Bloodstone (33 page)

‘Swift,’ Cranston repeated.

‘The anchorite must do it.’ Wenlock glanced over his shoulder at the coroner. ‘I’ve hanged enough to know what will happen. I don’t want to dance for an hour, twitch and jerk, soil myself while I’m choking. The Hangman of Rochester will ensure it takes no more time than a Gloria.’ Wenlock forced a laugh. ‘You’re right, Cranston, I’ve seen men tortured.’ He blew his cheeks out. ‘I won’t reply, Friar, to what you’ve laid against me. You’ve said enough, there’s little to add. I plead guilty. I have no more to say . . .’

Athelstan stood in the narrow nave of St Bartholomew’s Priory in Smithfield. The church was deserted except for the Guild of the Hanged who clustered before the Great Pity just inside the main door. They knelt, pattering their Aves for the two men being hanged at the Elms only a short distance beyond the great lychgate of the priory. Athelstan half listened to the swelling murmur of the crowd thronging around the soaring scaffold which brooded over Smithfield. The Regent had insisted that both Cranston and Athelstan witness the execution of the two criminals they’d trapped and caught. The coroner was now on the scaffold together with the Hangman of Rochester garbed in black, his head and face hidden by a blood-red visor. Athelstan moved over to pray before the gilt-edged tomb of Rahere, King Henry’s jester who’d founded both the priory and the nearby hospital in fulfilment of a vow he’d made to St Bartholomew in Outremer.

‘God’s jester,’ Athelstan prayed, eyes tightly shut. ‘Have great pity on Crispin and Wenlock. Show even more loving mercy on their poor victims. Eternal rest . . .’ Athelstan broke off at the great roar which echoed through the church. ‘Eternal rest,’ he continued, ‘give them all.’ He pleaded, ‘And let perpetual light shine upon them.’ He remained kneeling, locked in fervent, desperate prayer.

‘It’s over, they’ve gone!’

Athelstan opened his eyes. Cranston and the anchorite stood in the doorway of the church.

‘Swift?’ Athelstan asked.

‘Like that!’ Cranston snapped his fingers.

‘For such small mercies,’ Athelstan whispered, getting to his feet, ‘
deo gratias
.’ He walked down the nave. ‘Although not over Sir John.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘It never is,’ the anchorite declared, hood and visor now pulled back.

‘It never is, is it, Father?’

Athelstan smiled at both of them. ‘Abbot Walter needs to do a great deal of explaining, so does Prior Alexander. His Grace the Regent must decide on what to do with the Passio Christi . . .’ Athelstan spread his hands.

‘Father,’ the anchorite stepped forward, ‘could I move my cell to St Erconwald’s? I cannot stay in that abbey.’

‘You could hang half of his parish,’ Cranston joked.

‘Not now, and you,’ Athelstan pointed at the anchorite, ‘you have a name, Giles of Sempringham, yes? I shall call you that. So,’ Athelstan rubbed his hands, ‘let us go back to “The Holy Lamb of God”. Let us sit before a roaring fire. Let us revel in all God’s comforts and rejoice in the approach of the feast of the birth of God’s Golden Boy.’

‘Oh sweet words, lovely friar,’ Cranston breathed.

All three left the priory. Athelstan turned his face away so as not to glimpse those two corpses hanging black against the bright December sky.

HISTORICAL NOTES

Bloodstone
is of course a work of fiction but it is based firmly on historical fact. By 1380 the war in France had turned into a disaster; the great victories of Crecy and Poitiers had been reversed. Edward III slipped into his dotage, attended by Alice Perrers, who later died in something akin to the odour of sanctity at her retreat in Essex. The Black Prince preceded his father leaving a mere child, Richard II, as his heir. (The sobriquet ‘Black Prince’ was in common use by 1378.) Real power was vested in the cunning and subtle John of Gaunt who sowed a bitter harvest for Richard to reap.

French privateers became a real threat both in the Channel and along the south coast. However, the real menace emerged in London and the surrounding shires. The Great Community of the Realm and the Upright Men reflect the radical movement which later exploded into the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381; this nearly brought Gaunt, and indeed the Crown, to its knees. For a few days the whole kingdom teetered on the edge.

The strange doings at St Fulcher’s should not be regarded as exceptional. St Fulcher’s, of course, is a fictitious abbey but, for example, the attempted theft of the Crown Jewels from Westminster in 1303 revealed a seemingly rich underbelly of corruption at that famous Benedictine house which included theft, blackmail, midnight orgies and violence. It ended with the abbot and a hundred of his monks being shut up in the Tower!

The underworld of medieval London and its strange and eccentric characters are all based on original documents. The ‘scam’ involving tallow candles was common enough and led to some fairly fierce conflagrations.

The trade and constant squabbles over the possession of relics was extremely vigorous; these included both the weird and the wonderful, be it a napkin which once belonged to Our Lady or the Crown of Thorns placed on Christ’s head. The bloodstone is an accurate example of this trade in relics which religious houses held and venerated to attract pilgrims as well as their cash.

The Free Companies who fought in France were greatly feared and English bowmen were renowned for their skill and speed. At least two Popes excommunicated all members of such marauding companies. The French did, according to some sources, maim the hands of captive English archers – which may have been the origin of the famous ‘V’ sign. The use of a ‘sniper’ archer was common enough, for example in the death of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. In all other matters I have striven to be faithful to Athelstan and the strange world through which he moved.

Paul Doherty, 2011

www.paulcdoherty.com

The Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan

1. THE NIGHTINGALE GALLERY

2. THE HOUSE OF THE RED SLAYER

3. MURDER MOST HOLY

4. THE ANGER OF GOD

5. BY MURDER'S BRIGHT LIGHT

6. THE HOUSE OF CROWS

7. THE ASSASSIN'S RIDDLE

8. THE DEVIL'S DOMAIN

9. THE FIELD OF BLOOD