A HEAD IN A BAG - AND THE FEBRUARY Q&A
Ask me anything!
Here’s a wild little story I just found in the archives of the English medieval court of King’s Bench. This post also contains instructions for submitting questions for this month’s Q&A. Only paid subscribers get to post questions via the comments - but it’s easy to sign up. Just hit this button.
The video will go out to everyone, a few days from now.
In the autumn of 1371 word reached Edward III’s council that weird things had been going down in south London.
According to royal officials, a fellow named John Crok had been going about Southwark - the seamy suburb south of the river Thames - with ‘a certain bag’.
The bag contained a dead man’s head.
Even in late fourteenth century London, carrying severed heads in bags was considered suspicious, and Crok had duly been arrested and slung in jail. When he was brought out to be questioned by the king’s judges he explained what was going on.
Crok said he had been to Toledo: one of the most ancient Spanish cities, a sometime capital of the kingdom of Castile, and a place with a long intellectual history rooted in its days as a powerhouse of Arab scholarship.
It was there that he got the head, along with a book of ‘experiments’ and ‘other screws of paper with… various drawings etc.’
His aim was to use the head ‘in order to shut up a certain spirit in it so that the said spirit would answer questions.’
Now, how exactly one went about shutting up spirits in bagged-up heads, let alone getting them to answer questions, was not readily obvious. Crok swore an oath to the royal judges that he had not (yet) made an attempt to do so.
On that basis, the judges let him go, satisfied that ‘he had [not] done any deceit or evil to the king’s people with the aforesaid head.’ They did not let him keep his props, however - the head, the book, the paper scraps, etc.
According to the court records, the marshal of the court burned the lot.
(Source, if you’re curious: GO Sayles (ed.) Select Cases in the Court of King’s Bench Under Edward III vol 4 (London: 1965), pp. 162-3.)
…which brings us to the Q&A!
Okay. Time for me to become the talking head in the bag.
The format for the Q&A is pretty familiar, or should be. Become a paid subscriber, and post your questions for me in the comments below. I’ll answer as many as I can in a video post, and send it out in a few days.
Over to you…
Hi Dan, "The Lion in Winter", film 1968, is being reissued. What do you think of this film, if you've seen it?
It made a huge impression on me, but I think I may have been heavily influenced by the casting of two very handsome and young actors, Timothy Dalton as the gorgeous French King and Anthony Hopkins as the legendarily heroic Richard the Lionheart. I did notice the incredible performances from Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, too 😄.
Annie
Hope the head was preserved in some way otherwise can imagine it was a bit gross!
Question this month if I may: there is a general view that the medieval world was a bit lawless and violent, but in times of just rule and relative peace, ordinary people must have been able to crack on with their lives without the worry someone would do them in for no reason or ransack their possessions while they were at the market or something. Without modern surveillance and police force etc, was day to day “policing” done by families / the community over their members or how was order largely kept? Thanks as ever!