Cambridge mapping project solves a medieval murder

A brazen killing

The homicide of Forde was certainly one of a number of premeditated revenge killings recorded within the space of Westcheap. Forde was strolling on the road when one other priest, Hascup Neville, caught as much as him, ostensibly for an off-the-cuff chat, simply after Vespers however earlier than sundown. As they approached Foster Lane, Neville’s 4 co-conspirators attacked: Ela Fitzpayne’s brother, Hugh Lovell; two of her former servants, Hugh of Colne and John Sturdy; and a person referred to as John of Tindale. One in every of them reduce Ford’s throat with a 12-inch dagger, whereas two others stabbed him within the abdomen with lengthy combating knives.

On the inquest, the jury recognized the assassins, however that did not lead to justice. “Regardless of naming the killers and clear data of the instigator, with regards to pursuing the perpetrators, the jury flip a blind eye,” mentioned Eisner. “A family of the very best the Aristocracy, and apparently nobody is aware of the place they’re to deliver them to trial. They declare Ela’s brother has no belongings to confiscate. All implausible. This was typical of the class-based justice of the day.”

Colne, the previous servant, was finally charged and imprisoned for the crime some 5 years later in 1342, however the different perpetrators basically bought away with it.

Eisner et al. uncovered further historic data that shed extra mild on the sophisticated historical past and ensuing feud between the Fitzpaynes and Forde. One was an indictment within the Calendar of Patent Rolls of Edward III, detailing how Ela and her husband, Forde, and a number of other different accomplices raided a Benedictine priory in 1321. Amongst different crimes, the intruders “broke [the prior’s] homes, chests and gates, took away a horse, a colt and a boar… felled his timber, dug in his quarry, and carried away the stone and timber.” The gang additionally stole 18 oxen, 30 pigs, and about 200 sheep and lambs.