On This Date in History: The St. Brice's Day Massacre

November 13th is St. Brice's Day. Have you ever heard of Saint Brice? He has nothing to do with this story aside from the date. 

It was on St. Brice's Day in the year 1002 that England's King Æthelred II issued a decree that all Danes in the kingdom should be killed. This meant all Scandinavians, or more pointedly, Vikings. This was a couple hundred years into the Viking Age, and England was suffering from Viking raids in the north and east and an extortion scheme that taxed all of England. But Scandinavian influence had been spreading to England for some time, and there were Danes who had settled in England for generations and knew no other home. These were mainly the people who were slaughtered during the St. Brice's Day Massacre. 

The killings were carried out locally, and brutally. The massacre only lasted a day or two, as far as we can tell from archaeological finds. But the repercussions were swift. The ruler of Norway, Sweyn Forkbeard, set to England for revenge and eventually ended up as its king. Read about the brutal St. Brice's Day massacre at Utterly Interesting. 

(Image credit: Alfred Pearse)