Town vs Gown in the Middle Ages
There have long been tensions between universities, with their populations of academics and students, and the surrounding community of ordinary folk going about their everyday lives. Before universities had even been invented, there were places known as centers of scholarship, such as ancient Athens or Ptolemaic Alexandria. Same as with universities, those older institutions often experienced bad blood between the academics who flocked there in scholarly pursuits, and the wider population amongst whom they dwelt. However, few such “town vs gown” tensions have ever boiled over and erupted in as dramatic a fashion as happened in Oxford in 1355.
On February 10th of that year, St. Scholastica Day, two Oxford University students, Roger de Chesterfield and Walter Spryngheuse, were drinking at the Swindlestock Tavern in Oxford. At some point, they complained to the taverner, John Croidon, about the quality of the drinks. He did not take kindly to their complaints. One thing led to another, heated words were exchanged, and were followed by heated actions. The students threw the drinks in the tavern keeper’s face, then beat him to a bloody pulp. That incident, as seen below, led to medieval England’s biggest town vs gown rumble.
