Reopening a 688-year-old murder case reveals a tangled web of adultery and extortion in medieval England
Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
The sun was setting on a busy London street on a May evening in 1337 when a group of men approached a priest named John Forde. They surrounded him in front of a church near Old St. Paul's Cathedral, stabbed him in the neck and stomach, and then fled.
Witnesses identified his killers, but just one assailant went to prison. And the woman who might have ordered the brazen and shocking hit — Ela Fitzpayne, a wealthy and powerful aristocrat — was never brought to justice, according to historical records describing the case.
Nearly 700 years later, new details have come to light about the events leading up to the brutal crime and the noblewoman who was likely behind it. Her criminal dealings included theft and extortion as well as the murder of Forde — who was also her former lover.
Forde (his name also appeared in records as 'John de Forde') could have been part of a crime gang led by Fitzpayne, according to a recently discovered document. The group robbed a nearby French-controlled priory, taking advantage of England's deteriorating relationship with France to extort the church, researchers reported in a study published June 6 in the journal Criminal Law Forum.
But the wayward priest may have then betrayed Fitzpayne to his religious superiors. The Archbishop of Canterbury penned a letter in 1332 that the new report also linked to Forde's murder. In the letter, the archbishop denounced Fitzpayne and accused her of committing serial adultery 'with knights and others, single and married, and even with clerics in holy orders.'
The archbishop's letter named one of Fitzpayne's many paramours: Forde, who was rector of a parish church in a village on the Fitzpayne family's estate in Dorset. In the wake of this damning accusation, the church assigned Fitzpayne humiliating public penance. Years later, she exacted her revenge by having Forde assassinated, according to lead study author Dr. Manuel Eisner, a professor at the UK's University of Cambridge and director of its Institute of Criminology.
This 688-year-old murder 'provides us with further evidence about the entanglement of the clergy in secular affairs — and the very active role of women in managing their affairs and their relationships,' Dr. Hannah Skoda, an associate professor of medieval history in St. John's College at the UK's Oxford University, told CNN in an email.
'In this case, events dragged on for a very long time, with grudges being held, vengeance sought and emotions running high,' said Skoda, who was not involved in the research.
The new clues about Forde's murder provide a window into the dynamics of medieval revenge killings, and how staging them in prestigious public spaces may have been a display of power, according to Eisner.
Eisner is a cocreator and project leader of Medieval Murder Maps, an interactive digital resource that collects cases of homicide and other sudden or suspicious deaths in 14th century London, Oxford and York. Launched by Cambridge in 2018, the project translates reports from coroners' rolls — records written by medieval coroners in Latin noting the details and motives of crimes, based on the deliberation of a local jury. Jurors would listen to witnesses, examine evidence and then name a suspect.
In the case of Forde's murder, the coroner's roll stated that Fitzpayne and Forde had quarreled, and that she persuaded four men — her brother, two servants and a chaplain — to kill him. On that fateful evening, as the chaplain approached Forde in the street and distracted him with conversation, his accomplices struck. Fitzpayne's brother slit his throat, and the servants stabbed Forde in the belly. Only one of the assailants, a servant named Hugh Colne, was charged in the case and imprisoned at Newgate in 1342.
'I was initially fascinated by the text in the coroner's record,' Eisner told CNN in an email, describing the events as 'a dream-like scene that we can see through hundreds of years.' The report left Eisner wanting to learn more.
'One would love to know what the members of the investigative jury discussed,' he said. 'One wonders about how and why 'Ela' convinces four men to kill a priest, and what the nature of this old quarrel between her and John Forde might have been. That's what led me to examine this further.'
Eisner tracked down the archbishop's letter in a 2013 dissertation by medieval historian and author Helen Matthews. The archbishop's accusation assigned severe punishments and public penance to Fitzpayne, such as donating large sums of money to the poor, abstaining from wearing gold or precious gems, and walking in her bare feet down the length of Salisbury Cathedral toward the altar, carrying a wax candle that weighed about four pounds. She was ordered to perform this so-called walk of shame every fall for seven years.
Though she seemingly defied the archbishop and never performed the penance, the humiliation 'may have triggered her thirst for revenge,' the study authors wrote.
The second clue that Eisner unearthed was a decade older than the letter: a 1322 investigation of Forde and Fitzpayne by a royal commission, following a complaint filed by a French Benedictine priory near the Fitzpayne castle. The report was translated and published in 1897 but had not yet been connected to Forde's murder at that point.
According to the 1322 indictment, Fitzpayne's crew — which included Forde and her husband, Sir Robert, a knight of the realm — smashed gates and buildings at the priory and stole roughly 200 sheep and lambs, 30 pigs and 18 oxen, driving them back to the castle and holding them for ransom. Eisner said he was astonished to find that Fitzpayne, her husband and Forde were mentioned in a case of cattle rustling during a time of rising political tensions with France.
'That moment was quite exciting,' he said. 'I would never have expected to see these three as members of a group involved in low-level warfare against a French Priory.'
During this time in British history, city dwellers were no strangers to violence. In Oxford alone, homicide rates during the late medieval period were about 60 to 75 deaths per 100,000 people, a rate about 50 times higher than what is currently seen in English cities. One Oxford record describes 'scholars on a rampage with bows, swords, bucklers, slings and stones.' Another mentions an altercation that began as an argument in a tavern, then escalated to a mass street brawl involving blades and battle-axes.
But even though medieval England was a violent period, 'this absolutely does NOT mean that people did not care about violence,' Skoda said. 'In a legal context, in a political context, and in communities more widely, people were really concerned and distressed about high levels of violence.'
The Medieval Murder Maps project 'provides fascinating insights into the ways in which people carried out violence, but also into the ways in which people worried about it,' Skoda said. 'They reported, investigated and prosecuted, and really relied on law.'
Fitzpayne's tangled web of adultery, extortion and assassination also reveals that despite social constraints, some women in late medieval London still had agency — especially where murder was concerned.
'Ela was not the only woman who would recruit men to kill, to help her protect her reputation,' Eisner said. 'We see a violent event that arises from a world where members of the upper classes were violence experts, willing and able to kill as a way to maintain power.'
Mindy Weisberger is a science writer and media producer whose work has appeared in Live Science, Scientific American and How It Works magazine. She is the author of 'Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control' (Hopkins Press).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
American Military News
10 hours ago
- American Military News
Four arrested after knife attack on exiled Lao democracy activist in France
This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission. French police have arrested four suspects in connection with a knife attack on exiled Lao democracy activist Joseph Akaravong, including the man who stabbed and seriously wounded the activist before fleeing the scene, local media reported Wednesday. The main suspect – a man in his 30s who stabbed Akaravong three times in the throat and torso on Saturday – was arrested on Tuesday in Nîmes, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the city of Pau, Pau public prosecutor Rodolphe Jarry said in a statement on Wednesday. The suspects were not named. Akaravong was rushed to a hospital in Pau in critical condition after the attack. His condition has since stabilized, Jarry told French media. The public prosecutor's office in Pau has launched an investigation into what they are referring to as an 'attempted assassination.' Authorities did not confirm if the attack was politically motivated at this time, reported France's Le Monde. Human rights advocates say the attack fits a broader pattern of targeting activists abroad. Rights group Manushya Foundation described the attack as an example of 'transnational repression.' 'The attack on Joseph is part of a dangerous and escalating pattern, in which authoritarian regimes continue to monitor, pressure, and even harm activists across borders,' the foundation said in a statement. Akaravong, one of the most prominent critics of the communist government in Laos, fled the Southeast Asian nation in 2018 after criticizing the collapse of a saddle dam at the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province that killed dozens of villagers. He was granted political asylum in France in March 2022, the foundation said. According to the Manushya Foundation, Akaravong was attacked while he was meeting with another Lao woman activist who had recently traveled to France after completing a five-year prison sentence in Laos last September for her criticism of the government on Facebook. The foundation did not name the woman activist, but last September, Houayheuang Xayabouly was freed from prison in southern Laos. She was arrested in September 2019 after she criticized the government on Facebook for delaying a flood rescue effort. In recent years, other Lao activists have gone missing or faced violence both inside Laos and outside the country, typically in neighboring Thailand. The Pau public prosecutor's office did not immediately respond to RFA's request for comments.
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Their names were on the alleged Minnesota gunman's hit list. Here's how lawmakers faced the 43-hour manhunt
The congresswoman was enjoying a quiet morning at home in the Minneapolis suburbs last Saturday when her doorbell rang. It was around 6 a.m., Kelly Morrison recalled. Far too early for visitors. But as she padded to the front door, Morrison noticed a police car in her driveway. 'Sorry to bother you so early,' the officers said, 'but we need you to know that there's a man going around impersonating a law enforcement officer, and we need you to stay in your house, shelter in place, and do not answer the door to anyone.' Stunned, Morrison asked for more details, she recalled to CNN. But the officers simply told her: 'There have been some concerning events' and they'd be patrolling her street 'more closely.' Morrison locked her front door and tried to go back to her quiet morning alone at home, she said. But her eyes kept drifting to the street. She did not yet know a fierce manhunt was underway for a gunman who, just hours earlier, had gravely injured a state senator and his wife at their nearby home, then assassinated another state lawmaker, Melissa Hortman, and her husband in theirs. Morrison also did not yet have a critical piece of information that would upend not only her quiet weekend but also her perception of life as a public servant and the state of America's democracy: Her name was on the gunman's alleged hit list, too. The attacks had begun just after 2 that morning when a man carrying a handgun and wearing the tactical vest and body armor of a police officer pounded on state Sen. John Hoffman's windowless, double-bolted front door. 'He arrived in a Black SUV with emergency lights turned on and with a license plate that read 'Police,'' Joseph Thompson, the acting US attorney for Minnesota, would later tell reporters. 'Sen. Hoffman had a security camera; I've seen the footage … and it is chilling,' he'd add. Authorities soon identified Vance Boelter, 57, as the man masquerading as a police officer and described in chilling detail how he 'stalked his victims like prey.' After wounding Hoffman and his wife, Boelter visited two other lawmakers' nearby homes, court documents later would assert: One was out of town; the other's life may have been spared by the timely intervention of a local police officer. Boelter then went to Hortman's home, killing her and her husband, Mark, authorities would posit, before firing at police and vanishing into a moonlit night. Investigators in what became the largest manhunt in Minnesota history soon found among Boelter's belongings apparent hit lists naming dozens more potential targets, most of them Democrats or figures with ties to the abortion rights movement, including Planned Parenthood, court documents would say. On a conference call later that morning with Democratic lawmakers, Morrison learned the tragic truth of what had happened to the Hoffmans and the Hortmans – her friends and colleagues – and prompted her early morning visit from local police. It wasn't long before the Minnesota Department of Public Safety also let her know she, too, was among those targeted. As an OB-GYN who had volunteered for Planned Parenthood, Morrison had been targeted with threats of violence in the past, she said. Still, this was 'unnerving, particularly when we lost Melissa and Mark in such a shocking and violent way.' The congresswoman immediately called her husband, John Willoughby, who was out of town, to tell him about the shootings. And that she could be a target. The former Army Ranger 'moved into protective mode,' Morrison recalled, and began making his way home. Even with local officers already stationed outside their house, the couple hired private security, she said. And Morrison put on the panic button Capitol Police previously had recommended she buy. Across town, another state House official, Rep. Esther Agbaje, was glued to her phone as texts and emails poured in with updates on the manhunt. She left her home and spent the day with her fiancé and his mom, she recalled to CNN. She was lying low, she told her friends and family, in an abundance of caution. Meanwhile, Morrison and her husband considered what to tell their grown children. 'There's all these different moments as a parent where you question what the right thing to do is,' the congresswoman recalled, 'but we knew we had to let them know.' Their daughters, traveling in Minnesota, wanted to come home; their son, who was out of state, stayed in constant contact. Then, Morrison made another call: to her own parents. 'I had been pretty calm,' she said, 'but when I heard my mom's voice, I definitely kind of lost it.' By Saturday evening, the tenor of Agbaje's weekend also had shifted – from mindful public servant attuned to the latest safety alerts to an unwitting role far closer than she'd imagined to the frightening storyline deeply underway. 'For most of the day,' the state representative said, 'I didn't know that I was a potential target.' Then, she, too, learned her name was on Boelter's list. Sunday arrived with no outward signs Boelter soon would be caught. And Agbaje had grown so distracted, she forgot it was Father's Day. 'I forgot to call my own Dad until, like, the middle of the afternoon,' she told CNN. 'I have a really good Dad. He was concerned about how I was doing.' Officers had warned Morrison it would be dangerous for her to go ahead with plans to celebrate the holiday with relatives. 'I FaceTime'd with my dad and my brother to wish them a happy Father's Day,' she said, 'and tell them how much I love them and how grateful I am for them.' Morrison and Agbaje also spent hours across the weekend reassuring their constituents as word of the attacks spread and reiterating a common message in the face of what seemed to be the latest wave in a rising tide of political violence afflicting the United States. We can't go on this way. 'This was the moment where I kind of feel like everything has changed in the United States,' Morrison said. 'This happened in my district, and these are my people. We have to decide together that this is not the path that we want to go down as a country.' But even fortified resolve could not quell the fear of lawmakers whom the suspected assassin had called out by name. On Sunday evening, the fact remained: Boelter was still on the run. Not, though, for much longer. Some 43 hours after the gunman barged through the Hoffmans' red front door, Boelter crawled out of a forest near his own home, about an hour's drive away. He was arrested and faces six federal charges, including two that could carry the death penalty, and four state charges, including two counts of second-degree murder. But for Morrison and Agbaje – along with untold others on the hit lists and people across Minneapolis and beyond – the conclusion of the police chase has yielded to another pursuit, one perhaps less riveting but, if possible, more heart-wrenching. 'I think now that the acuteness of the manhunt and the trauma from the weekend is subsiding, we're just (feeling) real grief and sitting with the loss,' Agbaje said. After decades of increasingly toxic political rhetoric and the dehumanization of lawmakers, many Americans have lost sight of our shared humanity, she continued. 'For those of us who want to keep this democracy, we have to remember that we solve our disagreements through discussion and debate; we can't devolve to guns and violence.' Though Hoffman has a long path to recovery, Agbaje looks forward to the day she again will work alongside the fierce advocate for health equity, especially for those with disabilities, she said. 'He's really funny,' Agbaje said, then paused, recognizing this kind of violence can change a person. 'I'm sure it'll be different, but I'm glad that he'll still be around,' she said of Hoffman. 'Whether you agree or disagree with them on policy issues, (lawmakers are) real people. They have families, they have people who care about them. At some point, we have to remember the humanity in each other.' Morrison and her colleagues gathered privately Wednesday night, she said, to mourn and honor Hortman, a public servant who dedicated herself and her career to the state and the people she loved. 'I think she'll go down as the most consequential speaker of the House in Minnesota's history,' Morrison said. 'It was never about Melissa; it was always about the work … the end goal was always to make life better for Minnesotans.' 'It's just hard to put into words what a devastating loss this is for our entire state.' The attacks of just a week ago fell exactly eight years after a gunman opened fire on lawmakers as they practiced for a congressional charity baseball game and critically wounded Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, a Republican now leading the House majority. Morrison worries about the chilling effect political violence could have on future public servants, she said. But even so soon after facing her own imminent threat, Morrison is far from scared. 'I think it's important for people to remember that this is not just an attack on those individual legislators; this is an attack on democracy itself. It's an attack on Americans' ability to be represented well,' she said. 'I am not afraid of cowards like this man, and I would encourage people, if you've ever thought of running for office, to please continue pursuing it.'
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump Justice Department not expected to appoint outsider as special counsel, source says
The Justice Department is not expected to appoint an outsider to serve as special counsel to handle politically sensitive criminal investigations, but will likely deputize a US Attorney to handle such matters if the need arises, according to a source familiar with the strategy. On Friday, President Donald Trump once again called for a special prosecutor to investigate former President Joe Biden and aired unfounded claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. 'A Special Prosecutor must be appointed. This cannot be allowed to happen again in the United States of America! Let the work begin!' he wrote on Truth Social. The president has repeatedly called for a special counsel to investigate his predecessor over a number of issues. 'The whole purpose of the special counsel regime is to appoint a politically neutral outsider who can bring independence and credibility to a case,' said Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and author of a forthcoming book on the history of special counsels and independent prosecutions. 'To choose a Trump-appointed US Attorney will, at a minimum, create the appearance that that person is biased in favor of Trump and his political agenda.' The Justice Department is already investigating some of Biden's actions while in office as part of its 'Weaponization Working Group.' On her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo establishing the group, which would focus on examining the state and federal investigations into Trump as well as the prosecutions related to the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, and other right-wing priorities. Ed Martin, who failed to secure confirmation as US Attorney for Washington, DC, now oversees that effort, which has expanded to include subjects such as pardons issued by former President Joe Biden and other aspects of his administration. CNN previously reported that Martin sent a letter to the National Archives requesting information about White House operations under the Biden administration. He is also seeking information related to Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the code name for the investigation into links between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. It is expected that if the department deems that if any of these matters need to be escalated to a full-blown criminal investigation – that work will be outsourced to a US Attorney. The administration currently does not have any Senate-confirmed US Attorneys, but they do have nominees working in offices across the country. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. The special counsel role was created through federal regulation to be used when there are conflicts of interest for the Department handling an investigation and it 'would be in the public interest to appoint an outside special counsel.' There have been several notable special counsels in the past few years, including Robert Mueller who was appointed by then-deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to investigate the Russian government's interference with the 2016 presidential election. Mueller had previously served as the FBI director from 2001 to 2013. Trump has repeated railed against special counsels. In Mueller's final report, Trump is quoted saying, 'Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels, it ruins your presidency. It takes years and years and I won't be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.' Jack Smith was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Trump for allegedly interfering with the 2020 election and the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, and for his allegedly mishandling of classified documents. Smith had also previously served as a federal prosecutor and was working at The Hague at the time he was tapped for this position. In July 2024, Judge Aileen Cannon, who oversaw Trump's classified documents case, ruled that Smith's appointment was unconstitutional under the Appropriations Clause, which determines how the federal government is funded. Cannon also said that Smith was unlawfully appointed by Garland. 'For more than 18 months, Special Counsel Smith's investigation and prosecution has been financed by substantial funds drawn from the Treasury without statutory authorization, and to try to rewrite history at this point seems near impossible,' Cannon wrote when she dismissed the case. Smith appealed the controversial ruling, but after Trump was reelected, he withdrew both cases against the president-elect. The nature of special counsels has evolved over time – under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, Congress allowed for appointment of 'special prosecutors,' which later became known as 'independent counsels.' These individuals were appointed by specially selected three-judge panel and were outside-government appointees. Ultimately, the law expired in 1999 after much debate about the cost and scope of special prosecutors, especially after the Kenneth Starr-led investigation of President Bill Clinton in the 1990s. When the law expired, the Justice Department created a new regulation that allowed the Attorney General to appoint a 'special counsel' from outside the federal government. The Justice Department determined that special counsels would be appointed for investigations that would have too much conflict of interest to operate under normal agency guidelines.
