A Murder in Medieval Oxford
On the evening of Wednesday, August 1st 1298, after a dinner organised for the Exeter College choir, student of theology, Michael Arbold, snuck out of college with a group of friends and headed in the direction of The Bear Inn. The following day, the coroner’s report would confirm that a fellow student, Jonathan Fringe, had stabbed Michael in the stomach with the spear tip of a poleaxe, forced the boy to his knees, then buried the axe in Michael’s skull, discarding his brains over the pavement.
The dinner at Exeter College had been hosted by the founder and president, Walter Stapledon, Bishop of Exeter. Five of the choir were to be awarded full scholarships. The scholarships included funds that would cover the entirety of their studies at Exeter. Who these lucky individuals were, Stapledon would keep undisclosed until the end of the meal.
Michael Arbold was a small boy just turning sixteen. His meek demeanour was often mistaken for insecurity by his peers, and he was routinely overlooked as any threat to others’ claims on college titles or awards. He completed his assignments with diligence and humility, often – it was noted to the authorities by his tutors – working many more hours than his colleagues to achieve similar results.
It therefore came as something of a shock for some – and the cause of quiet fury for others – when Michael was awarded one of Walter Stapledon’s scholarships. Michael’s was actually the first name to be read aloud in the dining hall and a number of students expressed their surprise as a series of gasps. Others expressed their vexation with expletives, That bugger, Arbold? … A pox on that piss turd!
Bishop Stapledon stopped reading the names at this point, immediately sending two of the offenders from the dining room, one of whom was Jonathan Fringe.
The dismissal of these two students by Stapledon was doubly insulting, as it not only denied the pair after-dinner mints and wine, but also broadcasted their lack of a scholarship.
This missed opportunity for a scholarship had significant implications for students in late-13th early-14th century Oxford. Given that the majority of courses were self-funded and the length of study lasted between five to eight years, scholarships were a source of desire and envy.
Following the meal, Michael Arbold found himself in a novel situation. He and the other four scholars were royally applauded and, possibly for the first time in his life, Michael was the centre of overwhelming positive attention. Goblets of wine were raised in his and the other scholars’ honour. After Stapledon had left the dining hall to admonish Jonathan Fringe and the other outspoken boy, chocolate mints were tossed from one end of the hall to the other and caught in students’ mouths. The students stood on the tables and upturned whole bottles of wine down one another’s gullets. Michael was very much a part of this celebratory chaos and it must have been a rare moment of enjoyment for him. A statement from his mother attested to this. He was a quiet boy, she said, very kind. He would have loved these final moments.
The punishment of Jonathan Fringe and the other boy who had insulted Michael was severe. After leaving the dining room, Bishop Stapledon found the pair waiting outside in the front quadrangle. Both students were fined and forced to rusticate for a period of two months until the end of term. They could begin studies anew after the university break.
Rustication is still practiced at Oxford today. It involves a student taking time out from studies – usually a year – involuntarily due to misbehaviour, or voluntarily due to stress or other work-related troubles. For the rustication period, the student is sent home and allowed to return after a time of reflection and reformation.
Stapledon encouraged the two boys to continue their readings whilst away so as to be on good academic standing upon their return. It was the fine, however, that most frustrated Jonathan Fringe; the combination of being penalised financially and his victim being simultaneously rewarded. Stapledon sent the boys back to their rooms and advised they leave for home in the morning. The second of the pair, whose name escapes the record, did just this. Fringe went a different way.
That evening, Michael uncharacteristically snuck out of college after curfew with a small group of other Exeter students, two of whom were also scholarship beneficiaries. In doing so, the boys were breaking possibly the most serious of college rules. After curfew, Oxford colleges were like prisons. Their tall walls and gated entrance ways made it incredibly difficult to leave at night and even more difficult to return after dark. For the most part, students would have to wait until morning and attempt to sneak back in unnoticed.
Michael and his new friends drank in his room for a couple of hours following dinner, and then decided to make an escape through his second-floor window. Using a drainpipe, they descended onto the street below and sprinted off into the night. Jonathan Fringe had heard the activity in Michael’s room and had decided to loiter in the corridor outside. When the noises ceased, he investigated, entering Michael’s room to find it empty. Jonathan initially returned to the other boy who had been kicked out of the dining hall and suggested that they inform Stapledon. This would surely result in a severe punishment and most likely a reconsideration of their scholarships. The second boy wasn’t interested in Fringe’s plan, so, after some failed attempts at swaying the other boy, Fringe returned to Michael’s room. There he sat for a relatively long time, looking through Michael’s things – his books, his drawers, his clothes. During this nonchalant but thorough inspection of the room, Jonathan found a tightly bound bundle of letters from Michael’s mother, which he opened and read, discarding them torn and misarranged onto the floor. He also found an envelope with some money amounting to a few pennies, which he swiftly pocketed. It is also noted that he finished the two bottles of college wine that the boys had taken with them after dinner. Jonathan also tried on Michael’s clothes. When he later decided to leave college via the same window used by the other boys, he was wearing a pair of Michael’s shoes and his coat. He was wearing the items when the murder was committed.
From here, the group and Jonathan went in completely opposite directions. Jonathan headed west down what is now George Street – then named Irishman’s Street – towards the Hythe Bridge which passes over Castle Mill Stream, a large tributary feeding into the River Thames on its journey through Oxford to London. Reports state that Fringe provided little explanation as to why he went in this direction. He later traced his steps back, returning to the centre of town, where he met Barnaby Housen, a local petty criminal known by many at the university for providing arms and illicit substances.
Before meeting this ruffian, however, on his aimless walk westward through the city, an altercation took place that no doubt contributed to Jonathan Fringe’s deepening frustration. Two eyewitnesses recalled a student harassing a prostitute on Hythe Bridge. Consorting with women of the night was strictly forbidden by university authorities, who sought to regulate it through the introduction of prohibited zones that kept the illicit business away from colleges. However, the presence of large numbers of all-male students in the city, many of whom were away from home for the first time, contributed greatly to a demand for such services. It was perhaps for this reason that Fringe went westward that evening, away from the prying eyes of college authorities; an attempt to distract himself from his growing troubles.
What transpired on Hythe Bridge would only further torment Jonathan Fringe’s already delicate mental state. The two eyewitnesses recalled him grabbing a prostitute on the bridge who had rejected his advances. Desperately trying to resist the aggressive and intoxicated young man, she cried out. Moments later another man appeared on the bridge, the co-owner of a nearby brothel. He had been concealed in the darkness below the bridge beside the stretch of water. After shoving Jonathan off the woman, the man proceeded to beat the student heavily with a stick and then pressed him against the low wall running along the bridge, gripped him by the ankles and hurled him over. Jonathan Fringe tumbled down and smacked the water. Unable to swim and in a daze from alcohol and the water’s impact, Jonathan only escaped death by drowning due to the assistance of a passerby who had seen and rescued him.
All the while, on the other side of town, Michael Arbold and his group were enjoying one another’s company at The Bear Inn, now considered one of the oldest pubs in England. Today, seven centuries later, the pub’s low dark oak ceiling beams and tight seating reflect its medieval origins. A collection of neckties, donated by students and embossed with a variety of university insignias, now line the walls and ceilings.
In Medieval Oxford, pubs like The Bear Inn were asked to report the presence of students to college authorities, but this was a challenging task for pub workers and owners; identifying and then attaching students to a specific college was difficult. Furthermore, given that students were a crucial source of income for drinking holes, owners were incentivised to turn a blind eye. And in the late evening of Wednesday, 1st August 1298, they did just this.
Michael and the group drank around a table in the front area of the bar, before exiting and continuing their drinking on the street outside. A number of locals were out, many later confirming the presence of the Exeter students. They didn’t have a bad word to say about the boys’ behaviour. They were raucous, but polite.
As midnight approached, a steaming and sodden Jonathan Fringe made his way back to the centre of town where he met Barnaby Housen on St Mildreds Lane, now Brasenose Lane, a narrow alley running behind Exeter College and Lincoln College connecting Radcliffe Square with Turl Street. During his hearing, Jonathan argued that his acquisition of the poleaxe was a premeditated decision only in that he had desired such a weapon for his own protection and, to paraphrase the records, to swing around my room during periods of tedium.
Concealing the weapon within Michael’s coat, Jonathan Fringe then spent a considerable length of time roaming the city, primarily the streets surrounding Exeter College. Someone reported seeing a student sitting outside Balliol College looking up and down Canditch, now Broad Street, with a certain intent in his eyes. A barman reported a student purchasing two large bottles of wine from his tavern near Smith Gate, now the area beneath the Bridge of Sighs. A third witness claims he saw a student bent double in the street behind Durham College gardens, now Trinity, retching and vomiting. These two final sightings of the accused occurred in close proximity to the murder site, suggesting that Jonathan was deliberately lingering in an area where Michael and the others would most likely pass through on their way back to college.
Michael was alone when he was attacked. His group of new friends had left The Bear Inn earlier than he, Michael choosing to stay a while longer to enjoy the company of the townspeople. Jonathan most likely saw the group returning from the pub without Michael and concealed himself from view. Jonathan Fringe testified that he had no plan for what to do when Michael eventually appeared. He claimed that his only intention was to intimidate him.
About an hour later, Michael appeared at the end of what is now Broad Street. Jonathan Fringe stated that Michael was very intoxicated, perhaps more than he. To begin with, Michael started off in the wrong direction, away from Exeter, down what is today, Parks Road. Then, remembering himself, he turned and made his way back towards Exeter. A strife of words took place on the crossroads. Even in his drunken state, Michael immediately recognised the coat and shoes that Jonathan had taken from his room. When Michael lunged to grab the coat to check that it was indeed his, Jonathan drew back, opening a lapel and revealing the poleaxe. He first stabbed Michael in the stomach with the spear tip, forcing the boy to his knees, then brought the axe around and swung the head with all his might into Michael’s skull. The blade pierced him just above the nape, half decapitating him and discarding his brains over the pavement. Jonathan, in a panic, then concealed the axe in a drain along what is now Holywell Street and returned to college the same way he had come. Michael’s friends had left the bedroom window open to allow for his safe return.
There was an immediate inquest the next morning. Jonathan confessed to the crime and was imprisoned, later escaping and seeking sanctuary in a church on the outskirts of Oxford. Jonathan then abjured the realm of England, a fascinating practice in medieval times whereby, having confessed to his crimes, a criminal gave up his rights as a citizen and left the country.
Fringe was therefore obliged to leave for foreign lands on the first available vessel. If he attempted to remain in England or left the predefined route out of the country, he would be condemned to death. Jonathan Fringe journeyed to France where all records of his existence end.
The murder described in this story is fictional although very similar to the kinds of murders taking place in Oxford at the time. Details relating to historical figures such as the Bishop of Exeter, and information relaying college formalities and norms, have been altered to fit the narrative. My story aims to capture the violence of medieval Oxford, where, as highlighted by Sam Knight in his New Yorker article on the subject (‘Medieval Oxford’s Murder Problem’), the city once had a murder rate three times higher than that of London during the same period.