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  Michael Jecks gave up a career in the computer industry to concentrate on writing and the study of medieval history. A regular speaker at library and literary events, he is a past Chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association. He lives with his wife, children and dogs on northern Dartmoor.

  Also by Michael Jecks

  The Last Templar

  The Merchant’s Partner

  A Moorland Hanging

  The Crediton Killings

  The Abbot’s Gibbet

  The Leper’s Return

  Squire Throwleigh’s Heir

  Belladonna at Belstone

  The Traitor of St Giles

  The Boy Bishop’s Glovemaker

  The Tournament of Blood

  The Sticklepath Strangler

  The Devil’s Acolyte

  The Mad Monk of Gidleigh

  The Templar’s Penance

  The Outlaws of Ennor

  The Tolls of Death

  The Chapel of Bones

  The Butcher of St Peter’s

  A Friar’s Bloodfeud

  The Death Ship of Dartmouth

  The Malice of Unnatural Death

  Dispensation of Death

  The Templar, the Queen and Her Lover

  The Prophecy of Death

  The King of Thieves

  The Bishop Must Die

  The Oath

  First published in Great Britain by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2011

  A CBS COMPANY

  Copyright © Michael Jecks, 2011

  This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.

  No reproduction without permission.

  ® and © 1997 Simon & Schuster Inc. All rights reserved.

  The right of Michael Jecks to be identified as author of this

  work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and

  78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

  1st Floor

  222 Gray’s Inn Road

  London WC1X 8HB

  www.simonandschuster.co.uk

  www.michaeljecks.co.uk

  Simon & Schuster Australia

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  Hardback ISBN 978-1-84737-902-3

  Trade Paperback ISBN 978-0-85720-111-9

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-84737-903-0

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either

  a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance

  to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Typeset by Hewer Text UK Ltd, Edinburgh

  Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Mackays, Chatham ME5 8TD

  This book is for the Marvellous Marvins

  with thanks for Fnob Cheese!

  CONTENTS

  Glossary

  Cast of Characters

  Author’s Note

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-One

  Chapter Fifty-Two

  Chapter Fifty-Three

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Chapter Fifty-Five

  Chapter Fifty-Six

  Chapter Fifty-Seven

  GLOSSARY

  Abjure

  felons who claimed sanctuary in a church were sometimes offered the chance to abjure the realm i.e. accepting voluntary exile in preference to being executed. They must confess to their crime, after which their property was all forfeit, even if subsequently they were pardoned or shown to be innocent.

  Alaunt

  a ferocious hunting dog, built like a greyhound but much larger.

  Black bread

  the bread of poorer folk, used especially for making trenchers, was made from flour which was not so carefully sieved and prepared as white flour.

  Braies

  underclothes consisting of linen or loose woollen material that was full in the bottom and reached sometimes to the calves. The waist was often curled over and over to form a sort of belt, sometimes with strings to tie it up.

  Fuller

  a channel running along the length of a sword blade, sometimes called a ‘blood gutter’, it was intended to reduce the weight of the blade without weakening it.

  Half-staff

  a staff held with hands apart over the middle so that roughly half the staff was between the hands. As a weapon, it could be used to jab with either end, or to block another fighter’s weapon with the mass of the centre.

  Host

  in medieval England the King could call on men of a certain age to serve in his levy. The word army came from armée, a French term that would not come into common use in English until the Hundred Years War.

  Kennel

  central gulley or gutter in a medieval street.

  Lampreys

  a primitive, eel-like fish that was prized as a delicacy in medieval times. Henry I was said to have died from ‘a surfeit of lampreys’.

  Maslin

  mixture of rye and wheat, used for breadmaking.

  Niddicock

  fool, idiot.

  Pandemaigne

  special, creamy white bread made with the highest grade of flour, from which much of the bran (but not wheatgerm) had been removed by sieving through cloth.

  Peine Forte et Dure

  torture in England was illegal before the 1300s, but if an accused man refused to plead, he could be forced to lie on the floor, shackled to rings, and to have weights set upon his chest until he complied. Many died, unable to breathe (another ‘natural’ death for a prisoner).

  Perry

  drink made from fermenting pears – similar to cider, but sweeter.

  Quarter-staff

  (see Half-staff) the manner of holding a staff with one quarter of the stave between the hands, both hands nearer one tip, leaving three-quarters of the weapon pointing at the enemy like a lance.

  Rache

  a running dog, like a greyhound but smaller than an Alaunt.

  Rifflers

  bands of men who looted and robbed at will when King Edward II left London.

  Rounsey
>
  general purpose horse of a good size, used by men-at-arms for a warhorse, or a packhorse.

  Scavengers

  workers who cleansed a town’s streets of faeces and rubbish.

  Sumpter

  a baggage horse.

  Verderer

  the official responsible for the law in the King’s forest.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Sir Baldwin de Furnshill

  Keeper of the King’s Peace, known for his astute investigation of crimes.

  Jeanne de Furnshill

  wife to Sir Baldwin.

  Edgar

  Baldwin’s servant and chief man-at-arms.

  Simon Puttock

  Once a bailiff on Dartmoor, now a local farmer and freeman, Simon has been associated with the new government because of his hatred of the Despenser regime.

  Margaret Puttock

  ‘Meg’ is Simon’s wife.

  Edith

  Simon and Meg’s daughter.

  Hugh

  Simon’s servant.

  Sir Richard de Welles

  friend to Simon and Baldwin, Coroner to the Hundred of Lifton.

  Sir Ralph of Evesham

  a knight loyal to the old King.

  Willersey

  Father Luke

  vicar of St Peter’s, Willersey.

  Ham

  a farmer in Willersey.

  Agatha

  wife of Ham.

  Jen

  daughter to Ham and Agatha.

  London

  Bardi

  family of Florentine bankers who helped fund the King of England, based in Florence, but with a house in London.

  Manuele di Bardi

  the oldest of the brothers and head of the Bardi family in London.

  Benedetto di Bardi

  second-in-command of the bank.

  Matteo di Bardi

  youngest brother of the family.

  Sebastian & Francisco

  two merchants from the House of Bardi.

  Dolwyn of Guildford

  bodyguard; supporter of Edward II.

  Alured the Cooper

  a law officer.

  Camp of Sir Edward of Caernarfon

  Sir Edward of Caernarfon

  once King Edward II of England, he has been forced to abdicate the realm and pass it on to his son.

  John of Shulton

  a man-at-arms from the Despenser estates.

  Paul of Bircheston

  John’s best friend; also a Despenser vassal.

  Harry le Cur

  one of the men-at-arms who had been besieged at Caerphilly.

  Senchet Garcie

  another member of the Caerphilly garrison.

  Stephen Dunheved

  an instigator of the plots to rescue the former King.

  Frere Thomas Dunheved

  brother of Stephen, and a Dominican Friar, Thomas had been a confidential agent for King Edward II and remained intensely loyal to him.

  Brother Michael

  a monk at the Augustinian Priory of Llantony-next-Gloucester.

  William atte Hull

  nephew to Brother Michael.

  Sir Edmund Gascelin

  ally to the Dunheveds and involved in their plots.

  Donald, Earl of Mar

  a Scottish earl who was intensely loyal to Sir Edward of Caernarfon and involved in many plots to release him.

  Camp of King Edward III

  King Edward III

  the young son of Edward of Caernarfon, he rules only with the approval and consent of Sir Roger Mortimer, his Regent. Also known as the Duke of Aquitaine.

  Sir Roger Mortimer

  for many years Sir Roger was King Edward II’s favourite general, but now he is Edward of Caernarfon’s most hated enemy.

  Earl Henry of Lancaster

  one of the most powerful noblemen in England, who inherited his title when his brother Thomas was executed by Edward II for rebellion.

  Sir Jevan de Bromfield

  a knight in the service of Henry, Earl of Lancaster at Kenilworth.

  Lord Thomas de Berkeley

  son-in-law to Sir Roger Mortimer.

  Sir John Maltravers

  a close friend to Lord Thomas.

  Gilbert

  chief guard of Edward of Caernarfon.

  Squire Bernard

  porter at the gate of Kenilworth Castle.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  In trying to write a book about the gaoling of Sir Edward of Caernarfon, lately King Edward II of England, I have been forced to study a large number of documents to make sense of the crazy politics of that era.

  Scholars have argued about the poor King’s end. The general story, that he was captured, his friend and adviser Sir Hugh le Despenser executed, and the King himself forced to go under guard to Kenilworth, is not disputed. The wretched fellow must have passed a miserable Christmas in 1326, held captive by a man who sought to take the kingdom for himself – Earl Henry of Lancaster – but Edward’s problems went deeper than one aristocratic enemy.

  Earl Henry was not alone in desiring power. Sir Roger Mortimer was shrewd, ruthless, and well-connected. It was he who had raised the army that captured King Edward II. Earl Henry schemed and achieved some political success, but Mortimer had the ear of the Queen. Soon he took control and forced the King to abdicate. King Edward II became Sir Edward of Caenarfon.

  However, many were determined to see him released . . . which begs the question: why?

  After all, this man had presided over a catastrophic period. There had been famine, war and disease, and through it all, King Edward II had sought to maintain and reward only those for whom he had the strongest affection. Others were treated as convenient sources of funding. Many were robbed, seeing their lands, wealth and authority stripped away by a King who sought to pass them to his favourites: first to Sir Piers Gaveston, then to Sir Hugh le Despenser. And these two were not averse to grabbing what they desired – with or without the King’s help.

  Yet many did try to rescue the King and return him to his throne. There were three attempts to free him in 1327. Prominent in these plots were the Dunheved brothers and their gang.

  I am sure that some who risked their lives to free Sir Edward of Caernarfon were motivated by fealty, by love, and by simple loyalty. Others were acting from a desire for reward: power or money. What is certain is that most of them lost their lives.

  This was a particularly brutal time. At the turn of the fourteenth century, King Edward I had been forced to throw aside the usual system of courts, and replace them with a process designed specifically to curb the depredations of a new breed of felon, the ‘trailbastons’ or ‘club–men’. These bands of outlaws would set upon travellers or farmers, killing, raping, looting, and then moving on. The courts of trailbaston were designed to enforce the King’s Peace, as were the Keepers of the King’s Peace – men like Sir Baldwin de Furnshill.

  These knights were given warrants to hunt down murderers and other felons, actually chasing them from hundred to hundred, shire to shire. Their job was to to capture criminals, unlike the coroners, who existed mostly as tax-gatherers: coroners went from body to body, noting all salient facts about each corpse on their great scrolls, so that when the Justices arrived up to ten years later, they would be able to see all the facts and impose whatever fines were relevant.

  From the look of the writs I have seen, the Dunheved gang had been keeping Keepers busy in recent years. Stephen Dunheved himself had been forced to leave the country in 1321, having abjured the realm (see Glossary). It is interesting to speculate on his crime. Presumably it was murder – but the fact of it did not prevent his brother from acting as confessor to King Edward II. That may seem odd to us now, but the taint of a crime did not adhere to a family name in the 1300s. If it had, there would have been few men qualified to remain in the King’s household.

  Noted criminals of the time were routinely found amongst the King’s companions. Sir Gilbert de Middlet
on is one example.

  Irritated by the manner in which the King treated his relation, Adam de Swinburne, who was thrown into gaol when he criticised certain of Edward’s policies, Sir Gilbert took Adam’s case into his own hands. But not for him the usual method of presenting his case in court. In preference, he attacked a delegation heading to Scotland to negotiate a peace with those troublesome Scots. The fact that among the men he kidnapped were two papal envoys did not endear him to his King, and he was captured in fairly short order and taken to London in chains before being executed.

  Middleton was by no means alone. There was Sir Peter de Lymesey who stole a woman’s lands, and when she tried to take the matter to court, he prevented her by threatening all her witnesses with maiming, burning or death. In 1311 it was said of Sir John de Somery that no one could win justice in Staffordshire due to his control of the area. He was a man of ‘considerable notoriety’1. And not only knights were keen to use their positions in the King’s household for their own advantage. Robert Lewer, ‘an out-and-out thug in household employment’2, was only an archer when he threatened to ‘dismember some sergeants sent to arrest him, either in the presence or the absence of the King’. His violent life came to an end two years later, when he suffered the peine forte et dure (see Glossary) because he refused to plead in court.

  This was a time of powerful young men who were certain of their status and their authority. And many had cause to be grateful to the King.

  Knights were made Coroners, Sherrifs, Keepers, Justices of Gaol Delivery; they were asked to go to Parliament; some few served in the King’s household among other duties. All these positions gave opportunities for the unscrupulous, and all too often the knights proved themselves perfectly content to make profit. As shown above, they could resort to extreme violence when it suited them.