The City During The Civil War
Following the creation of the King's Oxford Parliament early in 1644, Oxford was the centre of the Cavalier cause and the headquarters of the King's forces. This had both advantages and disadvantages as most of the citizens were undoubtedly favourable to the Roundhead cause, but were somewhat mollified by lucrative opportunity of supplying the court and garrison. The position of Oxford gave King Charles I the strategic advantage of controlling the Midland counties but the dangers and disadvantages of the city became increasingly manifest. Despite this, any suggestions of retreating to the south west were silenced, particularly by those enjoying the comfort of their college quarters. The King was at Christ Church and the Queen at Merton. Ordnance was cast at St Mary's College, the mills in Osney became a powder factory and New College the magazine. At New Inn Hall the requisitioned college plate was melted down into "Oxford Crowns" and at Carfax was a gibbet. College life continued, albeit on a restricted and disturbed scale. Master of Arts degrees were conferred on the future kings Charles II and James II and upon many more for similar non-academic reasons. During the sieges there was much poor strategy and miserable intelligence on both sides, and there was more friendliness between the belligerents than is usually found in such wars.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Oxford
Famous quotes containing the words civil war, city, civil and/or war:
“I wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“O City city, I can sometimes hear
Beside a public bar in Lower Thames Street,
The pleasant whining of a mandolin
And a clatter and a chatter from within
Where fishmen lounge at noon.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“The United States is just now the oldest country in the world, there always is an oldest country and she is it, it is she who is the mother of the twentieth century civilization. She began to feel herself as it just after the Civil War. And so it is a country the right age to have been born in and the wrong age to live in.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“The remnant of Indians thereabout—all but exterminated in their recent and final war with regular white troops, a war waged by the Red Men for their native soil and natural rights—had been coerced into the occupancy of wilds not far beyond the Mississippi.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)