The Old Dalby and Queensway Heritage group put on a talk about Murder and Mahem in Leicester. Mathew Morris was very entertaining with stories of medieval scoundrels and victims. Tracing these from archeological digs and court rolls we learnt how frequently assaults and murders took place at Christmas – no doubt aided by a few jars of mead!
We learnt about the rules of sanctuary and how the proximity of churches ( of which there were many in Leicester ) enabled felons to escape more punitive treatment if at the end of 30 days in sanctuary, they volunteered to be exiled from the realm.
The Bushby brothers who were well-off guildsmen and the elder, sometime mayors of Leicester, were to benefit from sanctuary after the younger brother committed murder and was aided into and then out of sanctuary by the older brother. The mystery was that after owning up to abetting his younger brother no trace can be found of the older Bushby. It was suggested that he may, in fact, have been involved in some other illegal activity – medieval Goodfellows?
It was an excellent entertaining talk and the hall was full. Report by Sandra Taylor.
