The murder of Sir William de Cantilupe, who was born around 1345, by members of his household, took place in Scotton, Lincolnshire, in March 1375. The family was a long-established and influential one in the county; de Cantilupes traditionally provided officials to the Crown both in central government and at the local level. Among William de Cantilupe's ancestors were royal councillors, bodyguards and, distantly, Saint Thomas de Cantilupe.
De Cantilupe's death by multiple stab wounds was a . The chief suspects were two neighbours—a local knight, Ralph Paynel; and the sheriff, Sir Thomas Kydale—as well as de Cantilupe's entire household, particularly his wife Maud, the cook and a squire. The staff were probably paid either to carry out or to cover up the crime, while Paynel had been in dispute with the de Cantilupes for many years; it is possible that Maud was conducting an affair with Kydale, during her husband's frequent absences on service in France during the Hundred Years' War.
The Treason Act 1351 laid down that the murder of a husband by his wife or servants was to be deemed petty treason. De Cantilupe's murder was the first to come within the purview of the Act, as were the subsequent trials of Maud and several members of her staff. Many people were indicted for the crime, although only two were convicted and, in the end, executed for it. Others were also summoned but, as they never appeared, were outlawed instead. Other influential local figures, such as the sheriff, were accused of aiding and abetting the criminals. The last trial and acquittal was in 1378, although the case had long-term consequences. No motive has been established for de Cantilupe's killing; historians consider it most likely that responsibility rested with de Cantilupe's wife, her lover, the cook and their neighbour, with a mix of motives including love and revenge.
Background The de Cantilupes were a long-established Lincolnshire family based at Scotton in the northeast of the county. They were also major landholders in the Midlands, with estates in Greasley, Ilkeston and Withcall. The family had traditionally played an important role in both local society and central government with a history of loyal and diligent service to the crown. Not only were they lords of the realm—"one of the richest and most influential families in fourteenth-century England", suggests the scholar Frederik Pedersen—but the family possessed Saint Thomas de Cantilupe in its ancestry, and considered themselves to be under his special protection. William de Cantilupe, 30 years old at the time of his death, was a "knight of some stature" in the region, notes the historian J. G. Bellamy, and by then had been retained by John of Gaunt.
Family tree The relationships between de Cantilupe, Paynel and Kydale were:
Household Although the de Cantilupe family's main residence was Greasley Castle, Nottinghamshire, in the spring of 1375 William was staying at the manor of Scotton. This estate had come to him through his marriage to Maud Nevil, daughter of Sir Philip Nevil of Scotton.
The household, as named in later indictments, comprised: William de Cantilupe and his wife Maud; Maud's maid, Agatha Lovel; Richard Gyse, squire; Roger Cooke, the cook (who may also have been the butler or "botiller"); Robert de Cletham, the seneschal; Augustine Morpath; John Barneby de Beckingham; John de Barnaby, the household chamberlain; William Chaumberleyn; John Chaumberleyn; Walter de Hole; Henry Taskare; Augustine Forster; Augustine Warner and John Astyn. Gyse and Cooke may have been impoverished, suggests Pedersen, and so ripe for recruitment as de Cantilupe's killers.
Death of de Cantilupe A later jury established that de Cantilupe was "at peace with God and the lord king", and Pedersen has taken this to indicate that he had prayed, and, therefore, was about to retire for the night. In a premeditated and minutely planned attack, de Cantilupe was stabbed to death with many blows. The precise date of the crime is unknown; the juries that heard the indictments offered dates varying from 13 February to 11 April 1375. Pedersen has suggested the evening of Friday, 23 March or the following Friday, as most probable. Five of the seven quarter sessions juries which subsequently sat suggested the latter, the other two decided it was the former date.
It was probably the maid, Lovel, who gave Cooke and Gyse access to de Cantilupe's room. Having killed him, according to the later court records, they washed his corpse "with heated-up water so that they not be discredited by the effusion of the blood of his wounds". The hot water cauterised de Cantilupe's wounds and (it has been suggested) made his body easier to transport; it also, suggests Pedersen, implies that they had assistance from the house's domestic staff, and, by extension, that the "entire household was involved in aiding and abetting the murder". He argues that
The corpse was placed in a sack, and the killers transported it to the east, dumping it near Grayingham. Here they dressed the corpse in "fine garments", including a belt and spurs. Pedersen speculates that this was to present the appearance of an attack by highwaymen or footpads. The body was discovered by passers-by, who reported that, in their view, he had been killed on the road. The discovery may not have occurred for some time though, or at least not have been reported, argues Bellamy, which may account for the number of possible dates on which the crime could have been committed.
Escape Immediately after the murder, it appears that the entire house was closed up and its staff dispersed. Pedersen suggests this was what originally indicated to the authorities that something was amiss. Four members of the household were later alleged to have sought refuge with Sir Ralph Paynel, whose manor was south of Scotton. Those who apparently escaped to Paynel's house were Maud, Lovel, Gyse and Cooke. Paynel was an important figure in Lincolnshire society, and had been a retainer of King Edward III, although Pedersen describes him as something of a "loose cannon", due to Paynel's having been summoned several times to answer allegations of excess.
Indictments, trials and convictions Although most of the household were later indicted for de Cantilupe's killing, it is not known who was in charge of the operation. The medievalist Rosamund Sillem has identified Paynel as the conspiracy's mastermind, for example, while Pedersen has argued that "there is a strong circumstantial case to be made that they were acting under the direction of William's wife, Maud Nevil".
Sessions of the Peace The case came before the commission of county coroners, headed by the sheriff, Thomas Kydale of South Ferriby, on 25 June 1375. Several charges were presented and many suspects arraigned. Maud was named as a party, although in these early proceedings there was some uncertainty as to the role she had played, some juries naming her as an instigator and others as an accessory. Her seneschal, Robert de Cletham, was charged with aiding and abetting her. Ten juries investigated over a period of some weeks. This may indicate a greater than usual effort by the Crown to establish the facts, and perhaps reflects the degree of complexity investigators encountered. The juries presenting to the justices believed the crime was committed around the Feast of the Annunciation. They established few details of the crime, but were the first juries to level charges against the whole household.
Maud accuses
As well as being named a suspect, Maud also lodged her own accusations against 16 men and women. Pedersen argues that, "given her almost certain complicity in the murder it must have come as a surprise to the two assassins, William’s squire, Richard Gyse, and Roger Cooke, that Maud named them as the murderers". Bellamy suggests that an accusation of this nature would have been expected of any woman who was in the house and on the scene when her husband was killed. It would not necessarily have implied complicity to her contemporaries, although it may also have been, says Pedersen, an attempt at diverting suspicion. The historian Paul Strohm has argued that, "like other women raising a hue ... she then found herself under suspicion and indictment for complicity".
King's Bench sessions The Court of King's Bench convened in Lincoln on 29 September 1375. Once more Kydale presided. Usually in medieval indictments the accused ranged from "unknown felons [to] notorious robbers"; the accusations against 15 members of de Cantilupe's household, Maud herself and an important local figure such as Sir Ralph Paynel were exceptional. Both the indictments of the peace sessions and Maud's June allegations were presented to the bench, and Gyse and Cooke were arraigned. Whereas the juries which presented their conclusions to the peace commission believed the crime was committed around the Feast of the Annunciation, it is with the juries presenting to the bench that a dating disparity is introduced. The King's Bench juries suggested, between them, 10 different dates spread over two months. Sillem suggests that this may be explained by the fact that, by the time they came to consider the evidence, they could only rely on memories to an event which occurred at least six months previously.
When the case was eventually heard, it was not as murder, but as petty treason, since it involved either household servants rebelling against their master, or a wife against her husband, and was the first time the 1351 Treason Act had been used against members of a household in the death of their master. The King's Bench juries deliberately used the language of treason rather than felony: : treason, lies and sedition, seditious aforethought. All of which, argues Sillem, suggested to observers this "conveyed that most heinous of crimes, treachery to the lord".
Maud withdrew her allegations—paying a fine (having made them) for doing so—and Gyse and Cooke were therefore acquitted on her charges. The jury indictments remained, however. Most of those she had accused in June had never presented themselves to court—they seem to have disappeared—and apart from Cooke and Gyse, only she and her husband's seneschal stood trial. De Cletham had been charged only with aiding and abetting by the peace sessions juries but, at the bench, he was also charged with murder, as Maud had been. They were acquitted on both that charge and one of aiding and abetting Gyse and Cooke. Maud and de Cletham were released on a bond of mainprise on the charges of aiding and abetting those other principals who had failed to appear. Paynel was charged with harbouring Maud, Lovel, Gyse and Cooke on his Caythorpe manor, and also released on mainprise until Michaelmas the following year. The only accused to be found guilty before the bench were Gyse and Cooke.
Westminster sessions The case moved to the King's Bench at Westminster in September 1376. Members of the de Cantilupe household who had failed to appear in court were outlawed as felons. Maud and the seneschal, though, were acquitted on the charge of having aided and abetted them. Paynel was again indicted for harbouring criminals.
Kydale, Paynel and Lovel The sheriff, Kydale, was also suspected of complicity in the crime due to his standing surety for Maud during her appearances. He was already associated with Paynel, and this may have hardened suspicions against him. One of Kydale's duties as sheriff was to select the juries that sat on the case, and by extension, that would decide Maud's guilt or innocence.