Scotsman James Crichton's Murder in Renaissance Mantua 1582

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.