Oriel College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Located in Oriel Square, the college has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford (a title formerly claimed by University College, whose claim of being founded by King Alfred is no longer promoted). In recognition of this royal connection, the college has also been historically known as King's College and King's Hall.Watt, D. E. (editor), Oriel College, Oxford (Trinity term, 1953) — Oxford University Archaeological Society, uses material collected by C. R. Jones, R. J. Brenato, D. K. Garnier, W. J. Frampton and N. Covington, under advice from W. A. Pantin, particularly in respect of the architecture and treasures (manuscripts, printed books and silver plate) sections. 16 page publication, produced in association with the Ashmolean Museum as part of a college guide series. The reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (since 2022, Charles III) is the official visitor of the college.
The original medieval foundation established in 1324 by Adam de Brome, under the patronage of King Edward II, was the House of the Blessed Mary at Oxford, and the college received a royal charter in 1326. In 1329, an additional royal grant of a manor house, La Oriole, eventually gave rise to its common name. The first design allowed for a provost and ten fellows, called "scholars", and the college remained a small body of graduate fellows until the 16th century, when it started to admit undergraduates. During the English Civil War, Oriel played host to high-ranking members of the king's Oxford Parliament.
The main site of the college incorporates four medieval halls: Bedel Hall, St Mary Hall, St Martin Hall, and Tackley's Inn, the last being the oldest standing medieval hall in Oxford.Oriel College Memorandum (2003–04). The college has nearly 40 fellows, about 300 undergraduates and some 250 graduates. Oriel was the last of Oxford's men's colleges to admit women, doing so in 1985 after more than six centuries as an all-male institution. Today, however, the student body has almost equal numbers of men and women. Oriel's notable alumni include two Nobel laureates; prominent fellows have included founders of the Oxford Movement. Among Oriel's more notable possessions are a painting by Bernard van Orley and three pieces of medieval silver plate. , the college was ranked twentieth in academic performance out of thirty colleges in the Norrington Table, having topped the table in 2015–16.
History Middle Ages On 24 April 1324,Christopher and Edward Hibbert's The Encyclopedia of Oxford at p. 291 gives the date as 24 April, with the wording "Adam de Brome, obtained from King Edward II, licence". Jeremy Catto's article about Brome in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography gives the date as 20 April, with a similar wording. Rannie's Oriel College at p. 4 has "On April 28, 1324, Letters Patent issued by the King giving licence" the Rector of the University Church, Adam de Brome, obtained a licence from King Edward II to found a "certain college of scholars studying various disciplines in honour of the Virgin" and to endow it to the value of £30 a year.Hibbert, Christopher, The Encyclopedia of Oxford London: Macmillan (1988) pp. 291–295. Brome bought two properties in 1324, Tackley's Hall, on the south side of the High Street, and Perilous Hall, on the north side of Broad Street, and as an investment, he also purchased the advowson of a church in Aberford.
Brome's foundation was confirmed in a charter dated 21 January 1326, in which the Crown, represented by the Lord Chancellor, was to exercise the rights of Visitor; a further charter drawn up in May of that year gave the rights of Visitor to Henry Burghersh, Bishop of Lincoln, as Oxford at that time was part of the diocese of Lincoln. Under Edward's patronage, Brome diverted the revenues of the University Church to his college, which thereafter was responsible for appointing the Vicar and providing four chaplains to celebrate the daily services in the church. The college lost no time in seeking royal favour again after Edward II's deposition, and Edward III confirmed his father's favour in February 1327, but the amended statutes with the Bishop of Lincoln as Visitor remained in force.Varley, F.J., The Oriel College Lawsuit, 1724–26 Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Oxford (DOC). In 1329, the college received by royal grant a large house belonging to the Crown, known as La Oriole, on the site of what is now First Quad.Pantin, W.A., Tackley's Inn Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Oxford (DOC). It is from this property that the college acquired its common name, "Oriel"; the name was in use from about 1349. The word referred to an oratoriolum, or oriel window, forming a feature of the earlier property.
In the early 1410s several fellows of Oriel 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. Disregarding the provost's authority, Oriel's fellows fought bloody battles with other scholars, killed one of the Chancellor's servants when they attacked his house, and were prominent among the group that obstructed the Archbishop and ridiculed his censures.
In 1442, Henry VI sanctioned an arrangement whereby the town was to pay the college £25 a year from the fee farm (a type of feudal tax) in exchange for decayed property, allegedly worth £30 a year, which the college could not afford to keep in repair. The arrangement was cancelled in 1450.Crossley, Alan (editor), 'Medieval Oxford', A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 4: The City of Oxford (1979) – Oxford University Press via British History Online .
Early Modern
In 1643, a general obligation was imposed on Oxford colleges to support the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. The King called for Oriel's plate, and almost all of it was given, the total weighing . of gilt, and . of "white" plate. In the same year the college was assessed at £1 of the weekly sum of £40 charged on the colleges and halls for the fortification of the city. When the Oxford Parliament was assembled during the Civil War in 1644, Oriel housed the executive committee of the Privy Council, Parliament being held at neighbouring Christ Church. Following the defeat of the Royalist cause, the university was scrutinised by the Parliamentarians, and five of the eighteen Oriel fellows were removed. The Visitors, on their own authority, elected fellows between 1648 and October 1652, when without reference to the Commissioners, John Washbourne was chosen; the autonomy of the college in this respect seems to have been restored.
In 1673 James Davenant, a fellow since 1661, complained to William Fuller, then Bishop of Lincoln, about Provost Say's conduct in the election of Thomas Twitty to a fellowship. Bishop Fuller appointed a commission that included the Vice-Chancellor, Peter Mews; the Dean of Christ Church, John Fell; and the Principal of Brasenose, Thomas Yates. On 1 August Fell reported to the Bishop that: When this Devil of buying and selling is once cast out, your Lordship will, I hope, take care that he return not again, lest he bring seven worse than himself into the house after 'tis swept and garnisht. On 24 January 1674, Bishop Fuller issued a decree dealing with the recommendations of the commissioners – a majority of all the fellows should always be present at an election, so the provost could not push an election in a thin meeting, and fellows should be admitted immediately after their election. On 28 January Provost Say obtained from the King a recommendation for Twitty's election, but it was withdrawn on 13 February, following the Vice-Chancellor's refusal to swear Twitty into the university and the Bishop's protests at Court.
During the early 1720s, a constitutional struggle began between the provost and the fellows, culminating in a lawsuit. In 1721, Henry Edmunds was elected as a fellow by 9 votes to 3; his election was rejected by Provost George Carter, and on appeal, by the Visitor, Edmund Gibson, then Bishop of Lincoln. The provost continued to reject candidates, fuelling discontent among the fellows, until a writ of attachment against the Bishop of Lincoln was heard between 1724 and 1726. The opposing fellows, led by Edmunds, appealed to the original statutes, claiming the Crown as Visitor, making Gibson's decisions invalid; Provost Carter, supported by Bishop Gibson, appealed to the second version, claiming the Bishop of Lincoln as Visitor. The jury decided for the fellows, supporting the original charter of Edward II.
In a private printing of 1899, Provost Shadwell lists thirteen Gaudies observed by the college during the 18th century; by the end of the 19th century all but two, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the Purification of the Virgin, had ceased to be celebrated.
Modern
In the early 19th century, the reforming zeal of Provosts John Eveleigh and Edward Copleston gained Oriel a reputation as the most brilliant college of the day. It was the centre of the "Oriel Noetics" – clerical liberals such as Richard Whately and Thomas Arnold were fellows,Newman's Oxford – A Guide for Pilgrims, Ecumenical undertaking between the Vicar of Littlemore and the Fathers of the Oratory at Birmingham (Oxonian Rewley Press, c. 1978), p. 10 and during the 1830s, two intellectually eminent fellows of Oriel, John Keble and Saint John Henry Newman, supported by Canon Pusey (also an Oriel fellow initially, later at Christ Church) and others, formed a group known as the Oxford Movement, alternatively as the Tractarians, or familiarly as the Puseyites. The group was disgusted by the then Church of England and sought to revive the spirit of early Christianity.Ollard, S.L., The Oxford Architectural and Historical Society and the Oxford Movement Oxfordshire Architectural and Historical Society, Oxford (DOC)DeLaura, David, 'The Oriel Inheritance' (chapter one), Hebrew and Hellene in Victorian England: Newman, Arnold, and Pater (1969) – published by University of Texas Press. Retrieved on 30 September 2006 Tension arose in college since Provost Edward Hawkins was a determined opponent of the Movement.
During the First World War, a wall was built dividing Third Quad from Second Quad to accommodate members of Somerville College in St Mary's Hall while their college buildings were being used as a military hospital. At that time Oxford separated male and female students as far as possible; Vera Brittain, one of the Somerville students, recalled an amusing occurrence during her time there in her autobiography, Testament of Youth:
In 1985, the college became the last all-male college in Oxford to start to admit women for matriculation as undergraduates. In 1984, the Senior Common Room voted 23–4 to admit women undergraduates from 1986. The Junior Common Room president believed that "the distinctive character of the college will be undermined".Cherwell Retrospective (1984 section) The Cherwell 24 November 1989 edition.
A second feast day was added in 2007 by a benefaction from George Moody, formerly of Oriel, to be celebrated on or near St George's Day (23 April). The only remaining gaudy had then been Candlemas; the new annual dinner was to be known as the St. George's Day Gaudy. The dinner is black tie and gowns, and by request of the benefactor, the main course will normally be goose.Oriel News Issue 6 Summer 2007 published by the Oriel College Development Trust.
Buildings and environs First Quad (Front Quad)