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Revision as of 10:42, 26 November 2010 by Pyrotec (talk | contribs) (minor expansion of Lead)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)William Cragh (born c. 1245), or William the Scabby (cragh means "scabby" in Welsh) was a medieval Welsh warrior and ally of Rhys ap Maredudd, lord of the lands of Ystrad Tywi, in his rebellion against King Edward I of England. Cragh ravaged lands belonging to William de Briouze, the Anglo-Norman Lord of Gower. Captured in 1290 by William de Briouze junior, he was tried and found guilty of having killed 13 men; he was hanged twice, as the gallows collapsed, just outside Swansea, within sight of de Briouze's Swansea Castle. Lady Mary de Briouze, wife of the elder William de Briouze, decided for reasons unknown to intercede on Cragh's behalf. She prayed to the deceased Bishop of Hereford, Thomas de Cantilupe, asking him to ask God to bring Cragh back from the dead. Cragh began to show signs of life the day after his execution and over the subsequent few weeks made a full recovery, living for at least another 18 years.
The main source for Cragh's story is the record of the investigation into the canonisation of Thomas de Cantilupe, which is held in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Cragh's resurrection was one of 38 miracles presented to the papal commissioners who in 1307 were charged with examining the evidence of Cantilupe's saintliness. The hanged man himself gave evidence to the papal commissioners, after which he disappears from the historical record. Cantilupe was formally canonised by Pope John XXII on 17 April 1320.
Background
Between 1282 and 1283, King Edward I of England waged a military campaign in Wales that concluded with his annexation of that country. One of Edward's allies, Rhys ap Maredudd, descended from an ancient line of Welsh princes, found the post-war settlement "not to his liking", and launched a rebellion against the king in 1287. Edward's vastly superior forces soon crushed the uprising, but Rhys ap Maredudd remained at liberty until 1292, when he was captured and executed. William Cragh is believed to have taken part in the rebellion in support of Rhys ap Maredudd. Cragh was captured in 1290 by the son of William de Briouze, the Lord of Gower, who was guarding his father's lands against depradations by the rebels still at large. Cragh was taken to Swansea Castle, where he was held in the dungeons awaiting trial, accused of killing 13 men.
The law in Wales at that time permitted condemned men to atone for their crimes by making a payment to their victims. Cragh's friends and relatives rallied round to offer 100 cows to de Briouze for his release, but the offer was refused. Although he denied the charges against him, Cragh was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged.
Execution
Cragh was hanged on a hill about a quarter of a mile (400 m) outside Swansea, in sight of de Briouze's Swansea Castle, on Monday 27 November 1290. He was executed along with another "malefactor", Trahaern ap Hywel; although the latter was dealt with by the town executioner, Cragh was hanged by one of his own relatives, Ythel Fachan, who was forced into that service by de Briouze. The execution took place early in the morning, and the two men were left swinging from the gallows. Early in the afternoon news reached the castle that the gallows had collapsed, and that the two men had fallen to the ground, both of them dead. De Briouze ordered that Trahaern ap Hywel should be buried, but that Cragh was to be hanged again as he was "a very famous and public malefactor", which was duly done. John of Baggenham, who was in charge of the execution, reported that he cut down Cragh's body at about 4:00 pm and sent it into the town at the request of William de Briouze's wife, Lady Mary.
The de Briouze family chaplain, William of Codiston, had not been present at the execution, but he reported that he had heard that Cragh was still breathing when the gallows collapsed, and that some time after he had been hanged for the second time the rope had broken. Cragh's body was taken to a house in Swansea, which the younger William de Briouze visited that evening to view the corpse. What he saw convinced him that Cragh was dead.
His face was black and in parts bloody or stained with blood. His eyes had come out of their sockets and hung outside the eyelids and the sockets were filled with blood. His mouth, neck, and throat and the parts around them, and also his nostrils, were filled with blood, so that it was impossible in the natural course of things for him to breathe ... his tongue hung out of his mouth, the length of a man's finger, and it was completely black and swollen and as thick with the blood sticking to it that it seemed the size of a man's two fists together.
Resurrection
Historian Robert Bartlett has commented that "one of the largest uncertainties in the whole story of the death and resurrection of William Cragh is why Lady Mary interceded for him", but intercede she did. John of Baggeham, when questioned about her motivation 18 years after the event, could only reply that "Lady Mary had sought the body of this William, he did not know why". Thomas de Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, died in Italy on 25 August 1282; his flesh was buried in that country after having been boiled from his bones, which were taken back to England. Cantilupe's tomb at Hereford Cathedral soon became the centre of a "pilgrim cult", and miracles began to be attributed him. Lady Mary had "a special devotion" to the bishop, and on hearing of Cragh's death, "on bended knee, she asked Saint Thomas de Cantilupe to ask God to restore life to William Cragh". She then sent one of her ladies-in-waiting to measure Cragh's body with a length of thread. The measurement implied a promise to offer to the saint a candle the length of the person on whose behalf the saint was being asked to intercede should the intercession be successful, a common practice during the medieval period.
Cragh's recovery began the day after his hanging, but it was some time – one witness said 15 days – before he was able once again to stand on his feet. That he did not recover more quickly cast doubt on the validity of the miracle, as miracles were supposed to be immediate, but "partial miracles" could be explained by the "lukewarm faith of those who had made the vow". Once sufficiently recovered, Cragh was summoned to appear at Swansea Castle, before Lord and Lady Briouze. The chaplain, William of Codiston, was also present. Cragh explained, "with great fear and trepidation", that as he was being taken to the gallows he prayed to Thomas of Cantilupe to save him. His fear, according to the chaplain, resulted from his concern that he might be hanged again, and he had good reason to be worried. Although those who survived their execution were usually pardoned, it was not unknown for them to be hanged again. Between the time of his hanging and his appearance at the castle Cragh may have convinced himself that he had been saved by Cantilupe, or he may simply have decided that it would be prudent for him to go along with the story for his own safety. Cragh went on to claim that as he was hanging from the gallows a bishop dressed all in white appeared, and saved him either by supporting his feet or by replacing his tongue in his mouth, although he did not identify the bishop in his vision as Thomas de Cantilupe.
Once Cragh's recovery was complete he undertook a pilgrimage to Hereford, accompanied by Lord and Lady Briouze, to thank Cantilupe for restoring his life. He walked barefoot on the three-day trip, wearing the rope he had been hanged with around his neck. The rope was left at Cantilupe's shrine, after which Cragh said that he would make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, although there is some doubt as to whether he even left Wales before his death. Historian Jussi Hanska has suggested that Cragh may have invented the story of his pilgrimage to escape from his companions.
Papal investigation
Richard Swinefield, Cantilupe's successor as Bishop of Hereford, wrote to Pope Nicholas IV in a letter dated 19 April 1290 proposing the bishop for canonisation, but it was not until 1307 that an investigation into Cantilupe's saintliness was initiated by Pope Clement V. Crucial to the canonisation process was to gather evidence of miracles that Cantilupe had performed since his death, one of which was that William Cragh had been brought back from the dead by the bishop's intercession. Three papal commissioners were appointed to conduct the inquiry: William de Testa, a papal tax collector in England, Ralph Baldock, Bishop of London, and William Durand the Younger, Bishop of Mende.
The commissioners heard evidence from nine witnesses to Cragh's execution, including the hanged man himself. Cragh, who had been thought to have died of natural causes in 1305, told the commission that he believed he was about 45 at the time of his hanging, and that his last conscious memory as he was dangling at the end of the rope was of the noise made by the crowd when Trahaern was hanged beside him. When questioned Cragh denied his earlier story of having seen a vision of a white-clad bishop while he was hanging on the gallows. Instead, he claimed that the Virgin Mary had appeared to him on the morning of his execution, accompanied by "a lordly figure" she introduced as "St Thomas", and who she said would save Cragh from the gallows. Under questioning Cragh said that he presumed the figure to be Cantilupe because he had been on pilgrimage to Cantilupe's shrine in Hereford, and because on the day of his imprisonment he had "bent a penny ... to the honour of Saint Thomas so that he should liberate him". After hearing his testimony the commissioners physically examined Cragh, to confirm that he was indeed the man who had been hanged 18 years earlier. Although they found no marks around his neck, they did discover some scarring on his tongue, according to Cragh caused by him having bitten it while hanging.
Aftermath
Cragh disappears from the historical record after his testimony to the papal commission in 1307. Thirty-eight posthumous miracles attributed to Thomas de Cantilupe were examined by the papal commission and submitted for consideration by the pope and his advisors. Twelve were rejected after further analysis, including William Cragh's resurrection. Pope John XXII formally announced Cantilupe's canonisation on 17 April 1320, thirty-eight years after the new saint's death.
References
- Notes
- Historian Jussi Hanska gives the date as 12 November 1291, but a contemporary account written by the canons of Hereford states that the de Briouze party, which included the resurrected William Cragh, ended their pilgrimage to Cantilupe's shrine on 2 December 1290.
- Witness accounts vary; Lady Mary and the chaplain reported that the bishop supported Cragh's feet, but the younger William de Briouze said that the bishop put Cragh's tongue back in his mouth. The story of a hanged man being supported by his feet on the gallows by a saint was a well-known one in medieval times. It originated in William of Malmesbury's collection of miracles attributed to the Virgin Mary, written some time during the early 12th century.
- Foototes
- Keen, Maurice (5 August 2004), "Why did Lady Mary care about William Cragh?", London Review of Books, 26 (6), retrieved 3 August 2004
{{citation}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=and|date=(help) - Bartlett 2004, p. 143
- Bartlett 2004, pp. 4–5
- ^ Hanska, Jussi (2001), "The hanging of William Cragh: anatomy of a miracle", Journal of Medieval History (21): 121–138
- Bartlett 2004, p. 67
- Bartlett 2004, p. 59
- Bartlett 2004, p. 57
- Bartlett 2004, p. 5
- Bartlett 2004, pp. 40–41
- Bartlett 2004, pp. 5–6
- Bartlett 2004, p. 6
- Bartlett 2004, p. 102
- Bartlett 2004, p. 103
- Bartlett 2004, pp. 117–118
- Bartlett 2004, pp. 7–9
- ^ Bartlett 2004, p. 10
- Bartlett 2004, p. 11
- Bartlett 2004, p. 1
- Bartlett 2004, p. 54
- ^ Bartlett 2004, pp. 26–27
- Bartlett 2004, pp. 120–123
- Bibliography
- Bartlett, Robert (2004), The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory, and Colonialism in the Middle Ages, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-11719-5