The story of Coventry. Mary Dormer Harris
themselves of their oppressors. Their enemies accused them, whether truly or untruly we cannot tell, of having recourse to the black art, and strange rumours were afloat concerning the unlawful dealings of the citizens with one Master John de Nottingham, limb of Satan and necromancer, who inhabited a ruinous house in the neighbourhood of the town. Witchcraft was not then considered an ecclesiastical offence, but one against the common law, and it was, it seems, before the Court of King's Bench that the approver, Robert le Mareshall, told his story. He had been living, he said, with one Master John de Nottingham, necromancer, of Coventry. To whom, on the Wednesday next before the feast of S. Nicholas, in the seventeenth year of the King's reign, came certain men of the town, citizens of good standing, and promised them great profit—to the necromancer, £20, and "his subsistence in any religious house in England,"[111] and to Robert le Mareshall, £15—if they would compass the lives of the King and others by necromancy. Having received part of the promised payment as earnest at the hands of John le Redclerk, hosier, and John, son of Hugh de Merington, apprentice of the law, with seven pounds of wax and two yards of canvas, the magicians began their work. On the Sunday after the feast of S. Nicholas they fashioned seven magical images in the respective likenesses of Edward II., with his crown, the elder and younger Despenser, Prior Henry, Nicholas Crumpe, his steward, the cellarer of the convent, and Richard Sowe, probably one of the priory underlings who had made himself unpopular. As far as the last-named enemy upon the list was concerned—for upon him they chose to experiment "to see what might be done with the rest"—they were entirely successful. On the Friday before the feast of the Holy Rood about midnight John de Nottingham gave his helper, Robert le Mareshall, a leaden bodkin, with command to thrust it into the forehead of the figure of Richard Sowe. The effect was well-nigh instantaneous. When the necromancer sent Robert on the morrow to inquire how Richard did, the messenger found him crying "Harrow," and mad as mad could be. And on the Wednesday before the Ascension, John having on the previous Sunday removed the bodkin from the forehead of the figure and thrust it into its heart, Richard Sowe died.[112]
Meanwhile the necromancer and the accused gave themselves up in court, consenting to plead before a jury. All, save the necromancer, were admitted to bail.[113] He no doubt looked to receive no mercy, and when after sundry delays the trial came on, the marshal certified that Master John de Nottingham was dead. Another of the accused, Piers Baroun, who had been a burgess at the Parliament of 1305,[114] died also during the interval.
Others had fled from justice, though of these one Richard Grauntpee, without doubt a near relative of the man who had lost his suit with the prior in the matter of the market, afterwards came and surrendered himself in court. Either the sympathy of the neighbourhood was with the accused, or it was thought that Robert's tale was unworthy of belief, for a jury taken from the neighbourhood returned a verdict of acquittal. But the trial greatly embittered the feelings of the citizens, and when the tide turned, and they were able to do the prior hurt, they availed themselves of the opportunity gladly.
FOOTNOTES:
[95] "Prior Richard and Monks" in Cornh. Mag., vi. 840.
[96] Thomson, Municipal History.
[97] Earl Hugh forbade his tenants to meddle with the prior's markets (Dugdale, Warw., i. 159).
[98] Burton MS. f. 109a.
[99] Dugdale, i. 138.
[100] Quoted in Inspeximus, 17 Ed. II. (Corp. MS. B. 4); the date there given is Jan. 30, 52 H. III. (1268).
[101] Dugdale, Warw., i. 162.
[102] Merewether and Stephens, Hist. Boroughs, i. 469. The transcript of the MS. is given in Gross, Gild Merchant, ii. 365. The expression "with others" is very significant; these were probably men from the country, who had hitherto been allowed to trade in the town, and feared the establishment of the guild.
[103] Soap was made in the neighbourhood of Coventry about 1300. "Sope about Couentre." Robert of Gloucester, Chron., i. 143.
[104] Dugdale, Warw., i. 138.
[105] Parl. Writs, i. lii.
[106] Lawrence de Shepey summoned to attend a council of merchants at York in 1303 (Ibid. i. 135). He had been burgess for Coventry in 1300.
[107] Froude, Short Studies, iii. 54. Edward II.'s overthrow was the signal for a rising against this abbot.
[108] Dugdale, Warw., i. 162.
[109] It is probable that there were no shops, in our sense, in the fourteenth century. The traders' goods were kept in a cellar below the ground floor (Turner, Domestic Architecture, iii. 36). See also, Dormer Harris, Troughton Sketches, 53.
[110] The value of £60 would represent more than £700 at the present time. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries the average price of an ox was 13s. 1–¼d,; of a sheep, 1s. 5d.; of a cow, 9s. 5d.; and a fowl, 1d. (Rogers, Agriculture and Prices, i. 361–3).
[111] Probably a corrody or daily allowance of food from the monastic table during the life of an individual. This ensured for the individual who held it a share in the prayers of the brethren, and sometimes included lodging within the monastery.
[112] Lansd. MS. 290, f. 533. It is the earliest trial for witchcraft extant in England. See also Parl. Writs, ii. Div. 2, App. 269–70.
[113] Divers natives of Warwickshire and citizens of London went bail for them.
[114] Parl. Writs, i. ii.
CHAPTER VI
The Seigniory of the Prior and Queen Isabella
Hitherto it had fared ill with the Earl's-men in their struggle with the convent. Were they to be worsted like the men of S. Alban's or Bury S. Edmund's? The former were now utterly broken in spirit. After a hard fight lasting from the days of Henry III., they obtained in 1327 a charter, conferring on them the control over the local courts and the privileges of a free and independent borough. And yet they were powerless. Five years later they voluntarily surrendered their charter into