page_title: Cambridge
section_title: Early modern
hierarchical_section_title: Cambridge / History / Early modern
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Cambridge dated 1575. The inscription reads: Cantebrigia: opulentissimi Anglie Regni, urbs celeberrimi nominis, ab Academie conditore Cantabro, cognominata: A Granta, fluvio vicino, Cairgrant; saxonib, Grauntecestre, et Grantebrige, iam olim nuncupata.
context_page_description: Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, England, on the River Cam approximately 55 miles north of London. At the United Kingdom Census 2011, the population of the Cambridge built-up area was 158,434 including 29,327 students. Cambridge became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951.
  The University of Cambridge was founded in 1209. The buildings of the university include King's College Chapel, Cavendish Laboratory, and the Cambridge University Library, one of the largest legal deposit libraries in the world. The city's skyline is dominated by several college buildings, along with the spire of the Our Lady and the English Martyrs Church, and the chimney of Addenbrooke's Hospital. Anglia Ruskin University, which evolved from the Cambridge School of Art and the Cambridgeshire College of Arts and Technology, also has its main campus in the city.
context_section_description: Following repeated outbreaks of pestilence throughout the 16th Century, sanitation and fresh water were brought to Cambridge by the construction of Hobson's Conduit in the early 1600s. Water was brought from Nine Wells, at the foot of the Gog Magog Hills, into the centre of the town.
  Cambridge played a significant role in the early part of the English Civil War as it was the headquarters of the Eastern Counties Association, an organisation administering a regional East Anglian army, which became the mainstay of the Parliamentarian military effort before the formation of the New Model Army. In 1643 control of the town was given by Parliament to Oliver Cromwell, who had been educated at Sidney Sussex College. The town's castle was fortified and garrisoned with troops and some bridges were destroyed to aid its defence. Although Royalist forces came within 2 miles (3 km) of the town in 1644, the defences were never used and the garrison was stood down the following year.
caption: Cambridge in 1575
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