On this day in 1355 St Scholastica Day riot occured, where 2000 local townsfolk raided Oxford University and murdered over 70 Scholars and students in their dorms, which led to the foundation of the University of Cambridge

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  1. >On Tuesday 10 February 1354/5 some students and priests who were drinking in the Swindlestock Tavern near the University complained about the quality of the wine.
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    >The landlord John of Barford, who happened to be Mayor of Oxford at the time, is alleged to have responded to their complaint with “stubborn and saucy language”; whereupon a student threw a quart pot at his head.
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    >Local people came to his aid, and had the bell at the City Church rung to summon the townsmen to arms; then the University retaliated by rousing its students to the fray with the bell at the University Church, and battle commenced, with both townsmen and students making good use of their bows and arrows.
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    >Late in the day of 11 February, up to 2,000 people from the countryside came in the western gate of the town to join the townsfolk, waving a black banner and crying: “Havoc! Havoc! Smyt fast, give gode knocks!”
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    >The students, unable to fight against such a number, withdrew to their halls where they barricaded themselves in.
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    >The citizens broke into five inns and hostels, where they finished off much of the food and drink; any student who was found in his rented rooms or hiding place was killed or maimed.
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    >After the violence subsided that night, the authorities from the town and the university went through the streets proclaiming in the king’s name “that no man should injure the scholars or their goods under pain of forfeiture”.
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    >The King (Edward III) continued to punish the townsmen of Oxford with an annual ritual humiliation that lasted 500 years. Every St Scholastica’s Day thereafter the Mayor and Bailiffs had to attend a Mass for the souls of the dead and to swear an annual oath to observe the University’s privileges.

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