Medieval Murders – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of Medieval Murders, we’ll be discussing a case that touches on jealousy, greed, and mercy. 

It involves a chaplain, a concubine, and a killer. 

We’re right underneath one of modern London’s most famous landmarks, the skyscraper known as the Gherkin.

Hidden in a corner in the shadow of the Gherkin you can find a medieval church called St Helen’s Bishopsgate. 

On Saturday 9th June in 1324, a chaplain was found dead in a concubine’s home.

How was he killed and how did his murderers try to escape execution using the ancient law of sanctuary?

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website 

Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

In this episode of Medieval Murders, we travel to Oxford in 1306, where a midsummer night of music and merriment takes a deadly turn. 

What begins as a celebration by the town’s tailors erupts into bloodshed when a cleric, Gilbert de Foxlee, confronts the revelers with his sword drawn. 

But why did he attack them? Was it a noise dispute, a clash of social status, or a zealous attempt to suppress sinful revelry? And why did the tailors switch from initial attempts to deescalate the situation to a collective armed attack? 

As we unravel the mysteries of this case, we explore medieval Oxford’s fraught relationship between town and gown, its harsh moral codes, and eerie parallels to modern-day vigilante violence.

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website 

Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

For this episode we remain in Oxford, one of the three cities on the Medieval Murder Map. 

In this case, a praying clerk and a shoulder barge leads to murder.

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website 

Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

Today we turn to Oxford, one of the three cities on the Medieval Murder Map. 

Alongside its academic excellence and religious contemplation, Oxford was also a hotspot of violence, with murder rates higher than those of almost any city in the modern world.  

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website 

Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

In this episode, we learn how road rage also existed in Medieval England.

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website 

Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

In this episode, we explore how the slinging of insults can lead to murder.

And, as a warning, this episode by its very nature has strong language.

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website 

Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

In this episode, we solve an exceptional murder case that went cold 680 years ago.

It was a cold-blooded mafia-style assassination of John Ford, a man of god – it involved a gang of hitmen who cunningly used another priest to approach the victim in plain daylight – it sheds light on sin and sex, moral zeal, and double standards — it is likely shrouded in corruption and class justice — and, remarkably, the protagonist and mastermind is Ela FitzPayne —  an extraordinary lady of the highest ranks in English nobility….

Unless, that is, she was framed in a dark political game between those supporting the new king Edward III and those loyal to his dead father, Edward II.

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

In this episode, we explore the case of Copin King. Together with a companion he accosted a street vendor for his costard apples on a cold February night in 1301. Thomas Brewer, who happens to there, intervenes in defence of the street vendor — an argument escalates and Thomas Brewer eventually kills Copin with his long fighting staff known as Balgstaff.

But why do humans – today as well as in the Middle Ages – intervene to help complete strangers? What moral obligation do they feel? And how do they decide whether to intervene or walk on?

You can see the site of many other historical murders like this by going to the Medieval Murder Map website Medieval Murders is the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in Medieval England.

Join criminologist Manuel Eisner and host Nora Eisner as they bring history’s forgotten crimes to life—one murder at a time.

Medieval Murders is a podcast from the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge.

The producer is Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.

Welcome to Medieval Murders, the podcast that delves into the world of violent crimes in fourteenth century London. 

In each episode, we tell the story of a single murder case written on a small piece of parchment by the clerk of the coroner of London over six hundred years ago. 

We’ll explore cold cases, examine how people in this time and place tried to keep the peace and show that what looks so foreign at first sight; is more similar to how we act today than one might think...

Medieval Murders is hosted by me Nora Eisner and Manuel Eisner, Wolfson Professor of Criminology at the University of Cambridge and creator of the London Medieval Murder Map.

It’s produced by Steve Hankey and the historical segments are voiced and sound designed by Charlie Inman.

The Music is Cantiga 166  by  Vox Vulgaris.