88. St. Scholastica Riot, Oxford England, February 10, 1355

In this postcard from 1907, the riot in Oxford has been over for a while, which is why no one in the picture is trying to kill anybody else, and the king has decided what to do, which was to issue a charter giving the university more power, and to make the town pay a fine every year forever and ever (which turned out to be until 1825). Here, the chancellor is reading out the charter to a group of townspeople. Nobody is there to represent the university, which we know because no one is dressed in clerical garb. Cause surely the artist would know to differentiate them. They would, right? Sure.

Sometimes students riot, maybe because of tuition hikes, or because a coach got fired for a sex abuse scandal, or because their team won a game, or because their team lost a game, or because the university became integrated, or because the government is moving into authoritarianism, or because the government already was authoritarian but is getting worse, and sometimes because the pub gave them bad wine. In the last case, around 100 people might just end up dead. Welcome to Oxford, 14th Century! The St. Scholastica Day Riot lasted for days, some of the students were scalped, university buildings were looted, there was a whole bunch of bell ringing, and the king got involved. Worst student riot ever. Hands down.

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