What if the John Forde Case, one of England’s oldest cold cases, has finally been solved?

Medieval judicial archives sometimes reveal much more than raw facts: they exhibit mechanisms of power, violence and impunity. This is demonstrated by a study by Professor Manuel Eisner, director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge, recently published in the journal Criminal Law Forum. By crossing several unpublished documents, she sheds light on a brutal murder committed in 1337 in the street in London, a few steps from Saint-Paul Cathedral. methodically organized revenge.

Behind this killing: Ela Fitzpayne, noble of influence, accused five years earlier of adultery by the Church and subject to a particularly humiliating public penance. The case, exhumed thanks to the Medieval Murder Maps project, illustrates the deep tensions between clergy and aristocracy in 14th century England.

An execution orchestrated in the heart of London

On May 3, 1337, shortly after the vespers, the priest John Forde moved peacefully on cheapside, accompanied by the Clerc Hasculph Neville. Arrived at Westcheap, one of the busiest crossroads in the English capital, the trap closes. Four men founded on Forde. Hugh Lovell, brother of the noble Ela Fitzpayne, slices his throat with a thirty centimeter dagger. Two other attackers, Hugh Plane and John Strong, former servants of the Fitzpayne house, gone to her stomach several strokes. The fourth man, John de Tindale, completes the ambush.

The scene takes place before the eyes of many passers-by, just a few dozen meters from the Saint-Paul cathedral. The assassination leaves no doubt about its deliberate character. For Manuel Eisner, director of Violence Research Center At the University of Cambridge, who conducted the investigation with Ruth Schmid, it is a “mafia act” intended to send a message. It is not only a personal crime, but a challenge of challenge addressed to the clergy.

© © Medieval Murder Maps. University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology and the Historic Towns Trust

Map indicating the place of the murder in Westcheap, in the northeast of Saint-Paul cathedral. C

The choice of Westcheap owes nothing to chance. This shopping district, theater of public executions, quarrels of guilds and symbolic violence, is analyzed by project researchers Medieval MURDER MAPS as one of the places most exposed to homicides in London in the 14th century. The assassination of Forde is part of this decor responsible for power, visibility and social rivalries.

A powerful woman, humiliated by the church

But who is Ela Fitzpayne, the sponsor of this murder? It belongs to the 14th century English aristocracy. She is the second wife of Baron Robert Fitzpayne, parliamentarian and lord of Stogursey. Woman of character and networks, she exerts a real influence in the southwest of England. However, in 1332, it became the target of a frontal attack of the Church. In a letter addressed to the diocese of Winchester, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Simon Mepham, condemns her for “carnal relations with knights, married or not, and even with clerics”. Only a name is cited: that of John Forde, then rector of Okeford Fitzpaine, a parish located on the lands of her husband.

© © Archives of the Hampshire and the Council of the Comté de Hampshire.

Letters from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the bishop of Winchester about Ela Fitzpayne, extracted from the register of John de Stratford. © Archives of the Hampshire and the Council of the county of Hampshire.

The punishment imposed on ELA is brutal. It must perform, each fall for seven years, a barefoot course through the nave of Salisbury – the longest of England – by carrying a candle of four pounds (just over 1.8 kg) to the altar. This nobleman is also banished from the port of precious stones. It must pay significant sums to religious orders and to the poor. But she does not fold there. As early as March 1332, a second letter indicated that she fled to Rotherhithithe, and now considered excommunicated.

For Professor Manuel Eisner, this treatment is less of Christian morality than a political confrontation. “” The archbishop seeks to assert the authority of the clergy on a woman who embodies a powerful and rebellious nobility ». Fitzpayne thus becomes the example of an instrumentalized sanction, in a game of domination between church and secular elite.

A common past in crime

Long before the assassination of 1337, Ela Fitzpayne and John Forde are already linked by an episode of violence. In 1321, according to a report by a royal commission quoted by researchers Manuel Eisner and Ruth Schmid, they were both involved in a raid against a Benedictine priory located in Stoke Curcy, in Somerset. This attack, carried out with the participation of Baron Robert Fitzpayne, husband of ELA, is not just a looting. The attackers sinking the doors, ransacking the buildings, cut down trees, plunder the site and grab cattle. Eighteen oxen, thirty pigs, two hundred sheep and lambs are taken to the Fitzpayne family castle.

The political context gives strategic light to this act. The priory depends on a French abbey, at a time when relations between England and France deteriorate quickly. On the eve of the Hundred Years War, religious establishments affiliated with foreign orders are perceived as legitimate targets. For Eisner, this attack could thus be part of a logic of political opportunism. But it also reveals the narrow alliance between Forde and its powerful protectors.

Forde, then parish priest of the parish of Okeford Fitzpaine, direct fief of the Fitzpayne in the Dorset, held a position that the family had probably facilitated. His involvement in this raid shows that he was acting far beyond his religious functions. “” He was to arbitrate between his obligations to the Church and his loyalty at Maison Fitzpayne », Eisner analysis. This double game-serving both spiritual and feudal interests-may have led him to denounce Ela later. However, this attempt to rehabilitate the clergy will seal his own fate.

Judicial silence and class justice

The investigation into the assassination of John Forde is recorded in the ” Coroner Rolls “ from the city of London for the year 1337. This official register mentions the names of the authors of the attack – Hugh Lovell, John Strong, Hugh Strong and John de Tindale – as well as their link with Ela Fitzpayne. The jury, exceptionally wide with 33 members from different urban trades, also clearly identifies the murder sponsor. However, the case does not lead to any immediate arrest. Only Hugh Pole was tried and sentenced, but five years later, in 1342.

The other suspects are declared to the run. The jury claims not to know their location, and even declares that Hugh Lovell, however from a noble family, has no seizable good. For Professor Manuel Eisner, this official story remains not very credible. “” It is pretended to ignore where people are affiliated with a large aristocratic house. And it is said that they do not hold anything. It is a typical avoidance strategy of the time ».

This case reveals the structural limits of medieval justice, subject to social hierarchies. By implicitly protecting the interests of the elites, judicial institutions as the crown favored political stability to the detriment of legal equity. The murder of John Forde, although carefully recorded, will therefore remain without real sanction.

Ela Fitzpayne, on the other hand, will never be worried. She survives her husband, inherited her property and dies free, proof that in the 14th century, power and impunity often went hand in hand.

Source: Manuel Eisner, et al., “Spatial Dynamics of Homicide in Medieval English Cities: The Medieval Murder Map Project”. Criminal Law Forum (2025).