In today’s video, we covered one of the wildest true crime stories from the 14th century…and trust me, this case has everything.
The TL;DR
Picture this: It’s May 3, 1337, in downtown London. A priest named John Forde is walking down Cheapside after evening prayers when a “friend” strikes up a conversation. Next thing you know, four guys jump him near St. Paul’s Cathedral, and one of them slits his throat with a foot-long dagger in broad daylight. In front of witnesses.
So who wanted this priest dead badly enough to orchestrate a public assassination? Meet Ela Fitzpayne – noblewoman, alleged crime boss, and quite possibly the most fascinating woman you’ve never heard of.
The Backstory Gets Messy
Five years before the murder, the Archbishop of Canterbury sent some seriously damning letters about Ela. Apparently, she’d been having affairs with multiple men, including clergy members, one of whom was Father Forde himself. The Church wasn’t having it and sentenced her to a humiliating public penance: walking barefoot through Salisbury Cathedral (which has the longest nave in England, by the way) while carrying a four-pound candle. Oh, and she had to do this every autumn for seven years.
Her response? Basically, “nah.” She refused, ditched her husband, went into hiding, and got herself excommunicated.
But Wait, There’s More
Turns out Forde and Ela had been involved in some shady stuff together years earlier like raiding a monastery and stealing livestock. When Church officials found out one of their own priests was mixed up in this, they probably leaned on Forde pretty hard. Most historians think he ratted out Ela to save himself, which led to her public shaming.
Bad move, Father Forde.
The Hit
After the scandal died down and the Archbishop who exposed her conveniently passed away, the Fitzpaynes apparently decided it was payback time. Witnesses identified the main killer as Ela’s own brother, Hugh Lovell, along with two family servants.
Justice? What Justice?
Here’s the kicker: despite everyone knowing who did it and who ordered it, basically nothing happened. The courts claimed they couldn’t find the accused (members of one of England’s most prominent noble families… because… sure). Only one low-level servant ever got convicted, and that was five years after the murder.
Ela? She stayed married to her husband until he died in 1354, then inherited everything. Talk about getting away with murder.
Want to Learn More?
This case was recently analyzed by Cambridge University’s Medieval Murder Maps project. The level of detail in these 700-year-old documents is absolutely wild: we’re talking handwritten letters, court records, and coroner’s reports that paint an incredibly vivid picture of medieval crime and corruption.
Read more:
https://www.popsci.com/science/medieval-priest-cold-case-murder/
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/medieval-murder-maps-noblewoman-priest