The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory, and Colonialism in the Middle Ages

by Robert Bartlett

Seven hundred years ago, executioners led a Welsh rebel named William Cragh to a wintry hill to be hanged. They placed a noose around his neck, dropped him from the gallows, and later pronounced him dead. But was he dead? While no less than nine eyewitnesses attested to his demise, Cragh later proved to be very much alive, his resurrection attributed to the saintly entreaties of the defunct Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe.



The Hanged Man tells the story of this putative miracle--why it happened, what it meant, and how we know about it. The nine eyewitness accounts live on in the transcripts of de Cantilupe's canonization hearings, and these previously unexamined documents contribute not only to an enthralling mystery, but to an unprecedented glimpse into the day-to-day workings of medieval society.


While unraveling the haunting tale of the hanged man, Robert Bartlett leads us deeply into the world of lords, rebels, churchmen, papal inquisitors, and other individuals living at the time of conflict and conquest in Wales. In the process, he reconstructs voices that others have failed to find. We hear from the lady of the castle where the hanged man was imprisoned, the laborer who watched the execution, the French bishop charged with investigating the case, and scores of other members of the medieval citizenry. Brimming with the intrigue of a detective novel, The Hanged Man will appeal to both scholars of medieval history and general readers alike.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medieval, Medieval History, Religion, Academic, Biography

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Robert Bartlett, CBE, FBA, FRSE is Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Mediaeval History Emeritus at the University of St Andrews.

Reviews

[Jan-Maat]

Of those ninety-eight prisoners condemned to death at the Chatelet of Paris in the years 1389-92, sixty-eight were hanged. Of the others, fourteen were burned, twelve decapitated, three buried alive, and one boiled in a cauldron.

This is a good short little study that starts from one hanging, that of the Welsh rebel William Cragh (or the 'Scabby') who, apparently miraculously, survives his execution. This miracle was investigated by a Papal Commission collecting evidence for the canonisation process of the late Bishop of Hereford, Thomas de Cantilupe, who it was believed had intervened, as a good saint must, to save the man's life.

From this incident the author moves out to discuss the canonisation process, the background of the colonial Welsh-English conflict in the South Wales Marches, the family backgrounds of William de Briouze - the Lord who had Cragh hanged, his wife, who asked her husband to be merciful, prayed to the Saint and took charge of Cragh's recovery, time and memory, as well as hanging as a punishment.

Each of these themes could be expanded into a full sized study - Bartlett explores the colonialism angle on a European scale in The Making of Europe - (and the linguistic boundaries between the French speaking Briouzes and the Welsh speaking Cragh, the bilingual Friar bring From Memory to Written Record to mind) but here they are sketched in enough detail to give a rich interpretation of an ordinary medieval story of rebellion and punishment while keeping the book short.

This book is a fascinating little window on to the past and a great example of how on occasions when there is evidence it can be worked over to illuminate another age.

Bartlett works by taking the story and cracking open the roles, William de Briouze has to seen to be strong and decisive, being a great Lord doesn't give him agency, rather it is a script from which he may on occasion be allowed to improve, similarly his lady wife, was she really personally merciful? What he do know is that the wife of a Great Lord was expected to be merciful and to display kindness and Christian virtues, interceding on behalf of criminals was part of her job description, like wise the saint - saintly intervention to save a man's life was what saint's did it implied no political or legal comment on the injustice or injustice of Welsh rebellion against French speaking Lords bringing in Flemish settlers and English law.

Hanging, literally, was more about display than killing, although death was a desirable side effect (well for some of those involved), unlike in recent times when hanging requires a strict relationship between weight and length of drop and a knotted noose to break the neck, in earlier times one was simply strung up on any more or less suitable looking vertical by anyone - sometimes a co-accused, or a passer-by, and one was left to dangle until death resulted possibly as a result of exposure or thirst. Occasionally the vertical might break, or the victim might survive for long enough that the authorities felt that they had received sufficient punishment and were prepared to accept a plea for mercy (as in this case). Survival naturally was attributed to supernatural intervention which as in this case led to the story being recorded by a canonisation investigation.

A noble on the other hand had the right and expectation of being beheaded which while unfortunately fatal, it was relatively dignified - you didn't get small children pointing at you saying "Mummy! Daddy! Look at the bad man shitting himself! Yuck he stinks! Look at his black face and neck, lets throw stones at him!" While the parents look on and say: "See what happens when you annoy Bill de Briouze, kids, look and learn".

You can now complete the story yourself on a new footpath the St. Thomas Way

[Janet Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally hanged men die. The people who hanged William Cragh twice! in 1289? believed he did. And they had to be right didn’t they? Because how else could he miraculously be returned to life by a dead English Catholic bishop?

Sound like one for a medieval Philip Marlowe? Well maybe.

The way this one played out the plot was on the complicated side, motivations defied belief and the characters and 13th century settings were very well drawn and interesting. And so they should have been.

As cold cases go this one has a huge number of documented descriptions, detailed witness statements and verbatim dialogue. And to help get things into perspective, there’s plenty of background historical detail too. The physical evidence is alas missing. So we are left only with descriptions of the noose that hanged the dead/not dead man which was preserved for a while at the cathedral shrine of the bishop. No trace now of the gallows that collapsed during the first hanging or of the rope that broke when Cragh was strung up for a second time, nor yet the bent silver penny laid on the forehead of the lifeless man or the cord used to measure his body with.

But as the title suggests, the narrative is not focused on the hanged man himself, nor even the rights and wrongs of his case. This is a fascinating account of events that happened seven hundred years ago – when Wales wasn’t happy with English overlordship, Welsh rebels were summarily executed as ‘brigands’ or ‘robbers’ and the rich and powerful – including the church - maintained control.

Read it for its wonderful research and scholarship, Robert Bartlett’s ability to bring those long-ago centuries alive for us and - well – for the sheer joy of discovering it.

[Adam McPhee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really interesting concept: follows a papal investigation into a miracle (part of the canonization process of a saint) with all the attentiveness of court trial. But it fell off a little bit partway through. Like there wasn't enough story there. Hard to follow the dynastic stuff. Still, the first chapter, with the three major witnesses testifying about the Welsh guy being hanged, it was very cinematic stuff.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have an overtly fussy, love/hate relationship with history books because many focus on things that simply don’t grab me. I think this is because I’m interested in political/military/technological history only as it informs the more intimate aspects of people’s lives. Sure, a group of people might have fought in a battle, but I’m more interested in what kind of spoons they used or, whether they used spoons at all. What did they eat? How did they keep clean? How did they greet each other? What was considered private? What was considered dangerous or profane? What was scary? What was comforting? What was tasteful? So Bartlett’s book is right up my alley.

His is a careful examination of documentation generated by an investigation into a supposed miracle in fourteenth century England. Bartlett does a fine job of opening a window into the past on yummy things like how the medieval mind calculated time and distance, established veracity, controlled their emotional environment, and viewed rank, education, and privilege. More importantly, he uncovers why establishing the authenticity of a miracle would be so important to the social, cultural, and political fabric of these people’s lives. In a time when so few could write, the testimony of the witnesses (admittedly diluted because it was transcribed by a cleric, and translated from English/French/Welsh into Latin) is as close as anyone can come to “hearing” a diverse cross section of medieval society “speak”.

Since the medieval Church, catholic and universal, was a well-oiled machine in which mid-to-high ranking clerics were hardcore civil servants, I appreciate how Bartlett demonstrates the order and efficiently of the judicial methodology of the period. This bureaucracy was the legacy of Rome, and served as the glue binding the disparate peoples of medieval Europe together. I am continually dismayed that many practicing and/or lapsed Catholics do not understand the political/judicial machine behind the clerical bling that still exists in the Church today.

In summing up I’d say that I like this book best because I feel like I’ve actually met some of the people described in it. This feeling of intimacy appeals to me. Perhaps someone should write a scratch-and-sniff book on the Middle Ages for experiential folk like me. Though, I fear the scent samples would be a tad too overpowering for my modern, occidental nose.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book recounts the facts around one part of the canonization investigation for Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford: his apparent (posthumous) role in reviving from the dead William Cragh, a Welsh rebel hanged by the local baron. (The hanging probably occurred in 1290; the investigation into it, in 1307.)

For such a delectably lurid story, the book manages to be somewhat uninspired. A chapter on Space and Time, for example, makes some remarks on the ways in which the witnesses gave estimates of distances and durations, but there is little of interest revealed by this survey. Perhaps little could be revealed - I'm suspicious of generalizations about the something-or-other [medieval, oriental, Jewish] mind that are often based on such evidence - but that just goes to show that there's less to be squeezed out of the proceedings than advertised.

One interesting fact I learned was that it was standard medieval practice to round up numerical estimates to even numbers. I imagine this is true today as well and I wonder what the psychological basis for it is (if there is one!).

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating microhistory - the story of a man returning to life after being hanged (twice!) is examined as part of a canonization trial. The interplay between the stories of the different witnesses (more than fifteen years later) is really intriguing. Like any good microhistory, the book uses this event as a point of intersection to talk about a number of important issues. While it is an extremely engaging read in parts, I would say its biggest failing is trying to do too much and losing its focus, which varies from the hanging itself to the canonization hearing to the inquisitors and notaries who managed the hearing. The final "aftermath" chapter, focusing on the later experience of the inquisitors and notaries, bored me - I was hoping to hear about the later life of the hanged man, who was more of a major character through the beginning of the piece. Still, if you're interested in an almost wacky story about a miraculous survival, it's well worth a read.

[Neville Filar · Rating 5 out of 5]

History as it should be written.

The world was so different from ours 800 years ago that without books like this it would not be possible for those with only a casual interest in that period to understand it at all. Reading about battles is one thing, but understanding how the people assessed time and space, for example, gives a much better idea of the way their minds worked. And this book based on the hanging of a poor bloke called William provides more solid information about the period than a whole heap of stories about kings and battles. Recommended.

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros: coverage of memory and legal proceedings to investigate miracles/confirm canonization in the Middle Ages was good. Intro chapter summarizing the hanging and return of William Cragh was really well written.

Cons: repetitive content throughout the last couple of chapters, and also the coverage of colonialism was mostly just “the English colonized Wales and that made legal proceedings difficult bc witnesses didn’t always speak English, French, or Latin.” I would have probably given this 4 stars if there was a deeper dive into the effects of colonialism on memory, beyond landownership and language barriers.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1291 in Gower a Welshman named William Cragh was hanged for murder and arson. After his body was taken down and removed for burial he made an apparently miraculous recovery which was attributed to the intervention of Thomas de Cantilupe, a local bishop who had died nine years earlier. Seventeen years later three papal representatives were sent to Gower to investigate the affair and, in particular, to assess whether it provided evidence that Thomas de Cantilupe should be recognised as a saint. This book examines the proceedings of that investigation and, in doing so, throws light on relations between the English and the Welsh in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as well as on relations between the church and state, and between different social classes.

Some of the most interesting insights it provides centre on the way time and space were thought of in the Middle Ages. We learn, for example, that the passage of time is generally measured in terms of distance rather than hours and minutes. So the amount of time William hung on the gallows was described by one witness as "one German mile" i.e. the amount of time it would take someone to walk a German mile. The date a particular event took place is usually related to religious festivals e.g. "on the eve of Saints Phillip and James" and the year in which it occurred is invariably expressed in terms of a number of "years ago" rather than with reference to the AD system.

For me, the most valuable aspect of the book, however, is what it reveals about the extent of papal power and influence at a time when the struggle between the papacy and the French crown was just beginning to take shape. The papal reach is so ubiquitous.

An illustration of what we can learn about earlier times through the study of original sources, The Hanged Man opens a window on a world that is very different to our own, politically , legally and conceptually.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"In a survey of the population of two parishes in Rheims in 1422, 83 percent of the population gave their age as an even number!" (approach to rounding in medieval era, 62)

"It was an incident like all historical moments: unique, but also an intersection of many paths. Looked at one way, it concerns the colonial subjugation of the Welsh to the English; from another, the relationship within an irritable aristocratic family; and from yet another, the growth of a new saintly cult. We see the late medieval papacy at its most bureaucratic and baroque, scholastic thinkers at their most refined, the mechanics of execution at its most graphic. ... All that remains now is the carefully preserved record of the inquest, drowsing in the Vatican Library, an inquest inspired by the urge to make the dead man, Thomas de Cantilupe, live as a saint; it allows the voices of many dead men, from William de Testa, tax collector and cardinal, to William Cragh, defeated Welsh rebel, to speak again." (141-2)

[Stacy Croushorn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This really should be called "The Canonization of Thomas de Cantilupe". Because that is what this book is all about. The "hanged man" is just one of his miracles that is attributed to him. The author doesn't talk about possible reasons why this man was seemingly dead, but then slowly came alive again. He didn't talk about wounds or medical practice at the time. In fact, very little was said about the "Hanged Man". But a Lu was said about Thomas. That's the main theme of the whole book, Thomas and how he became a saint.

[Candace Gregory-Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story. How have I been a medievalist this long and I have not heard of this story? In 1289 a Welshman was hanged. But he came back to life...supposedly by prayers to Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe. At the canonization trial for de Cantilupe, the story of this miracle is retold. Issues of faith, language, colonization, identity, marriage, and gender: this story has it all.

[Abigail Hartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick, accessible, thoroughly enjoyable cross-section of late-thirteenth/early-fourteenth-century history. I love the easy way in which one narrative -- that of William Cragh, the hanged man saved through the intervention of St Thomas Cantilupe -- is used as a window onto a range of different themes that are often treated in separate genres.

[Miguel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book about our perception and construction of time/space and the frailty (for lack of a better word) of the human memory. Highly recommended.

[Tech Nossomy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A highly readable account of the canonization process of bishop Thomas de Cantilupe (1218-1282) from Hereford - situated in the English-Welsh border region - through whose mythical intervention a "notorious brigand" named William Cragh purportedly survived his own hanging. This miracle (part 1 of the subtitle) lead to an inquiry as to whether bishop Thomas, who himself had already died a few years before the hanging, should be canonised. The inquiry, which forms the basis of the canonisation process, is discussed at length in the book and relies chiefly on verbal accounts, as witnesses were mostly illiterate and printed books could not have been used, and therefore the frailty of memory (part 2 of the subtitle) complicates the proceedings. Also because Roman law and canon law were drafted in Latin and French, the English speaking and Welsh speaking witness accounts had to be translated, and some of them - as becomes gradually clear in the text - were nuanced to better align with the views of the land-owning classes (part 3 of the subtitle).

As for William Cragh himself, he was reportedly seen going in exile to the Holy Land by some and leading a subordinate farmer's life by others for 10 more years.

Writing style is matter-of-factly, rarely suggestive, past tense throughout and void of sensationalism. The map with relevant place names (albeit Hereford, 120km north-east of Swansea not shown) and a few family trees are included. The text relies on records held at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Vatican City, and is therefore a good example of history from below.

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1289 William Cragh, a Welshman who notoriously rebelled against his Norman Marcher Lord William de Briouze and King Edward I of England was hanged along with Trahaern ap Hywl. Both were hung from a crossbeam in the public square in Swansea Wales in front of a crowd of onlookers who observed their execution. Both were pronounced dead and their bodies taken away.

Trahaern ap Hywl remained dead, but several days later the dead body of William Cragh, who after being taken from the gallows with a protruding tongue, blood red eyes hanging out of their sockets, a swollen face with blood coming out of his mouth and nose, began to move his foot. A bit later William sat up and began to breathe. It was a miracle.

In 1307 the pope convened an inquiry into this miraculous resurrection. The widow of William de Briouze was convinced that Cragh had been brought back to life by the intervention of the deceased Bishop Thomas de Cantilupe. The question the inquiry needed to answer was should Thomas de Cantilupe be made a saint. A record of the proceedings including the testimony given by witnesses, including Cragh himself, of his hanging, death and return to life.

This evidence and other historical sources have given historian Bartlett the material to write this fascinating book on the times, the politics and the biographical information to tell the reader all that happened in the hanging, the canonization process and the lives of everyone known to be involved in these proceedings, as well as the politics and criminal punishment of the time.

[Jake Kazmierczak · Rating 2 out of 5]

A review by Byron Rogers of “Spectator” says that “Bartlett’s 168 pages are... more readable than most thrillers...”. I beg to differ... Was interesting though and I learned a bit about execution mechanics and process of the 12th century and earlier so hey it was worth it I guess.

[AID∴N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though compact, this micro-history is one of the most thorough and far-reaching surveys of the medieval mind I have ever read. It's a shame it is not more readily available, since it would be a far better introduction to the Middle Ages than many existing textbooks.

[rameau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical thriller and better yet, it's true.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best history books I have read. Absolutely fascinating account of the case of William Cragh that delves deeply into the lives of all involved. Detailed and compulsive reading.

[Stephen Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent tour of medieval life

Excellent guided walk through all the aspects of the miracle involving William Cragh and the canonization of Thomas de Cantilupe.