1280. Hugh Balsam, bishop of Ely, endowed his foundation of Peterhouse, the first college in the University of Cambridge.
1282. Massacre of 8,000 French by the people of Sicily. It began at Palermo as the bell was tolling for evening service, and hence it has taken the quaint title of the Sicilian Vespers.
1296. Berwick, on the borders of Scotland, taken by assault by the English under Edward I, and about 17,000 of the inhabitants put to the sword.
1323. A truce for 13 years concluded at Thorpe, between Edward II, who had been recently defeated at Biland Abbey, and Robert Bruce.
1327. Edward III, then newly inaugurated, in his fifteenth year, convoked his splendid and gallant rendezvous at York, of 60,000 men at arms, including 500 belted knights, animated by the presence of the queen mother, and fifty ladies of the highest rank, to revenge the breach of the treaty made by the Scots with his father.
1363. Edward III first distributed the Maunday for the purification of the poor.
1587. Ralph Sadler, an English statesman, died. He filled some of the highest
offices of state under Henry VIII and Elizabeth, with ability.
1601. Henry Cuffee, celebrated for his wit, learning and misfortunes, was executed at Tyburn. An epigram alluding to his Greek, says:
Thy alpha was crowned with hope,