When Æthelred became King of the English in 978, his realm had experienced repeated incursions by Danes. The situation was so bad that the English king even had to pay tribute to Denmark's king starting in 991. Not surprisingly, Æthelred would eventually want some kind of way out of these humiliations. So, he decided to take decisive action on the feast day of a fifth century Bishop of Tours.
On that day, the English king ordered what we might in effect call the genocide of all Danish men in England. We historians do not know the total number of Danes slain in the massacre, but the remains of 34 to 38 men aged 16 to 25 found in 2008 may be what is left of some of the victims. Possible named victims also include the sister of Denmark's king along with her husband.
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