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A scene of early- thirteenth-century warfare showing the aftermath of an encounter: dead and
wounded combatants, victors, prisoners, and those fleeing. The projectiles depicted in the fleeing
troops seem to represent both crossbow bolts and longbow arrows.
young William Kensham from the hamlet
Cassingham in the English County of
Kent, way back in 1216.
The cruel leader in question was King
John I. Why cruel? Well, besides
repeatedly betraying his brother, King
Richard the Lionheart, John wasn’t kind to
other family members either. He had his
niece, Eleanor, Fair maid of Brittany,
locked up when she was sixteen and
ensured that she would spend the
remainder of her life as a prisoner. His
nephew Arthur fared worse. When his
knights refused to dispose of the 14-yearold
boy, John himself travelled to Rouen
where Arthur was kept and shortly
A depiction from the midthirteenth-century
Maciejowski
Bible (Morgan Bible). Though
the scene is biblical, it could well
reflect a French man-at-arms
attempting to conceal himself
from foresters in the Weald.
thereafter the boy was never seen or heard
of again. There is debate whether or not
John had the lad castrated and blinded,
took the murderer’s knife into his own
hand, threw the boy off the high castle
walls, or interned him in a very deep
dungeon.
When the King’s eye fell on Isabella of
Angoulême, he divorced his wife, had
twelve-year-old Isabella abducted from her
family home, and married her. According
to contemporary accounts, he often stayed
in his bedchamber until noon before
emerging to run the country, so taken was
he with his young bride. During both
marriages he fathered many illegitimate
bastards with his mistresses. In the
meantime he fought a losing battle against
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