The Saxons 

Although Oxford (or Ohsnafordia, as it was known in Saxon times) wasn't really recognised by the Romans, in the Saxon age it began to assume a much greater importance within Britain. In the late Saxon period particularly, when it was positioned on a major trade route between the two powerful kingdoms of Mercia and King Alfred's Wessex, growth was high.

St. Frideswide
According to legend, St. Frideswide was born in around 650, daughter of Mercian King Didan, and was brought up to holiness by Algiva. When proffered (and refusing) the hand of King Algar (also a Mercian) she fled her homeland to settle in Oxford and there she built an abbey (where Christ Church stands today) - reportedly to preserve her virginity.

And preserve her it did, for when King Algar followed her there and attempted to take both her and the abbey by force he was struck blind. Only St. Frideswide's later forgiveness restoring his lost vision.

Long after her death in 735 and during the reign of Ethelred the Unready, the abbey was raised to the ground (in 1002) with Oxford's Danish population being blamed for the burning, and a large number of them were massacred (as part of the then King's desire to remove all Danes from England). It was later rebuilt as an Augustinian Priory, the cemetary of which has been excavated in Christ Church Meadow.

St. Frideswide is now the patron Saint of Oxford City and the square just outside if the Railway Station (created as part of the Oxford Transport Strategy) has been named after her.

Alfred the Great
King of Wessex (871 - 899) and leader of the Saxon resistance to the onslaught of Danish Viking invaders, but probably better remembered by many for the legend of his lack of culinary skills. Legend also records King Alfred as responsible for founding Oxford University, not as unlikely as it may first appear.

Certainly Alfred was responsible for the Saxon system of fortified towns (known as 'burhs') which were built in an attempt to keep the Danes at bay, and in 911 (after the time of King Alfred), Oxford became a burh itself. Under this new royal protection, its growth and importance only accellerated. This may have been why it was seemingly chosen as a site for a Royal Mint, as suggested by the evidence of coins from the period bearing the mark of 'Ohsnafordia'.

The Danes Revenge
During the uncertain reign of Ethelred the Unready, in 1009, the Danes sacked Oxford in retribution for the massacre of 1002 and just four years later the city, having increased in importance, was again forced to submit to Danish invasion by Swein Forkbeard and his armies. In fact, Oxford was viewed as so important during this period that Cannute (later to become king) chose the city for his coronation in 1018.