Earliest Description of a Traitor's Fate

On 9 September 1238, King Henry III was staying at his palace of Woodstock in Oxfordshire when there was an attempt on his life. (Our informant is the contemporary chronicler, Matthew Paris). An unnamed man intruded himself into the king’s presence and demanded to be given the realm. Henry, believing the man to be mad, called off his attendants, who had already begun the business of administering a right royal roughing-up. Later that night, however, the intruder came back. Through an unsecured window he crept into the king’s bedchamber and, brandishing a knife, rushed at the royal bed. But the bed, it turned out, was empty. Luckily – or, as Matthew Paris said, ‘by God’s providence’ – Henry was in the queen’s bedroom at the time.

Having made an attempt on the life of the king, the man was guilty of treason, for which the punishment was a horrible death:

'The king ordered him, as guilty of attempting to murder the king's majesty, to be torn limb from limb by horses at Coventry, a terrible example, and lamentable sight to all who dared to plot such crimes. In the first place, he was dragged asunder, then beheaded, and his body divided into three parts; each part was then dragged through one of the principal cities of England, and was afterwards hung on a gibbet used for robbers'. (taken from Matthew Paris's English History, ed. J. A. Giles, 1889, vol. 1, 139)

Treason, of course, came to be viewed in much more flexible terms by Henry's son, Edward I, with the result that similar excruciating punishment was meted out to, amongst others, Dafydd ap Gruffudd, Rhys ap Maredudd, Sir Thomas Turbeville, Sir Simon Fraser and – lest we forget – Sir William Wallace.

Here's another interesting thing. The incident described by Paris proves that, by 9 September 1238, Henry, who was just three weeks short of his 31st birthday, was clearly sleeping with his queen, who was no more than fifteen. Nine months and eight days later, on 17 June 1239, Edward I was born.