Immigration to Britain from other European countries was a major issue in last year’s Brexit vote, but the outcome isn’t likely to be as harsh as the one that took place in 1002, when Ethelred the Unready ordered the slaughter of all Vikings in Britain.
A recent study in the journal Antiquity argues from DNA evidence that perhaps 35,000 Danish Vikings settled in England between 800 and 900 AD, looking for a better life. Their homeland was short on arable land and other resources, and England seemed a better place.
Eventually, so much resentment developed against the Danes that Ethelred gave the order for what came to be known as the St. Brice’s Day massacre. There are no records of exactly how many were killed when the king proclaimed that the Danes “sprung up in this island, sprouting like darnel ryegrass amongst wheat.” Therefore, he said, they had to be “destroyed by a most just extermination.”
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