Hi, my name's Kevin Hicks, welcome to my YouTube Channel the History Squad. Now today's video has
been voted in by my Patreon members, hey guys thanks a bunch. This is the London
medieval murder map. What's that may you ask, well actually it's been put together by the
University of Cambridge and it's an interactive map, it's brilliant you can look it up details
in the description. It covers 142 murders in London in the medieval times, 1300 to 1340,
and what we've done is chosen a few of those murders and we're going to
have a little delve and see what went on in the murky medieval streets of London.
So before we actually delve into these murders I must explain the information is from the coroners
courts and so the records stand from the coroner, they're not the actual court case, they're not
being put on trial, it's simply the facts about the murder as far as the coroner was concerned.
So the first case, the arrest and death of Ralph Fitspiers, 18th of October 1316. Oh well Ralphie
must have been a bad-un, because two other men actually reported him, they informed on him and
the sheriff Hamon of Chigwell, isn't he great names, was ordered to apprehend him. So Hamon
gives the order to his sergeant at arms, Roger at Wake, that's another name isn't it,
to apprehend this bad-un Ralph. Well they can't find him at first but eventually they track him
down, they found where he was living and the sergeant at arms, Roger goes to arrest him,
apprehend him, on his own and he shouldn't have done that because as I said Ralph was a bad-un.
He resists the arrest. He resisted arrest with one of these and he hit the sergeants at arms over the
head with the sword causing a wound. There was a struggle. The sergeant at arms drew his knife
and he managed to plunge it into the waist of Ralph, it plunged in five inches causing a wound
one inch wide. So with the aid of local people who had heard the sergeant at arms crying out,
Ralph was conveyed to Newgate Prison where he later died. Now there's a surprise. Interestingly
though, during the court of inquiry, the coroner's court, it was asked did the sergeant at arms
resign and they went ‘no, no he hasn't resigned at all because what he was doing
was keeping the King's peace’ and don't forget the crowd came to his aid when he called out,
that is a real positive thing. But they actually put him on trial and he was admonished,
no case to answer, because old Ralph there he was a bad-un, and he paid the price.
So our second case is titled ‘Pierced by the Percies’ Monday of Pentecost, 1324 in Bishopsgate,
London. The body of poor Nicholas, servant to Simon of Knottingley, I do love these names,
was found dead at the entrance of William of Pontefract’s house in Bishopsgate.
He'd been murdered. So the coroner opens an inquiry and with the sheriff they visit the
scene of the murder. A jury is sworn in to carry out an investigation, they are from local people
from Bishopsgate. They're at the house of Alice of Whitney, a prostitute, and this is where the story
unfolds because three men, so it would appear, beat young Nicholas half to death and then he
was finished off with a knife. The men concerned were all servants to Lord Percy. We've got uh
Henry Krok who was Lord Percy's attendant. We have one uh Thomas, who was the servant to the cook and
William de la Marche who was the master of horse for Lord Percy. So these servants yeah, they're
important, but this is the nasty thing they kicked Old Nicholas half to death and then William
nastily used a knife very similar to this and he plunged it straight through his right breast,
through Nicholas's right breast and thrusted so hard it went halfway down through his body.
They then had it on their toes, they ran away. However,
as it so happens, William de Marsh was apprehended and he was then placed in jail at Newgate Prison.
As I say we don't know what happened to him because this is just the coroner's report,
it is not the criminal proceedings but I like to think that the beggar was hanged.
This final case of ours that we're looking at really does strike home if you like, because it
involves somebody being shot with an arrow from a longbow, but right in the heart of London.
It was Aldergate, 11th of June 1326 Simon Fermorie had been shot near the belly button with an arrow
causing multiple wounds from which he died. He was found dead in the house that he rented. And
a little thing that I find interesting here in the coroner's report he said he was shot with an arrow
that caused multiple wounds, so was he shot with one arrow or more than one arrow? If he was shot
with more than one, it had been a great grouping. So it transpires that Simon had been shot two
days before on the 9th of June. What had happened was this, sunset two massive gangs of apprentice
lawyers, one set from York the other from Norfolk had fallen out big time and they clashed,
drawn swords, church bells were ringing in alarm and a large crowd had gathered alarmed at what
was going on in their streets. So you imagine the scene, great numbers were involved so the
court of inquiry says, swords clashing, church bells ringing, people frightened for their lives
and for their property when David Arpada, together with 12 other servants step out into the street of
their masters house in Saint Martin le Grand and watched the proceedings. Now I don't know how, but
David produces a longbow. Now the court of inquiry reckoned he'd been egged on by the other servants.
He simply draws his bow and shoots straight into the crowd. He hit his mark. The arrow has entered
right near the abdomen, the belly button, of poor Simon who falls to the ground. Meanwhile
David together with one other of the servants have it on their toes, they disappear as fast as they
can and as far as I can tell they weren't found. However the 11 remaining servants were arrested.
I love this but I want to know what happened. Did they ever find David? Was he ever brought
to justice? But I only have the murder map of medieval London to go on, the coroner's inquiries.
You know when I look at these uh medieval murders and then I compare it to today
I don't think much has changed really. When you have a look at the map you’ll see that the
dominant form of murder was actually stabbings, so in the later part of the medieval period 1300
to 1340 more people were stabbed in London than in any other form of, of killing and that's the same
as today. In London last year 2022 out of the 109 murders committed nine were shootings but 69 of
them were fatal stabbings and I was watching about a trial in the United States, a savage killing,
and the judge actually referred to it as being medieval in what this person had done.
Well I don't think we've advanced when it comes to killing we are still just as brutal,
as merciless, as murderous as we've ever been. Well I hope you enjoyed that video of ours,
if you did like share and subscribe and don't forget to turn on the all notification buttons,
they do work sometimes. But before I go, a quick shout out to a couple of my Patreon members. The
first is Tom Smith, hey Tom, I met him in Warwick in England recently and we shared a pint in a
good old-fashioned pub and the other is Travis Graham. Hey guys, thanks a million, bye for now.