Unholy Innocence (29 page)
Authors: Stephen Wheeler
The verdict of the King’s coroner, by the way, was that Matthew had been murdered by person or persons unknown. But the Jews were exonerated from all blame, I’m pleased to say, and specifically Isaac and Jacob ben Moy, Isaac receiving a posthumous pardon. This again I think was Samson’s doing for shortly after that some of the restrictions on the movement of Jews within the town were eased as Joseph had predicted and while suspicion did not entirely disappear, no more violence was perpetrated upon that unhappy race. Once again I will resist the temptation to cynicism and instead make recourse to the wisdom of Scripture:
“And behold, there was in the carcass of the lion a swarm of bees and honey” – in other words, out of depths of evil comes sweetness.
Dear God, I’m even starting to sound like Jocelin.
The basis for the story is the spate of child murders that took place in 12
th
Century England. All these murders were blamed on Jews thus turning the victims into martyrs (the first victim, twelve-year-old Saint William of Norwich, is still venerated in a chapel in Norwich Cathedral today). The murder of another twelve-year-old boy called Robert occurred in Bury St Edmunds in 1181. Partly in response to this fifty-seven Jews were massacred in the town on Palm Sunday 1190.
Jews in twelfth-century England were a useful source of finance before the invention of banks and at a time when the usury laws prevented Christians from lending money at interest. It was not unusual to try to get out of repaying these loans by destroying the records - or better still, by murdering the lenders as well.
Many of the characters in the story existed in real life. Abbot Samson and Jocelin of Brakelond are well-known figures and were written about by Jocelin himself in his
Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds
. Walter the Physician also existed as did Geoffrey de Saye who was the real-life uncle of the Chief Justiciar of England, Geoffrey Fitz Peter, and great-nephew of yet another Geoffrey - the infamous Geoffrey de Mandeville,
Scourge of the Fens
.
Jocelin records that King John did indeed visit Bury St Edmunds shortly after his coronation in May 1199 although he does not say how long he stayed. He did give the abbey its own silk cloth as his parting gift along with thirteen shillings. He may or may not have suffered from constipation during his visit, but he did die seventeen years later probably from eating too many peaches.
SWW August 2011
November 1214. King John has returned to England having lost his empire to King Philip of France. Humiliated and desperate for support, he again travels to Bury St Edmunds where Abbot Samson has died and a battle is raging among the monks over who will be his successor.
In the midst of this there arrives in the town a seemingly inconsequential young couple and their maid. The wife is heavily pregnant and gives birth in the night to a baby daughter.
But then the maid is mysteriously murdered and it is soon apparent that the family is not all that it appears. With rebellion looming, abbey physician Walter of Ixworth is drawn once again into investigating a murder and a conspiracy that threatens to engulf the country in civil war and ultimately leads to the final nemesis that is Runnymede and Magna Carta.
January 1242. Brother Walter of Ixworth is dying. He is an old man but the prospect of death does not disturb him - indeed, he welcomes it to meet with old friends and see God in the face. But before he finally joins the heavenly host he is determined to solve one last mystery that has been plaguing him for decades.
But there are dark forces afoot that want to frustrate his efforts and are prepared to go any lengths to keep secret events that even now could disturb the government of England, even murder.
In his mind Walter returns to those far off times when Abbot Samson took him on a bizarre journey away from the comforting familiarity of Bury Abbey and into the wilds of barbaric Norfolk where the abbot’s power is limited and met by a far greater one in the guise of the Warenne family of Castle Acre - or as some still choose to call it, the
Devil’s Acre
.
Winifred Jonah seemed like an ordinary Norfolk housewife, yet her bland exterior concealed a sinister secret. She had already murdered her husband, her aunt and her uncle. Even so she might have made it to her own grave without further incident if she hadn’t met Colin Brearney. He had no idea who it was he was trying to swindle. If he had he might have run in the opposite direction as fast as he could. It was his own fault, but no-one deserves what Winifred did to him.
