1792: The September Massacres begin in Paris

During the September Massacres of 1792, revolutionary crowds swept through Paris prisons and religious institutions, killing prisoners and others regarded as enemies of the Revolution.

At the Carmelite Convent, Roman Catholic clergy imprisoned for refusing to swear allegiance to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy were brought out and killed, among them several bishops.

The violence formed part of a broader wave of extrajudicial executions that engulfed Paris over several days, as fears of counter-revolution and foreign invasion fed a climate of panic and vengeance.

Those killed at the convent were later recognised by the Catholic Church as the Martyrs of September and were beatified in 1926.

Engraving showing the massacre of Princess de Lamballe
Engraving showing the massacre of Princess de Lamballe

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1840: The Coorong Executions after the Maria Massacre

In June 1840, the ship Maria wrecked on Margaret Brock Reef off Cape Jaffa, South Australia. All twenty-six aboard reached shore, but the survivors later split into groups as they attempted to make their way towards Adelaide. Those travelling along the coast entered the territory of the local clan, where they were killed in a series of attacks. The remaining survivors were also pursued and subsequently killed.

Major O’Halloran, acting under orders, rounded up members of the local clan and conducted a summary field trial on the Adelaide frontier. Two men were hanged on 25 August 1840, in what colonial authorities framed as justice for the massacre, but which many historians regard as an act of punitive colonial retribution.

Major OHallorans 1840 expedition scene with mounted party
Major OHallorans 1840 expedition scene with mounted party

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1572: The Red Wedding in St Bartholomew

On August 18, 1572, Protestant Henry of Navarre married Catholic Margaret of Valois in Paris, a union designed to end the bloody civil war between France’s Catholics and Huguenots. The peace did not hold. Just days later, on August 24, King Charles IX, acting under the influence of Catherine de’ Medici, authorised a wave of targeted killings against Protestant leaders in Paris.

What began as a series of assassinations spread into mass mob violence across France. Estimates of the death toll range from thousands to as many as 50,000, as Catholic mobs hunted down Huguenots in city after city. The wedding that was meant to unite a fractured nation had become the prelude to one of the worst religious massacres in European history.

Blood-soaked bride in lingerie holding knife lying on floor
Blood-soaked bride in lingerie holding knife lying on floor

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991: Ealdorman Byrhtnoth Killed as Vikings Crush the Saxons at Maldon

On 11 August 991, a Viking force under Norwegian king Olaf Tryggvason met the Anglo-Saxon fyrd of Essex at Maldon, on the Essex coast. Ealdorman Byrhtnoth, around sixty years old and said to stand nearly seven feet tall with swan-white hair, commanded the Saxon defence. In a fateful act of chivalric pride, he permitted the Vikings to cross a tidal causeway to fight on open ground. The decision proved catastrophic: Byrhtnoth fell in the battle, reportedly taking three men to kill, one of them nearly severing his arm.

The defeat became one of the defining disasters of late Anglo-Saxon England, accelerating the payment of Danegeld to Viking raiders. Byrhtnoth was buried at Ely Abbey, a monastery he had richly endowed with villages and lands. His widow presented the abbey with an embroidered tapestry commemorating his deeds. The battle inspired a celebrated Old English poem, and when his remains were examined in 1781, his skeleton confirmed the legendary stature: 6 feet 9 inches in height.

The Statue of Byrhtnoth at the end of Maldon Promenade in Essex, England | ID 211153857 © Jonathanritchie1990 | Dreamstime.com
ID 211153857 © Jonathanritchie1990 | Dreamstime.com

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