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Jan 3, 2024 25 tweets 10 min read Read on X
The St. Brice's Day massacre of 13 November 1002 during which King Æthelred ordered "a most just extermination" of those Danes living in England is one of the widest known yet most misunderstood events in English history. One key of import is to be found in the Gospel of Matthew. Image
In chapter 13, verses 24-30 St Matthew relays Christ's parable of the tares/weeds. At the heart of this parable lies the problem of evil for the tares represent sin which is allowed to be sown by the devil amongst either a people or a person on account of a lapse in watchfulness. Image
It is this which King Æthelred referred to in a charter from 1004 wherein he likened the Danes to tares which had sprouted up amongst his English wheat. This, then, paints the Danes as chiefly a moral, rather than political, threat and so places the massacre in a greater context. Image
The outbreak of the Second Viking Age in the 980s was not seen as something unto itself but rather as a punishment for the sins of the people. The king's primary response to the renewed attacks, therefore, was religious in that he sought foremost to call his people to repentance. Image
In tracing developments within the English Church during the 990s one sees this end being pursued with ever greater vigor but to no effect. As the call to repentance grew louder the Viking attacks grew more violent and the English were endlessly frustrated on the field of battle. Image
In 994 London was attacked, being saved only through the intercession of the Mother of God. The enemy then turned and across Essex, Kent, Sussex and Hampshire "did the greatest damage that ever any army could do". In 997 the Danes wrought terrible death across Cornwall and Devon. Image
In 998 Dorset, where rested King Æthelred's holy namesake and great-great uncle St. Æthelred, was ravaged. In 999 Rochester, where the second bishopric of the English Church had been founded nearly 400 years prior, was sacked and the Vikings "destroyed and ravaged all West Kent". Image
Upon the turn of the millennium the long-suffering English became desperate for an end to their misery. Their desperation was compounded by eschatological concerns for at this time western Europe was in a frenzy over the widespread belief that Christ's Second Coming was imminent. Image
It was at this most sensitive moment that the worst attack thus far came. In 1001 the enemy launched raids across the whole of England, often punching inland and laying waste to the interior. The fortunate died in armed resistance while the survivors were subjected to atrocities. Image
One band which attacked Devon was there joined by a Dane named Pallig and his ships. Together they defeated a cobbled together English army, killing both of the king's reeves who led it, and went on to raze to miserable ash innumerable villages across Devon and the Isle of Wight. Image
This Pallig had been a mercenary whom King Æthelred had allowed to settle in England in return for defending her coast. Despite being showered with generous gifts of land and gold, when the opportunity arose Pallig broke his sacred oath and savaged those he was charged to defend. Image
Shortly thereafter reports began coming in that the other bands of Danish mercenaries whom the king had settled across England were likewise plotting betrayal, though now with a greater aim. They intended on killing Æthelred as well as his chief men and taking control of England. Image
As from the beginning this was seen as a result of a religious problem. The king had tolerated evil in allowing bands of pagan mercenaries to settle in his land. Against the backdrop of apocalyptic concerns, this was likely seen as something England was poised to be punished for. Image
In the more immediate sense, it is evident that Christ's parable now came to Æthelred's mind. As if asleep he had allowed tares to be sown, and those tares now threatened to suffocate his good wheat. The only recourse now was to uproot them, bind them and cast them into the fire. Image
Royal writs were sent out and on St Brice's Day 1002 men from across England took up arms and attacked their nearest mercenaries. The aforementioned charter of 1004 relays the massacre as it happened in Oxford which saw the local Danes burned alive in the church of St Frideswide. Image
To date there have been found two mass graves which are widely believed to contain those killed in King Æthelred's massacre. One was found in Oxford where the bones of several skeletons showed signs of charring while the other was found in Dorset where each man had been beheaded.
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What is important to note about these graves is that every skeleton in either had belonged to a man of military age. Isotopic analysis has revealed that all of the men found originated from outside of Britain, having been born and raised in traditionally Scandinavian territories. Image
This is important because popular perception of the massacre, epitomized by its depiction in the TV series 'Vikings: Valhalla', holds that the English targeted both women and children as well as Danes who had been settled in England for generations. None of this is true, however. Image
Over the past several decades every scholar who has studied this topic like Roach, Abels, Keynes and others has been unanimous in their stating that this massacre was limited to recently arrived Scandinavian mercenaries and was not the genocide that it has before been painted as. Image
The above excerpt sets forth the case succinctly, though we might add to it. The story of Gunhild's death and mentions of any women being killed all come exclusively from post-Conquest writers. The complete silence of pre-Conquest sources in this regard, then, is quite deafening. Image
The often laconic Anglo-Saxon Chronicle might not mention it but the Encomium Emmae Reginae doubtless would, the main purpose of this document being to bolster the legitimacy of King Cnut, Gunhild's nephew. However, the only victim of the massacre mentioned is Thorkell's brother. Image
The killing of women, then, just like the killing of babies and most other facets of popular perception are alone inspired by Norman and Anglo-Norman historians who wrote to fulfil various agendas. When these are set aside we are presented with a very different picture of events. Image
Speaking from provable facts, that the massacre was a pre-emptive strike against foreign mercenaries who were poised to overthrow the government, Keynes said "there might be good cause if not to applaud then at least to condone rather than deplore the massacre of St Brice's Day".
Roach, while accepting as true the same broad facts as Keynes nevertheless with several other scholars does not come close to saying that the massacre can be condoned, said in his book on the king that "we do not have to approve of Æthelred's actions in order to comprehend them".
Indeed, to that end we have here endeavored to bring the reader, if only in basic terms, for unless one has something of a knowledge of all the many things weighing heavily upon England during the 11th century then one can not comprehend King Æthelred's "most just extermination". Image

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More from @rfhirst

Mar 21, 2024
It is ever important when studying history to not impose onto the past modern perceptions regarding stages of life. For example, scholars regularly underline Alfred the Great's youth when discussing his accession to the throne at the age of 22, but this is very easily overstated. Image
Military training began for Anglo-Saxon aristocrats at the age of seven or eight. It could be conducted at home, but it seems more often a boy would leave his parents to go live with a group of peers while under the supervision of a tutor, usually a maternal uncle or grandfather. Image
There were certainly parallels between these boys and their modern equivalents such as both by their natures challenging one another to physical competitions like foot races, wrestling matches and on. However, where for modern boys this is merely play for Anglo-Saxons it was not. Image
Read 11 tweets
Mar 7, 2024
The sword is the most iconic of weapons, so having received the lion's share of attention in studies of medieval arms. For that reason we shall in this thread sheathe ours and talk instead of the spear in Anglo-Saxon England, giving an overview of both its various forms and uses.Image
From the earliest times, as Todd noted in The Early Germans, the spear dominated the kit of Germanic warriors, over and above that of other peoples for how common a weapon it is, such to where, as once my friend @wylfcen suggested, we might invent for them the ethnonym "Gārmenn".Image
Malcolm Todd, "The Early Germans", pg. 36
Among the Anglo-Saxons the spear's precedence was maintained for the duration of their given period, during which it was called by a number of names. Most common were "gār" and "spere", from which we derive our word "spear", but a great many other terms were used less frequently. Stephen Pollington, "The English Warrior", pg. 108
Read 26 tweets
Feb 28, 2024
One deeply ahistorical aspect of most films and shows set during the Middle Ages is their extreme sanitization of combat which reduces it to child's play and thus fails to approximate anywhere near reality. To illustrate this we will here take an example from early medieval Kent. Image
The particular skeleton we are looking at comes from the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Eccles. Labelled by Manchester as "P171" and by Wenham as "II", this was a male who at the time of death was aged between 20-25 years old. His manner of death has confidently been ascribed to combat. Image
Kent, as we will here call him, suffered 30 perimortem injuries to his skeleton, the timing of these known by there being no signs of healing in any of his bones. The above number does not include however many other injuries he sustained which did not come into contact with bone.
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Read 16 tweets
Feb 3, 2024
Although the Anglo-Saxons most often fought on middan felda the assumption that they only fought field battles is incorrect for siege warfare of two kinds, "heroic" and "traditional", was also practiced.
In this thread we will give a brief overview of the former, "heroic" sieges.Image
While sieges of both types for long occurred concurrently we may yet, if only in broad terms, say that after the advent of the Viking Age traditional sieges, which better conform to modern conceptions of siege warfare, were the more common whereas before AD ~800 heroic ones were. Image
One main difference came in the size of armies. In a traditional siege one needed to raise a force larger than would normally be required for field operations in order to properly besiege a stronghold. However, in heroic sieges armies tended to be smaller than their fielded norm. Image
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Dec 11, 2023
From man's earliest days warriors have undertaken missions which lay beyond the bounds of regular warfare, setting broad precedents for the special operations of modern militaries.
In this thread we will discuss one such mission executed by the Anglo-Saxons, a raid into Normandy. Image
In the 980s, after a long lull in hostilities, the Vikings once again descended upon England's shores. Meanwhile across the Channel, the Duke of Normandy granted those raiders terrorizing England the use and shelter of local ports, also permitting them to sell their stolen goods.
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As tensions rose between the Duke and England's king Æthelred news of their quarrel spread, eventually reaching Pope John XV. He intervened to reconcile the two, having them sign the Treaty of Rouen in 991 which strictly prohibited either ruler from harboring the other's enemies. Image
Read 18 tweets

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