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This is a list of massacres that have occurred in the purely geographical definition of the island of Great Britain and minor outlying islands and excludes Northern Ireland and massacres in Ireland before independence. [1]
| Date | Name | Location | Deaths | Injuries | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60 or 61 AD | Boudica's attacks on Roman cities | Camulodunum (modern-day Colchester), Londinium (modern-day London), Verulamium (modern-day St Albans) | 70,000–80,000 (Mostly Britons) | Forces led by Boudica, Queen of the Iceni tribe, massacred both Romans and Britons in Camulodunum, Londinium and Verulamium. Her forces were later defeated by the Romans at the Battle of Watling Street. [2] | |
| 633–634 | Cadwallon ap Cadfan's occupation of Northumbria | Northumbria | Unknown | King Cadwallon ap Cadfan of Gwynedd, defeated and occupied the Kingdom of Northumbria after allying with King Penda of Mercia. Bede describes Cadwallon's actions during the occupation, stating "though he bore the name and professed himself a Christian, was so barbarous in his disposition and behaviour, that he neither spared the female sex, nor the innocent age of children, but with savage cruelty put them to tormenting deaths, ravaging all their country for a long time, and resolving to cut off all the race of the English within the borders of Britain". [3] Cadwallon's occupation ended when he was killed at the Battle of Heavenfield. | |
| 13 November 1002 | St. Brice's Day massacre | Territory of England under Anglo-Saxon control | Unknown | The St. Brice's Day massacre was the extermination of immigrant Danes, their families and descendants, including those of mixed Danish and Anglo-Saxon descent on orders of the Anglo-Saxon King Æthelred the Unready [4] and took place in remaining territory in his control in what is now England, at a time England was subject to Danelaw. Gunhilde sister of Sweyn Forkbeard, the King of Denmark was a victim along with her husband Pallig Tokesen [5] | |
| 1066 | Harald Hardrada's attack on Scarborough | Scarborough | No survivors | Attack by Vikings led by Harald Hardrada and Tostig Godwinson. A prelude to the Battle of Stamford Bridge and ultimately the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Scarborough was subsequently absent from the Domesday Book. | |
| 1069–1070 | Harrying of the North | The North of England between the Humber and the Tees | 100,000 | William the Conqueror's men burnt whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants. Foodstores and livestock were destroyed so that anyone surviving the initial massacre would starve over the winter. [6] [7] | |
| October 1136 | Massacre of Norman, English, and Flemish Settlers | Cardigan and surrounding areas | 10,000 [8] | Following the victory of Gwynedd and Deheubarth over the Norman forces at the Battle of Crug Mawr, the Welsh targeted the foreign settler population. Many fled to the fortified town of Cardigan for safety, which was subsequently taken and burned by the Welsh. [9] | |
| 16 March 1190 | Massacre of the Jews at York [10] | York, England | 150 | "A wave of anti-Semitic riots culminated in the massacre of an estimated 150 Jews – the entire Jewish community of York – who had taken refuge in the royal castle where Clifford's Tower now stands. The chronicler William of Newburgh described the rioters in York as acting 'without any scruple of Christian conscientiousness' in wiping out the Jewish community." [11] [12] | |
| 30 March 1296 | Massacre of Berwick | Berwick-upon-Tweed, Scotland (at the time) | 7,500–16,000 | unknown | After besieging the Scottish town, English troops massacred the civilian and military population. [13] |
| 10–12 February 1355 | St Scholastica Day riot | Oxford, England | 93 | Unknown | A riot culminating from tensions between the people of the city of Oxford and the academic community of the University. |
| 21 October 1490 | Massacre of Monzievaird | Monzievaird, Scotland | possibly 120 | Clan warfare | |
| 1521 | Amersham Martyrdoms | Amersham, Buckinghamshire | 6 | Massacre of Lollards for the heresy of reading the Bible in English [14] | |
| 1549 | Clyst Heath Massacre | Clyst Heath, Devon | 900 | Massacre of bound and gagged rebels from Cornwall and Devon taken prisoner during the Prayer Book Rebellion. | |
| 1577 | Eigg massacre | Isle of Eigg, Scotland | 395 | Clan warfare: according to the Clanranald legend, all but one of the Isle of Eigg's MacDonald clan were asphyxiated by their rival MacLeod clan in the massacre cave on the south coast of the island. [15] | |
| 28 May 1644 | Storming of Bolton | Bolton, England | 1,600 | During the English Civil War, Royalist forces under Prince Rupert of the Rhine slaughtered a large population of the strongly Parliamentarian town of Bolton. | |
| 1646 | Dunoon massacre | Dunoon, Scotland | 200 | Clan warfare | |
| May 1647 | Battle of Dunaverty | Kintyre, Scotland | 300 | More than 300 of MacDougalls and MacDonald's followers, men, women and children, were slaughtered at Dunaverty after being promised quarter (mercy) by the Covenanters. | |
| 13 February 1692 | Massacre of Glencoe | Glen Coe, Scotland | 78 | Committed by the Clan Campbell under Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon, ostensibly due to irregularities concerning the swearing of an oath of allegiance to William II of Scotland. | |
| 9 March 1761 | Hexham Riot | Hexham | 45 - 51? | 300 est. | Massacre of demonstrators at Hexham Market Place by North Yorkshire militia. |
| 10 May 1768 | Massacre of St George's Fields | London, England | 6–7 | Committed by the Horse Grenadier Guards and the Third Regiment of Foot Guards during a riot against the imprisonment of John Wilkes in St. George's Fields. | |
| 29 October 1797 | Massacre of Tranent | Tranent, East Lothian, Scotland | 12 | Townsfolk, including women and children, were killed by members of the Cinque Ports Dragoons, a fencible cavalry regiment, during a protest against the Act of Parliament to raise a Scots militia by a form of conscription. | |
| 16 August 1819 | Peterloo Massacre | Manchester, Lancashire, England | 15 | 400–700 | Committed by the 15th Hussars and the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry during a large outdoor political demonstration for male universal suffrage in St. Peter's Field. Led to the enacting of the Six Acts. |
| May – 7 June 1831 | Merthyr Rising | Merthyr Tydfil, Wales | 24-26 | 70+ | Described by historian John Davies as "the most ferocious and bloody event in the history of industrialised Britain", the rebellion in Merthyr Tydfil and surrounding areas broke out following protests against falling wages, the price of bread, and forced redundancy. During the bloodiest incident, Argyll and Sutherland Highlander troops sent to retake Merthyr fired on protesters during a fight against a large crowd. |
| 4 November 1839 | Newport Rising | Newport, Wales | 22 | 50+ | Led by John Frost, between 1,000 and 5,000 Chartist sympathisers armed with home-made weapons marched on Newport, intent on liberating fellow Chartists who had reportedly been taken prisoner. About 22 demonstrators were killed when troops opened fire on them. The leaders of the rebellion were convicted of high treason, and sentenced to transportation for life. |
| 12/13 August 1842 | Preston Strike of 1842 | Preston, Lancashire, England | 4 | 3+ | The Mayor Samuel Horrocks read the Riot Act. This gave local authorities the right to use force if necessary to disperse unlawful assemblies and stop riots. When violence escalated and the crowd did not disperse, the 72nd Highlanders fired into the crowd, shooting at least eight men. |
| 13 December 1867 | Clerkenwell explosion | London, England | 12 | 120 | The Irish Republican Brotherhood attempted to free a member named Ricard O'Sullivan Burke from Clerkenwell Prison by blowing up a wall with gunpowder. The explosion damaged several nearby buildings and killed twelve people. No prisoners escaped. |
| 25 August 1939 | Coventry bombing | Coventry, England | 5 | 70 | A bicycle bomb planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded without warning on Broadgate in Coventry city centre. Five bystanders were killed and there were over 70 injuries, 12 of them serious. Two of the perpetrators, Peter Barnes and James McCormick were convicted and executed for the crime. |
| 22 February 1972 | Aldershot bombing | Aldershot, England | 7 | 18 | A car bomb outside the headquarters of the British Army's 16th Parachute Regiment by Official IRA member Noel Jenkinson. |
| 4 February 1974 | M62 coach bombing | West Yorkshire, England | 12 | 38 | A bombing on a coach carrying servicemen and their families by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. |
| 5 October 1974 | Guildford pub bombings | Guildford, England | 5 | 65 | Two bombs detonated in two Guildford pubs by the PIRA who targeted them because they were popular with British servicemen. |
| 21 November 1974 | Birmingham pub bombings | Birmingham, England | 21 | 182 | Two bombs detonated in two Birmingham pubs by the PIRA. |
| 16 August 1980 | Denmark Place fire | London, England | 37 | An arson attack against a nightclub on Denmark Street by patron who was angry at being barred from the club for arguing with a barman. Described - prior to the Lockerbie bombing - as the deadliest mass murder in modern British history. | |
| 19 August 1987 | Hungerford massacre | Hungerford, England | 16 | 15 | A spree shooting/murder–suicide. Led to the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988. |
| 21 December 1988 | Lockerbie bombing | Lockerbie, Scotland | 270 | A bombing on the Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie by Libyan terrorist Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the damaged plane fell onto the town of Lockerbie. All passengers and crew members on the flight were killed, and eleven people on the ground. | |
| 26 February 1994 | Clerkenwell cinema fire | London, England | 11 | 13 | An arson attack against a cinema in Clerkenwell by patron who was angry at having to pay entry fee again after leaving. |
| 13 March 1996 | Dunblane massacre | Dunblane, Scotland | 17 | 15 | A school shooting/murder–suicide. Deadliest mass shooting in UK history. |
| 7 July 2005 | 7 July 2005 London bombings | London, England | 52 | 700+ | Al-Qaeda attack. Four coordinated terrorist Suicide bombings in central London between 08:50 and 09:47. It was the United Kingdom's worst terrorist incident since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. |
| 2 June 2010 | Cumbria shootings | Cumbria, England | 12 | 11 | A killing spree/murder–suicide. |
| 1 January 2012 | Horden shooting | Horden, England | 4 | 1 | A mass shooting/murder–suicide. |
| 22 March 2017 | 2017 Westminster attack | London, England | 6 | 49 | A vehicle and knife Islamist terrorist attack outside the Palace of Westminster. |
| 22 May 2017 | Manchester Arena bombing | Manchester, England | 23 | 1017 | Islamist terrorist suicide attack at Manchester Arena after an Ariana Grande concert. [16] In May 2018, the number of injured was revised to 800. [17] |
| 3 June 2017 | 2017 London Bridge attack | London, England | 8 | 48 | Islamic State of Iraq and Syria attack/vehicle and knife attack. [18] |
| 12 August 2021 | 2021 Plymouth shooting | Plymouth, England | 6 | 2 | 6 people killed including the gunman after a mass shooting in Keyham, Plymouth. The gunman was Jake William Davison. |
Augustine of Canterbury was a Christian monk who became the first archbishop of Canterbury in the year 597. He is considered the "Apostle to the English”.
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Justus was the fourth archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Gregory the Great sent Justus from Italy to England on a mission to Christianise the Anglo-Saxons from their native paganism, probably arriving with the second group of missionaries despatched in 601. Justus became the first bishop of Rochester in 604 and signed a letter to the Irish bishops urging the native Celtic church to adopt the Roman method of calculating the date of Easter. He attended a church council in Paris in 614.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of the smaller islands within the British Isles, making up a total area of 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2). Northern Ireland shares a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea, and the Irish Sea. The United Kingdom had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom is London, whose wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. The cities of Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast are the national capitals of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, respectively.
The Norman Conquest was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, French, Flemish, and Breton troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror.
Robert of Jumièges was the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury. He had previously served as prior of the Abbey of St Ouen at Rouen in Normandy, before becoming abbot of Jumièges Abbey, near Rouen, in 1037. He was a good friend and adviser to the king of England, Edward the Confessor, who appointed him bishop of London in 1044, and then archbishop in 1051. Robert's time as archbishop lasted only about eighteen months. He had already come into conflict with the powerful Earl Godwin and, while archbishop, made attempts to recover lands lost to Godwin and his family. He also refused to consecrate Spearhafoc, Edward's choice to succeed Robert as Bishop of London. The rift between Robert and Godwin culminated in Robert's deposition and exile in 1052.
Deusdedit was a medieval Archbishop of Canterbury, the first native-born holder of the see of Canterbury. By birth an Anglo-Saxon, he became archbishop in 655 and held the office for more than nine years until his death, probably from plague. Deusdedit's successor as archbishop was one of his priests at Canterbury. There is some controversy over the exact date of Deusdedit's death, owing to discrepancies in the medieval written work that records his life. Little is known about his episcopate, but he was considered to be a saint after his demise. A saint's life was written after his relics were moved from their original burial place in 1091.
The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William the Conqueror. Although it is likely that there had been some Jewish presence in the Roman period, there is no definitive evidence, and no reason to suppose that there was any community during Anglo-Saxon times. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. The Jewish settlement continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
The first Jews in England arrived after the Norman Conquest of the country by William the Conqueror in 1066, and the first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. Jews suffered massacres in 1189–90, and after a period of rising persecution, all Jews were expelled from England after the Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from soon after the end of Roman Britain until the Norman Conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of England by King Æthelstan. It became part of the short-lived North Sea Empire of Cnut, a personal union between England, Denmark and Norway in the 11th century.
The St. Brice's Day massacre was a mass killing of Danes within England on 13 November 1002, on the order of King Æthelred the Unready of England. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle relates that the massacre was carried out in response to an accusation that the Danes would "beshrew [Æthelred] of his life, and afterwards all his council, and then have his kingdom without any resistance." King Æthelred thus ordered the killing of many Danes within his territory. The retaliation by the Danish King Sweyn Forkbeard over the next few years would earn Æthelred the nickname Æthelred the Ill-Advised.
British Jews are British citizens who are Jewish. The number of people who identified as Jews in the United Kingdom rose by just under 4% between 2001 and 2021.
The historical immigration to Great Britain concerns the movement of people, cultural and ethnic groups to the British Isles before Irish independence in 1922. Immigration after Irish independence is dealt with by the article Immigration to the United Kingdom since Irish independence.
Robert the Lotharingian was a priest who became Bishop of Hereford following the Norman Conquest of England. His writings serve as one of the best sources for information on the process of compiling the Domesday Book, and he may have introduced the abacus to England.
The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the Saxon period. Originally of strategic significance due to its controlling location on the upper reaches of the River Thames at its junction with the River Cherwell. The town grew in national importance during the Norman period. The University of Oxford was established in the 12th-century and would eventually dominate the activity within the town, this also resulted in several town and gown conflicts. The city was besieged during The Anarchy in 1142 and Oxford Castle was attacked during the Barons War in the early 13th century. Oxford was greatly affected during the English Reformation, brought on by Henry VIII in his dissolution of the monasteries. The town also played an important role in the English Civil War, where it experienced another siege when it housed the court of Charles I.
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland and Wales. With an area of 209,331 km2 (80,823 sq mi), it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is dominated by a maritime climate with narrow temperature differences between seasons. The island of Ireland, with an area 40 per cent that of Great Britain, is to the west – these islands, along with over 1,000 smaller surrounding islands and named substantial rocks, comprise the British Isles archipelago.
In the history of England, the High Middle Ages spanned the period from the Norman Conquest in 1066 to the death of King John, considered by some historians to be the last Angevin king of England, in 1216. A disputed succession and victory at the Battle of Hastings led to the conquest of England by William of Normandy in 1066. This linked the Kingdom of England with Norman possessions in the Kingdom of France and brought a new aristocracy to the country that dominated landholding, government and the church. They brought with them the French language and maintained their rule through a system of castles and the introduction of a feudal system of landholding. By the time of William's death in 1087, England formed the largest part of an Anglo-Norman empire, ruled by nobles with landholdings across England, Normandy and Wales. William's sons disputed succession to his lands, with William II emerging as ruler of England and much of Normandy. On his death in 1100 his younger brother claimed the throne as Henry I and defeated his brother Robert to reunite England and Normandy. Henry was a ruthless yet effective king, but after the death of his only male heir William Adelin, he persuaded his barons to recognise his daughter Matilda as heir. When Henry died in 1135 her cousin Stephen of Blois had himself proclaimed king, leading to a civil war known as The Anarchy. Eventually Stephen recognised Matilda's son Henry as his heir and when Stephen died in 1154, he succeeded as Henry II.
Lagmann mac Gofraid may have been an early eleventh-century ruler of the Kingdom of the Isles. He seems to have been a son of Gofraid mac Arailt, King of the Isles, and was likely a member of the Uí Ímair kindred. According to mediaeval sources, Lagmann was closely associated with Óláfr Haraldsson, a future King of Norway. According one source, both men lent assistance to Knútr, son of Sveinn Haraldsson, King of Denmark, although it is possible that this account actually refers to Óláfr's campaigning in England several years beforehand. Lagmann and Óláfr are also recorded to have assisted Richard II, Duke of Normandy. The two are specified to have not only ravaged lands in Brittany on behalf of Richard, but were tasked to counter Richard's opponent Odo II, Count of Chartres. Lagmann's activities on the Continent may have arisen as a result of being forced from the Isles following the death of his possible brother Ragnall mac Gofraid, King of the Isles in 1004 or 1005. Lagmann's son, Amlaíb, is recorded to have perished at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. If Lagmann died at about this time as well, it could account for the record of Hákon Eiríksson assuming control of the Isles.
Harold was a son of Harold Godwinson, King of England. He was driven into exile by the Norman conquest of England, and found refuge at the court of the king of Norway.
