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The town fought hard to get a charter making them independent of the sheriff. However in 1242 the King ordered the sheriff to accept requests from the Chancellor to imprison offending students, if the burgesses failed in their duty. In 1249 there was a major disturbance: the King countermanded the order to the Sheriff and sent two justices to investigate. The town organised occasional tournaments, causing the Chancellor to petition the King to ban them as a distraction to the students, which he did each time, annoying the townspeople. The tournaments went ahead anyway, leading to fines levied on individuals and the town, causing further resentment towards the University.
The King came to Cantebrigge in 1267 with an army to quell rebellious barons in the Isle of Ely; after he left they raided the town. The earliest record of street rubbish collection in the country is when the King granted a charter for litter collection to the town whilst there. A year later he issued a comprehensive charter for the town and University which attempted to control crime, improve trading standards and keep the streets clean. The Chancellor was to be present at the bread and ale assizes to ensure fair quantities.
In 1269 the King again had to order the Sheriff to help the Chancellor whenever the bailiffs and burgesses were incompetent and negligent.
Another visit by the King in 1270 led to a three-way agreement which set up a group of scholars and burgesses bound by personal oath to uphold the peace, root out troublemakers and uphold the privileges of the University. This group came to be known as Great Congregation or Black Assembly and lasted for 600 years. The King also banned tournaments within five miles of the town. This time it was effective though probably because most knights then went on a crusade.
The Chancellor gained more power c1291: he complained to the King about the appalling state of the town streets and the King then made the mayor and bailiffs' expenditure of the pavage (a purchase tax for improving paving) auditable by the Chancellor. However very little paving got done and after about 40 years the town went back to making each householder responsible for his frontage.
In 1294 the King renewed his father's order to the Sheriff to support the Chancellor. The University was granted the right in 1343 to try students in cases involving loans, purchases of food and various other matters and to punish townsmen for repeated offences regarding selling wine and food.
The Chancellor was granted sole control of foodstuffs for seven years from 1378, as the mayor and bailiffs had failed to hold the weights & measures assizes. After many months of build-up in 1381, there was a period of rioting and looting of University property, only partly related to the simultaneous Peasant's Revolt. University documents were seized by townspeople and burned. This resulted in the King in Parliament assigning full control of weights and measures to the University, including punishment with fines and collection of fees. The town's hard-won rights were suspended for a year in punishment.
Parliament was due to sit in Cambridge for 6 weeks in 1386 so the King ordered the Chancellor to clean up the streets in advance. Parliament met at Barnwell Priory and produced the Statute of Cambridge, making all urban sanitation the responsibility of the local mayor and bailiffs.
In the second half of the Fifteenth Century the University and Colleges acquired by gift and purchase more and more land from the surrounding fields. This was to have great significance later. Far from opposing this, townsmen contributed.
In 1492 the University devised a new weapon against offending townsmen: discommoning (commons were supplies). Persistently offending traders were declared as off-limits to students. This proved highly effective. It was used in addition to fines, excommunication and imprisonment.