Ethnic cleansing: St Brice's Day
Massacre
It may be that these
games evolved to commemorate the dreadful massacre
of thousands of Danes (Vikings) on St
Brice's Day, November 13,
1002, the
1,000-year anniversary of which passed recently without war between England
and Denmark.
(King Aethelred Unraed
[Ethelred II; Æthelred II; Ethelred the Unready, or 'ill-advised'] ordered
"to be slain all the Danish people who were in England ..." [Anglo-Saxon Chronicle CDE].)
For it is fully agreed that to all dwelling in this country it will be well known that, since 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 most 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 suburbs; but when all the people in pursuit strove, forced by necessity, 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. Afterwards, with God's aid, it was renewed by me.
From a royal charter by King
Aethelred Unraed
On the Feast of St
Brice (successor to St Martin of Tours),
the Anglo-Saxon people rose up and massacred all the Danish people living in
England (mostly merchants and mercenaries), under whose
Danelaw
the Anglo-Saxon people were required to live. It is recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle entry for the year
1002 that on St Brice's Day the Danish
community in Oxford, fearing for their lives, took refuge in St Frideswide's,
the minster church of the female
saint who founded Oxford [Cardinal
Wolsey later transformed her monastery into Christ Church College, and King
Henry XIII made her church into Oxford cathedral]. The townspeople burnt
down the church building with considerable loss of life. Among those said to
have been murdered were Gunnhild, sister of King
Sweyn I (‘Forkbeard’) of Denmark (circa 965 - February 3, 1014; father of King Canute
the Great, 994/995-1035), her husband and their son.
This act of carnage, ordered by King Æthelred II (‘the Unready’) (968 - April 23, 1016) so outraged the Vikings that
it led to a full scale invasion by them the following year. Æthelred’s
anger derived from the fact that he was
paying protection money – Danegeld – to Danish warriors or Vikings, who were
becoming, as he saw it, much too greedy in their demands. Both king and
subjects became exasperated with the financial burden imposed on them.
|
This year the king and his council agreed that tribute should
be given to the fleet, and peace made with them, with the provision
that they should desist from their mischief. Then sent the king to the
fleet Alderman Leofsy, who at the king's word and his council made
peace with them, on condition that they received food and tribute;
which they accepted, and a tribute was paid of 24,000 pounds. In the
meantime Alderman Leofsy slew Eafy, high-steward of the king; and the
king banished him from the land. Then, in the same Lent, came the Lady
Elfgive Emma, Richard's daughter, to this land. And in the same summer
died Archbishop Eadulf; and also, in the same year the king gave an
order to slay all the Danes that were in England. This was accordingly
done on the mass-day of St Brice; because it was told the king, that
they would beshrew him of his life, and afterwards all his council,
and then have his kingdom without any resistance.
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,
1002 |
Aethelred
penny from around the year 1000 CE,
with a legend that reads ÆTHELRED
REX ANGLO[RUM]
(Æthelred, King of the English)
|
Regrettably, President
Æthelred, his
Defence Department and his Office of Homeland Security
had a pre-modern, limited apprehension of human nature, and did not
foresee that their action would incense the Danes, who returned to
England in 1003 to exact cruel revenge. Understandably, perhaps,
for most of the next decade King Sweyn extracted ‘blood-money’ for the
death of his sister and nephew – he took 36,000 pounds in tribute in 1005,
3,000 pounds in 1009, and 48,000 pounds in 1012.
[John
of Wallingford suggests that the Vikings had to be killed because they
combed their hair daily, bathed every Saturday and regularly changed their
clothes – helping to undermine the
virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles and make
them their mistresses.
As another wayward point of
interest, Æthelred, according to William of Malmesbury, as a child defecated
in the baptismal font leading St Dunstan to prophesy that the
English monarchy would be overthrown during Æthelred's reign; King Swein’s reign fulfilled the prophecy.]
It is widely held that Hocktide games in England commemorated the Anglo-Saxon's inhumane slaughter on that
cruel day.
Other
theories of the origins
There are, however, other possibilities for the origin of Hocktide:
" ... as the massacre of the Danes took place on Nov.
13 – the feast of St. Brice, hocktide could hardly be celebrated in the earlier part of the year. And yet there is a persistent tradition that the Danish massacre was the true origin of hocktide. For instance, Wise in his Further Observations upon the White Horse (Oxford, 1742) has collected some interesting evidence. He tells us that the Danes' inhuman behaviour drew upon them at length the general resentment of the English in King Ethelred's reign; so that in one day (St. Brice's Day A.D. 1001) they were entirely cut off in a general massacre. And, though this did not remain long unrevenged, yet a festival was appointed in memory of it, called Hoc Tuesday, which was kept up in Sir Henry Spelman's time, and perhaps may be so in some parts of England. (D. Henr. Spelman, Glossarium, in voce Hoc-day.) I find this, among other sports, exhibited at Kenilworth Castle by the Earl of Leicester, for the entertainment of Queen Elizabeth, A.D. 1575.
'And that there might be nothing wanting that these parts could afford, hither came the Coventre men, and acted the ancient play, long since used in that city, called HOCKS-TUESDAY, setting forth the destruction of the Danes in King Ethelred's time, with which the Queen was so pleas'd, that she gave them a brace of bucks, and five marks in money, to bear the charges of a
feast.' (Sir Will. Dugdale's Antiq. of Warwickshire, fol. Lond 1656, p. 166.)
"This is evidence of considerable weight, and, although there are other theories of the origin of hocktide, they can produce nothing so substantial. As to the manner of celebrating the event it may be said, in the words of Ellis, that
'the expression Hock, or Hoke-tyde, comprises both days. Tuesday was most certainly the principal day, the
dies Martis ligatoria. Hoke Monday was for the men, and Hock Tuesday for the women. On both days the men and women, alternately, with great merriment intercepted the public roads with ropes, and pulled passengers to them, from whom they exacted money, to be laid out in pious uses. So that Hoketyde season, if you will allow the pleonasm, began on the Monday immediately following the second Sunday after Easter, in the same manner as several feasts of the dedications of churches, and other holidays, commenced on the day or the vigil before, and was a sort of preparation for, or introduction to, the principal
feast.'"
Knowlson, T Sharper,
The Origins of Popular Superstitions and Customs, T Werner Laurie Ltd, London, 1910;
(Chapter 15: Hocktide – or Hoke Day)
Others, because St Brice's
day is the 13th of November, suggest Hocktide might commemorate the
rejoicings that followed the death of Hardicanute, and the accession of King
Edward the Confessor (c. 1004-January,
1066), when the British Isles were freed from Danish tyranny.
There are others think both
explanations wrong, because Hocktide is a movable custom, as is Easter on
which it depends for its timing, Easter being based on a lunar and not our solar
calendar (Gregorian). Therefore, it is thought by some, Hocktide relates
to a pre-Christian pagan ceremony. The 19th-Century English folklorist, Robert
Chambers, notes that it is hard to see why
collection of money would relate to overthrow of Danes. We can imagine how a
pagan festival with offerings would translate into a Christian one with
monetary offerings.
Go and grab a partner. Have
a happy Hocktide!
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Webster’s
Dictionary defines Hocktide thus:
Hockday \Hock"day`\, n. [Cf. Anglo-Saxon. h[=o]cor mockery, scorn.]
A holiday commemorating the expulsion of the Danes, formerly
observed on the second Tuesday after Easter; -- called also
{hocktide}. [Eng.] [Written also {hokeday}.]
Source:
The HyperDictionary
Hocktide a century ago (1910)
"The modern celebration at Hungerford is begun by a watercress supper at the 'John o' Gaunt'--(he being the patron of the place,) where his wonderful horn, the town's most treasured possession, is kept. The supper consists of black broth, Welsh rarebit, macaroni, and salad, with bowls of punch. Next morning the town crier blows the horn, and the Hocktide court assembles. The jury is sworn, the names of freemen called, and officials elected. The tything or tutti men receive from the constable a pole on the top of which is a tutti or posy. They then go round the town collecting pennies from the men and kisses from the women. Of course there is a lot of "fun," and women make themselves scarce. The crier, poor fellow, is only allowed to collect pennies: kisses are forbidden fruit. When this part of the celebration is over, the Constable (who is chief ruler of the town) gives a luncheon and then holds the Sandon Fee Court for regulating cattle feeding on the Marsh. After another dinner, court leet is held. "Then comes the Constable's banquet, at which his worship sits beneath the famous John o' Gaunt's horn, suspended from the two tutti poles, and the principal feature of which is a toast, 'To the memory of John o' Gaunt.' This is drunk in solemn silence as the clock strikes the midnight hour." And Hocktide is over."
Knowlson, T Sharper, The Origins of Popular Superstitions and
Customs, T Werner Laurie Ltd, London, 1910; (Chapter
15: Hocktide – or Hoke Day)
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