Transcript
Amy Bruni (0:00)
Are you prepared to venture to the darkest, most haunted locations in the world? It was all solid black like shadow. As your host, Amy Bruni, I'm ready to take you on a spine tingling journey through the unknown.
Unknown (0:15)
There was a man sitting in the corner. She saw him and then it was gone.
Amy Bruni (0:19)
Listen to new episodes of Haunted road on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Welcome to Erin Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild.
Aaron Manke (0:42)
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. I think we can all agree that college students can be a bit rowdy. Long days studying can lead to even longer nights partying. Now this isn't limited to modern day tailgates and frat parties. Even as far back as the 1300s, college students at Oxford University were known to get unruly when they blew off steam. And much like now, back then, the citizens of Oxford Town didn't love putting up with the scholars antics. By 1355, Oxford University had been an education center for over 250 years, and for nearly all of that time, the citizens and the scholars, town and gown, had been at odds. A few times already, the tension had broken out into violence. Students and the townspeople had been accused of killing each other, and tavern brawls were common events. Perhaps the worst instance was back in 1209 when a woman was murdered and two scholars were accused. A group of townspeople captured the two and they hanged them. A group of students then fled Oxford in response, ended up in Cambridge and founded a whole new university there to avoid the violence. So it's fair to say that Town and Gown skirmishes had become a yearly occurrence by 1355. But all of them would pale in comparison to what happened that year on February 10, otherwise known as St. Scholastica's Holy Day. That evening, a group of university students arrived at the Swindle Stock Tavern in the center of town looking for a drink. The bartender, John Croydon, quickly poured them wine and then moved on to his next patrons. A few minutes later, one of the students waved down Croydon. He complained that the bartender had given them bad wine and that he should serve them something else free of charge. Tensions between the townspeople and the scholars were already high, so it wasn't long before Croydon and the scholars were arguing with each other. And finally, Croydon hurled an insult and the Scholar hurled his drink. The fight was on and students and townspeople alike began brawling. The mass of people quickly spilled out into the streets and the fight became a riot that spread throughout the town and the university. For the next three whole days, violence raged in Oxford. Although both university officials and town leaders tried to stop the fighting, they couldn't get their sides to listen to them. When the university chancellor tried to calm the fighters down, he was forced to flee when someone fired arrows at him. On February 11, a day after the riot broke out, a crowd of townspeople swept through Oxford looking for scholarship. The lucky ones fled to the university and barricaded themselves in libraries and lecture halls. The unlucky ones were killed by the mob. Even King Edward iii, who was staying in the nearby village of Woodstock, couldn't quell the fighting, although he issued a royal proclamation. The mob raged on until finally, on the evening of February 12th, it died out. When the dust cleared, Oxford town had lost about 30 people, the university closer to 60. King Edward immediately put the town under his direct control. The Oxford mayor and town bailiffs were sent to prison. The university was given power to tax goods on the town, and judges were appointed to oversee a trial of the rioters. Finally, the local bishop assigned the town of Oxford an annual penance. Every year on St. Scholastica's Day, the mayor and at least 60 townspeople had to attend a mass for those slain in the riot. And every year the town had to pay the university one penny for each scholar killed. The penance continued to be paid for nearly 500 years until the punishment was dropped in 1825. And in 1955, 600 years after the riot, the mayor of Oxford and the vice chancellor of the university exchanged honors to finally put the conflict to bed. Normally in college, a bad bottle of wine is might just cause a six hour hangover. In this case, it seems to have caused a 600 year feud. And I'd call that curious.