The Medieval Murderers: Sword of Shame

‘Ah, thank goodness I caught you in time. I left my files here earlier in the day, when I was speaking to Mr Lascelles. I would leave it till tomorrow, but I need them for the research I’m doing in the BM.’

The guard is not sure he should be letting the man in, but he is familiar with the historian, even though he doesn’t know Wallis Barker by name. The man is always coming and going, and he can well believe the oddly-dressed fellow is absent-minded by nature. It doesn’t occur to him to question why Barker should be professing to be on his way to the British Museum at ten o’clock at night. The ways of academics are beyond him. He lets Barker in, and idly watches him hurry up the stairs to John Lascelles’s office before returning to his perusal of the Sun .

At the top of the stairs, Barker glances back to make sure the security man is not looking. Then he turns away from Lascelles’s office, and down the back stairs the auctioneer used to take him to the gallery that morning. He has left his file behind, not accidentally but deliberately, in order to have an excuse to return to the auction house. It is not in Lascelles’s office, but in the gallery tucked behind the stack of catalogues that describe the contents of tomorrow’s sale. Barker has no intention of the sword-his sword-becoming the property of anyone else. He has long realized he cannot hope to bid for it and succeed. So he has decided to steal it. Wallis Barker’s great-great-uncle was Alfred Sturge Bliss, disregarded and underrated Victorian poet. And one-time possessor of the sword, until he was murdered over it by Sir Gregory Barnwell. Now Barker proposes to rectify the situation.

He sneaks across the polished wood floor, his only illumination the red emergency lights. They cast an ominously sanguineous glow over the exhibits. He slips as he makes his way across to the de la Pomeroy sword, and in reaching out to save himself, knocks the European swept-hilt rapier off its bed of velvet. Cursing under his breath, he bends down to retrieve it.

John Lascelles is perusing the auction catalogue for the thousandth time. He is itching with excitement, and cannot imagine sleeping tonight. He cannot even bring himself to leave the office, and though it is late, he goes over the words he will utter tomorrow.

‘Ladies and gentlemen, we now come to the apex of the auction-the star of the Barnwell collection. An unusually well-preserved medieval sword with a blade bearing two inscriptions, and the crest of the de la Pomeroy family. The blade is approximately thirty inches in length, and shows signs of having been reworked on the tip at a very early date. The cross is fashioned in the image of baying hounds, and has also been repaired a very long time ago. The hilt still has remnants of the original leather and silver thread binding. Its provenance can be established as far back as the thirteenth century, but there are unsubstantiated rumours that it may have been forged around the time of the Norman Conquest. What am I bid for this extraordinary and unique item. Shall I start the bidding at £100,000?’

As his lips drool over the shapely figure, he hears a clatter somewhere in the gallery below. He glances at his watch, noting that it is past ten o’clock already. There should be no one in the building other than Rex, the night security man, who is probably dozing over his copy of the Sun , as he usually does. Puzzled, Lascelles rises from his desk, and makes for the old servants’ stairs of the Victorian mansion that is his auction house. They take him directly down to the gallery of exhibits.

He stops abruptly in the open doorway, and sees a burly figure standing close to the sword. He appears to have a weapon in his hand. Appalled that something may happen to his prized exhibit, John Lascelles rushes across the gallery floor, grabbing the sixteenth-century mitten gauntlet as he passes. He slips it on his hand, and clubs the burglar over the head with the armoured appendage. An inexplicable rage has taken him over, and he hits the man again and again as he collapses.

Wallis Barker slumps lifeless to the floor, his brains bashed in just like his great-great-uncle’s. Blood spurts from the open head wound, splattering over the inscription on the ancient blade. On its bed of purple velvet, and bathed in red light, Bran’s sword seems to sing.

A small group of historical mystery writers, all members of the Crime Writers’ Association, who promote their work by giving informal talks and discussions at libraries, bookshops and literary festivals.

Michael Jeckswas a computer salesman before turning to writing. His immensely popular Templar series, set during the confusion and terror of the reign of Edward II, is translated into most continental languages, and is published in America. The most recent novels in the series are The Death Ship of Dartmouth and The Malice of Unnatural Death . Michael was chairman of the Crime Writers’ Association in 2004-5.

Bernard Knightis a former Home Office pathologist and professor of forensic medicine who has been publishing novels, non-fiction, radio and television drama and documentaries for more than forty years. He currently writes the highly-regarded Crowner John series of historical mysteries, based on the first coroner for Devon in the twelfth century; the eleventh of which, The Noble Outlaw , has recently been published by Simon & Schuster.

Ian Morsonis the author of an acclaimed series of historical mysteries featuring the thirteenth-century Oxford-based detective, William Falconer.

Susanna Gregoryis the author of the Matthew Bartholomew series of mystery novels, set in fourteenth-century Cambridge, and a brand-new series featuring Thomas Chaloner, a reluctant spy in Restoration London, the second of which, Blood on the Strand, has recently been published. She also writes historical mysteries under the name of ‘Simon Beaufort’.

Philip Goodenis the author of the Nick Revil series, a sequence of historical mysteries set in Elizabethan and Jacobean London, during the time of Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. The latest titles in the series are Mask of the Night and An Honourable Murder . He also produces reference books on language, most recently Faux Pas and Name Dropping.