The Medieval Murderers - Sword of Shame

‘Proof?’

‘He confessed to the crime before my friend Bailiff Puttock and myself,’ Baldwin said shortly. ‘It led him to seek absolution. Recently, his father acquired this sword, which Sir William believed was the sword which his ancestor used to kill St Thomas. It seemed to him to indicate God’s displeasure at his murder, as though the return to his family of the weapon that had executed Becket was proof of God’s anger. Sending it to Canterbury meant the cathedral could dispose of it as they wished. At the same time He could commit himself to perpetual penance by entering the cloister at Tavistock.’

‘All clear enough,’ the coroner boomed. ‘But then the sword was stolen.’

‘Not entirely! He paid Coule to take it to Canterbury. Coule gained permission from his master to go, and all seemed well, except Coule was seen leaving by Roger. Perhaps Roger noticed Coule was hiding something, and decided to overtake him. Coule tried to escape to the nearest house, Hob the miller’s, but to no avail, clearly.

‘Roger had no idea that Sir William was disposing of it intentionally, so Roger struck down Coule as a felon. But then I think he recognized that if the sword was lost, his brother would leave the manor. All would go to him. So Roger concealed the sword and waited.

‘Sir William was devastated. His plans had gone awry, and he saw this as further evidence of God’s displeasure. Even his attempt at atonement was thwarted…but then he realized that he had no duty of guardianship any longer. He began to plan his retreat from the world.’

‘Except the sword reappeared,’ the coroner said in a muted thunder.

‘Exactly. He found it himself. After the murder of Coule, there was a search for the missing sword, but Roger told me he organized the search himself. Sir William must have suspected him. When Roger came to me, Sir William did not prevent him. While Roger was with me, Sir William found the sword among Roger’s belongings. It persuaded him that his brother and wife were plotting to murder him.

‘He was a jealous husband, and always feared that she might seduce another as he thought she had him. His wife had no vocation, and disliked the idea of the convent. He knew that. But if she was to escape the convent against his wishes, she must have had a means of removing him. The easiest way to achieve that would be to kill him. But to do that, she would need an accomplice. That was his reasoning.

‘Sir William knew the sword was in Roger’s room, so he decided to kill Roger. On Roger’s body, he found the sword, because Roger had been trying to dispose of it. He brought the sword back and concealed it.’

‘He killed his own brother?’ Sir Richard growled, his voice setting the plates rattling on the sideboard.

‘In his eyes, I suppose, it was self defence. He would have killed his wife; he couldn’t leave her alive to plot his death with another-he persuaded himself that she could turn the head of any of his staff, even the lawyer.’

‘Quite understandable,’ the coroner murmured gallantly.

‘And the last piece of proof for him was Hob finding the sword again,’ Baldwin said.

Madam Alice shook herself. ‘I was stupid! I was sure that Roger had the sword, and I looked in his chamber, and found it in his chest. Roger wanted the manor, and he didn’t care what happened to me, so he was happy to conceal it. Or so I thought. I sent Denis with it to tell Hob to say that he’d just found it.’

‘But Sir William had put it there in a hurry after killing Roger. He simply put it back where Roger had hidden it before,’ Baldwin said. ‘So when it turned up, he thought it proved his wife was in league with his dead brother.’

‘What do you have to say for yourself?’ the coroner demanded, turning to the battered lawyer.

Denis closed his eyes against his headache. The Keeper had probably saved his life the day he’d killed Sir William, but he could perhaps have used a little less force. He felt sick again, and hoped he wouldn’t vomit. ‘Sir, I could see how Sir William had turned against his wife, and I was worried for her safety.’

‘Was it your place to worry about her?’

‘I thought so, Coroner. I believe any man has a duty to protect those weaker than himself if set upon by a madman.’

‘So you hid yourself from Sir William that day?’ Baldwin pressed him.

‘Yes. To save her life.’

Baldwin turned to face the coroner again. ‘You see? Sir William thought that his wife would keep the sword here. While it remained, he could not leave; he must get it to Canterbury. When he found that his own brother had concealed the sword, he was enraged-especially since he thought his wife had plotted to save herself from the convent, so he thought, at the expense of his immortal soul.’

‘This lawyer protected her by slaying her husband?’

‘Precisely. Denis saved her life. And I saved his by knocking him out so that others wouldn’t chase and kill him.’

‘That sword is clearly cursed. To kill St Thomas and then these others…it says much for the foulness of the blade. I consider Sir William had the right idea. It should be sent without delay to Canterbury to atone for its crimes.’

Baldwin made a gesture of disgust. ‘You would accuse the sword? It is a lump of inanimate metal, Coroner!’

‘You said it was the weapon that killed…’

‘Sir William de Tracy killed Becket with his sword; Roger killed Coule with his ; Roger was killed with Sir William’s riding sword; Sir William died from a blow by Denis’s. Not one of those deaths was committed with this sword.’

‘Saint…’

Baldwin irritably cut him off. ‘That is the greatest irony. This is not the sword that killed St Thomas. That was with Sir William when he joined the Knights Templar as his penance and set sail for the Holy Land. He died on the way. I have seen his grave in Sicily, and in his grave, so I was told by the priest, was the sword that struck down St Thomas, so that when his body rose again on the day of judgement, he would be reminded of his crime. This is not his sword.’

‘Then whose is it?’ the coroner growled.

‘Just below the cross there is a mark,’ Baldwin said, picking up the sword and pointing. ‘It looks like a shield, and the name “de la Pomeroy”, I think.’

Sir Richard bent his head and peered. ‘Could be…But if it’s not the Tracy sword, why is it here?’

‘I doubt that Sir Humphrey thought for a moment that it was the genuine de Tracy sword,’ Baldwin said. ‘I knew Sir Humphrey a little. He was cynical fellow. I’m sure he liked to say that it could have been the original sword, but he bought it for a more mundane reason.’

‘What?’

‘Pick it up and handle it,’ Baldwin urged. ‘It has a feel all of its own. Light, nimble, and balanced. He bought it because it is excellent, I deem.’

The inquest took little time. As the jurors filed from the hall and the clerk scratched at his parchment, Sir Richard picked up the sword to pass back to Madam Alice. ‘This is yours, lady.’

She flinched. ‘I want nothing to do with that thing! Throw it in the river. Or, better still, carry out my husband’s last wish and destroy it. I will not have it in the hall here. I want never to see it again.’

‘I understand that Sir John was offered it by Roger,’ Baldwin said quietly. ‘If you really wish to see the sword disposed of, I can take it to him.’

‘Please, just take it away from me. I feel as though I am under a curse all the time that shameful weapon stays here!’

When the sword was given to him, Sir John could only laugh at the fortune that had brought it to him. As soon as he picked it up, he could feel the life in the blade. The way that it moved through the air spoke of the marvellous construction, the careful effort taken over the hilt, the bonding of wood and steel and iron together to create such a piece of workmanship.