A Play of Treachery
Page 32
The detailed examination of the murder victim’s body is not an anachronism. Medieval coroners were advised not only to make close observation of crime scenes but of wounds and any other circumstances around a murder that would give details toward understanding what had happened. In fact, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word investigation was used as early as 1436 in the sense of “making search or inquiry, systematic examination, careful and minute search.”
On a minor note, the university at Caen, mentioned in Chapter 13, was indeed founded by John, duke of Bedford, and still exists, the one thing that has lasted from his long struggle to bring peace and return prosperity to war-destroyed Normandy.
As for what came of the scandal-marriage between the duchess of Bedford and Sir Richard Wydeville—or Woodville, as it is often spelled now—first was a heavy fine to the English government for marrying without permission, then at least thirteen children, and eventually a secret, royal marriage that made their eldest daughter queen of England, a grandson briefly king of England, a grand-daughter queen to the first of the Tudor kings, and a great-grandchild into King Henry VIII.