A private and special man

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At the Oxfordshire eyre of 1285, a clerk stood up and read out an extraordinary list of charges against one Nicholas of Wantham, a canon of Lincoln. The clerk had been advised by one Robert le Eyr, a servant of the king, who showed to the justices the allegations against Nicholas. It was said that he had:

"...seditiously as a traitor has confederated himself to Guy de Montfort and Amaury his brother, and Llywelyn, formerly prince of Wales, enemy of the lord king; and he has come to the court of the lord king and made a stay in the same court as a private and special man of the aforesaid court; and by plotting and seeking to discover the secrets of the lord king and those things, which he could seek or discover in the same court from the council and secrets of the king..."

Furthermore, Nicholas had sent letters to the king's enemies, namely the Montfort brothers and Prince Llywelyn of Wales. These letters were full to bursting with 'the secrets of the lord king'. Nicholas had allegedly done all these things because he was a confederate of the aforesaid men, and a 'traitor and betrayer of the lord king'.

This was obviously no run-of-the-mill case, and perhaps a welcome change to the justices after the usual round of robberies, assaults and petty crime.  Unfortunately they never got to question Nicholas in person, because he failed to obey the three customary summons to court. He was thus declared an outlaw, whom any man could slay without fear of punishment.

Who was this remarkable spy, who had burrowed his way into the heart of the royal court? We know a little more about him. In 1275 he had represented Countess Eleanor, Simon de Montfort's widow, at the court a few months before her death. On 6 January 1265, at Marlborough, King Edward granted that Nicholas could act as Eleanor's attorney in England in all pleas for and against her. The countess died on 13 April and on 6 June Nicholas was at Westmineter, tidying up his late mistress's affairs. 

Nicholas therefore had close ties to the Montfort family, and was well-placed to spy on affairs at the king's court. This was a dangerous time: England had still not recovered from the scars of civil war, and conflict was brewing between King Edward and Prince Llywelyn. The king suspected the Montforts of seeking to ally with Llywelyn in order to trigger another war in England, while Llywelyn was undermined by enemies in his own realm. This paranoid, hostile atmosphere, with knives glinting in the dark and armies massing on the borders of England and Wales, was fertile ground for spies and double agents.

It seems Nicholas spent several years at the English court, but he eventually aroused suspicion. In October 1279 Eleanor de Montfort, Prince Llywelyn's wife, complained to Edward that he had not allowed Nicholas to execute her mother's will. This implies a lack of trust, though several more years passed before any action was taken against the spy in Edward's midst.

Nicholas is not known to have been captured, and like any clever agent he would have had a bolt-hole prepared in case the worst befell. His eventual fate is unknown. Perhaps he got over to France to join Guy de Montfort in exile, or vanished into the mists of Wales.  Alternatively, he was tracked down by one of Edward's own 'insidiores' - spys/agents - and had his throat cut.