Founding
Northampton was, in the 13th century, a far more important town than is evident today, so it is not particularly surprising that a university was established there. The town was also, briefly, the King's seat.[1]
The antecedents of the University of Northampton are in a school founded in the reign of King Richard I. Richard patronised the institution and, according to at least one historian, between 1176 and 1193 the school at Northampton ‘rivalled or even eclipsed the Oxford schools’.[2] The school lost a powerful supporter with the death of King Richard.
In the 13th century, through the reign of King John and his son Henry III, the nascent university gained the patronage of Simon de Montfort.[3]
In 1261, with the approval of Henry III, the university was granted a royal charter.[4]
Abolition
The existence of the university was brief. In 1265, four years after it was established, Henry III revoked the town's licence to have a university.[5]
One factor in this may have been the participation of scholars in opposition to the King's forces during the Siege of Northampton in April 1264, when Henry III's forces besieged the supporters of Simon de Montfort, patron of the university, in Northampton Castle.[5]
Sources from the time suggest that opposition from the University of Oxford was also a significant factor. Henry wrote to the mayors and burgesses of Northampton on 1 February 1265, saying:[6]
We, believing at the time that town would be benefited by this, and that no small benefit would accrue to us therefrom, assented at their request [to establish a university in 1261] . But now as we are truly informed by the statements of many trustworthy persons that our borough of Oxford, which is of ancient foundation, and was confirmed by our ancestors kings of England, and is commonly commended for its advantage to students, would suffer no little damage from such University, if it remained there, which we by no means wish, and especially as it appears to all the bishops of our realm, as we learn from their letters patent, that it would be for the honour of God, and the benefit of the Church of England, and the advancement of students that the University should be removed from the town aforesaid; we by the advice of our great men, firmly order that there shall henceforth be no University in our said town, and that you shall not allow any students to remain there otherwise than was customary before the creation of the said University.[7]