Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The St. Scholastica Day Riot

Starting point is 00:00:00 A common occurrence at many universities is that they have contentious relationships with their local community. This is not a recent development. It's something that has existed ever since universities were created. However, the relationship between colleges and local towns was probably at its worst in 1355, when an outbreak of violence occurred at Oxford University. Learn more about the St. Scholastica Day Riot and its 500-year legacy on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night.

Starting point is 00:00:56 And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The St. Scholastika Day Riot was not your normal dust up between townies and college kids at a local bar. Although it did start that way. To understand what happened in Oxford almost 700 years ago, it's necessary to understand the nature of medieval universities and their relationship with their communities, particularly the history of Oxford.

Starting point is 00:01:30 Oxford was founded in the year 1096. It's the world's second oldest continually operating university after the University of Bologna in Italy. As with almost all medieval European universities, the Catholic Church ran it. This gave the university a special status, more akin to a monastery or a cathedral. Lectures were likely to have been given by members of the clergy in some form. Oxford was a rather small institution until the year 1127, when King Henry II forbade any English subjects from attending the University of Paris.

Starting point is 00:02:05 Thus, Oxford was the only viable option in England for getting an education. The university obtained corporate status in 1231 and was given a role. Royal Charter in 1248 by Henry III. From this point, it had special status with both the church and the crown. As the university grew, so did the town of Oxford, where it was located. Oxford was founded in the 9th century by Alfred the Great, one of the Saxon kings of England. It served as a military outpost and an important market town, but it really became important with the founding of the university. In fact, the university came to eventually dominate the entire town. Despite the university being in the middle of the town, the students and faculty lived in a very different world than the

Starting point is 00:02:49 rest of the townspeople. They were focused on reading, studying, and attending lectures. The students and faculty were a very insular group, and what was perhaps more important for this time period, they almost were always of a higher social class than the rest of the townspeople. Conflicts frequently erupted between members of the university and people in the town. This became known as town and gown, with gown representing the gowns worn by all students and faculty at that time. This tradition can still be seen in graduation gowns today. One of the hallmarks of these disputes is that the church and the crown would almost always side with the university in any dispute with townspeople.

Starting point is 00:03:32 The townsfolk viewed the students and faculty as parasites and were resentful that they would legally get away with almost anything. occasionally these disputes would become violent. One very notable event in the town and gown conflicts took place in the year 1209. A local Oxford woman was murdered, and three Oxford scholars were accused of the murder. The locals knew that if they took the case to the church, the accused would probably be pardoned or found not guilty because of their association with the university. The king at the time was King John, who was losing control of his kingdom, and Oxford was in conflict

Starting point is 00:04:08 with him. So the town's folk took matters into their own hands and hung the three university faculty members. This created a state of fear amongst the faculty and students at Oxford, and many of them left for other universities. Some of them, however, went to a town in England that was hospitable to setting up a new university. That town was called Cambridge. For five years, Oxford was a shell of its former self, until the Pope intervened in 1214 and imposed heavy sanctions on the town. The university reformed and established a single leader who held the position of Chancellor. However, this didn't solve the problems between the university and the townspeople. If anything, the Pope's punishment only increased the resentment. In 1248, a scholar from Scotland

Starting point is 00:04:56 was murdered, resulting in severe punishments by the local bishop. Between 1297 and 1322, the town of Oxford conducted 29 coroner's inquests. Of those 20,000, of those 20s, 12 involved Oxford students as suspects in murder cases. Not every violent incident was a town and gown incident. Sometimes they were between different factions within the university. In particular, between what were known as Northerners and Southerners. The Northerners were anyone from Scotland, Northern England, and the Midlands. The Southerners were those from Ireland, London, and Wales.

Starting point is 00:05:34 In 1314, there was a riot that broke out between Northerners and Southerners that killed dozens of people. In 1349, the town was hit by the black plague, which quickly reversed the city's fortunes. By then, it had become one of the wealthiest cities in England due to the university, but a quarter of the lecturers in Oxford died of the plague that year. All of this I've just said should set the stage for the events that took place on February 10, 1355. The events that began that day would eclipse all of the town and gown disputes that had occurred before, or sense. February 10th was the Feast of St. Scholastica. St. Scholastica was the sister of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedictine monastic order. That day, several university students went to have a drink

Starting point is 00:06:22 at the Swindlestock Tavern. The Swindlestock was in a central location in town and was a regular hangout for students. The tavern was owned by John DeBairford, who also happened to be the mayor of Oxford. It isn't known how many students were there, but two of them were, Walter de Springahouse and Roger de Chesterfield, both of whom were members of the clergy from Southwest England. The group was served wine by the taverns winemaker John DeCroydon. The Oxford students complained that the wine was poor and wanted a new glass of wine. DeCroiden respond rather forcefully and use foul language in reply. An argument ensued, and eventually De Chesterfield threw his wine in DeCroydon's face.

Starting point is 00:07:05 What happened next depends on whose version of the story you believe? believe, but either De Chesterfield threw his cup at DeCroydon's head or broke a jug over his head. From there, in the words of the great Ron Burgundy, things escalated quickly. Within the tavern, both students and townsfolk began brawling with each other. Within the hour, the tavern fight had turned into a riot and spilled into the streets. Locals rang the local church bell to rally support, and students at the university rang the bell in the university church to do the same. rioters on both sides began to organize gathering weapons. The University Chancellor came out to try to de-escalate the situation, but the townspeople

Starting point is 00:07:47 shot arrows at him. Despite the violence that day, at this point, no one is believed to have died. The morning of the next day, February 11th, the University Chancellor and the town's magistrate urged both sides to lay down their weapons and stop fighting. However, the other town officials, particularly the town's bailiffs, were doing the exact opposite. They were encouraging the townsfolk to get weapons, and they began paying people from the surrounding countryside to come help. The townspeople found several university personnel and killed them.

Starting point is 00:08:22 The bells of both churches rang again, calling for support, and the university staff and students eventually barricaded the town's gate to prevent outsiders from entering. Late on the evening of the 11, an estimated 2,000 people from the surrounding area entered the city through the town's Westgate. The students barricaded themselves in their university buildings. The mob went and ransacked five inns and guest houses, killing whatever students that they could find inside. Things got even worse on the 12th, the third day of the riots. Representatives from the university went to the town of Woodstock, which was 8 miles or 13 kilometers northwest of Oxford. and happened to be the location where King Edward III was staying.

Starting point is 00:09:06 Edward issued a proclamation ordering the violence to stop, but it was ignored. The mob continued to attack students. They looted and burned 14 more inns and guest houses and killed everyone from the university that they could find. Bodies were desecrated and they supposedly scalped any church official they could find as well. By the end of the third day, much of the town had been burned to the ground, and almost everyone associated with the university had either fled or had been killed. The death toll was estimated to be 30 townsfolk and 63 students and faculty. The reactions to the events that took place were predictable considering how past incidents were handled.

Starting point is 00:09:48 The king sent in officials to conduct a special inquiry. A few days later, the king pardoned everyone associated with the university. All of the punishments were reserved for the people of Oxford. The mayor and bailiffs were all sent to prison, and the citizens of Oxford were ordered to elect a new mayor. The king issued a fine to the city equivalent to about 330 pounds, which was a substantial amount at that time. The Bishop of London put an interdict on the town which prevented all religious services other than infant baptisms. That June, King Edward issued another royal charter for the university, this time explicitly stating its rights over the town. This included the right of the university to tax beverages and bread sold in the community,

Starting point is 00:10:32 and the right to set weights and measures for Oxford and other privileges. However, there was one punishment bestowed upon the city, which was to last for almost 500 years. Every St. Scholastica's Day thereafter, the mayor and bailiffs of Oxford were required to attend a mass for the souls of the deceased, and to swear an annual oath to uphold the university's privileges. attending with the mayor and city officials were to be 63 citizens of the town, one each for each member of the university that was killed, and the city had to pay one penny in penance for each person killed. This annual penance became a tradition, and it was conducted every single year. In 1575, Queen Elizabeth dictated that the oath taken by the officials should be the following.

Starting point is 00:11:22 quote, you shall swear that truly you shall observe and keep all manner of lawful liberties and customs of the said university, the which the chancellor, masters, and scholars of the said university have reasonably used without any gainsaying, saving your fidelity to the queen's majesty. So help you God, end quote. The annual penance, which basically involved the mayor humiliating himself in front of the university community, continued until 1825, when the mayor simply refused to participate. Other mayors had tried that in the past and were fined heavily. By 1825, however, everybody was just ready to put the entire incident behind them,

Starting point is 00:12:04 and the university dropped the matter. In 1955, on the 600th anniversary of the riot, both sides took steps to bury the hatchet. The university bestowed upon the mayor an honorary doctorate, and the city declared the vice-chancellor of the university, an honorary freeman of the city. There were continued conflicts and disputes between the university and the town of Oxford for centuries, but nothing ever approached the events that took place in February of 1355. To this day, it remains the nadir of relationships between universities and their towns all over the world. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel,

Starting point is 00:12:49 The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere or daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the completionist club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Links to everything are in the show notes. Thank you.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The St. Scholastica Day Riot

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