Battel, or battels, sometimes spelled batells, or batels is a term used in the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

to refer to food ordered by members of the college as distinct from the usual

commons The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society, including natural materials such as air, water, and a habitable Earth. These resources are held in common even when owned privately or publicly. Commons ...

. Hence it also referred to college accounts for board and provisions supplied from

kitchen A kitchen is a room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a stove, a sink with hot and cold running water, a ...

and buttery, and, generally, the whole of a person's college accounts. Though the distinction from commons is no longer relevant, the term persists as the name for members' termly bills at many colleges at the Universities of

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

. Batteler, later a resident in a college, was originally a rank of students between

commoners A commoner, also known as the ''common man'', ''commoners'', the ''common people'' or the ''masses'', was in earlier use an ordinary person in a community or nation who did not have any significant social status, especially a member of neither ...

and

servitor In certain universities (including some colleges of University of Oxford and the University of Edinburgh), a servitor was an undergraduate student who received free accommodation (and some free meals), and was exempted from paying fees for lecture ...

s who, as the name implies, were not supplied with "commons", but only such provisions as they ordered for themselves. The inventory of Henry Thorlthorpe, a

Vicar Choral A lay clerk, also known as a lay vicar, song man or a vicar choral, is a professional adult singer in an Anglican cathedral and often Roman Catholic Cathedrals in the UK, or (occasionally) collegiate choir in Britain and Ireland. The vicars chora ...

of the church of Saint Peter in York—the Minster—who died in 1426, includes in the debts he has to pay battels of this sort. When he died in 1426 his probate inventory, in the Borthwick Institute of Historical Records at the

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as translated by Philip Stell in ''Probate Inventories of the York Diocese'' (AY2/3, ), says "for batells that Henry owes to the community of parsons 2 pence".

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Cite web , title=Definition of battel , url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/battel , access-date=2022-11-11 , website=Dictionary.com , language=en {{EB1911, inline=1 , wstitle=Battel , volume=3 , page=530 {{Cite web , title=Useful Definitions , url=http://magdmcr.co.uk/useful-definitions/ , website=Magdalen College {{Cite web , title=Fees and Finances , url=https://www.bnc.ox.ac.uk/current-students/student-services/fees-and-finances/ , website=Brasenose College Terminology of the University of Oxford