Oxford Held a 550-Year Grudge Against One Man

Oxford made graduates swear a 550-year grudge against one specific man, and I cannot get over it. We are talking about Symeonis, a wealthy Oxford resident from the thirteenth century who somehow became the university’s longest running enemy. Honestly, holding a candle to a medieval beef for 550 years is some next-level commitment.

Why Did Scholars Hate Him?

The record shows Symeonis got fined £80 and told to leave Oxford on 22 May 1242. King Henry III basically kicked him out after accusing him of murdering a local scholar. I am not okay with how casually medieval monarchs dropped £80 penalties like they were buying street food.

They could hang out in Northampton or anywhere up north until the monarch came back from Aquitaine, but he slipped right back into town by the early months of that year. He immediately sold an island to the crown, which the King handed over to friars in 1245. Mara, this man treated royal exile like a quick weekend trip.

Things got messy again when scholars abandoned the city around March 1264. King Henry officially paused university operations on 12 March because Oxford turned into a military staging ground during the barons’ war. You see, I always assumed universities ran on books, not troop movements.

Later that month, the monarch dropped official papers clearing his name and telling the students to keep the peace. Historians argue whether the student walkout was actually a protest against his return or just wartime chaos. My bet is that ancient campus politics never changed much at all.

How Long Did They Hold a Grudge?

Instead of moving on, that temporary truce got permanently welded into the university’s official rulebook. Every bachelor chasing a master’s degree had to publicly promise never to reconcile with Symeonis again. No one bothered writing down who he actually was or what he supposedly did wrong.

By the 17th century, university staff genuinely forgot what the oath meant and started inventing wild theories to explain it. One writer in 1608 claimed Symeonis faked his degree to sneak into a foreign monastery, though he cited absolutely zero evidence. I do not trust anyone inventing academic gossip from back then without dropping a single citation.

Staff even debated scrapping the curse during a statute review between 1651–52, but they decided against it anyway. The actual oath finally vanished in February 1827, probably because nobody could remember what they were deleting. Nah, but listen, holding a grudge that long is genuinely exhausting.

Modern archivists had to dig through old ledgers to prove Symeonis existed, finally locating his name in 1912. Millea notes that Symeonis probably purchased the royal pardon before the king faced imprisonment from rival barons. Another insists the whole situation proves how dangerous it is to keep outdated rules forever.

If you inherited a university rule punishing a guy you have never met, would you follow it blindly or burn the textbook? Tell us below, because Chillers are already picking sides.

Source: Wikipedia’s article on “Henry Symeonis”. The facts are theirs; the words are ours.