The murder of Sir William de Cantilupe, who was born around 1345, by members of his household, took place in Scotton, Lincolnshire, in March 1375. The family was a long-established and influential one in the county; de Cantilupes traditionally provided officials to the Crown both in central government and at the local level. Among William de Cantilupe's ancestors were royal councillors, bodyguards and, distantly, Saint Thomas de Cantilupe.

De Cantilupe's death by multiple stab wounds was a cause célèbre. The chief suspects were two neighbours—a local knight, Ralph Paynel; and the sheriff, Sir Thomas Kydale—as well as de Cantilupe's entire household, particularly his wife Maud, the cook and a squire. The staff were probably paid either to carry out or to cover up the crime, while Paynel had been in dispute with the de Cantilupes for many years; it is possible that Maud was conducting an affair with Kydale, during her husband's frequent absences on service in France during the Hundred Years' War.

The Treason Act 1351 laid down that the murder of a husband by his wife or servants was to be deemed petty treason. De Cantilupe's murder was the first to come within the purview of the Act, as were the subsequent trials of Maud and several members of her staff. Many people were indicted for the crime, although only two were convicted and, in the end, executed for it. Others were also summoned but, as they never appeared, were outlawed instead. Other influential local figures, such as the sheriff, were accused of aiding and abetting the criminals. The last trial and acquittal was in 1378, although the case had long-term consequences. No motive has been established for de Cantilupe's killing; historians consider it most likely that responsibility rested with de Cantilupe's wife, her lover, the cook and their neighbour, with a mix of motives including love and revenge.

The de Cantilupes^{[note 1]} were a long-established Lincolnshire family based at Scotton in the northeast of the county.^[2] They were also major landholders in the Midlands, with estates in Greasley, Ilkeston and Withcall.^[3] The family had traditionally played an important role in both local society and central government^[4] with a history of loyal and diligent service to the crown.^{[3][note 2]} Not only were they lords of the realm—"one of the richest and most influential families in fourteenth-century England",^[7] suggests the scholar Frederik Pedersen—but the family possessed Saint Thomas de Cantilupe in its ancestry, and considered themselves to be under his special protection.^[2] William de Cantilupe, 30 years old at the time of his death,^[8] was a "knight of some stature" in the region, notes the historian J. G. Bellamy,^[9] and by then had been retained by John of Gaunt.^[10]

A later jury established that de Cantilupe was "at peace with God and the lord king", and Pedersen has taken this to indicate that he had prayed, and, therefore, was about to retire for the night.^[10] In a premeditated and minutely planned attack,^[16] de Cantilupe was stabbed to death with many blows. The precise date of the crime is unknown; the juries that heard the indictments offered dates varying from 13 February to 11 April 1375.^[9] Pedersen has suggested the evening of Friday, 23 March^[17] or the following Friday, as most probable.^[8] Five of the seven quarter sessions juries which subsequently sat suggested the latter, the other two decided it was the former date.^{[18][note 11]}

It was probably the maid, Lovel, who gave Cooke and Gyse access to de Cantilupe's room.^[19] Having killed him, according to the later court records, they washed his corpse "with heated-up water so that they not be discredited by the effusion of the blood of his wounds".^[19] The hot water cauterised de Cantilupe's wounds and (it has been suggested) made his body easier to transport;^[20] it also, suggests Pedersen, implies that they had assistance from the house's domestic staff, and, by extension, that the "entire household was involved in aiding and abetting the murder".^[19] He argues that

The boiled water would have had to be carried through the manor from the kitchen to William's bed-chamber either before the murder (and thus be prepared ahead of time, implying premeditation) or have been carried in full view of the servants after the murder (thus implying their complicity).^[19]

— Frederik Pedersen

The corpse was placed in a sack, and the killers transported it seven miles (11 km) to the east, dumping it near Grayingham.^[21] Here they dressed the corpse in "fine garments",^[9] including a belt and spurs. Pedersen speculates that this was to present the appearance of an attack by highwaymen^[21] or footpads.^[9] The body was discovered by passers-by, who reported that, in their view, he had been killed on the road.^[16] The discovery may not have occurred for some time though, or at least not have been reported, argues Bellamy, which may account for the number of possible dates on which the crime could have been committed.^[22]

Although most of the household were later indicted for de Cantilupe's killing, it is not known who was in charge of the operation. The medievalist Rosamund Sillem has identified Paynel as the conspiracy's mastermind,^[30] for example, while Pedersen has argued that "there is a strong circumstantial case to be made that they were acting under the direction of William's wife, Maud Nevil".^[21]

Although no motive was established by the courts for the killing, historians have generally considered that Maud was romantically involved with Kydale and that they had de Cantilupe killed to facilitate their marriage.^[38] Sillem noted the close connection between Kydale and Paynel—between 1375 and 1378, she says, they "must have practically controlled the affairs of Lincolnshire"^{[51][note 25]} —and argues that they both had a motive for de Cantilupe's death. Kydale's, she suggests, was that he wanted to marry Maud while Paynel wanted revenge for his perceived previous ill-treatment at the hands of the de Cantilupe family.^[51] De Cantilupe had been serving abroad in the years before his death, and it is possible that Maud and Kydale had begun a relationship in his absence.^{[note 26]} But the others' motives are more obscure, argues Pedersen. Regarding Ralph Paynel, for example:

The literature has accepted that he probably played a crucial role in the murder, and that he was pivotal in ensuring that most of the persons involved in the crime avoided the censure of the law. But his reasons for becoming involved in the first place have been unclear.^[54]

— Frederik Pedersen

Paynel "was no doubt acutely aware of the multitude of insults he had received at the hands of the de Cantilupes",^[2] which went back to at least 1368. In that year de Cantilupe's elder brother, Nicholas, accused Paynel and his chamberlain of leading an armed force and attacking the de Cantilupe caput baroniae at Greasley Castle.^[55] He further accused Paynel of raping Nicholas's wife, Katherine. She, however, was Paynel's daughter, and far from ravishing her, notes Pedersen, Paynel was rescuing her:^{[56][note 27]} de Cantilupe had imprisoned his wife in the castle after she launched an annulment suit against him. This was on the grounds of impotence, and was heard before the Archbishop of York.^{[56][note 28]} Nicholas died in Avignon a few months later while lobbying Pope Urban V to annul his wife's case^{[note 29]} and William inherited his brother's property. Nicholas's death was deemed suspicious, and William was arrested on suspicion of poisoning his brother with arsenic. William was on royal service in Aquitaine at the time,^[61] and Pedersen notes that "the suspicion had clearly been strong enough for the King to provide an expensive armed guard to ensure that William answered for his alleged crime in London". He was held in the Tower of London during the council's investigation, which seems to have concluded that Nicholas's death was from natural causes.^[62] William took livery of his lands in September 1370.^{[note 30]} In December he also successfully claimed three manors from Paynel^[62] that had originally been Katherine's dower. This, combined with the insult to his daughter, may have been sufficient cause for Paynel to plot against William as he had his brother.^[56]

Cooke and Gyse have been described as "remorseless" in the planning of the killing and its execution.^[16] They were the only individuals to suffer punishment in connection with de Cantilupe's murder. Others escaped, either through complicated manipulation of the law and jury rigging—for example Maud, Kydale and Ralph—or simpler, more traditional methods, such as Agatha's prison break.^[44] In the case of most of the household, no information survives on their fate or sentence. William de Hole, for example, is never mentioned on any subsequent extant court or legal document. For most of those outlawed, it is unknown whether they ever appealed their outlawry, were captured or subsequently pardoned.^[39] Although they probably remained outlawed for their absence from court, all—including Paynel—were acquitted in 1377 of harbouring criminals.^[9] Bellamy suggests that the reason the household workers ran away in the first place was probably down to the infamy the case had engendered, as a direct result of which, he says, "juries were more likely than usual to find the accused guilty".^[22] Paynel eventually joined John of Gaunt's retinue and became a valued servant to Richard II.^[67]

The case was a cause célèbre of its day.^[16] Not only had it effectively ended a family which, in Sillem's words, had "played a considerable part in English history",^[68] but the killing of a man by either his servants or his wife—or both—"was regarded as particularly heinous by all ranks of society".^[22] On his death de Cantilupe was the last of his line, and the family died out.^[38] There being no remaining male heirs, the de Cantilupe estates were broken up between two senior branches of the family, represented by the de Cantilupe brothers' cousins, William, Lord de la Zouche and John Hastings, who was then a minor.^[15]

Kydale married Maud—by now "notorious"^[69]—after her acquittal.^{[16][note 32]} Their marriage was to be short-lived, as he was dead by November 1381.^[70] The following year Maud married Sir John Bussy.^[71] She was now a wealthy woman, bringing both large estates in her own right as well as dowers from her previous husbands.^{[note 33]} The medievalist Carol Rawcliffe suggests that "whatever apprehensions Bussy may have felt in following the short-lived Kydale as her third husband were clearly overcome by the prospect of a greatly increased rent-roll".^{[69][note 34]}

Maud—whom Rawcliffe described as "in her own way, as colourful a character as Bussy himself"—died in 1386.^[71][69] The murder cast a long shadow for her and William's staff. In what Sillem calls a "curious exception" to the unknown fates of most of those who had been outlawed, at the supplication of Queen Anne in 1387, King Richard pardoned John Tailour of Barneby, Cantilupe's steward. Sillem believes that this pardon, "so many years after the event and to apparently only one of the outlaws adds yet another element of mystery".^[39]

Sillem's analysis of the Lincolnshire plea rolls in 1936 was the first major study of de Cantilupe's murder.^{[note 35]} She highlighted how the case not only demonstrated contemporary approaches to crime and petty treason but also provided a wealth of information on the more mundane aspects of society, such as the organisation of a late-14th century magnatial household.^[18] Her conclusion—that the murder was planned by Maud and Kydale with Paynel's assistance—led her to propose a pre-existing romantic connection between the first two, but she was unable to establish a motive for Paynel's involvement.^[30] Sillem's analysis has mostly been followed by historians of the later-20th century,^[69] although the lack of evidence as to most of the individuals' roles means that there are variations upon the theme. Rawcliffe, for example, suggests that Maud's lover was within the household—and so not Kydale—and that:^[69]

Having almost certainly murdered her first husband, Sir William Cantilupe [sic], with the assistance of a young lover and other members of her household, she charmed the sheriff of Lincolnshire first into helping her to obtain a royal pardon and then into actually marrying her.^[69]

— Carol Rawcliffe

The case was "notorious", says Bellamy, as an example of carefully planned premeditated murder,^[50] planned with sufficient subtlety to thoroughly hinder the crown's ability to investigate.^[22] Platts has compared the killing of de Cantilupe to the "kind of plotting in which Shakespeare's audiences revelled" two and a half centuries later,^[16] while Bellamy suggests it "contained elements of the modern murder drama".^[9] Not least, argues Bellamy, because of the transporting of the corpse and the attempt at blaming highwaymen, elements of crime which "are rarely found in medieval records".^[22] Strohm has highlighted the role of Maud in public perception, noting how it fed into the popular perception of women generally and Maud specifically being "schemers and unworthy daughters of Eve working through gullible male accomplices seem to underlie many of the household treason narratives".^{[20][note 36]}

He also notes that of the numerous cases in which women are executed for killing their husbands in the latter half of the 14th century, there is only one surviving example of a wife acting on her own, without the assistance of either neighbours, family or household.^{[73][note 37]}

Pedersen has described the manipulation of the legal machinery as near "virtuosic",^[75] and wondered whether Maud—assuming she was a guilty party—double crossed her accomplices. Perhaps, he queries, Gyse and Cooke being "neither wealthy nor influential had something to do with it".^{[35][note 38]} Pedersen suggests that not only was de Cantilupe's murder cleverly planned over a long period, "it also bears all the hallmarks of ... having been put on hold until everybody was in positions of power where they could cover for each other."^[44] Apart from Gyse and Cooke, he comments, everybody else involved "got away with murder".^[44]