Bank Holiday Bonus: A Contemporary Account of Trial by Combat
The description in Gregory's Chronicle of the trial by combat between Thomas Whitehorn and James Fisher at Winchester, 1455.
The following account of an approval of felony and the resultant trial by combat is found in Gregory’s Chronicle of London for the year 1455-6 (BL MS Edgerton 1995). It appeared in print in its original late Middle English in J. Gairdner (ed.), The Historical Collections of A Citizen of London in the Fifteenth Century (Camden Society, New Series 17, London, 1876). The late fifteenth century document (the chronicles run up to 1470) very probably was not actually written by William Gregory, a member of the London Skinners’ Company who died in 1467, and to whom it was once attributed, but the exact identity of the author remains uncertain. Whoever he was, he was almost certainly a Londoner, which makes one wonder how he seemingly acquired so many vivid - one might even say lurid - details about a case from the southern coastal county of Hampshire. The story is interesting for this level of detail that it purports to provide, some of which may be genuine (or, at the very least, must have been plausible to a contemporary readership). But these same details, and the conveniently uplifting conclusion to the tale, makes me suspect that it is a more than slightly gilded story of low-lifes and criminals of the kind that the middle classes have been mildly titilated by from the The Newgate Calendar to The Sopranos, with the concomitant morally improving requirement that the bad guy suffers in the end. Nevertheless, for GMs seeking to introduce trial by battle into their quasi-medieval settings, it draws a very interesting picture of the sorts of procedures and rituals that governed the process. I have rendered the orginal late Middle English in to modern prose and have used different wording where that of the original is repetitive or unclear, but have tried to retain the feel and tone of the original.
In that year [1455] a thief, one Thomas Whitehorn, was taken in the New Forest beside Beaulieu and put in prison at Winchester. And when the day of deliverance came he appealed many true men, and by this means he kept his life in prison. And the men that he appealed were taken and put in strict prison and suffered many great pains so that they should confess and agree with his false pleading. And some who had no friendship nor goods were hanged and those that had goods got their charters of pardon. And that false and untrue appealer had of the king every day one penny. And this he continued for almost three years and destroyed many men that were sometimes in his company. And at the last he appealed one that said that Whitehorn was utterly false in his appealing, and said that he would prove it with his hands and expend his life and blood upon Whitehorn’s false body. And this matter was very discretely taken up and the rules governing the condition of both the appealer and the appealed were heard. And a notable man, the most pitying judge of all the land when dealing with matters of life and death, took this simple man who offered to fight with the appealer and very courteously informed him of all the rules of the fighting and the duel of reproof between an appealer of the king, whether false or true, on the one hand, and the defendant, true of false, on the other part. For in the event that the appealer prevailed in the duel he should be put in prison again, but he would fare better than he did before the fighting, and receive from the king two pence every day for as long as it pleased the king that he should live. For procedurally the king may lawfully put him to death as a murderer because his appeals, whether false or true, caused the deaths of many men, and because a truly honest man should, under pain of death, make known all falsely hidden felonies and treasons he knows of within 24 hours if he is not to be taken to be consenting to the same fellowship. And the appealer is in this same state, and so reason demands that he should die. This is the appealer’s status.
And the defendant’s status, as that noble man Master Miles Skilling informed him, was that he and the appealer must both be clothed all in white sheep’s leather, both body, head, legs, feet, face, hands and all. And they should have in their hands two staves of green ash with the bark still on, three feet in length and, at the end, a cudgel of the same size. And on the other end a horn of iron, made to resemble a ram’s horn, as sharp at the small end as it might be made [that each man should have two staves seems to imply a jointed flail, but the wording is ambiguous]. And with these they should make their foul battle upon the most sorry and wretched green that might be found about the town, having nothing to eat nor drink, but both must be fasting. And if their primary weapon is broken, they must fight with their hands, fists, nails, teeth, feet and legs. It is too shameful to rehearse all the conditions of this foul conflict. And if they need any drink, they must drink their own piss. And if the defendant slays the appealer, false or true, the defendant shall be hanged for homicide because he has slain the king’s approver, for through the appealer the king gained money from those who were appealed, and the sums that were raised from their stuff or goods was given to the king to be used as alms, and the king’s almoner distributed it to the poor. But the king may, by his grace, pardon the defendant if he will, provided that the defendant is of good name and reputation in the town or city in which he lives. But this is very seldom seen because of the vile and unmannerly fighting. And for the same reason the defendant shall not be buried in any holy sepulchre in the manner of a Christian man, but shall be cast out as a man that has wilfully slain himself. Now remember this foul battle and whether you will do it or not. And both parties consented to fight, with all of the conditions that attached. And the defendant desired that the judge would send to Milbrook where he dwelt to inquire of his behaviour and conversation. And all the men of that town said he was the truest labourer in the whole county, and also the gentlest, for he was by trade a fisherman and a tailor. And the appealer desired the same but he was not abiding in any place for more than a month at a time and, everywhere that an inquistion was made, men said '“Hang up Thomas Whitehorn, for he is too strong to fight with that good man James Fisher with an iron ram’s horn”. And this caused the judge to have pity upon the defendant.
The manner of the fighting between those two poor wretches beside Winchester.
The appealer - Whitehorn - in his raiment and apparel with his weapon came out of the east side, and the defendant - Fisher - out of the south-west side in his apparel and with his weapon, weeping terribly and clutching his prayer beads. And Fisher kneeled down on the earth facing east and cried out to God for mercy and prayed for forgiveness from every man, and everyone present prayed for him. And then Whitehorn called out, saying “You false traitor! Why are you so false for so long?” And then the Fisher rose up and said “I believe my quarrel is faithful and wholly true, and in that quarrel I will fight!” and, with those words, he struck at the appealer so hard that his weapon broke. And then the appealer struck a blow to the defendant, but the officers in attendance quickly intervened and took Whitehorn’s weapon away from him. And then they fought together with their fists for a long time before resting, and then fought again before resting once more. And then they gripped each other by the neck and then bit each other with their teeth so that the leather clothing and their own flesh was torn in many places all over their bodies. And then that false appealer cast that meek innocent down upon the ground and bit him on his member so that the innocent cried out. But it then happened that the innocent recovered his strength and got up onto his knees and, taking the false appealer by the nose, put his thumb in his eye so that the appealer cried out and begged for mercy, for he was false both to God and to the defendant. And then the judge commanded them to cease and he would hear both of them out. And Whitehorn said he had accused Fisher wrongly along with 18 other men and sought God’s mercy and forgiveness. And then he was confessed and hanged and may God have mercy on his soul. Amen. As for the defendant, his life and goods were spared and he returned home before becoming a hermit, but he died a short time later.