BOTREAUX, Sir Ralph

More of interest can be added to the earlier biography,3 The Commons 1386-1421, ii. 313-14. including the most dramatic incident of Botreaux’s career. This was his abortive bid to secure the family barony by the murder of his nephew, William, 3rd Lord Botreaux, with the aid of black magic. Although the incantations of Sir Ralph’s hired necromancers had proved ineffective, word of the plot reached Lord Botreaux, and, following his petition to the King’s council, in August 1426 a commission of inquiry headed by the royal justices William Cheyne and John Juyn was appointed to investigate the activities of John Alwode, Hugh Bowode and John Neuport, who were ‘said to practise soothsaying, necromancy and art magic’.4 SC8/35/1717; CPR, 1422-9, p. 363. As a result of their inquiries, Sir Ralph was arrested and placed in the Tower of London, from which he was only released at the end of October after he had found sureties of £1,000. Even while in the Tower, however, he took steps to cover his tracks, and before long the necromancer Neuport’s battered body was discovered by the sea-shore near Tintagel in northern Cornwall. An inquest led to the arrest of a number of individuals and in the second half of 1431 several of these agreed to turn approvers. The coroners who came to take their statements garnered a crop of stories which were as peculiar as they were dramatic. Nicholas Hody, a gentleman from Trewynnek, claimed that on a Sunday in mid October 1426 he had been instructed by Sir Ralph, then in London (probably either still in the Tower or newly released), to see to it that Neuport disappeared without trace, so that he should never disclose Botreaux’s guilty secrets to anybody. On receipt of these instructions, Hody had returned to Cornwall, where he had handed Neuport over to two of his minions, Walter Truscote and John Deacon, and ordered them to take him to the shore and kill him, which they had done. Hearing that Neuport was dead, Hody had then immediately ridden back to London to impart the news to Sir Ralph, who had suddenly shown remorse, declared himself fearful that the murder might be discovered, and sent a woman called Isabella to the Charterhouse to have mass said for Neuport’s soul.5 KB9/226/82.

By October 1431, Truscote had also been apprehended and imprisoned, and turned approver. He admitted to having murdered Neuport, but implicated a string of other men in the felony. He said that Neuport had first come to Pylle in Cornwall with Botreaux and one William Kelly (also known as Nanskelly or Lankelly) around Pentecost 1426, and it was then that he had promised to kill Lord Botreaux by various conjurations. This he had failed to do, and the disappointed Sir Ralph had wanted him killed so that he might not reveal his part in the conspiracy. In September one John Vuet, yeoman of Trevery, and Thomas Mersh, the parker of Restormel, had intended to kill Neuport at Restormel, but being fearful of discovery had instead handed him over to Truscote and Deacon to take to Nicholas Hody at Trewynnek. Hody had then kept Neuport in custody until 27 Oct., when he had ordered them to take him to the shore and kill him, which they had done.6 KB9/226/83, 94. Mersh for his part pleaded not guilty to Neuport’s murder. He agreed with Truscote that the murdered man had first come to Pylle in the company of Botreaux’s servant Kelly, and from there had been taken to Restormel by Vuet, who was then keeper of the park there. Around Pentecost 1426 Sir Ralph had summoned Mersh to come to him at Pylle, and on arrival Mersh had found him in bed. Botreaux had told him that he required him to take a certain item from his house, and if he would agree to do so, he would tell him where that thing was; furthermore, he instructed Mersh to deliver the keys of Restormel castle to Kelly and an associate. These two had duly entered the castle where they had remained for the following two days, and then, carrying candles and fire they had walked to the eastern part of the park and there marked out a circle on the ground, in which they had made a fire so great that it could be seen for three miles. Sir Ralph had forbidden Mersh to go out into the park on pain of death, for which reason he and Vuet had left Restormel on the road from Lostwithiel to Bodmin. That night, when Kelly and his associate were engaged in the park in their dubious activities, one John Pruwet, a prisoner held in the stocks there was visited by a devil which departed through the window with a great clap of thunder when Pruwet blessed himself. The following day Kelly asked Pruwet whether he had seen or heard anything in the night, but when told of the night’s events merely laughed the story off. Afterwards, Sir Ralph was arrested at Pylle and taken to London by a royal serjeant-at-arms. Subsequently, Mersh had been privy to discussions over Neuport’s fate between Hody and Vuet, and had witnessed the necromancer’s removal by Truscote and Deacon. An inquiry by jury served to exonerate Mersh, who was subsequently set free.7 KB9/226/84; KB145/6/11; H. Kleineke, ‘Poachers and Gamekeepers’, in Outlaws ed. Appleby and Dalton, 142-5. By contrast, Botreaux, in early 1433, had to suffer the ignominy of being led to the bar of the court of King’s bench by the marshal of the court to answer Truscote’s allegations. He had to wait for several months until he was finally cleared by a jury, only to see his accuser escape the full penalties of the law by successfully pleading benefit of clergy.8 KB27/687, rex rot. 8.

Although Botreaux’s attempt to remove his nephew by black magic was an extraordinary incident in his career, it was not his only brush with the law. Not long before his service in France in 1420 the Devon lawyer John Jaybien† had accused him of violently expelling him from his property at Liskeard and elsewhere in Cornwall in collusion with Richard Hervy* and others, and a later dispute with John Colys* and his son over a holding in Liskeard may have concerned part of the same property.9 C1/5/193; JUST1/1540, rot. 92d. Another dispute in these years saw Sir Ralph’s possession of the manor of Bewick in Yorkshire challenged by his stepson, Sir Richard Hastings*, who had taken his mother (Botreaux’s wife) into his custody.10 C1/6/38. In other quarters, however, Botreaux commanded a good deal of respect. In 1422-3 the citizens of Exeter sent him a gift of four gallons of wine, and in March 1430 he headed the list of laymen witnessing a deed in the chapter house of Launceston priory.11 Devon RO, Exeter city recs., receiver’s acct. 1-2 Hen. VI, m. 2; Cornw. RO, Liskeard bor. recs., B/Lis/79.

The execution of Botreaux’s will was entrusted to his brother and legitimate heir, John.12 CP40/700, rots. 435, 435d. It seems to have been a different Ralph Botreaux who was the father of the Wilton MP William Botreaux II*: Wilts. Hist. Centre, Salisbury Domesday bk. 3, G23/1/215, f. 12v.