Why Is The Eagle And Child Pub In Oxford So Important In The Civil War?
Oxford was the Royalist capital during the English Civil War, and there are claims that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the chief Royalist finance minister) lived there. However, contemporary documents strongly suggest that the pub wasn’t built until 1650 (after the end of Oxford’s role as Royalist capital). Additionally, I’ve actually been to the pub, and it’s outside the city walls as they existed during the Civil War, so I think it’s inherently most unlikely that a senior Royalist minister would have lived there. It either didn’t exist during the Civil War period when Oxford was the Royalist capital, or it was just a normal pub; it may have been popular with Royalist troops returning from campaign to Oxford, situated just outside the city walls, so maybe they spent a lot of money acquired as plunder during military operations there, but I don’t believe it could have had any official role due to its position.
