Cambridge is best known for its ancient university but it was a major regional centre over 1,000 years before the students arrived and the battle between town and gown commenced.
The Romans established a settlement on a hillside overlooking the River Cam and named it Grantacaester. By the 5th century Grantabric had developed into Saxon market town. Four hundred years later it was a Danish army base and 200 years after that a Norman military stronghold, with the name evolving to Cantabridge and finally settling on the latter-day name, Cambridge.
In the early 13th century the first students arrived, having fled the town and gown riots of Oxford, yet it took about 75 years before the Bishop of Ely officially endowed the first college, Peterhouse. The number of Cambridge University colleges grew to thirty throughout the ages, and the Queen opened newest college, Robinson, in 1981.
By the 14th century the university dominated town life but this was not without resistance from the locals, who first registered their discontent in the Peasant's Revolt of 1381. Unsurprisingly, for such an eminent seat of learning, Cambridge has played a significant part in many of the second millennium's key historical events.
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