St. Brice's Day Massacre

Aethelred II, known later as the Unready, was King of the English from
978 to 1013 and again from 1014 until his death. He came to the throne at the
age of 12 after his half brother was murdered. At the start of his reign, Danish
raids on English territory began in earnest. Aethelred defended his country by a
diplomatic alliance with the duke of Normandy. The Battle of Maldon on 11.
August 991 AD involved 2,000-4,000 fighting Viking men led by Olaf Tryggvason
against the Anglo-Saxon leader Byrhtnoth who was the Ealdorman of Essex. This
ended in defeat for the Anglo-Saxons and King Aethelred was forced to pay
tribute, also known as Danegeld, to the Danish king. This payment of 10,000
Roman pounds of silver was the first example of Danegeld in England - a pattern
which would follow. The Danish army continued ravaging the English coast until a
Danegeld of 22,000 pounds of gold and silver was paid - at which point Olaf
Tryggvason promised to never return. Viking attacks only grew worse - Danish
raids would follow leading to an even larger Danegeld payment of 24,000 pounds
for peace in the Spring of 1002 AD.
The same year, Aethelred married Lady Emma, the sister of Duke Richard II
of Normandy in hopes of a stronger diplomatic alliance. On St. Brice's Day, 13.
November 1002, the confident yet paranoid King ordered the killing of all Danes
living on border towns such as Oxford. Aethelred described this massacre in his
own words: ... a decree was sent out by me with the counsel of my leading men
and magnates, to the effect that all the Danes who had sprung up in this island,
sprouting like cockle amongst the wheat, were to be destroyed by a more just
extermination, and thus this decree was to be put into effect even as far as
death, those Danes who dwelt in the afore-mentioned town, striving to escape
death, entered this sanctuary of Christ, having broken by force the doors and
bolts, and resolved to make refuge and defence for themselves therein against
the people of the town and the subrubs; but when all the people in pursuit
strove, forced by necessitym to drive them out, and could not, they set fire to
the planks and burnt, as it seems, this church with its ornaments and its
books.