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Worcester Cathedral

1 found what 1 thought were several references to the mystery in Worcester Cathedral. But now 1 am not so sure

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Monday, 3rd December

Worcester Cathedral

Now that the winter term has ended 1 can return to your mother’s research. 1 have decided that 1 will start at King John’s tomb, travel round the locations in the second manuscript before retracing John’s final journey before his death. This will mean 1 will end my research close to where your mother died. 1 hope that by visiting these places 1 will be able to uncover some hint as to what the other locations in the manuscript may be.

As 1 looked up from John’s tomb to the vaulted ceiling of Worcester Cathedral, 1 thought about Helen’s note on her sketch of the manuscript depicting a bishop and four objects. Suddenly 1 realised the significance of these words. Of course!!!

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Location of the three pentagram symbols 1

found scratched into the walls of Worcester

Cathedral. 1 think 1 may have to return to

these when 1 get a chance.

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Monday, 10th December

Southern England

1 then travelled to the places in the manuscript that describe who Our Friend is, ‘by my works you shall know me’.

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Operibus meis me cognosces

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Tuesday, 11th December

Salisbury Cathedral

At Salisbury Cathedral 1 tried to find Our Friend’s tomb which is described as being ‘…to the west side of the porch shaped after the manner of the cathedral vaulting…’. 1 cant find it!

1 got access to the cathedral archives. After some time 1 found Our Friend’s will which was executed in 1246. The will contains some strange but very exact instructions. 1nstructions from Our Friend to a Temple Master.

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377.6765.1597 - 5.1597.21.3.233.2.2584 - 5.21.3.233.2.21.2584.13 - 610.89.377.4181

– 89.377.6765.21.2584 – 2584.4181.377.377.2 – 2.377.17711.233 – 13.3.233.1597.46368 – 1597.3.21.2584.2584.6765.3.2 – 144.1 –

2584.377.1597.46368.1 – 89.3.5.4181 – 5.377.1597 – 0.1.1597.3

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Friday 14th December

Corfe Castle

On to Corfe Castle where in 1216 John collected together all the royal artefacts that had been held in various religious and templar repositories around the kingdom. He was clearly arranging his resources to fund the ongoing war and retake the English throne from Louis.

This is the place where John also imprisoned Eleanor of Brittany, Arthur’s sister.

There is little left of the keep following the civil war and the subsequent use of the castle as a ready source of masonry for the town dwellers.

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Corfe

Cas

tle -

Arthu

r’s si

ster’s

priso

n and

roya

l tre

asur

y

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Saturday, 15th December

A night in Winchester

My night in Winchester, en route to Runnymede, was sleepless. Thoughts of King John, frantically holding onto what little power he had left, about to do the unthinkable and sign a charter limiting his divine right. And then 1 realised what the manuscript told me in terms of location. 1t was obvious. Why had 1 not realised this sooner? The following morning while relaxing in the Library coffee shop, browsing a 19th century book on medieval artwork, 1 chanced across this picture of a church scene drawn in the late 13th century. 1 now have the object and place solved but still have to find the date. 1 also need to make sense of the mystery.

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13th Century Church Scene

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Sunday, 16th December

Runnymede where Magna Carta was signed on 15 June 1215

Runnymede is a strangely disappointing place to visit. A horrible modern roads cuts its eastern side, with faded signs and a little National Trust building. The field is muddy and empty and the only people who seem to have any interest are the Americans, for whom we should be grateful as they have erected a monument to Magna Carta, and also a monument to JFK. But imagine the scene, dear daughter, nearly eight centuries ago. The fields full of tall tents, colourful banners and men, weary from war in heavy armour. The King arriving from the royal castle of Windsor and the rebellious barons from Staines. John must have thought his humiliation was complete.

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Forced unwillingly to fix his seal to a charter which fundamentally limited his royal prerogative and gave a council of 25 Surety Barons authority to overrule him. This was unprecedented in the time and shook the foundations of other European monarchies, just as the execution of Louis XV1 in France did over five hundred years later. 1t’s a surprise that we, the English, don’t make more of such a momentous location.

‘

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Runnymede by Rudyard Kipling (1911)

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,What say the reeds at Runnymede?The lissom reeds that give and take,That bend so far, but never break,They keep the sleepy Thames awakeWith tales of John at Runnymede.

At Runnymede, at Runnymede,Oh, hear the reeds at Runnymede:‘You mustn’t sell, delay, deny,A freeman’s right or liberty.1t wakes the stubborn Englishry,We saw ‘em roused at Runnymede!

When through our ranks the Barons came,With little thought of praise or blame,But resolute to play the game,They lumbered up to Runnymede;And there they launched in solid lineThe first attack on Right Divine,The curt uncompromising “Sign!’They settled John at Runnymede.

and receives homage from King Alexander of Scotland

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At Runnymede, at Runnymede,Your rights were won at Runnymede!No freeman shall be fined or bound,Or dispossessed of freehold ground,Except by lawful judgment foundAnd passed upon him by his peers.Forget not, after all these years,The Charter signed at Runnymede.

And still when mob or Monarch laysToo rude a hand on English ways,The whisper wakes, the shudder plays,Across the reeds at Runnymede.And Thames, that knows the moods of kings,And crowds and priests and suchlike things,Rolls deep and dreadful as he bringsTheir warning down from Runnymede!

King John seal’s Magna Carta before the Barons, Clergy and Knights of England

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Monday, 17th December

The ports of Kent

Thanet was where the French Prince, Louis, landed and Dover was besieged. John instructed de Burgh to use the royal plate to pay the soldiers and ensure Dover was held.

David was quite brilliant once again. He managed to find two manuscripts which referred to Louis’s invasion and his army landing at Thanet.

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Tuesday, 18th December

Oxford

1t was in Oxford, ever a royalist city, that John chose to rally his loyal troops. History writes him off as a capricious and weak man, but clearly he inspired loyalty in many retainers who stood by him even when the odds against him were overwhelming. After all, many of his Barons had raised arms against him and, more significantly, Louis of France had now been proclaimed King in London. Despite this he was to go on to beat King Alexander of Scotland, suppress rebellion in Cambridge, subdue East Anglia and come within a roll of the dice of winning back his Kingdom, had he not lost his treasury, his health and ultimately his life.

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A gr

eat G

ener

al wh

o ins

pired

loya

lty fr

om hi

s men

?or

Bad

King

Joh

n?

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Wednesday, 19th December

Lincoln Castle

Lincoln’s significance today is much diminished from its historical past. People who visit are always impressed by the magnificent Norman cathedral that stands proudly upon the brow of a hill, towering over the city below. By 1150, Lincoln was amongst the wealthiest towns in England. Founded on a Roman colony, it was a medieval powerhouse, the largest diocese and wealthiest of its time and significant enough to receive a copy of Magna Carta in 1215. 1t was here that King Stephen fought Matilda for this crown, where John Marshall cried that “1 have the hammer and anvil by which to forge still an even finer son.” When young William was imprisoned

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and threatened with death by Stephen, and where John battled to defend his throne and won. Strange to think of that past when one stands before the West Front of the stunning gothic cathedral in a new university town in the East Midlands.

They died locked in combat with their eyes crossed?

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R K M1 M

E L O G D S E M F Q L N K P H O L C K GE 1 S D S F

This manuscript was quite a find.

The path you seek may divide

many times yet still stay true?

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Thursday, 20th December

Kings Lynn

1 went there to learn more about why John divided his troops and sent his baggage train over the Wellstream.

On Wednesday 12th October King John and his army left Lynn for St Mary’s Abbey in Swineshead in Lincolnshire. He is known to have visited Wisbech on the same day. The King can be assumed to have taken the road from Lynn to Walpole Cross Keys, at which point he is likely to have turned south and followed Roman Bank to Walsoken, where the Wellstream could be crossed, to Wisbech. 1t has been calculated that the supply train that accompanied John would have been in excess of two miles long, moving at an average speed of 2.5 miles

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an hour. 1t would have thus taken sixteen hours to complete the journey from Lynn to Swineshead without rest or disruption. 1t seems that it was for this reason that John sent his baggage on a more direct route, a saving of up to nine miles, than the more indirect one he chose for himself. 1t was on this stage of the journey that disaster struck.

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A contemporary writer, Ralph of Coggeshall recorded in 1220 “moreover, the greatest distress troubled him, because on the journey from Lynn he had lost his chapel with his relics and some of his pack horses with diverse household effects in the Wellstream, and many members of his household were submerged in the waters of the sea, and sucked into quicksand there, because they had set out incautiously and hastily before the tide had receded.” Similarly, Roger of Wendover’s account of the incident records in his famous Flores Historarium of 1220 that “then heading for the north, he lost by an unexpected accident all the wagons, carts and packhorses with the treasures, precious vessels and all the other things that he cherished with special care: for the ground was opened up in the midst of the waves and bottomless whirlpools engulfed everything, together with men and horses, so that not a single foot soldier got away to bear tidings of the disaster to the king.”

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Shakespeare transposes what appears to be the historical incident to the character, the Bastard, as a metaphor for his loss of power. An accident, divine retribution for a bad king, or a malicious plot?

1 have discovered that Graham owned Fen Research Ltd, a company set up in the 1980s to find King John’s lost treasure. My suspicions are confirmed.

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1 was also curious to see the Sutton Bridge Gas-Fired Power Station. Why was Helen so intrigued by this place and the company that built it?

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Friday, 21st December

Swineshead Abbey

Shakespeare asserts that King John was poisoned by a monk at Swineshead “The King, 1 fear, is poisoned by a Monk.”

My research has uncovered some truth behind this; the legend of Brother Simon. There seems to be some evidence that Brother Simon was a Templar Knight and did have a hand in the death of King John. There is a stone effigy

of Brother Simon near Swineshead, but strangely

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rather than a habit-wearing monk, he is depicted as a Crusader Knight. Why would a Crusader Knight, masquerading as a Monk, murder the King? 1t is worth noting that the King had earlier stripped the Templar Preceptories of England of his royal wealth to fund the war and that his war with France and the Church had also distracted effort from the crusades despite his own taking of the Cross in 1213.

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Sunday, 22nd December

Newark

Newark Castle was founded and owned by Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, and was still property of that diocese in the time of John. 1t rises picturesquely from the river, and from its position and great strength was for a long time known as the ‘Key of the North’. Of the original Norman stronghold the most important remains are the gatehouse, a crypt and the lofty rectangular tower at the south-west angle. His last instruction before his death was for his executors to “make satisfaction to God and the Holy Church for the wrongs 1 have done them.” 1 feel a great sense of sadness for King John having been on this journey, standing beneath the ruined

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castle gatehouse in this cold, grey town. He was not so much a bad King as an unfortunate one and had he been more lucky, maybe he would have been recognised for his strengths and loyalty to England.

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Newa

rk G

ateh

ouse

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Sunday, 23rd December

One last detour before 1 return to Fordebridge and Christmas with you and Uncle Arthur - two sad old widowers. Leaving the A1 at Grantham 1 drove north on the A607, crossed the A17 and on until 1 reached the Field Marshall’s village. Turning off the A607 1 drove down the aptly named road for a couple of miles, crossing Ermine Street and came to what was left of my destination and the seat of the executors of Our Friend’s will. Standing here in this field, by the tall remains of a once fine building, the many pieces of the jigsaw fall into place. The single thread that links Our Friend, with John, his nephew, William Marshall and Magna Carta. 1 should be hung for not seeing the pattern sooner. The reputed wealth of this place

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stands on a disgraceful and dishonest act and an unfulfilled dying request that would have brought absolution for the soul of a King. The time, the object and the place are now obvious to me. Follow the signs dear daughter and they will become apparent to you. But let me first tell you the whole truth.

The day is the year that Tsar Peter the great

founded St Petersburg and Samuel Pepys die

d!

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1 believe 1 have found the location of Our Friend’s safe-deposit box. 1 am so close to solving this mystery.

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1nto Trust or Slaughtered

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1 am sure that this section of the Bayeux Tapestry tells a story which is of great significance to my research

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1 am sure that this section of the Bayeux Tapestry tells a story which is of great significance to my research