 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2011) |
 |
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2011) |
|
This is a list of massacres that have occurred in the purely geographical definition of Great Britain, being in the countries of England, Scotland and Wales 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 would end 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 & 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 | English troops massacred the civilian and military population after besieging the Scottish town. [13] |
| 10–12 February 1355 | St Scholastica Day riot | Oxford, England | 93 | Unknown | A riot culminating from tensions between 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 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. |
| 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. |
| 30 April 1999 | Admiral Duncan nail bombing | London, England | 3 | 79 | A nail bombing at the Admiral Duncan gay bar that killed three people and injured 79. Part of a series of bombings by neo-Nazi David Copeland, although this was the only one to result in fatalities. |
| 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] |
| 29 November 2019 | 2019 London Bridge attack | London, England | 3 | 3 | Islamic State of Iraq and Syria knife attack. ISIS took responsibility for the attack. Usman Khan was named the attacker. |
| 20 June 2020 | 2020 Reading stabbings | Reading, England | 3 | 3 | Islamic terror attack. Three people killed and three injured. Khairi Saadallah received a whole-life order for the attack. [19] |
| 12 August 2021 | 2021 Plymouth shooting | Plymouth, England | 6 | 2 | 6 people killed including the gunman after a mass shooting in Keyham, Plymouth. |
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, and over six thousand smaller islands. They have a total area of 315,159 km2 (121,684 sq mi) and a combined population of almost 72 million, and include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Channel Islands, off the north coast of France, are normally taken to be part of the British Isles, even though geographically they do not form part of the archipelago. Under the UK Interpretation Act 1978, the Channel Islands are clarified as forming part of the British Islands, not to be confused with the British Isles.
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. The country is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers roughly 62%, and over 100 smaller adjacent islands. It has land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, and is otherwise surrounded by the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south, the Celtic Sea to the south-west, and the Irish sea to the west. Continental Europe lies to the south-east, and Ireland to the west. The population was 56,490,048 at the 2021 census. London is both the largest city and the capital.
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjacent islands, principally in the archipelagos of the Hebrides and the Northern Isles. To the south-east, Scotland has its only land border, which is 96 miles (154 km) long and shared with England; the country is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, the North Sea to the north-east and east, and the Irish Sea to the south. The population in 2022 was 5,436,600 and accounts for 8% of the population of the UK. Edinburgh is the capital and Glasgow is the largest of the cities of Scotland.
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. It 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. 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 total area of the United Kingdom is 94,354 square miles (244,376 km2), with an estimated population of nearly 67.6 million people in 2022.
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.
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.
British society is one of the most secularised in the world and in many surveys determining religious beliefs of the population agnosticism, nontheism, atheism, secular humanism, and non-affiliation are views shared by a majority of Britons. Historically, it was dominated for over 1,400 years by various forms of Christianity, which replaced preceding Romano-British religions, including Celtic and Anglo-Saxon paganism. Religious affiliations of United Kingdom citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the national decennial census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey.
The Welsh are an ethnic group native to Wales. Wales is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. The majority of people living in Wales are British citizens.
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 United Kingdom is an ethnically diverse society. The largest ethnic group in the United Kingdom is White British, followed by Asian British. Ethnicity in the United Kingdom is formally recorded at the national level through a census. The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded a reduced share of White British people in the United Kingdom from the previous 2001 United Kingdom census. Factors that are contributing to the growth of minority populations are varied in nature, including differing birth rates and Immigration.
Gaelicisation, or Gaelicization, is the act or process of making something Gaelic, or gaining characteristics of the Gaels, a sub-branch of celticisation. The Gaels are an ethno-linguistic group, traditionally viewed as having spread from Ireland to Scotland and the Isle of Man.
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.
As of the 2011 census, Christianity was the largest religion in Scotland, chosen by 53.8% of the Scottish population identifying when asked: "What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?" This represented a decline from the 2001 figure of 65.1%. More recent polls of public opinion have shown that the majority today consider themselves non-religious. In 2017, the Scottish Social Attitudes Survey, conducted by ScotCen Social Research found that 58% of Scots identified themselves as non-religious, compared to 40% in 1999.
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.
Great Britain, often simply known as Britain, is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of 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, form the British Isles archipelago.
The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common ancestry, history, and culture. The English identity began with the Anglo-Saxons, when they were known as the Angelcynn, meaning race or tribe of the Angles. Their ethnonym is derived from the Angles, one of the Germanic peoples who migrated to Britain around the 5th century AD.
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies. British nationality law governs modern British citizenship and nationality, which can be acquired, for instance, by descent from British nationals. When used in a historical context, "British" or "Britons" can refer to the Ancient Britons, the Celtic-speaking inhabitants of Great Britain during the Iron Age, whose descendants formed the major part of the modern Welsh people, Cornish people, Bretons and considerable proportions of English people. It also refers to citizens of the former British Empire, who settled in the country prior to 1973, and hold neither UK citizenship nor nationality.
Viking activity in the British Isles occurred during the Early Middle Ages, the 8th to the 11th centuries CE, when Scandinavians travelled to the British Isles to raid, conquer, settle and trade. They are generally referred to as Vikings, but some scholars debate whether the term Viking represented all Scandinavian settlers or just those who used violence.
Events from the year 1996 in Scotland.
