its prosperity had steadily declined since the early 14th century, when it had been second in prosperity in the kingdom, owing its wealth largely to its well-watered pastures, which bred sheep whose wool was famous all over England, and to its good supply of water power. Salt is mentioned as a product of the county in Domesday Book. Various small industries grew up, such as plush-making at Banbury, leather works at Bampton and Burford, gloves at Woodstock, and malt at Henley. Glass was made at Benson and Stokenchurch in the reign of Henry VI., and the wool trade continued, though not in so flourishing a state, Witney retaining its fame in blanket-making. The pestilence of 1349, the conversion of arable into pasture land, and the enclosure of common land in the early 16th century had led to agricultural depression and discontent. In 1830 the enclosure of Otmoor led to serious riots, in which the people gathered in Oxford at St Giles’ fair joined. The county was represented in parliament in 1289 by two members.

Antiquities.—The remains of castles are scanty. The majority of them were probably built for defence in the civil strife of Stephen’s reign (1100–1135), and were not maintained after order was restored. Considerable portions of the Norman Oxford Castle survive, however, while there are slighter remains of the castle at Bampton, the seat of Aylmer de Valence in 1313. Among remains of former mansions there may be noted the 14th century Greys Court near Henley-on-Thames, Minster Lovell, on the Windrush above Witney, and Rycote, between Thame and Oxford. Minster Lovell, the extensive ruins of which make an exquisite picture by the river-side, was the seat of Francis, Lord Lovel, who, being the son of a Lancastrian father, incurred the hatred of that party by serving Richard III., and afterwards assisted the cause of Lambert Simnel, mysteriously disappearing after the battle of Stoke. The remains of Rycote (partly incorporated with a farmhouse) are of fine Elizabethan brick, and in the chapel attached to the manor there is remarkable Jacobean woodwork, the entire fittings of the church, including the canopied pews and altar-table, being of this period. Here Elizabeth was kept in 1554, before her accession, and afterwards resided as queen. Of ancient mansions still inhabited, the finest is Broughton Castle near Banbury, dating from 1301. Others are Shirburn Castle, begun in 1377, but mainly Perpendicular of the next century; Stanton Harcourt, dating from 1450, with a gatehouse of 1540, a vast kitchen, and Pope’s Tower, named from the poet, who stayed here more than once. Mapledurham, on the Thames above Reading, is a fine Tudor mansion of brick; and Water Eaton, on the Cherwell above Oxford, is a singularly perfect Jacobean house of stone, with a chapel of the same period resembling pure Perpendicular. Of other mansions in the county Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock, must be mentioned. The former Holton House (now replaced by a Georgian building), near Wheatley, was the scene in 1646 of the wedding of Ireton, the soldier of Cromwell, with his leader’s daughter Bridget.

The influence of such a centre of learning as the university was naturally very great upon the ecclesiastical history of the neighbourhood. A large number of monastic foundations arose, such as those of Augustinian canons at Bicester, Caversham, Cold Norton, Dorchester, Osney (a magnificent foundation just outside the walls of Oxford) and Wroxton; of Cistercians, 