In 1266 a situation arose in connection with Stamford which forms a curious chapter in her annals. Following on the revocation by Henry III. of a licence under which a number of students from Oxford and Cambridge had established themselves at Northampton, a migration of these young men to Stamford took place, and their numbers being increased by a further secession from Oxford in 1333, there grew up in the town a species of rudimentary university which at length incurred the jealousy of the older universities. Both parties appealed to the King, with the result that the Stamfordians were ordered to disperse. It was not, however, till some of the more recalcitrant of the students had been removed in custody to Oxford that the royal mandate could effect its purpose. It is believed that up to comparatively recent years the undergraduates of Oxford and Cambridge were called upon to register a definite undertaking that they would abstain from studying at Stamford. The scene of this episode in Stamford’s history was on the south side of St. Paul’s Street, the site being now occupied by a girls’ school, still known as Brazenose, and standing where the old Brazenose College of the Oxford seceders formerly stood until demolished in 1668. The famous Brazenose knocker, which the Oxonians are said to have carried with them from their Oxford hall, remained behind at Stamford until late in the nineteenth century, when the authorities of Brazenose College, Oxford, purchased the premises and bore the precious relic in triumph back to its original home on the banks of the Isis. In 1293 Queen Eleanor’s body rested here on its way from Harby to Westminster, and a cross (of which nothing now remains to mark the site) was erected on the western side of the town, near St. Clement’s Gate, as was done at each point where the cortège halted on its journey. In 1363 the Castle and manor of Stamford were given by Edward III. to his son Edward, Duke of York. The connection thus established naturally led the inhabitants to espouse the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses which followed in the next century, and they thus brought upon themselves the calamities which have already been referred to in dealing with the churches in the town. In 1461 the Lancastrian army, marching towards St. Albans under Sir Andrew Trollope, attacked, captured and well nigh demolished the town, at the same time destroying all the municipal archives. Ten years later, however, occurred what is known as the “Lincolnshire Rising,” which ended in the defeat of the Lancastrians near Empingham, a few miles north of Stamford.[91] In this fight the Stamfordians by their courage earned for themselves such distinction that King Edward IV. marked his appreciation of their services by granting permission for the royal lions to be placed on the coat-of-arms of Stamford side by side with the arms of Earl Warren.