A Game of Thrones style penance walk led to murder in medieval London

A Game of Thrones style penance walk may have led to a murder on the streets of medieval London that has remained unsolved to this day. In the year of our lord, 1337, a priest John Forde had his throat slit on a busy London street near St Paul’s Cathedral, and until now no one has been able to work out why.

15th-century illustration showing a gang of robbers murdering a passerby. Public Domain

Now though, records traced by Professor Manuel Eisner suggest that hired killers may have carried out John Forde’s murder, and the person who hired them was possibly the noblewoman, Ela Fitzpayne. Documents found by Prof. Eisner in medieval archives suggest that Ela Fitzpayne had previously conspired with her husband and John Forde to lead a gang of extortionists that raided a church priory, broke into buildings and held livestock for ransom.

While explicit connections remain unclear, the records suggest that John Forde went from being a member of Ela Fitzpayne’s crime gang to becoming her lover. When her adultery was uncovered, the Archbishop of Canterbury ordered the noblewoman to do penance by carrying out barefoot walks of shame inside Salisbury Cathedral.

Yes, that is the origin of the Game of Thrones walk, where Cersei was forced to walk through the city naked, followed by a nun crying out, “Shame, Shame, Shame”.

Although in this case, Ela Fitzpayne was forced to walk barefoot through Salisbury Cathedral carrying a four-pound wax candle to the altar. And she had to do that every autumn for seven years.

Which would have been humiliating for a noblewoman of her standing.

It seems that she blamed John Forde for admitting to the adultery and resulting in her annual humiliation in the cathedral. And it didn’t help that, as per custom of the time, John Forde didn’t get punished for adultery, as only a woman could be found guilty of that particular sin.

So she plotted her revenge.

The trial records say that on the fateful day, John Forde had been walking up Cheapside after vespers but before sunset on Friday 3rd May 1337 when a fellow priest, Hasculph Neville, distracted Ford with “pleasant conversation”.

As they approached St Paul’s, four other men, including Hugh Lovell, brother of Ela Fitzpayne, attacked Forde. Lovell used a 12-inch dagger to open Forde’s throat, while two other men – Hugh Colne and John Strong, who, until recently, had worked for the Fitzpaynes – stabbed Forde in the belly.

Eisner says the brazen murder of Forde near St Paul’s Cathedral, as early evening crowds milled about, was perhaps a brutal show of strength: reminding the clergy of the power of the nobility, and that Ela Fitzpayne doesn’t forget or forgive.

“The public execution style of Forde’s killing, in front of crowds in broad daylight, is similar to the political killings we see now in countries like Russia or Mexico. It’s designed to be a reminder of who is in control,” said Eisner.

Digital copies of the coroner report and letters have been published together for the first time on the University of Cambridge’s Medieval Murders Map.