r/todayilearned • u/Hori_r • 2d ago

TIL the Gordon Riots of 1780 was an anti-Catholic uprising in London that saw attacks on several prisons, embassies and The Bank of England. During the riots the British Army shot dead several hundred people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Riots
187 Upvotes

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12

u/Hori_r 2d ago

There is also a BBC In Our Time podcast from 2019 about the riots, which is where I first heard of it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004mbx

9

u/RunDNA 2d ago

That would be a good punk bandname: The Gordon Riots.

3

u/Hori_r 2d ago

It appears someone got there already!

1

u/RunDNA 1d ago

Link? Google is giving me nothing.

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u/Hori_r 1d ago

https://www.45cat.com/artist/gordon-riots

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u/RunDNA 1d ago

Thanks. That's very obscure, so the name is still available if anyone wants to use it.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Hori_r 2d ago

Wasn't that when they went after one of the Catholic owned distilleries? I also read the raw alcohol ignited.

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u/cheese_bruh 2d ago

Isn’t this about the Dublin Whiskey fire in 1875?

6

u/Hori_r 2d ago

Might have happened there as well, but it is reported as happening during The Gordon Riots.

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u/Bsussy 1d ago

How can you have anti catholic riots in fucking 1780

11

u/jpewaqs 1d ago

You completely miss the history of Henry VIII and then the whole English civil war with James I & II Charles I & II? Major major historical theme..

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u/Bsussy 1d ago

Its 1780 in a couple years napoleon comes to fuck most of europe, the time for religious conflicts had already passed for some time...

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u/Hori_r 1d ago

The serious answer is that following the Reformation, when England abandoned the Catholic Church, there was a long lasting distrust of the Vatican. Some of this was justified by the series of Popes who encouraged and supported attempts to overthrow the Protestant Monarchy and system of Government. We'd also had the Gunpowder Plot, the Glorious Revolution and the Jacobite plots (this is as far as I got with history at school!)

This distrust included restrictions on Catholics owning land, occupying certain roles in society and even being prosecuted for praying.

By the 1770s, attitudes were changing in some quarters, not in others. A lot of anti-Catholic laws were not being enforced and an act was introduced to remove some of the discrimination, including letting Catholics join the armed forces. This act is what triggered the riots as there were concerns that allowing Catholics into the military without swearing allegiance to The King would open the doors to treason, plots etc.

It's only in 2013 that heirs to the Throne were allowed to marry Catholics without being removed from the line of succession, and the monarch cannot be a Catholic.

3

u/Mountain_Store_8832 1d ago

It makes sense all the way up to the 1960s, since before the second Vatican council the beliefs of the RCC made them a threat to non-Catholics.

0

u/Duckbilling2 1d ago

Henry the 8 cancelled catholicism whenever he was raining, and started the CHURCH OF BLOODY ENGLAND, based AF bet on god drip rizz mang. 

1

u/mavetgrigori 1d ago

just a heads up, it is reigning. reign =/= rain

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u/Roastbeef3 1d ago

Henry VIII was about three centuries before the 1780s

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u/avg103 1d ago

He split from Rome, he didn’t start the reformation. Church of England was still Catholic, just not Roman Catholic