Author Archives: David Whelchel

A Mediaeval Burglary

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In 1915 T. F. Tout gave a lecture at the John Rylands library on a great crime. It was the burglary of the treasury in the King’s Wardrobe in the abbey at Westminster on April 24, 1303. 1 Tout examines how the story has come down to us and lays out the plot in detail. Why is this event, so remote and lost to history, intriguing? As I read this story I wondered: Where was the king? Where were the guards? And most curious, why was the King’s treasure in a wardrobe? These questions led me on an interesting journey in historiography and ancient sources.

T. F. Tout’s Lecture

To summarize, the burglary took place in late April 1303. Edward I was in Scotland at war with William Wallace for the control of the northern Scottish territories. When the King traveled it was customary for the national treasury to follow in the Wardrobe along with the rest of his retinue. On this occasion the treasure was deposited in a room under the chapter house of Westminster Abbey designated to house the Kings Wardrobe. We do not know the reason for this change in plans, but it was clear that there was an opportunity ripe for the taking. Whether it was with the help of the Monks charged with protecting the treasure or on his own, Richard of Pudlicott (also known as Richard de Podelicote) plotted to take the loot. Depending on the account, on his own or with the help of a gang of thieves, gold, coin, jewels, and other treasure was taken. The local community started to take notice as items begin to appear in the pub and pawn shops being traded by near do wells and prostitutes. Treasures were even found by fishermen in the river Thames. The king was notified, and dozens of people were rounded up, jailed, and placed on trial. Many were hanged. The implicated monks were spared because of Richard’s confession as well as their possible influence with the crown. Richard experienced a most gruesome fate. Eventually the bulk of the hoard was returned to the King.

We are able to know about this rich and deeply layered tale because of the attempts of the monks to absolve themselves participating in the crime. As T. F. Tout noted there were a number of accounts that have survived. One of the most detailed, and in Tout’s estimation, accurate, is the chronicle written by Robert of Reading. 2

A near contemporaneous manuscript

Modern accounts of the burglary are traced to published records of English Chronicles starting with Francis Palgrave’s The Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of His Majesty’s Exchequer, with other documents illustrating the history of that repository.

Later in the nineteenth century Luke Pike (1873), focused on the trials related to the theft as well as the role of the clergy. But he does uncover why the monks were guarding the treasure and the scope of the theft. 3

Pike’s narrative

Hubert Hall, writing in 1898, was more concerned with the history of the treasury and the role of the wardrobe in English history. He goes into great detail about the how the burglary was committed. He published a plan for the Westminster Abby grounds that Tout reproduced in his lecture.

Hall’s Abby plan as reproduced by Tout

Hall also examines the evicence implicating the monks and friars.4

Hall’s account

Interest has continued to the present time as witnessed by Paul Doherty’s book The great crown jewels robbery of 1303.

As the publisher notes:

This compelling work is an exhilarating tale of cunning deceit, lechery, feisty villains, meddling monks, greedy goldsmiths, and devious pimps and prostitutes. It takes the lid off both the medieval underworld and the assumed piousness of the monastic community.5

So here are the hints to raise your appetite to explore this mystery further. Look into the original documents, read the records in our library and dive deep into the medieval world. There are more paths to follow in the tales recounted here.

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DLWA Call Number: DC151 .A58 1997
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: The great crown jewels robbery of 1303: the extraordinary story of the first big bank raid in history. London: Constable.
  • Author: Paul Doherty
  • Language: English
  • Setting: English History

DLWA Call Number: HJ1028 .H2 1891
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: The Antiquities and Curiosities of the Exchequer, etc. E. Stock: London.
  • Author: Hubert Hall
  • Language: English
  • Setting: English History

DLWA Call Number: Upcomming acqusition
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: The Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of His Majesty’s Exchequer, with other documents illustrating the history of that repository … collected and edited by Sir Francis Palgrave. London: Printed by C. Eyre and A. Spottiswoode.
  • Author: Francis Palgrave
  • Language: English, French, Latin
  • Setting: English History

DLWA Call Number: HV6943 .A212 1873
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: A history of crime in England. [Place of publication not identified]: Smith Elder and Co.
  • Author: Luke Owen Pike
  • Language: English
  • Setting: English History

DLWA Call Number: DA229 .T649 1915
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: “A mediaeval burglary”. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 2: 348-369.
  • Author: T. F. Tout
  • Language: English
  • Setting: English History

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  1. Tout, T. F. 1914. “A mediaeval burglary”. Bulletin of the John Rylands Library. 2: 348-369. paginated as separate volume pp 3-24
  2. ibid. pp.22-23
  3. Pike, Luke Owen. 1873. A history of crime in England
  4. Hall, Hubert. 1898. The Antiquities and Curiosities of the Exchequer, etc. pp.19-34

  5. Doherty, Paul. 2005. The great crown jewels robbery of 1303: the extraordinary story of the first big bank raid in history Cover


–DLW

Démonstration de l’innocence des sieurs de Bellegarde & de Montieu – 1773

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In researching one of our recent acquisitions I found an interesting story of the entanglement of the American Revolution, French arms dealers and the court of Marie Antoinette. The document is Démonstration de l’innocence des sieurs de Bellegarde & de Montieu published in 1773 which can be roughly translated as a “Demonstration of the innocence of Misters Bellegarde & Monthieu”.



Des sieurs de Bellegarde & de Montieu

In 1765 an industrial arms faction, the Gribeauvalists, were placed in charge the French artillery services for the French War Office. As a part of the centralization of this service, Louis-Alexander Cassier de Bellegarde took over control of the company. In addition to being ambitious and intelligent he was an excellent metallurgist and had just completed the design of a new musket. By 1772, after changes in the ruling parties of France other arms factions replaced the Gribeauvalists. In his new capacity, as the inspector for the office, Bellegarde was given the assignment to:

…comb through the kingdom’s stockpile of arms, setting aside good muskets, selling those repairable for shipment abroad at 25 sols each, and disposing of the rest for scrap at 10 sols each. 1

In the next four years Bellegarde rejected some 472,000 muskets as defective which proved to be a major percentage of the national arms. The buyer of these rejected muskets was Carrier de Monthieu. These were turbulant years in France, thus, after another change in government, factions changed again. Always trying to strengthen their position the new faction, the Vallierists, initiated an investigation of the previous regime. It was found that these rejected arms had been sold back to the monarch as new and with an extravagant markup. Moreover, it was brought to light that Bellegarde and Monthieu were brothers-in-law through a secret marriage and both were beneficiaries of this sole source deal. During the trial, recounted in our document, the defense argued that Bellegarde and Monthieu were actually providing a cost-savings measure. The prosecutor responded that it was:

…better to sell defective weapons for scrap, and ship substandard guns to slave traders and American rebels. 2

Both men were convicted!

Now here is where the fun begins and there we find out that there is more to the story.

In her account of the Secret Memoirs of the court of Marie Antoinette, Madam Campan tells us how this trial reached into the Court of Louis XVI. Mme. Campan notes that:

The direct influence of the Queen on affairs during the earlier years of the reign was shown only in her exertions to obtain from the King a revision of the decrees in two celebrated causes. 3

It is clear that Mme. Campan was careful to give the most positive account of Marie Antoinette and it is hard to believe that she did not ask for the King’s action on any number of issues. For our narrative we are considering only Marie Antoinette’s first supplication to the King, that of Des sieurs de Bellegarde & de Montieu. Here is what Mme. Campan records:

If the King had not inspired the Queen with a lively feeling of love, it is quite certain that she yielded him respect and affection for the goodness of his disposition and the equity of which he gave so many proofs throughout his reign. One evening she returned very late; she came out of the King’s closet, and said to M. de Misery and myself, drying her eyes, which were filled with tears, “You see me weeping, but do not be uneasy at it: these are the sweetest tears that a wife can shed; they are caused by the impression which the justice and goodness of the King have made upon me; he has just complied with my request for a revision of the proceedings against Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Monthieu, victims of the Duc d’Aiguillon’s hatred to the Duc de Choiseul. He has been equally just to the Duc de Guines in his affair with Tort. It is a happy thing for a queen to be able to admire and esteem him who has admitted her to a participation of his throne; and as to you, I congratulate you upon your having to live under the sceptre of so virtuous a sovereign.” 4

Despite her request the King did not pardon them. The trial received another hearing and proceeded on its course. Mme. Campan provides some detail about the case and to the underlying reasons the the king could not act more firmly.

An incessant underhand war was carried on between the friends and partisans of M. de Choiseul, who were called the Austrians, and those who sided with Messieurs d’Aiguillon, de Maurepas, and de Vergennes, who, for the same reason, kept up the intrigues carried on at Court and in Paris against the Queen. Marie Antoinette, on her part, supported those who had suffered in this political quarrel, and it was this feeling which led her to ask for a revision of the proceedings against Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Monthieu. The first, a colonel and inspector of artillery, and the second, proprietor of a foundry at St. Etienne, were, under the Ministry of the Duc d’Aiguillon, condemned to imprisonment for twenty years and a day for having withdrawn from the arsenals of France, by order of the Duc de Choiseul, a vast number of muskets, as being of no value except as old iron, while in point of fact the greater part of those muskets were immediately embarked and sold to the Americans. It appears that the Duc de Choiseul imparted to the Queen, as grounds of defense for the accused, the political views which led him to authorize that reduction and sale in the manner in which it had been executed. It rendered the case of Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Monthieu more unfavorable that the artillery officer who made the reduction in the capacity of inspector was, through a clandestine marriage, brother-in-law of the owner of the foundry, the purchaser of the rejected arms. The innocence of the two prisoners was, nevertheless, made apparent; and they came to Versailles with their wives and children to throw themselves at the feet of their benefactress. 5

I always find it fascinating the twists and turns that a simple story takes, the discrepancies between the various recitations of the story, and the interrelationships we find within our collection.

DLWA Call Number: DC151 .A58 1997
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: Engineering the Revolution : arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815
  • Arthur: Ken Alder
  • Language: English
  • Setting: French Industry

DLWA Call Number:
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: Démonstration de l’innocence des sieurs de Bellegarde & de Montieu
  • Author: Lochard, & Valleyre
  • Language: French
  • Setting: Trials

DLWA Call Number: DC137.1 C223 1900
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: Memoirs of the court of Marie Antoinette, queen of France; with sketches and anecdotes of her private life
  • Arthur: Mme Campan
  • Language: English
  • Setting: Biography
  1. Alder, K., 1997. Engineering the Revolution : arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763-1815 p. 189.
  2. ibid. pp. 189-190
  3. Campan, 1900. Secret memoirs of the court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France : with sketches and anecdotes of her private life p.291
  4. op cit. p. 293-294
  5. op cit. p. 293-294

–DLW

A Lesson in Conservation

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I am always looking to further my education and strengthen any conservation skills that I have. Understanding that there is a lot that I do not know I keep looking for resources that will help with one or another problem. I was familiar with the publication Preservation and conservation for libraries and archives by Nelly Balloffet, Jenny Hille, and Judith A Reed. Having seen a snippet of this work on google it looked like there was a procedure that I could use in conserving several old prints that are in our Manuscripts and Archives. Knowing that this a somewhat rare and expensive volume I ordered it from the Washington State University, Pullman campus, ILL.

Several weeks passed and I received the message that the book was now available at the circulation desk and to come and pick it up. Presenting my card there was a short wait until the staff member returned with the book. Unlike other times he hesitated and held the book back for a minute.

Paraphrasing our conservation, here is what transpired:

I want you to know that there is something wrong with this book. It has some sort of water damage. None of the other books in the bag were wet so it came from the lending library this way. We have noted this damage on the slip so that you will not be charged for it and we have extended the checkout for another two weeks.

Indeed the book was damaged! Just then one of my colleagues came up behind me. Thinking of the situation I held out the book, had him read the title, and asked him “What is wrong with this picture?”

I had more fun the rest of the day showing the book other other colleagues and noting the irony of the situation. The pictures below speak for themselves and I have edited them to protect the guilty.

DLWA Call Number: Z701 .B234 2005
Worldcat: Link

  • Title: Preservation and conservation for libraries and archives
  • Author: Nelly Balloffet; Jenny Hille; Judith A Reed
  • Language: English
  • Setting: conservation

–DLW