3 days ago
Medieval cold case is SOLVED: Vengeful noblewoman had her priest lover murdered after 'betrayal' that forced her to do Game of Thrones-style walk of shame, study reveals
The facts are worthy of a 21st century crime novel: an ungodly priest murdered by an aristocrat seeking revenge; and a jury too scared to identify the perpetrators.
But this is what happened nearly 700 years ago, when churchman John Forde had his throat cut in London 's most prominent Medieval 'murder' hotspot - near St Paul's Cathedral.
Now, records traced by an expert criminologist suggest the priest's murder was a revenge killing orchestrated by a noblewoman who is believed to have been his lover.
Aristocrat Ela Fitzpayne allegedly directed four men - including her own brother - to cut down Forde in the belief that he betrayed her to the Archbishop of Canterbury.
A letter sent in 1332 by the Archbishop, then Simon Mepham, accused her of having sexual liaisons with 'knights and others, single and married, and even with clerics in holy orders.'
She was ordered to do a Game of Thrones-style walk of shame in bare feet the length of Salisbury Cathedral.
Before their drastic falling out, Fitzpayne had Forde had also been partners in crime along with her husband; with the trio having raided a monastery together.
The research was carried out by leading criminologist Professor Manuel Eisner, the leader of Cambridge University's pioneering Murder Maps project.
The interactive database - which features Forde's murder - catalogues hundreds of unnatural deaths in London, Oxford and York in the 14th century.
Digital copies of the coroner report in the Forde case, along with letters, have been published for the first time on Cambridge University's website.
Professor Eisner said: 'We are looking at a murder commissioned by a leading figure of the English aristocracy.
'It is planned and cold-blooded, with a family member and close associates carrying it out, all of which suggests a revenge motive,' said Eisner.
'Attempts to publicly humiliate Ela Fitzpayne may have been part of a political game, as the church used morality to stamp its authority on the nobility, with John Forde caught between masters,' he said.
'Taken together, these records suggest a tale of shakedowns, sex and vengeance that expose tensions between the church and England's elites, culminating in a mafia-style assassination of a fallen man of god by a gang of medieval hitmen.'
Forde was murdered as he walked up Cheapside near St Paul's on May 3, 1337.
A fellow priest, Hasculph Neville, distracted him with 'pleasant conversation' and then four other men - including his lover's brother, Hugh Lovell - launched a frenzied attack.
Lovell used a 12-inch dagger to slit open Forde's throat and then two other men - Hugh Colne and John Strong - stabbed Forde in his belly.
Although the jury identified all the assassins, they claimed to be ignorant of where they could be found.
Jurors also noted that the Fitzpaynes had been in a longstanding feud with Forde.
Professor Eisner said it was unlikely that jurors really did not know where to find the murderers.
'Despite naming the killers and clear knowledge of the instigator, when it comes to pursuing the perpetrators the jury turn a blind eye,' the expert said.
'A household of the highest nobility, and apparently no one knows where they are to bring them to trial.
'They claim Ela's brother has no belongings to confiscate. All implausible. This was typical of the class-based justice of the day.'
Former Fitzpayne servant Colne was eventually indicted for the crime five years later in 1342, and imprisoned in Newgate – the only charge brought in the case.
The area of Westcheap, where Forde was slain, was London's most prominent medieval murder 'hot spot', according to the latest research.
Home to numerous markets, taverns and alehouses, and many powerful guilds, such as the goldsmiths and saddlers, it was a centre of trade and revelry and events could get out of hand .
Triggers for violence in the area included quarrels between merchants or artisans and group fights between guild apprentices akin to turf wars between gangs.
Records also show the area was the scene of several other premeditated revenge killings.
Among the new evidence in the case of Forde's murder was the discovery of a letter from the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Mepham, to the Bishop of Winchester.
Written in January 1332, it claimed Ella Fitzpayne had sexual liaisons with 'knights and others, single and married, and even with clerics in holy orders'.
She was punished by being banned from wearing gold, pearls or precious stones and had to pay large sums of money to monastic orders and the poor.
But Fitzpayne also had to carry out a walk of shame in bare feet along the length of Salisbury Cathedral - which had the longest nave in England - while carrying a four-pound wax candle to the altar.
The humiliation was made worse by the fact she had to repeat the walk every autumn for seven years.
It echoes the distressing sequence in hit book and TV series Game of Thrones, when leading character Cersei Lannister is stripped naked and forced to traipse through the streets as a form of public humiliation and atonement for her sins.
Archbishop Mepham's letter also stated that Fitzpayne was led by a 'spirit of pride' and had abandoned her husband.
A further letter sent in April 1332 claimed she was hiding in Rotherhithe and had been excommunicated.
Only Forde was named in the letters as being her lover, suggesting his involvement in alerting the Archbishop to Fitzpayne's misdeeds.
At the time of his death, Forde was the rector of the church of Okeford Fitzpaine, a village on the Fitzpayne family's Dorset estate.
'The archbishop imposed heavy, shameful public penance on Ela, which she seems not to have complied with, but may have sparked a thirst for vengeance,' Professor Eisner said.
'Not least as John Forde appears to have escaped punishment by the church.'
Other records show that Fitzpayne, her husband Sir Robert and Forde had been indicted by a royal commission for raiding a Benedictine priory in 1321.
The crew smashed gates and buildings, felled trees and robbed the quarry, seizing up to 18 oxen, along with 30 pigs and some 200 sheep and lambs and driving them back to the Fitzpayne castle, Stogursey.
The priory had been an outpost of a French abbey and so was particularly vulnerable at a time of heightened tensions between England and France.
Professor Eisner believes Forde may have had split loyalties - to the Fitzpayne family on one side and to the bishops, his bosses in the church.
'We know that Archbishop Mepham was keen to enforce moral discipline among the gentry and nobility, and act against those who displayed moral failings,' Professor Eisner said.
'Taking part in the raid would have shown Forde's loyalty to the Fitzpaynes rather than the church, which would not have gone down well with the Archbishop.'
The expert believes Forde - under pressure following the raid - could have confessed his liaison with Fitzpayne.
The Archbishop then ordered her humiliating punishment.
Professor Eisner added: 'Public humiliation can have poisonous effects, breeding hatred and revenge in humans both today and in the distant past.
'Feeling humiliated motivates wars, extremism, mass killings, and here it's probably a motivation for assassination.
'Humiliation creates emotions of anger and shame in the short term. Over time this can harden into a desire for violence.'
Although the Archbishop died in 1333, Fitzpayne waited until four years later before getting her revenge on Forde.
'The public execution style of Forde's killing, in front of crowds in broad daylight, is similar to the political killings we see now in countries like Russia or Mexico. It's designed to be a reminder of who is in control,' Professor Eisner said.
'Where rule of law is weak, we see killings committed by the highest ranks in society, who will take power into their own hands, whether it's today or seven centuries ago.'
