Medieval murder: Records suggest vengeful noblewoman had priest assassinated in 688-year-old cold case

A Cambridge criminologist has uncovered new evidence in the killing of a priest, John Forde, who had his throat cut on a busy London street almost seven centuries ago.

The case is among hundreds catalogued by the Medieval Murder Maps project at Cambridge University’s Institute of Criminology, a database of unnatural death in England during the 14^th century. This one, however, has a few twists.  

Records traced by Prof Manuel Eisner suggest that John Forde’s slaying in 1337 was a revenge killing orchestrated by a noblewoman ordered to enact years of degrading penance after the Archbishop of Canterbury discovered the clergyman was her lover – possibly from Forde himself.

A letter written by the Archbishop five years earlier accuses the aristocrat Ela Fitzpayne of a wide variety of adultery, including with the priest John Forde, and demands she undertake barefoot walks of shame across Salisbury Cathedral.  

Another record found by Eisner shows that, around the time of these allegations, Ela Fitzpayne conspired with her husband and John Forde to lead a gang of extortionists that raided a church priory, breaking into buildings and holding livestock to ransom.

While explicit connections remain unclear, the records suggest that John Forde went from being in Ela Fitzpayne’s crime gang and possibly her bed, to a player in her denouncement by the church, and, years later, a murder victim – with one of Forde’s killers recognised as Ela Fitzpayne’s brother, and two others her recent servants.  

Eisner says the brazen murder of Forde near St Paul’s Cathedral, as early evening crowds milled about, was perhaps a brutal show of strength: reminding the clergy of the power of the nobility, and that Ela Fitzpayne doesn’t forget or forgive.

Digital copies of the coroner report and letters are published together for the first time on the University’s website. A new paper on the Medieval Murder Maps is published in Criminal Law Forum, and a series of podcasts are available, with each episode taking an in-depth look at an individual case, including that of Forde and Fitzpayne.

“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.”

Eisner leads the Medieval Murder Maps project, a digital resource that plots crime scenes based on translations of the coroners’ rolls, mainly from the 14^th century. The project has produced maps for London, Oxford and York to date.

Written in Latin, the rolls are records of sudden or suspicious deaths as investigated by a jury of local men called together by the coroner to establish facts and reach a verdict – a cornerstone of medieval justice.  

Most juries consisted of a dozen men, some of whom were witnesses. The jury for Forde’s killing totalled 33 men – one of the highest in all murders mapped by the project, and a sign that the sheriff and coroner considered this a high-profile case.

Westcheap – a homicide ‘hotspot’

The jury record that John Forde had been walking up Cheapside after vespers but before sunset on Friday 3^rd May 1337 when a fellow priest, Hasculph Neville, distracted Ford with “pleasant conversation”.

As they approached St Paul’s, four other men, including Hugh Lovell, brother of Ela Fitzpayne, attacked Forde. Lovell used a 12-inch dagger to open Forde’s throat, while two other men – Hugh Colne and John Strong, who, until recently, had worked for the Fitzpaynes – stabbed Forde in the belly.

The jury, including a rosary-maker and a hatmaker, identified all assassins but claimed ignorance of their whereabouts. They also noted the Fitzpaynes were in a longstanding feud with Forde.

“Despite naming the killers and clear knowledge of the instigator, when it comes to pursuing the perpetrators the jury turn a blind eye,” said Eisner.

“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 homicide “hotspot”, according to the latest paper from the research project.

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, where events could get out of hand.

Common triggers for violence in Westcheap included quarrels between merchants or artisans, and group fights between guild apprentices akin to turf wars between gangs.

Records also show that the area hosted several premeditated revenge killings, such as the one that ended John Forde. “Westcheap was a site for displays of civic justice, such as the pillory or stocks,” said Eisner. “As a setting for public rituals of punishment, this appears to have included extrajudicial killings.” 

The Archbishop’s letters

Looking into the Forde case, Eisner found a letter from Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Mepham to the Bishop of Winchester, sent in January 1332, claiming Ela Fitzpayne conducted sexual liaisons with ‘‘knights and others, single and married, and even with clerics in holy orders’’.

Punishment for her behaviour included a ban on wearing gold, pearls or precious stones, and large sums to be paid to monastic orders and donated to the poor. 

The most public penance was a walk of shame in bare feet the length of Salisbury Cathedral – the longest nave in England – carrying a four-pound wax candle to the altar, which Fitzpayne was told she must do every autumn for seven years.

The letter indicates that Fitzpayne, led by a “spirit of pride” and the devil, is refusing, and has abandoned her husband, with a further letter sent in April claiming Ela is hiding in Rotherhithe – then in the Diocese of Winchester – and is excommunicated.

Only one alleged lover is named in the letters, John Forde, suggesting his involvement in alerting the Archbishop. At the time, 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,” said Eisner. “Not least as John Forde appears to have escaped punishment by the church.”  

Priory raiders

Another record, from March of 1322, reveals Ela Fitzpayne and John Ford were both indicted by a Royal Commission. The pair had raided a Benedictine priory the previous year, along with the knight Sir Robert Fitzpayne – Ela’s husband and lord of Stogursey, the nearby castle.

The crew smashed priory 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 castle.

Despite its location, the priory was an outpost of a French abbey. This was a time of increasing animosity between France and England, with recently crowned King Edward III working on a claim to the French throne. By 1337, when Forde is murdered, the Hundred Years’ War was beginning.   

Ford’s parish was around fifty miles from Stogursey. “Ela would have visited Okeford, and Forde may have spent significant time at the castle,” said Eisner. He suggests that Forde colluded with the Fitzpaynes to take advantage of diplomatic tensions by raiding the priory.

“John Forde may have had split loyalties,” said Eisner. “One to the Fitzpayne family, who were likely patrons of his church and granted him the position. And the other to the bishops who had authority over him as a clergy member.”

“We know that Archbishop Mepham was keen to enforce moral discipline among the gentry and nobility, and act against those who displayed moral failings,” said Eisner.

“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.” 

Ford may have confessed his liaison with Ela, perhaps under pressure following the raid. The Archbishop then weaponised sexual slander to pronounce humiliating punishment on a high-ranking noblewoman who defied the moral authority of the church.

“Public humiliation can have poisonous effects, breeding hatred and revenge in humans both today and in the distant past,” said Eisner.

“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.”

The Archbishop dies in 1333, but Ela Fitzpayne waits a further four years before taking revenge on the betrayer John Forde, using her brother and other associates to cut him down in the shadow of St. Paul’s as the crowds watched.    

“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,” said Eisner.

“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.”

Interestingly, Eisner points out there is no evidence of acrimony between Ela and Robert Fitzpayne – a baron and early parliamentarian, and Ela’s second husband. Robert dies in 1354 still married to Ela, who then inherited all his property.  

Added Eisner: “A woman in 14th century England who raided priories, openly defied the Archbishop of Canterbury, and planned the assassination of a priest. Ela Fitzpayne appears to have been many things, including an extraordinary person.”

---

---