Chronicle of Thomas Wykes

[Tiberius A. 9, 3rd October 1283] Around the feast of Saint Michael [29 September], the king, having summoned the magnates of his realm and the leading men of the cities of England to Shrewsbury, held there his parliament, and caused David, who had been taken prisoner at Rhuddlan, to be brought thither. And there, by the judgment of the magnates assembled, his crimes of impiety having been weighed, he was judicially condemned to a death unheard of in former times. First, that he should be drawn by horses; second, that he should be hanged; third, that he should be beheaded; fourth, that his heart and entrails should be taken out and burned; fifth, that his body should be divided into four parts and separately hung up in the four quarters of England. But his head should be carried to London by the citizens who were present there, to be placed upon the Tower of London beside the head of Llewelyn his brother, as a notable spectacle.

Circa festum Sancti Michaelis rex, convocatis regni sui magnatibus et majoribus civium Angliæ apud Salopesbyriam, tenuit and ibi parliamentuni suum, et adduci fecit illuc David qui, apud Rothelan fuerat captivatus; ibique per considerationem magnatum ibidem congregatorum, pensatis impietatis suæ meritis, judicialiter adjudicatus est morti retroactis temporibus inauditæ. Primo equis distractus, secundo suspensus, tertio capite truncatus, quarto ut cor et viscera extracta comburerentur, quinto corpus in quatuor partes divisum per quatuor Angliæ plagas separatim suspenderetur ; caput autem Londonias a civibus qui ibi prsesentes intererant deferretur, super Turrim Londoniarum juxta caput Lewelini fratris sui pro notabili spectaculo deponendum.

Note 1.

[Titus A. 14, 3rd October 1283] Around the feast of Saint Michael [29 September] the king caused the chief men of his realm and the wiser both of the citizens and of the magnates to be summoned to Shrewsbury, and there he caused David, who had been taken prisoner at Rhuddlan, to be brought, that he might undergo corporal judgment according to the measure of his crime. And there it was determined that he should perish by a fivefold death: first, to be drawn by horses; second, to be hanged; third, to be beheaded; fourth, that his heart and entrails should be burned; fifth, that his body should be divided into four parts and separately set up in the four quarters of England. His head was carried to London by citizens of London who were present there, to be set upon the Tower of London beside the head of his brother Llewelyn, as a notable spectacle.

Circa festum Sancti Michaelis rex convocari fecit apud Salopesberiam majores regni sui et sapientiores tam de civibus quam de magnatibus, et fecit illuc of David, adduci David qui apud Rothelan faerat captivatus, ut secundum exigentiam delicti sui corporale subiret judicium. Ibique consideratum est quod morte quinaria interiret, primo equis distractus, secundo suspensus, tertio decollatus, quarto ut cor ejus et viscera comburerentur, quinto ut corpus ejus in quatuor partes divisim per quatuor Angliæ plagas separatim suspenderetur ; caput ejus a civibus Londoniensibus qui nunc ibi præsentes extiterant delatum est Londonias, super Turrim Londoniarum juxta caput Lewelini fratris sui pro nota spectabili deponendum.

On the 4th before the Kalends of December [28th November 1290], Eleanor (age 49), Queen, wife of King Edward, after suffering from a mild fever, wasting away from the heat, and freed from her prison, paid the fatal debt of death. Her body was carried in stages and buried in London in Westminster Abbey, with the Bishop of Lincoln, on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, conducting the burial rites on the Sunday before the Feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle, that is, on the 16th of December. Indeed, the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to attend the funeral rites because, due to a certain dispute between him and the Abbot of the place, he had placed the latter under interdict. Also, another noteworthy event, not to be passed over in silence but rather to be perpetually remembered, occurred this year.

Quarto Kal. Decembris Alianora Regina Domini Regis Edwardi conjux apud Grantham modicæ febris igniculo contabescens, carcere resoluta, fatale mortis debitum solvit; corpus ejus per dietas delatum sepultum est London in Ecclesia Westmonsteriensi, Domino Lincoln vice Domini Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis exequente officium sepulturæ, Dominica proxima ante festum Sancti Thomæ Apostoli, viz. xvi. Kal. Januarii: quippe Dominus Cantuariensis noluit ipsis exequiis interesse, quia in quadam contentione inter ipsum & Abbatem loci supposuerat interdicto. Aliud quoque plerunque notabile non sub silentio prætereundum, sed potius perpetuæ commemorandum memoriæ contigit hoc anno.