Oriel College Oxford N/A

Oriel College has the distinction of being the oldest royal foundation in Oxford, established in 1326. The original medieval foundation, set up by Adam de Brome, under the patronage of Edward II, was called the House or Hall of the Blessed Mary at Oxford. In 1329, the college received by royal grant a large house belonging to the Crown, known as La Oriole, from which the college acquired its common name, "Oriel"; the name has been in use from about 1349.

In 1643 a general obligation was imposed on Oxford colleges to support the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Following the defeat of the Royalist cause, the University was scrutinised by the Parliamentarians, and five of the eighteen Oriel Fellows were removed.

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. During the 1830s, two eminent Fellows of Oriel, John Keble and John Henry Newman, supported by Canon Edward Bouverie Pusey 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.

In 1985, the college became the last all-male college in Oxford to admit women.

The arms of the College are a differenced version of the royal arms of the founder King Edward II, namely the three gold lions of the Plantagenet arms on a red background. The Prince of Wales's feathers, often adopted as insignia by members of the College, appear as decorative elements within the college buildings and on the official College tie. It probably represents the senior grandson of King Edward II, Edward, the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, who first adopted the device,