The indefinable weird flapping thing

 It is October, the month of Halloween and fading light and the dying of the year. My favourite season, being the miserable sod that I am. I jest, of course: I’m only miserable 98% of the time. 

We are also entering the season of ghost stories, one of my obsessions. Here, then, is a short tale from the monk of Byland Abbey, written down in 1400:

“Concerning another ghost that followed William of Bradeforth and cried “ How, how, how,” thrice on three occasions. It happened that on the fourth night about midnight he went back to the New Place from the village of Ampleforth, and as he was returning by the road he heard a terrible voice shouting far behind him, and as it were on the hill side; and a little after it cried again in like manner but nearer, and the third time it screamed at the cross-roads ahead of him; and at last he saw a pale horse and his dog barked a little, but then hid itself in great fear between the legs of the said William. Whereupon he commanded the spirit in the name of the Lord and in virtue of the blood of Jesus Christ to depart and not to block his path. And when he heard this he withdrew like a revolving piece of canvas with four corners and kept on turning. So that it seems that he was a ghost that mightily desired to be conjured and to receive effective help.”

As usual in these Byland tales, the ghost is dispelled or tamed (conjured) by invoking Christ. I find this very creepy, reminiscent of MR James: the indefinable, weird, flapping thing stalking William down the road, making screaming noises. What the hell is it, exactly? What does it want? Like every good writer of ghost stories, the monk left plenty to the imagination.

Denying Christ

 #OTD in 1307, Philip the Fair had every Knight Templar in France arrested on charges of heresy. The specific charges ran thus: 

"...when professing, the brothers were required to deny Christ, to spit on the Cross, and to place three 'obscene kisses' on the lower spine, the navel and the mouth; they were obliged to indulge in carnal relations with other members of the order, if requested; and finally they wore a small belt which had been consecrated by touching a strange idol, which looked like a human head with a long beard." 

And so on. When I was researching Anglo-French relations in this period, it was interesting to discover that one of Philip's inquisitors was Jean de Varenne; a baron of Ponthieu who had previously done military service for France in Flanders, as a proxy for his immediate overlord Edward I, who was Count of Ponthieu as well as King of England. Complicated times, very.

Judgement of blood

#OTD in 1283 Prince Dafydd of Wales was executed at Shrewsbury. He was the first nobleman (but not the first man) to be hanged, drawn and quartered in the British Isles. It is often said that he was executed for ‘high treason’. That is incorrect, because such a penalty did not yet exist on the statute book. He was killed for several capital crimes, described by the annals of Dunstable. Quote:  

‘Because he was a traitor to the lord king, for whom he had done military service, he was drawn slowly by a horse to the place of his hanging. Because he had murdered Fulk Trigald and other English noblemen, he was disembowelled and his viscera burned. Because he had plotted the death of the king in several places in England, his body was divided and sent to the corners of England, to the terror of those inclined to doing evil. His head, however, is at the Tower of London, affixed to the highest stake, facing the sea.’ 

In the eyes of the king and his justices, Dafydd had committed crimes against God and man and deserved to suffer four or five different deaths. He was also excommunicate, which rendered him effectively soulless. To destroy his body, as was done at Shrewsbury, was to exterminate him utterly. In addition, an excommunicate could be killed in any way, without fear of censure.  

Dafydd spent much of his career in the service of Edward I, who granted him lands and a rich marriage. The king also funded the construction of Dafydd’s castle of Caergwrle (see pic) in the lordship of Hopedale. In return the Welshman served in Edward’s armies in England and Wales.  

He seems to have been driven by hatred and envy of his eldest brother, Llywelyn the Last. It is difficult to know where the guilt lay, since Llywelyn had equally difficult relationships with his three other siblings. Like most men of power, he was overbearing, and insisted upon absolute obedience. 

Whatever Dafydd’s motives, he could not command the same loyalty as Llywelyn. When he became prince, in early 1283, his countrymen quickly fell away from him. By June he was being hunted by teams of Welshmen in Edward’s service, including some of his own former retainers. He was finally cornered by Iorwerth Penwyn (white-head), a landholder of Gwynedd, while his eldest son was taken prisoner by Dafydd Fychan, a man of West Wales. Dafydd was handed over to the king, his former paymaster, who insisted on a judgement of blood.