'Sex and vengeance' Unearthed papers shed light on brutal murder of priest amid medieval power struggle

Almost 700 years ago in a busy London street in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral, a priest, John Ford, was brazenly stabbed to death in a crime notable both for its public nature and its ferocity.

- Esther Addley

It was early evening, just after vespers on 4 May 1337, and Westcheap (now Cheapside) would have been bustling with passersby. In full view of them, one man sliced Ford's throat with a foot-long dagger, while two others used long knives to stab him in the belly. Was someone trying to make a very public example of the victim?

An investigation quickly named the culprits and the person who ordered the killing - a wealthy noblewoman named Ela FitzPayne, whose husband had appointed the dead priest to his village parish in Dorset. No explanation was offered, however, and only one man, a former servant of FitzPayne's, was ever convicted of the crime.