University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge, located in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, East England, is a collegiate research university founded in 1209 and granted a Royal Charter by King Henry III in 1231. It is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. Hugh Balsham founded Peterhouse, Cambridge’s first college, in 1284. Emily Davies founded Girton College, the university’s first college for women in 1869. Notable Victorian alumni and members include Charles Darwin, Charles Babbage, John Herschel, A. E. Housman, Thomas Babington Macaulay, W. M. Thackeray, Charles Kingsley, and Amy Levy.