The St. Brice’s Day Massacre and the Viking vengeance on Oxford

The origin of Oxford’s oldest non-regilious building

St. George’s Tower is the oldest part of Oxford Castle & Prison, a remarkable surviving example of Anglo-Saxon architecture. Its construction, however, followed one of the nastiest events in Oxford’s history, the St. Brice’s Day Massacre of 1002 and the subsequent Viking raid on the town.

Viking Raids and Retaliation

Viking raiders were hardly new to England by the 11^th century, but the years leading up to the massacre had seen numerous raids across the country, facing little opposition from Saxon forces. The King, Æthelred the Unready, had been infamously unable to deal with the crisis and likely needed some sort of success to shore up his own support.

After hearing alleged reports that the Danes intended to murder him and take England for themselves, Æthelred ordered the Danes in England to be massacred on St. Brice’s Day, the 13^th of November. It’s not clear whether he chose this date deliberately for a particular reason.

Death to the Danes of England

It’s unlikely that he targeted all Danes in the country, rather he sought to eliminate the young men – those who might join the Danes and fight against him.

This was nonetheless acted out with tremendous enthusiasm by the Saxons, particularly in Oxford. The massacre is recorded both in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and in a diploma written by Æthelred to the Church of St. Frideswide. The latter concerns Oxford and it recounts how the Danes of Oxford fled into the church hoping to seek sanctuary in its walls, only for the Saxons to burn it to the ground, with everyone inside being killed as a result.

The manner of this “just extermination” of the Danes, as Æthelred called it, seemed to have been a last resort to avoid destroying the church and its ornaments, which required Æthelred’s patronage to be rebuilt. These accounts present a shocking massacre, one which was not entirely believed until recently.

Archaeological Evidence of the Massacre

In 2008, excavations in St John’s College revealed 35 skeletons of young men, likely dumped there in the late 10^th or early 11^th century – many with numerous wounds and burn marks, not dissimilar from the account of the massacre. Whilst their connection to it is still disputed, it certainly shows that Oxford’s relationship with the Danes was a tense one at best.

Myths and Legends Surrounding the Event

The infamy of this event would last long after it had occurred. Anglo-Norman chroniclers of the 12^th century would claim numerous details which are unlikely to have happened. Allegations of women and children being massacred or chased down by dogs, with “Gunnhild”, claimed sister of King Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark, among them. This is a commonly attributed reason for why Sweyn launched an invasion of England in the years after the massacre, though it is most likely a myth. Despite that, the Vikings would return to Oxford in force.

In 1009, an army under Thorkell the Tall would burn Oxford to the ground before the rebuilt town would surrender to Sweyn four years later, handing over hostages in the process.

Reconciliation and Reform in Oxford

Despite this hostility, Oxford later became the site of reconciliation between the Danes and Saxons. In 1018, King Cnut the Great held council in the town, where it was agreed that both Danes and Saxons would follow the same laws, effectively ending any legal distinction between the two.

In the aftermath, the town’s defences were heavily strengthened with stone walls and towers built to prevent the raid of 1009 from happening again – this included St. George’s Tower. It was built to guard the Westgate of the town. Nowadays, the Saxon Tower is an exciting part of our guided tours, allowing you to not only take in the view of the city, but also see and hear about its storied past!

If you love a historic walk, you can follow the route of the city walls and discover where the gates once stood, or still stand today, using a free walking guide from Oxford Archaeology.

Author: Frederick Hudson, 2025

References:

102. M. Pollard et al. ‘“Sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat”: the St Brice’s Day massacre and the isotopic analysis of human bones from St John’s College, Oxford’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Vol 31, (2012), pp. 83-102.
103. A. Giles (eds), The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, (London, 1914)
104. James Parker, The Early History of Oxford: 727-1000, (Oxford 1885)