1307. In May, John Wallace was brought to London, condemned as a traitor and hanged. His head was set on London Bridge near that of William Wallace.[128]
1330. Edward III. was but a boy when crowned in February, 1327. All power was in the hands of Isabella, his mother, queen of the deposed and murdered king, Edward II., and of her lover, Roger Mortimer, baron of Wigmore and earl of March. For the murder of Edward II. the queen-mother and Mortimer are held to be specially responsible. In 1329 a powerful confederation was formed to overthrow Mortimer. This was for the time defeated, but Edward, now eighteen, chafed under his subjection and took counsel with William de Montacute. It was resolved to seize Mortimer in the castle of Nottingham, where, during the session of Parliament held there, Isabella and her lover lodged. Mortimer was well guarded, and it was necessary to bring into the confederation Sir William Eland, the governor of the castle. He told the confederates of a subterranean passage, unknown to Mortimer, and unwatched, through which a sufficient force could be introduced. The rest of the story may be told in the words of Stow:—
Then, vpon a certaine night, the King lying without the castle, both he and his friends were brought by torch light through a secret way vnder ground, beginning far off from the sayde castle, till they came euen to the Queenes chamber, which they by chance found open: they therefore being armed with naked swords in their hands, went forwards, leauing the King also armed without the doore of the Chamber, least that his mother shoulde espie him: they which entred in, slew Hugh Turpinton knight, who resisted them, Master John Neuell of Home by giuing him his deadly wound. From thence, they went towarde the Queene mother, whom they found with the Earle of March readie to haue gone to bedde: and hauing taken the sayde Earle, they ledde him out into the hall, after whom the Queene followed, crying, Bel filz, bel filz, ayes pitie de gentil Mortimer, Good sonne, good sonne, take pittie vpon gentle Mortimer: for she suspected that her sonne was there, though shee saw him not. Then are the Keyes of the Castle sent for, and euery place with all the furniture is yeelded vp into the kings handes, but in such secret wise, that none without the Castle, except the kinges friendes, vnderstoode thereof. The next day in the morning verie early, they bring Roger Mortimer, and other his friends taken with him, with an horrible shout and crying (the earle of Lancaster then blind, being one of them that made the showt for ioy) towardes London, where hee was committed to the Tower, and afterward condemned at Westminster, in presence of the whole Parliament on Saynt Andrewes euen next following, and then drawne to the Elmes and there hanged on the common Gallowes. Whereon hee hung two dayes and two nights by the kinges commaundement, and then was buryed in the Gray Fryars Church.[129]
It has been frequently said that Mortimer was the first person executed at Tyburn. The French Chronicle of London says, “Sir Roger Mortimer, and Sir Symon de Bereford, who was of his counsel, were drawn and hanged at London”; and in a note Mr. Riley adds that he “is said to have been the first person executed at Tyburn, but according to Roger of Wendover, William Fitz-Osbert, or Longbeard, was executed there in 1196.” Dr. Lingard says that Mortimer “was executed at Tyburn, the first, as it is said, who honoured with his death that celebrated spot.” The reader now knows that not only Longbeard, but Constantine Fitz-Athulf, had certainly been here executed, and also probably others mentioned in these Annals. It may be taken for granted that the new gallows erected in 1220, and the old gallows replaced by them, had not stood idle. In the century and a half during which the gallows had stood at Tyburn, hundreds, if not thousands of unrecorded executions must have taken place here.[130]
1345. The murder of Sir John of Shoreditch.
Sir John of Shoreditch was a doctor of laws, advocate and knight, a man of great eminence in his profession. This may be inferred from the fact that, in 1343, he was sent, with others, as envoy to the Pope to complain of papal exactions.
In the year 1345, writes the chronicler, on the tenth of the month of July, Sir John, of the king’s council, was secretly suffocated by four of his servants at a certain house of his near Ware. These four servants, suspected and apprehended, confessed their crime, and on the eighteenth day of the same month, being the Sunday before the festival of St. Margaret, they were in London drawn, hanged, and beheaded, and their heads were set up on Newgate, on poles.[131]
The punishment thus inflicted was the penalty of petty treason, of which they were guilty in killing their master. Tyburn is not mentioned as the place of execution.
1347. The Scotch king, David II., the earl of Fife, and the earl of Menteith were captured. Fife and Menteith were sent to London and tried. From Calais Edward III. sent the judgment to be pronounced on these two “traitors and tyrants.” In accordance with the sentence, Menteith was drawn, hanged, disembowelled. His head was set on London Bridge, and the quarters sent to various parts of England. The sentence was not carried out against Fife, as being allied to the king in blood.[132]
This is the sentence as given by Rymer:—