This week, we visit a curious footnote in English history: That country’s first legal proceeding involving witchcraft where detailed records have survived.
Our story opens one night in November 1323. A group of 27 “gentlemen” from Coventry and Warwickshire gathered at the house of John de Nottingham, a well-known necromancer. Robert Latoner, who served as the spokesman for these potential customers, explained to Nottingham that they had enemies in the very highest places in the land: the Prior of Coventry, the Earl of Winchester, royal “favorite” Hugh le Despenser, and--last but certainly not least--King Edward II himself. Latoner said that he would pay Nottingham £20, and the sorcerer’s assistant Robert Mareschal £15, if they succeeded in using their witchy arts to kill the king and the other named pests. They also promised Nottingham that once the deed was done, he would be provided with lodging at any religious house he chose. (After murdering the king, Nottingham would naturally want to keep a very low profile.)
Nottingham saw no reason to refuse, so in December 1323, a week after the Feast of St. Nicholas, he received partial payment in advance, along with four pounds of wax and two rolls of canvas that were needed for his important work. He used these materials to create wax figures representing the king, the Earl of Winchester, the prior (along with the clergyman’s Cellarer and Seneschal,) Hugh le Despenser, and a man named Robert de Sowe, who was apparently used as a test case. After some weeks of performing occult rituals, Nottingham held up the image of Sowe and chanted an incantation while Mareschal pushed a spike into the figure’s head. The following morning, Nottingham sent Mareschal to Sowe’s home to observe results.
What Mareschal found was very satisfactory indeed. Overnight, Sowe had gone raving mad. He was screaming hysterically, had completely lost his memory, and was unable to recognize anyone around him. Poor Sowe remained in this condition for some days, until Nottingham removed the pin from the waxen Sowe’s head and pushed it through the heart. Sowe died about a week later.
Nottingham’s clients must have felt that warm sense of satisfaction that comes when you know you have gotten value for money.
Our little band of necromantic assassins decided not to waste time. Their next victim would be Edward himself. Fortunately for that monarch, before this plan could be carried out, Mareschal got cold feet. Killing some small-potatoes nobody was all well and good, but the King of England was a different ballgame. He wasn’t about to risk a charge of regicide for a lousy £15. Mareschal went to the Sheriff of Warwickshire with quite a story to tell. The result was that the Sheriff, on the personal command of the King, immediately arrested Nottingham. The wizard’s former clients turned themselves in. Predictably enough, they denied everything. Friends of Richard Latoner and the other “gentlemen” paid their bail, on the promise of returning to face justice after Easter 1325. Nottingham and Mareschal were put into the custody of marshall Robert de Dumbleton.
Fifteen days after Easter, Dumbleton was ordered to bring John de Nottingham before the King. Alas, the marshall sighed, that was impossible. His prisoner had died suddenly. (It will be forever unknown if Nottingham passed away from natural causes, or if this was the medieval version of “Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself.”) This oh-so-convenient demise meant that the case against Latoner and Co. collapsed, and the men were set free to go their merry way. Mareschal’s fate is unrecorded, but it is assumed that he died in prison.
And that, as they say, was that.
Edward II was a weak and ineffectual king, but his opponents, including the queen, were much worse. They would stop at nothing to get what they wanted. This was a case in point.
ReplyDeleteIt seems likely that somebody with John de Nottingham's interests would also know a fair bit about poisons. He probably poisoned Robert de Sowe to create the appearance of supernatural powers, and then killed himself with a concealed vial of poison while he was in custody to escape the brutal torture and execution which surely awaited him.
ReplyDeleteIf Mareschal could visit de Sowe at home to check on his condition then he must also have had the necessary access to deliver the poison. But he couldn't just walk in on the king like that, and if nothing happened to Edward then the ruthless men who had hired de Nottingham would soon realise that they'd been conned. They would then dispose of de Nottingham and Mareschal to protect themselves. Indeed, they might well do the same if the plot was successful.
This raises the interesting possibility that de Nottingham accepted this no-win deal because he really believed in his alleged powers, and Mareschal defected because he didn't.