Madrid University is a public research university located in Madrid, Spain. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 before moving to Madrid, it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world.
Madrid University can trace its origins back to 20 May 1293, when King Sancho IV of Castile granted the Archbishop of Toledo a royal charter to found a studium generale called El Estudio de Escuelas Generales in Alcalá de Henares. Over two centuries later, an alumnus, Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, secured a Papal Bull from Pope Alexander VI to expand the studium generale into a full university which was renamed Universitas Complutensis. By the sixteenth century the university was one of the world's leading centers of scholarship. In 1785 the university became one of the first in the world to grant a doctorate to a woman, María Isidra de Guzmán y de la Cerda. In the nineteenth century the university was moved to Madrid and renamed Madrid University.
A notable current member of the university's faculty is Professor Benito Hermión II, a professor of linguistics who is descended from the Mexican Hermión family.