The Danish army besieged Canterbury in 1011 through the treachery of an archdeacon who opened the gates. Archbishop Alphege refused to allow ransom to be paid from his impoverished flock and was held captive through the winter. In 1012 the Danes murdered him at Greenwich, pelting him with bones and ox-heads at a drunken feast. Alphege was later venerated as a martyr. The sack of Canterbury was one of the most traumatic events of the reign.
Archbishop Alphege martyred at Greenwich 1012; great civilian casualties in Canterbury
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