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 Saint Scolastica Day riot and its 500-year legacy on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Hey, everyone. This is Gary. If you're listening to this podcast, you clearly are someone who likes to learn every day. And if you want to add a little more learning into your everyday routine, check out Ted Talks Daily, the podcast that brings you a new Ted Talk every weekday. In less than 15 minutes a day, you'll hear about some of the big ideas shaping our world. This includes everything from artificial intelligence to the search for dark matter and more. Listen to Ted Talks Daily wherever you get your podcast.

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The Saint The Scolastica 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. Oxford was founded in the year 1096. It's the world's second-oldest continually operating university after the University of Bologna in Italy. University. 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. Thus, Oxford was the only viable option in England for getting an education. The University obtained corporate status in 1231 and was given a 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 ninth 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, 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 rest of the town's people. 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. 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 with him. So the townsfolk 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 was murdered, resulting in severe punishments by the local bishop. Between 1297 and 1322, the town of Oxford conducted 29 coroners' inquests. Of those 29, 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. 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 10th, 1355. The events that began that day would eclipse all of the town and gown disputes that had occurred before or since. February 10th was the Feast of St.

Scolastica. St. Scolastica was the sister of St. Benedict, the founder of the Benedicting Monastic Order. That day, several university students went to have a drink at the Swindle Stock Tavern. The Swindle Stock was in a central location in town and was a regular hangout for students. The tavern was owned by John de Berford, 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 Springehus and Roger de Chesterfield, both of whom were members of the clergy from Southwest England. The group was served wine by the tavern's winemaker, John de Croydon. The Oxford students complained that the wine was poor and wanted a new glass of wine. De Crooiden respond rather forcefully and use foul language in reply. An argument ensued, and eventually, De Chesterfield threw his wine in De Croiden's face. What happened next depends on whose version of the story you believe, but either De Chesterfield threw his cup at De Croiden'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 bralling 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 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, urgent 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 town's people found several university personnel and killed them. 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 11th, an estimated 2,000 people from the surrounding area entered the city through the town's West gate.

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. 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. 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 333 £3, 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, 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 Saint Scolastica'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 official should be the following, 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 His Majesty. So help you God. 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, 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 University communities and their towns all over the world. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benjie 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 Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If 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. Links to everything are in the show notes.