it seems, where each party trying their valor fell together in such a confusion with their warlike array, that in conclusion divers on both sides were slain and pitifully wounded. This bloody conflict during among them for some time, the event thereof was this, that the Northern Scholars with the Welsh, had with much ado the victory." * The second battle, selected like the first from the records of many others, occurred in 1388, more than a century later. "On Thurs day in the fourth week in Lent in the twelfth year of the reign of Richard II., Thomas Speeke, Chaplain, and John Kirby with a multitude of other malefactors, appointing captains among them, rose up against the peace of the King, and sought after all Welshmen abiding and studying in Oxford, shooting arrows before them in divers streets and lanes as they went, crying out 'War, war, war! Fie, fle, fle! The Walsh doggys and her whelyps, and ho so looketh out of his house, he shall in good soote be dead'; and certain persons they slew and others they grievously wounded, and some of the Welsh men who bowed their knees to abjure the Town, they, the Northern Scholars, led to the gates, causing them to kiss the gates in dis honorable fashion. But, being not content with that, they, while the said Welshmen knelt to kiss it, would knock their heads against the gate in such an inhuman manner that they would force blood out of the noses of some, and tears from the eyes of others."1 Nor was there any greater harmony among the older men in the University world, among the Masters and Monks, for here as between the town and gown certain prin ciples were working themselves into clearer definition within the social consciousness. Rivalry existed between the different monas tic orders. The monks and the official clergy of the University were continually at odds. Wycliff, writing at about the time of the battle just described, speaks of every friar as "a 'Quoted from Wood, in Hulton, p. 18. "Wood; quoted by Hulton, p. 24.
dead carcass come out of his sepulchre, bound up in funeral clothes and egged on by the devil to act among men." And the townsfolk may have taken seriously his in genious theory that the damp and fogs of Oxford were due to the fact that "the Mendi cant Friars being inordinately idle and being commonly gathered together in large num bers caused a whole sublunary unseasonableness."3 Meanwhile the town of Oxford was no in considerable borough. In early days it had been the meeting place of national assem blies. In the immediate neighborhood were wealthy religious houses, such as Abingdon, Enysham, Oseney and S. Fridesvvyde's, and just outside the city gates were royal resi dences where two kings were born, Richard at Beaumont Place, and John at Woodstock. Down to 1305 tiltings and tournaments were regularly held in the town, although the pic ture of them which has been preserved for us is not wholly attractive. "Many sad cas ualties were caused by these meetings, though ordered with the best caution. Arms and legs were often broken as well as spears. Much lewd people waited upon these assem blies, light housewives as well as light horse men repaired thereto. Yea, such was the clashing of swords, the rattling of arms, the sounding of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the shouting of men all day-time, with the roaring of riotous revellers all the night, that the scholars' studies were disturbed, safety endangered, lodging straitened, charges inlarged, all provisions being inconscionably enhanced. In a word, so many war horses were brought together hither, that Pegasus himself was likely to be shut out; for where Mars keeps his terms, there the Muses may even make their vacation."4 Over its own heterogeneous members and this mixed population within the town the infant University, fully engaged in fighting its battles as a body, could have but little con!Wood; quoted by Hulton, p. 88. 'Hulton. p. it.
