Degradation of Knighthood

Relevant History welcomes Los Angeles native and award-winning author Jeri Westerson, who writes the critically acclaimed Crispin Guest Medieval Noir novels. Her brooding protagonist is Crispin Guest, a disgraced knight turned detective on the mean streets of fourteenth century London, running into thieves, kings, poets, and religious relics. When not writing, Jeri dabbles in gourmet cooking, drinks fine wines, eats cheap chocolate, and swoons over anything British. You can read more about Jeri’s books, watch a series book trailer, find discussion guides, and read Crispin’s blog on Jeri’s website.

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Once you’re knighted it’s permanent, right? Not necessarily so.

Under what circumstances would someone lose their knighthood? By the time my fifth book, Blood Lance, is set, my protagonist Crispin Guest had been degraded for about ten years and living with the consequences. He did commit a fairly heinous offense, that of treason, but for a very good cause.

Most often, when a knight or lord was handed the treason card, the lords didn’t bother degrading him. The knight in question would simply be executed in a most foul manner. In the words of the Scarecrow in the movie The Wizard of Oz, “They tore off my arms and threw them over there! And then they tore off my legs and threw them over there!” You get the picture. Crispin was lucky enough to have a person in a pretty high place speak up for him and so he didn’t lose his life; only his wealth, lands, title and a smidgeon of his self-respect.

Because degradation of knighthood is such a rare event, there are only two recorded cases. The first was during the English War of the Roses where the Lancastrians went up against the Yorkists. In a rebellion against the Yorkist King Edward IV, Sir Ralph Grey allowed the Lancastrians to hold several fortresses in Scotland. Even when many other castles were taken, Grey held Bamborough. But after a siege, they surrendered it in June 1464. Grey was sentenced by the Constable of England to be degraded. His coat of arms was torn from his back and another with his arms reversed was put in its place. And then the Constable declared, “Then, Sir Ralph Grey, this shall be thy penance—thou shalt go upon thy feet to the town's end, and there thou shalt be laid down and drawn to a scaffold made for thee, and thou shalt have thy head smitten off they body; thy body to be buried in the friary, thy head where it may please the king."

As the Tinman would say, “That’s you all over.”

It was a little different in 1621. This time, it wasn’t a case of treason, but one of old-fashioned graft. Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Mitchell were tried before the House of Lords for the political offence of “exercising harsh monopolies over the licensing of inns and the manufacture of gold and silver thread.” Doesn’t sound horrible when put that way, but essentially, Mompesson dishonored the very notion of knighthood with his activities. Apparently, he was the go-to person for licensing inns, and he was supposed to be overseeing the manufacture of gold and silver thread and imprison those manufacturing said thread without a license. Instead, he ran a good trade in extortion on the goldsmiths of London and pulled a few fast ones conning taverns into putting up guests overnight and then fining them for running an inn without a license!

Mompesson was tried by the House of Commons, which referred it to the House of Lords where he was sentenced to quite a unique punishment. Not only was he to pay a £10,000 fine and lose his knighthood, but to show his full degradation, he was to be secured behind a horse and walk down the Strand in London with his face in the horse's anus. And then be imprisoned for life. And in case that wasn’t enough, a few days later they came back with banishment for life.

This is what happened to Mitchell, as reported by the College of Arms: “Sir Francis’s sword and gilt spurs, being the ornaments of Knighthood, were taken from him, broken and defaced, thus indicating that the reputation he held thereby, together with the honourable title of Knight, should be no more used. One of the Knight Marshal’s men...cut the belt whereby the culprit’s sword hung, and so let it fall to the ground. Next the spurs were hewn off his heels and thrown, one one way, the other the other. After that, the Marshal’s attendant drew Mitchell’s sword from the scabbard and broke it over his head, doing with the fragments as with the spurs.” (Sir Bernard Burke, Ulster King of Arms.)

Mompesson was banished and allowed to return to get his affairs in order and then banished again, but the slippery Mompesson managed to get back into the country and stay, retiring in Wiltshire till his death. Mitchell was imprisoned.

Crispin took his degradation very hard, and he still has a tough time reconciling his life on the Shambles of London to the resplendent life he used to have at court. But, of course, this only makes him a better detective, for unlike Mompesson, he took his honor very seriously and never more so than in the latest novel Blood Lance, where he is obliged to uphold the honor of an old friend, find a religious relic, and bring a murderer to justice.

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A big thanks to Jeri Westerson. She'll give away the audiobook version of Blood Lance or a signed hardcover copy of Blood Lance (winner’s choice) to someone who contributes a comment on my blog this week. I'll choose the winner from among those who comment by Sunday at 6 p.m. ET. Delivery is available within the U.S. only.

 

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Comments

[Marja McGraw]

Very interesting post and I appreciate the uniqueness of the time period together with Crispin's occupation. I look forward to starting this series.

[Suzanne Adair]

It's always a pleasure to have you stop by my blog, Marja! There are a number of medieval romance series out there, but there aren't that many medieval mystery series -- especially medieval noir. Yes, do check out Jeri's books. If you get the chance to see her in person, do so. She brings medieval weapons to her author events and demonstrates how they're used. Fun!

[Warren Bull]

Maybe being a commoner wasn't so bad. I do enjoy your books.

[Suzanne Adair]

Warren, my thoughts exactly. The bigger your hair, the more trouble you can get into.

[Len Tyler]

An interesting post. As it says, degradation of knighthood was rare, but there are examples other than the two given - for example Sir Andrew Harclay in 1323 (as a preliminary to being beheaded) and, more recently, Sir Roger Casement. It is possible to be stripped of a knighthood without formal degradation - e.g. (Sir) Fred Goodwin, former CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland for his part in making the biggest financial loss in British corporate history. (Shareholders were never given a vote on whether he should have been beheaded.) There is also debate at the moment in the UK over whether Sir Jimmy Saville can be stripped of his knighthood posthumously.

[Judi Rohrig]

I considered myself lucky to have stumbled upon Jeri's medieval noir series. This background material only raises my already high opinion of her writing. I feel in very safe hands with her storytelling. Thanks, Jeri and Suzanne!

[Suzanne Adair]

Welcome to my blog, Len. Thanks for providing additional examples of the loss of knighthood. I chuckled over the thought of allowing shareholders in any corporation to vote on beheading an officer or executive board member who screws up as badly as Goodwin.

Goodwin. Hmm. Hardly an appropriate name. Maybe they should have forced him to change his name as punishment.

[Suzanne Adair]

Judi, I'm glad you enjoyed Jeri's essay (and her series!). Welcome to my blog. Thanks for visiting!

[Jeri Westerson]

Sure, Len. But the two cited were certainly the most interesting. And in many cases, as you say, it wasn't formalized. It just happened.

Warren, You've got that right! Nothing like flying under the radar!

[Jeri Westerson]

A big thank you to Suzanne for hosting me on her blog today.

[Liz]

What inventive minds the punishers had. They make Henry VIII seem almost civilized.

[Suzanne Adair]

Jeri, it's my pleasure!

[Suzanne Adair]

Liz, I almost spit tea all over my keyboard at your comment. Toooo funny! But definitely spot-on. Henry was a monster. Amazing how they played that down in high school history class.

[Sandra]

I hadn't thought to wonder if and how knights were stripped of their rank; I guess I sort of assumed it did happen (since you wrote about it), but it's not something you hear about in school! Usually if the bad guy's a knight, he just ends up getting killed by the good knight (or eaten by a dragon...). :-)

[Suzanne Adair]

Welcome back to my blog, Sandra! Weird, isn't it, how the presumption in school is that knight = hero. Maybe that comes from the Arthurian legend. While most knights probably were/are decent fellows, does "knight" guarantee anything except that the spotlight on you is brighter? Human nature.

[Karen]

Funny, I always saw knights as the King's muscle. Wonderful post Jeri. Thanks very much. I need to sample your series, possibly will assign it to my mystery reading group now that there are more books in the series (The group is older women with lots of time on their hands, and if they like an author, they want to keep reading all month before we select another series)

[Sharon in TX]

Very interesting info! I've always thought of knights as some kind of historical superhero, but I guess there had to be some villains, too. I'm a big Crispin fan, Jeri!

[Suzanne Adair]

Welcome to my blog, Karen. I had the same thoughts about knights as "the King's muscle." Jeri's post shows us the down side to that muscle. Like "good cop, bad cop."

Your reading group would be a terrific opportunity for Jeri and her series. Thank you!

[Suzanne Adair]

Hi Sharon. I'm so glad you stopped by and commented. Knights as superheroes, yes. Even among the superheroes, though, there are villains with super powers. Jeri provided examples to show that historically, when special power is given to a segment of the population, a certain percentage of those people inevitably abuse that power.

[Jeri Westerson]

Karen, if your reading group is interested, and they've got Skype, I do meet with groups. (Even if you don't have Skype but have a speakerphone, I've done that, too). Contact me at jeriwesterson@gmail.com if you'd like to set something up. Remember, there are discussion questions for all the books on my website.