The Witch Hunter Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  Also by Bernard Knight

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Historical Note

  Maps

  Glossary

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Historical Postscript

  By Bernard Knight

  The Crowner John Series

  CROWNER’S CRUSADE

  THE SANCTUARY SEEKER

  THE POISONED CHALICE

  CROWNER’S QUEST

  THE AWFUL SECRET

  THE TINNER’S CORPSE

  THE GRIM REAPER

  FEAR IN THE FOREST

  THE WITCH HUNTER

  FIGURE OF HATE

  THE ELIXIR OF DEATH

  THE NOBLE OUTLAW

  THE MANOR OF DEATH

  CROWNER ROYAL

  A PLAGUE OF HERETICS

  The Richard Pryor Forensic Mysteries

  WHERE DEATH DELIGHTS

  ACCORDING TO THE EVIDENCE

  GROUNDS FOR APPEAL

  The Tom Howden Mysteries

  DEAD IN THE DOG

  THE WITCH HUNTER

  A Crowner John Mystery

  Bernard Knight

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  First published in Great Britain by

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd, 2004

  A Viacom Company

  Simon & Schuster UK Ltd

  Africa House

  64-78 Kingsway

  London WC2B 6AH

  This eBook first published in 2015 by Severn House Digital

  an imprint of Severn House Publishers Ltd.

  Copyright © 2004 Bernard Knight

  The right of Bernard Knight to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  ISBN-13 978-1-4483-0140-9 (ePub)

  Except where actual historical events and characters are being described for the storyline of this novel, all situations in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to living persons is purely coincidental.

  This eBook produced by

  Palimpsest Book Production Limited

  Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland

  Dedication

  A modern plaque fixed to the wall of the gatehouse of Exeter’s Rougemont Castle, directly below Crowner John’s chamber, reads:

  THE WITCHES OF EXETER

  In memory of Temperance Lloyd, Susannah Edwards and Mary Tremble of Bideford, who died in 1682 and Alice Mollard, who died in 1685.

  The last people in England to be executed for witchcraft.

  Tried here and hanged at Heavitree.

  In the hope of an end to persecution and intolerance.

  HISTORICAL NOTE

  People variously described as ‘witches, wizards, sorcerers’, and so on have been recorded for millennia, but they were rarely persecuted until after the medieval period.

  Though the established Church generally disapproved of any competition in the occult and magical sphere, it tended to ignore village sooth-sayers and spell-casters unless they displayed frankly heretical or sacrilegious behaviour. Similarly, the secular powers showed little interest, unless such activities led to criminal damage.

  All this changed in 1489 after two German monks published their notorious Malleus Maleficarum (The Hammer of Wrongdoers), a handbook for torturing inquisitors, which was taken up by the Inquisition and began a centuries-long persecution that led in England to the witch-hunt hysteria of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries and at least 300,000 burnings and hangings across Europe. It even spread across the Atlantic, leading to the well-known scandal of ‘The Witches of Salem’.

  In the twelfth century, the time of our story, this morbid hysteria was far in the future and both ecclesiastical and secular attitudes were quite relaxed. King Henry II openly stated his disinclination even to believe in magic, let alone hound such persons.

  The term ‘witch’, which can be applied to both male and female, was then less common, the more usual name being a ‘cunning woman’ for the widow or wife who practised her art in almost every village. They were part of the social fabric of medieval England, where physicians, other than compassionate monks, were almost unknown outside the largest cities and even apothecaries practised only in towns. The vast majority of the static population lived in villages, and here the woman with a rudimentary knowledge of herbal remedies, first aid, animal care and midwifery was an indispensable part of the community. Some of these enlarged their repertoire to offer love potions, cures for impotence and infertility, or found lost objects and procured miscarriages, whilst others might gain a reputation for putting a spell on a rival to make him impotent or come out in boils, or for cursing the cows of a hated neighbour so that their milk dried up. Only occasionally in the early medieval period were such cunning men and women vilified by the Establishment. This story tells of one such episode.

  The most common language spoken by the citizens of Exeter in 1195 would have been early Middle English, quite unintelligible to us today. The Norman aristocracy spoke French and the language of the clergy and almost all written documents would have been Latin. In the countryside, many would still have spoken Western Welsh, the aboriginal Celtic language that persisted as Cornish. Only about one in a hundred people could read and write, the majority of these being priests and clerks. The only English money was the silver penny, though some foreign gold coins were in circulation. The terms ‘pound’ and ‘mark’ were notional values, not coins, the pound being 240 pennies or 20 shillings and the mark being 160 pennies or 13 shillings and 4 pence (just over 66 decimal pence). Silver pennies were cut into halves and quarters for convenience, as a penny was about half a day’s pay for most workers.

  GLOSSARY

  AGNUS DEI

  A wax charm or amulet stamped with the emblem of the Lamb of God or some similar religious device.

  ALE

  A weak brewed drink, before the advent of hops – derived from an ‘ale’, a village celebration where much drinking took place.

  AMERCEMENT

  An arbitrary fine imposed on a person or community by a law officer, for some breach of the complex regulations of the law. Where imposed by a coroner, he would record the amercement, but the collection of the money would normally be ordered by the royal justices when they visited at the Eyre of Assize.

  ATTACHMENT

  An order made by a law officer, including a coroner, to ensure that a person, whether suspect or witness, appeared at a court hearing. It resembled a bail bond or surety, distraining upon a person’s money or goods, which would be forfeit if he failed to appear.

  AUMBRY

  A chest or box kept in the chancel of a church to hold sacred books and vessels.

  AVENTAIL

  A chain-mail protectio
n for the neck, hanging down from the rim of an iron helmet to the shoulders.

  BAILEY

  Originally the defended area around a castle keep (‘motte and bailey’) but later also applied to the yard of a dwelling. A similar word is ‘ward’, applied to the inner and outer defensive areas of a castle.

  BAILIFF

  Overseer of a manor or estate, directing the farming and other work. He would have manor-reeves under him and himself be responsible either directly to his lord or to the steward or seneschal.

  BARTON

  A substantial farm, as opposed to a small croft; often the home farm of a manor.

  BENEFITOFCLERGY

  The right of clerics to escape trial in the secular courts, in favour of the church courts. As priests were virtually the only literate people, they could claim benefit if they could read or repeat a verse from the Psalms, which became known as the ‘neck verse’, as it saved them from a hanging.

  BLASPHEMY

  Contemptuous or profane behaviour against God or anything held sacred.

  BOTTLER

  A servant responsible for providing drink in a household – the origin of ‘butler’.

  BURGESS

  A freeman of substance in a town or borough, usually a merchant. A group of burgesses ran the town administration and in Exeter elected two portreeves (later a mayor) as their leaders.

  CANON

  A priestly member of the chapter of a cathedral, also called a prebendary, from the ‘prebend’ or living of a church which provided his income. Exeter had twenty-four canons, most of whom lived near the cathedral. Most employed junior priests (vicars) to carry out their duties for them.

  CARUCATE

  A measure of land, originally that which could be ploughed by one team of oxen each year; it varied in size in different parts of England, but was often taken as a hundred acres.

  CHAPTER

  The administrative body of a cathedral, composed of the canons (prebendaries). They met daily to conduct business in the chapter house, so called because a chapter of the Rule of St Benedict was read before each session.

  COIF

  A close-fitting cap or helmet, usually of linen, covering the ears and tied under the chin; worn by men and women.

  COMPLINE

  The last of the religious services of the day, usually in late afternoon or early evening.

  CONSTABLE

  Has several meanings, but could refer to a senior commander, usually the custodian of a castle, which in Exeter belonged to the King – or a watchman who patrolled the streets to keep order.

  CORONER

  A senior law officer in each county, second only to the sheriff. First formally established in September 1194, although there is a brief mention of a coroner in Saxon times. Three knights and one clerk were recruited in each county, to carry out a wide range of legal and financial duties. The name comes from the phrase custos placitorum coronas, meaning ‘Keeper of the Pleas of the Crown’, as the coroner recorded all serious crimes, deaths and legal events for the king’s judges.

  COVER-CHIEF

  More correctly ‘couvre-chef’, a linen headcover, worn by women, held in place by a band around the head, and flowing down the back and front of the chest. Termed ‘head-rail’ in Saxon times.

  CROFT

  A homestead supporting a family in a village, consisting of a garden on which a cottage or ‘toft’ is built.

  CURFEW

  The prohibition of open fires in towns after dark, for fear of starting conflagrations. Derived from ‘couvre-feu’, from the extinguishing or banking-down of fires at night. During the curfew, the city gates were closed from dusk to dawn – one thirteenth-century mayor of Exeter was hanged for failing to ensure this.

  CURIA REGIS

  The King’s Council, the group of most powerful barons and bishops who advised the sovereign and provided the judges for the courts.

  DESTRIER

  A large warhorse able to carry the weight of an armoured knight. When firearms made armour redundant, destriers became shire-horses, replacing oxen as draught animals.

  EXIGENT

  To be declared exigent was the legal mechanism for making a person an outlaw.

  EYRE

  A sitting of the king’s justices, introduced by Henry II in 1166, which moved around the country in circuits. There were two types, the General Eyre, held at infrequent intervals to scrutinise the administration of each county, and the ‘Eyre of Assize’, which was the forerunner of the later Assizes and the more recent Crown Courts, which was supposed to visit each county town regularly to try serious cases; it was also known as the Commission of Gaol Delivery, as it was intended to try those languishing in prison.

  FARM

  The taxation from a county, collected in coin on behalf of the sheriff and taken by him personally every six months to the royal treasury at London or Winchester. The sum was fixed annually by the king or his ministers; if the sheriff could extract more from the county, he could retain the excess, which made the office of sheriff much sought after.

  HAUBERK

  A long tunic of chain-mail, worn as armour.

  HERESY

  The sin of dissenting from an orthodox belief, usually Christian dogma.

  JUSTICES

  The king’s judges, originally members of his royal court, but later chosen from among barons, senior priests and administrators. They sat in the various law courts, such as the Eyre or as Commissioners of Gaol Delivery. From 1195 onwards, ‘keepers of the peace’ were recruited from among local knights, who by the fourteenth century had evolved into ‘justices of the peace’.

  KIRTLE

  A lady’s gown.

  LEAT

  An artificial channel taking water to a mill.

  LEMAN

  A mistress or lover.

  MAKE SCARCE

  The origin of the current expression ‘to make himself scarce’ lies in medieval court records, when a person accused or summoned as a witness failed to appear.

  MATINS

  The first service of the religious day, originally at midnight.

  MURDRUM

  The murdrum fine was applied to any unnatural or unexplained death where the community could not prove ‘presentment of Englishry’ – it was assumed that the Saxons had murdered a Norman.

  MURRAIN

  A general term for an epidemic of disease among cattle.

  ORDEAL

  A test of guilt or innocence, such as walking over nine red-hot plough-shares or picking a stone from a barrel of boiling water or molten lead; if burns appeared, the person was judged guilty. For women, submersion in water was the ordeal, the guilty floating!

  OSTLER

  A servant in a stable or inn who took charge of horses.

  PALFREY

  A small, docile horse suitable for use by a woman.

  PEINE FORTE ET DURE

  Literally, ‘severe and hard punishment’ whereby prisoners who refused to confess were tortured by having progressively heavier weights placed on their chest until they submitted or died.

  POSSE

  A band of men usually organised by the sheriff, to hunt fugitives or miscreants. Not a Wild West invention, but from posse comitatus, (literally, ‘the power of a country’ first authorised by Henry II.

  PREBENDARY

  A holder of a prebend, usually a canon of a cathedral, the prebend being a church that had been given to him as a financial support by way of tithes, etc.

  REEN

  A water-channel draining marshy ground.

  SACRILEGE

  Disrespect orirreverence towards anything generally held to be sacred.

  SECONDARIES

  Young men aspiring to become priests, thus under twenty-four years of age. They assisted canons and vicars in their duties in the cathedral.

  SHRIEVALTY

  The office of sheriff, which itself comes from ‘shire reeve’, the king’s representative in each county.

  TERCEr />
  The fourth of the nine services of the cathedral day, usually around nine in the morning.

  VELLUM

  A superior grade of parchment made from the skin of lambs.

  VICAR

  A priest employed by a more senior cleric, such as a canon, to carry out some of his religious duties, especially the many daily services in a cathedral. Often called a ‘vicar-choral’ from his participation in chanted services.