Murder During the Hundred Year War by Melissa Julian-Jones;

Author:Melissa Julian-Jones;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRUE CRIME / Murder / General
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC

Knighthood was an expensive profession, and knights were expected to own lands and pay taxes in order to undertake local administrative duties. If Richard could not afford to become a knight, then perhaps the promise of land and money was enough to override any loyalty to William that he may have had. His role was meant to provide him with these things and help him to climb the social ladder in order to carve out a career and a name for himself. Yet it would seem he had not even been gifted any goods of any value by his master, nor had he been entrusted with land, nor had he inherited anything from any of his own kin. Was this lack of goods or money a motive in itself? Had Richard become embittered by his master’s lack of patronage, or had he taken his situation into account and agreed to a bribe? While Maud could have offered a bribe, it seems more likely that Ralph Paynell was behind it – after all, Richard went with Maud to Ralph’s manor, where he had access to Ralph’s household and could have entered Ralph’s service had the highwayman ruse paid off. Did Maud run to Caythorpe with him willingly? Or did he insist – at bloody knifepoint, after stabbing her husband on their bed – on going with her, to the house of another noble who may need a squire and could introduce him into a better, or wider, knightly social circle than William had done? These are questions we cannot answer from the evidence, but they are worth asking. If assumptions are to be made on the scanty circumstantial evidence provided in the trial, then it is worth pointing out all of the interpretations of these events that can be made.

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