In the hot summer of 1582 in the northern Italian state of Mantua, a Scotsman was brutally murdered. It shook the sleepy Renaissance riverside community deeply, especially as Crichton was popular and rumours began to spread that the ducal family had been involved in the killing. But why? 

James Crichton was born in Scotland on 19 August 1560. He later earned the nickname 'The Admirable' and in February 1582 entered the service of the famous Gonzaga family. The Gonzagas had run Mantua as its lords, dukes and marquesses for centuries. The current ruler, Guglielmo Gonzaga, was the grandson of Francesco Gonzaga and Isabella d'Este, who had dodged Italian politics there at the turn of the 1500s, commissioning and collecting art and laying the foundations of administrative and military power. Crichton was just twenty-one when he began working with the Gonzagas, and it was noted he was fluent in languages including Italian, Latin, Spanish, French, German and Hebrew. We see him today as a polymath; someone who is expert across many different disciplines and he was also very learned in philosophy, theology, astrology and mathematics. He was also a poet, dancer and a singer and, the Gonzaga's secretary noted, was handy with a sword. 

Crichton began to become well-known at the Mantuan court for his intelligence and ability to win arguments with high-status men of religion over matters of philosophy and doctrine. Soon becoming a Scottish celebrity there, Crichton was liked by the duke and attracted the praise of the court, but also the glares of others jealous of his attention and influence. Sensing some hostility, Crichton complained of ill treatment towards him by Mantuan citizens and courtiers but Gonzaga told him that as long as he had his favour, no one would attack him physically or verbally.

Bildnis des J. Crichton by unbekannter Künstler (Production) - Leipzig University Library, Germany - Public Domain.

Gonzaga had a son, Prince Vincenzo Gonzaga, who was two years younger than Crichton, and heir to the dukedom. The two men got to know one another at court and would have spoken on occasion inside the Ducal Place, as the likeness of previous rulers of the state silently observed them from their portraits in the paintwork. Cherubs too, peeked down at the ceiling Andrea Mantegna had painted a hundred years previously. 

But at just after 1am on the morning of 3 July 1582 Vincenzo stood over Crichton's dead and bloodied body holding the weapons that had killed him, his sword and buckler. The following was Vincenzo's own version of events, written on 27 July.

'One of these evenings taking fresh air about the town, about one o'clock in the night, and having with me Messer Hippolito Lanzone, a gentleman of this town, in whose humours I found much gusto, I met by chance James the Scotsman [Crichton], and thinking that it was the Count Langosco, my groom-in-waiting, whom he resembled in stature, I went to knock him in jest, but, on coming near, observed it was not he, and, therefore, putting my buckler, which I had shouldered, before my face, I passed on, leaving the Scotsman suspicious, and he, seeing Lanzone, (in like manner having his buckler before his face), follow, tried to pass him at the wall side, and, having done so, drove into his shoulders his dagger to the hilt. Whereat both did take to arms but Lanzone being mortally wounded, he could not defend himself: therefore I, hearing the uproar, seizing hold of my sword, turned towards the noise, and the Scotsman not recognising me at first night, aimed at me a great cut and a thrust, which I parried with my buckler, and myself levelling a thrust at the Scotsman - which he tried to parry with his dagger, but through being impetuous could not - he got wounded in the chest, and having recognised me, commenced begging for his life. I left him and returned to my companion. who, I found, could hardly stand upon his legs; and when I would support him be fell before me dead.'

Learning that his family were disappointed in the prince, Vincenzo insisted that 'It has truly been a case of pure misdventure'. 

Vincenzo Gonzaga, Rijksmuseum, Public Domain

Vincenzo, writing more than three weeks after the murder, said that it was a tragedy of mistaken identity and an overeager sword fight between three men in the darkness. Vincenzo was writing to soothe the anger of his father, and in his own testimony he left a man he had just stabbed in the chest, to go to his friend. Is it possible that these three high-profile men, at least two of them who were known to one another, did not recognise each other by their voices and shadows in the dark? And if it was a misunderstanding, weren't they all a bit eager to start stabbing before talking, to find out who everyone was? It sounded sketchy, and it wasn't long before Mantua's residents began to gossip over a possible premeditated murder, framed to look like an accident. 

Around a week after his explanation, Vincenzo asked his father, the duke, for permission to leave Mantua and visit Ferrara, the ancestral home of the d'Este family. Nervously, and knowing that his father was still angry over Crichton's death, Vincenzo asked whether 'I should come to kiss the hands of his highness, or whether it is better that I go straight away'. 

Another account, written in 1604 by Thomas Dempster, claimed that Vincenzo had acted deliberately, stating that the prince, 'either upon some spleen, or false suggestion, or to try the Scots' valour, met him in a place where he was won't to haunt, resolving either to kill, wound or beat him'. 

Crichton's body was buried in a modest grave in the church of San Simone, but the people of Mantua complained that it was as if he had been 'abandoned' by the Gonzagas he had previously served. His is a story not often told, but reveals the complexity of ambition and politics in Renaissance Mantua. 

Find out more about a Mantuan duo of the sixteenth century, Isabella d'Este and Francesco Gonzaga - in my book Power Couples of the Renaissance. It features relationship dynamics that went against accepted norms of the period and power-hungry couples who ruled, fought and spread the patronage of art, science and culture across the globe during one of the most tumultuous periods of history. Find it on the Pen and Sword Books website.

Source: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Edinburgh.Volume 43, 1909. 

Reading's history is interwoven with the stories of families like the Vachells, Knollys' and Kendricks. But one Vachell couple dominated seventeenth century Reading, giving funds to the poor, helping to preserve the historic minster and becoming involved in the political and military events of the town.

Sir Thomas Vachell was born in around 1560 to Walter Vachell, of Sulhampstead Bannister. In 1610, he inherited the estate of Coley, near Reading, from his uncle who was also named Thomas. This elder Thomas had lived out his last years at Ipsden, a village near Goring-on-Thames, and died on 3 May 1610. He is buried at St Mary's, Reading Minster, probably in the vault commemorated with a stone slab we see today. 

The younger Sir Thomas was hard-working and respected, and accumulated a great deal of wealth and status, but most notably through inheriting vast estates from family members. He granted a licence to inherit from his uncle, in addition to Coley, his other lands and properties in Burghfield, Shinfield, Tilehurst, Reading, Sulhampstead Abbot, Sulhampstead Bannister and Mapledurham. In 1611 he was bequeathed his brother's property in Burghfield, and in 1628 acquired property in Yorkshire. He always seemed grateful for this boost in prestige and income, and often remembered his uncle in later legal documents. He married three times. His first wife was Alice Brooke, his second Sarah Lane of Northampton and finally, his third wife was Lettice Knollys. 

If the name rings a bell it is probably because of her more famous aunt of the same name, who triggered rage in Elizabeth I when she married the queen's favourite courtier and one-time possible husband, Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester. The Knollys' influence however goes back to the time of Henry VIII after they had gained lands in Reading after the Dissolution of the Monasteries and continued to exert a high level of influence over the town. The couple married on 23 September 1616 at St Laurence Church, a beautiful twelfth-century building near Reading's Market Place. 

Thomas and Lettice seem to have had a happy marriage, although it was childless, as was all of Thomas' marriages. Therefore, Thomas approached his old age knowing he had no heirs left to leave his fortune to. 

In the grant, Thomas was described as a parishioner of the church, and would have attended St Mary's for his daily worship and also lived close by. He was also involved in town business, in 1631 overseeing queries over the spending of funds from John Kendrick's will. Thomas would have known Kendrick, as they were both parishioners of the same church and prominent and wealthy residents of the town and council. In 1634 Thomas founded a set of almshouses in Castle Street for the benefit of six poor men. Made of brick, they were a set of tenements in one building with a common room at the centre. The residents went to the common room where one of them read prayers both morning and evening. Thomas allocated income from his lands in Shinfield to maintain the house. The almshouses were rebuilt after Thomas' death close by, after the first building became unstable. They can still be seen near the roundabout as Castle Street meets Castle Hill. 

Sir Thomas died at the age of 70, and was buried on 20 July 1638 in Reading Minster in the family vault he had built. A memorial service was also held on 30 August that year, with a procession organised from Coley to the church, made up of local dignitaries and Vachell family members. In his will, he bequeathed to his wife Lettice his 'hanginges, bedding, linen, brasse, pewter &c. in the house wherein I dwell att Coley'.  She also received three quarters of his plate, making her a wealthy widow, suggesting that her later union with Hampden may have been a love match. The last quarter he bequeathed to Tanfield, his nephew. Thomas' will gives us a view of the couple's home in Coley, which also contained a coach and coach horses, corn and grain in barns, and 'hogs and poultry about my house'. Lettice had a chambermaid called Margaret, who was part of a network of other household servants, including Simon West and Thomas Nicholls who served Thomas. Vachell also gave significant sums of money to his nieces and nephews, and allocated funds 'to the poor of Reading'. He also never forgot where he had received his wealth. Signing off, he asked that his executors erect a tomb at St Mary's 'for myself, my wife and my deceased uncle Thomas Vachell Esq. who lieth buiyed in St. Marie's Church in Reading'.

Lettice's next husband, John Hampden, was present at the Siege of Reading in 1643, and he suffered wounds sustained in the fighting. He died soon after their marriage, on 24 June that year, and Lettice was widowed once more. The home she had shared with Sir Thomas in Coley was used in 1644 as Reading's headquarters during the Civil War, indicating her personal involvement in the Royalist war effort there. As far as I can find, she retained the house until her death, and must have given permission for it to be used in this way by the king. Lettice was at Coley when she made her will in 1665 and died the following March, suggesting she was ill and knew she was dying. She chose to be buried with her second husband John Hampden, again more evidence that theirs was a romantic union and not a strategic marriage. Her funeral took place on 29 March 1666 and her will reveals her wealth and the state in which she lived in her widowhood. An abstract of the document was published in the Quarterly Journal of the Berkshire Archaeological Society in 1893, and is as follows:

I,  Leticia Vachell, alias Hampden, of Coley, widdow. I bequeath my body to the earth . . . to be buried at Hampden by my deare Husband; to my sister Anne Temple, £50; to my sister the lady Cecilia Knollys my ring with Foure dyamonds, which was given me for a Legacie by my Lady Pagett; to my niece Mrs. Margaret Hamond my Coach Horses, Coach Hamesse (&c.);  unto my nephew Mr. Robert Hamond my sute of Hangings of Forrest worke which are in the Dineing Roome; unto my neece Mrs. Leticia Hamond, my Goddaughter my tablett of Gold, Enameld and set with Rubyes and Ophalls, wherin is the picture of my Aunt the Countess of Leicester, my gold Fanne, coache, 16 chayres all of needle worke belonging to the dining Room and the Turkey Carpet (&c.); to my grand-child Mrs. Elizabeth Hamond my dyamond lockett; to my grand-child Mary Hamond my dyamond Ring, which was given me by her grand-father Hampden; to my grand-child Letitia Hamond my wedding Ring... to my neece Durham my olive-coloured Bed; to my faithful pastor Mr. Christopher Fowler... to Leticia Thisdethwaite my Table Dyamond Ring which I bought of her mother'.

She had servants who accompanies her in her widowhood, among them John Bushnell who served in Lettice's household with his wife, Margaret. She also gave funds for the benefit of the parishes of Reading and for the poor of the town. Between them, Thomas and Lettice were benefactors to the church and to the poor, with Thomas ordering the almshouses to be built while they were man and wife. As such, Lettice would have known of the plans and likely assisted in some way organising their construction and supplying funds while Thomas was away. They lived comfortably, travelled by coach wherever they went and were well-known in the town's administration and local government. They were also well-connected, not only with people like John Kendrick and other important personalities of seventeenth-century Reading, but to the powerful Knollys family of Elizabethan England. 

Liked this? You might also like The Legend of Caversham Castle, Queen Elizabeth I's Privy Council Cheese Dinner, and Lady Alice Dudley, Duchess Dudley.

Interested in Tudor history? You might also like my second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, which explores the contributions couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester have their own chapter. Order your copy here. 

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Source: Rev P.H. Ditchfield, The Quarterly Journal of the Berks Archaeological and Architectural Society, Volume 3. Charles Slaughter, London. 1893.

Ellen Gethin is one of the women I loved researching for my book, Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses. She lived in Wales in the 1460s, and was married to Thomas Vaughan, a York-supporting soldier. They lived at Hergest Court in Herefordshire, and Ellen was sadly widowed after Thomas' death after the Battle of Edgecote in 1469, when he was rounded up with other Yorkists after the action and executed at 69 years of age. But Ellen also had her own legend, having supposedly killed her cousin with a bow and arrow, after seeking revenge for him, in turn, murdering her brother after a drunken brawl. You can find more about her story in the book, along with other women of the age who have not been fully recognised in the context of the Wars. 

On her death, Ellen was buried in a tomb inside her nearby church of Kington, Herefordshire. She was laid alongside her husband Thomas, and she commissioned an elaborate tomb complete with effigies of the pair to represent how they would have looked in life. 

Portrait of Ellen Gethin, Jo Romero, 2024

Soon after this description was recorded, Ellen and Thomas' tomb and effigy were disassembled and their parts taken to Hereford, to a stoneworker named Mr Benjamin Jennings. The sculptor carefully reconstructed the couple's missing limbs and replaced their faces. The report of 1847 does state though, that a lion was removed from Thomas' feet, 'because it accorded not with the rest of the work', which is a shame. Lions were a popular medieval and Tudor figure on effigies, symbolising loyalty to the crown. Crucially, because the previous damage to the tomb appeared to have been man-made rather than caused by accidental cracks or chips from centuries of wear, a railing was put up around it, 'which previously', stated our 1847 reporter, 'was not the case'.

Drawing of the tomb of Ellen Gethin and Thomas Vaughan from 1846, in Archaeologica Cambrensis, archive.org

An image of the tomb shows the result of Jennings' work. Fine details of the armour Thomas wore have been preserved, along with Ellen's gown and jewellery. I haven't yet been over to Kington to see the tomb for myself, but apparently you can see the joins where the older parts of the figures meet the Victorian restorations, which is useful. For something that Ellen clearly commissioned with such care to preserve the memory of her husband and herself, it is especially fitting that it was one of her descendants that paid for the nineteenth century restorations. Frances Harley, a Vaughan heir and sister of the Earl of Oxford, is said to have spent more than £70 in restoring the effigies and tomb in 1846, a considerable amount in Victorian money. 

Have you been to see the effigies? What did you think? Let me know in the comments below.

Liked this? You might also like Medieval Residents of Reading, Thomas and Elizabeth Clerk, The Queens of the Wars of the Roses, and Warrior Women of the Wars of the Roses. 

To find out more overlooked women who lived through the Wars of the Roses and what their individual stories tell us about the conflict, Order your copy here at the Pen and Sword website.

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I went to Cardiff Castle many years ago, and loved it. I read all about the owners and occupiers of the building and the renovations carried out up into the twentieth century. But did you know that, among its many owners, there were a number of women? 

In an 1862 edition of the Archaeological Cambrensis, there was an account of some of the medieval owners of the castle, and I was surprised to find so many of them were women. Like Mabel, the heiress of Robert Fitzhamon. Robert was a Norman aristocrat, Lord of the Honour of Gloucester and of Morgan and Glamorgan who owned the castle since 1090. Mabel inherited the castle after his death, and because of medieval laws, its ownership transferred to her husband Robert Earl of Gloucester, the illegitimate son of Henry I. Robert was tasked with making sure Henry's brother Robert Curthose remained imprisoned at Cardiff Castle, and Mabel would have observed the arrangements of how the prince was kept captive. Robert Consul and Mabel are also credited with some of the Norman building works carried out in the early 1100s. The castle transferred to their son William, Earl of Gloucester, who died in 1173. The castle then passed into the hands of the future King John. 

Cardiff Castle, Jo Romero

In the early fourteenth century, the castle passed to Eleanor de Clare, who married Hugh le Despenser the Younger in 1320. Eleanor and Hugh were the subject of some scandal, because of Hugh's close relationship with King Edward II. Hugh was the king's Lord Chamberlain, and attracted the jealousy and anger of various nobles because of his underhand dealings, wielding of power and having no regard for the law. Even in his own lifetime there were rumours that his relationship with Edward II was more than that of a courtier and a king. Edward was forced to stand down as king and allow his young son Edward III to take his place. Hugh was arrested and charged with a number of serious offences, then hanged, drawn and quartered in Hereford Market Place. 

The couple's great-great-grandchild, Richard Despenser, died unmarried in 1414, and his sister Isabel le Despenser inherited his estate. She was born at Cardiff Castle, and worked on improving its strength and appearance, most likely in works undertaken after 1425. She married twice - first to Richard Beauchamp Earl of Worcester who died in 1421, and then Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick. The men were cousins. With Warwick, she had a son named Henry, who succeeded his father in 1439, but died in 1446. 

The next woman to inherit the castle was Anne Beauchamp, Henry's sister and the wife of Richard Neville Earl of Warwick, 'The Kingmaker' during the Wars of the Roses. A charter dated 1451 to the castle survives, granted by Richard Earl of Warwick and Anne. Anne was to have a difficult time during the 1470s, when her husband was killed at the Battle of Barnet in 1471, having switched sides to the Lancastrian cause against King Edward IV. She spent her later years fighting for the return of her Despenser lands from the seclusion of Beaulieu Abbey in the New Forest. The castle though, fell to their youngest daughter Anne, who married Richard Duke of Gloucester. Gloucester therefore owned Cardiff Castle through his wife, and later became Richard III with Anne his queen, in 1483. Anne died before Richard, who was killed in August 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth against Henry Tudor. The rights to the castle then transferred to the throne, and the Tudors seem to have kept it within their crown lands. 

Liked this? You might also like The Warrior Women of the Wars of the Roses, The Welsh Legend of Nelferch and Eight Welsh Castles to Put on Your Travel Bucketlist.

Interested in more women who held, lived in and defended castles? You might like my book Forgotten Women of the Wars of the Roses, which takes a look at the roles of women - royal and non-royal - during the conflict. Order your copy here at the Pen and Sword website.

Prefer Tudor history? My second book, Power Couples of the Tudor Era, published by Pen and Sword Books, explores the contributions couples made to their own times as well as how they influenced our own. Order your copy here. 

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Source: Archaeological Cambrensis, 1862, Volume 8, Third Series. J. Russell Smith, London.