There is no sign of Creech Castle now but it did exist and it was the scene of great pain especially in the case of two innocent young women.
There is no sign of Creech Castle now but it did exist and it was the scene of great pain especially in the case of two innocent young women. The first story took place in the year 1154AD.
His Grace, the Bishop sweeps into the chamber of the Lord Lieutenant of the county.
“My Lord, you need to move against the Widow Wycombe. She is mixing with low born women and speaking to them of property rights and saying that they must have the right to refuse their husbands in their natural desires”.
The Lord Lieutenant sits behind his oak desk.
“Your Grace, she is the widow of Sir John Wycombe and the richest woman in the county. I cannot move against such a woman without grounds most firm”.
The bishop was not to be deterred.
“Tis said, My Lord, that the woman is a witch who bewitched her husband and did then poison him to death. She must not be suffered to live and, were she to die, her lands would, of course, come to your Lordship’s royal estate."
The Royal official took this little speech most seriously.
“Very well. I shall send soldiers to deliver her unto your inquisitors but I must have a full confession to nail in view of all upon the church door. I need your promise that she shall not expire before giving us a full confession of all her witchery”.
Her ladyship was seated at her mirror with a servant brushing her long, blonde hair when she heard a great noise outside her chamber door. The door burst open and a troop of soldiers entered the room and advanced upon her. Immediately she was grabbed and twisted so that her elbows could be bound most tightly behind her back and then heavy irons set around her slim and delicate wrists.
The captain of the guard had been warned that he was arresting a witch and he could not permit her to speak out any magic spells to defend herself so he moved towards her while holding out the choke pear. Her dignity did not falter.
“That device you know full well is for low born gossips and you shall not bring it near to me”.
The captain, in fear of what she might do to him, struck her upon the nose causing blood to flow and, when her ladyship did open her mouth to cry out, he thrust the iron device into her mouth and turned the screw so that it expanded and could not be withdrawn from her.
To her great anguish, she felt common soldiers lifting the hem of her gown and fitting shackles to her ankles. The captain drew his dagger and, inserting it into the neckline of her gown, he dragged it downwards rending her clothing asunder.
Knickers would not be invented until many hundreds of years later so, in these times, women depended upon multiple layers of underskirts to protect their decency. With these being cut away, her ladyship was fully and most indecently exposed. It was in this state that she was dragged through her own castle and out into the castle yard where waited an open cart to receive her. A castle yard is a bustling place, the domain of blacksmiths, carpenters and all manner of trades. In full view of all such common folk the Lady of the Manor was thrown into the cart and taken into the town.
A noose was thrown over an oak tree adjacent to a tavern and the rope placed around her neck then pulled upwards so that the tips of her toes did just touch the ground and there she was left in painful and humiliating distress. If she stretched upwards to protect her neck, she found her feet and legs cramped most agonizingly but, if she set her feet full upon the ground, the rope cut into her throat choking her.
The poor lady was left in this distress until cock crow the next morning when she was taken down and, barely aware, carried into the basements of her inquisitors.
They asked her to confess to her witchcraft but she spat in their faces whereupon her torments did begin. She was hoisted high aloft on chains and then allowed to fall suddenly so that her arms were wrenched from their sockets and then she was secured down onto a cartwheel and her limbs were broken by hammers. Hot irons seared her flesh and the torturer’s blades sliced, one slice at a time, from her breasts. Those same cruel blades tore away her secret lips but not one word of a confession was wrung from her cracked and parched mouth.
The bishop’s promise was not kept and her ladyship did succumb to her injuries and pass from this world and unto the next but, if you go to where Creech Castle once stood, you can sometimes still hear her sighs and pale cries against a moonless night.
This tale was told to me by my mistress, Lotus who, herself, is a lady of complicated origins and who assures me that she is the spawn of that former tormented and wronged lady and it was of this same line that issued forth our next heroine.
Creech Castle in 1589 was a thriving community ruled over by the benevolent Earl of Purbeck who lived at the castle with his fair daughter the Lady Kathryn who had seen but nineteen summers. The Earl was of a Catholic family but he was a trusted and valuable servant to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and his castle was so remote from London as to be left untouched by agents of the Protestant state.
In June that year the Earl brought into the household the young and handsome Father Generous Balls to tutor and oversee the spiritual welfare of Lady Kathryn and when she first saw the man, Her Ladyship experienced a violent flutter in her heart and a distinct and shameful arousal within her most private part of which she knew she could never ever speak. Such was the state of Her Ladyship’s reaction to this tall and fair man that, when she tried to speak, there came a catch in her throat.
It was natural that the pair spent much time alone in her chamber as he instructed her not only in her faith but also in matters of literature, language and history. They would sit side by side at her desk as he leaned over to point out parts of text in her books and she would feel his gentle breath upon her delicate ear. Conversation flowed easily between them and Her Ladyship even made so bold as to commiserate with him at the iniquity of the celibacy which his calling imposed upon him.
The priest could not fail to be aware of the obvious charms of his student any more than he could fail to notice the fine swelling of her bust leading down to the inviting darkness of the cleavage above her gown. As time went on, it became natural for his arm to go around her slim body as he comforted her in her frustration at not grasping some point of a lesson. And she would raise her head and deliver a chaste and girlish peck on his cheek or his chin.
But nature will not be held in check and things must perforce progress. Between lessons they would recline on her bed side by side while her mind cleared of one lesson before the next began. Hands, of their own accord, would rest on the other’s body feeling the gentle rise and fall of breathing and then Nature let forth its own urgency. At first, they would court, fully dressed upon the coverlet of her bed but then garments were shed one by one and skin would touch skin covered by a white cotton sheet.
Such was the self-absorption of the two young lovers that they failed to check her audible reactions to his manly love and gossip reared its head, eventually reaching the ears of the Earl himself. Of course, he had to satisfy himself of the veracity or otherwise of these things so he positioned himself outside her chamber door and heard for himself the unmistakable panting and crying out. Immediately he was overcome with righteous anger at the betrayal of the priest but also at the moral failing of his daughter whose abandoned behavior could bring such terrible shame on the family name.
That moment, he rushed to summon some of his castle guard in their black and silver uniforms and the chamber door was flung open.
By this time the young lovers had fallen into a slumber but the commotion of the door crashing open roused them and caused them to sit up making the sheet fall. Lady Kathryn did all she could to cover her modesty but two slim arms are most insufficient to mask such obvious naked charms. On the orders of the Earl, both lovers were dragged, naked from the bed by the soldiers and taken down to the dungeons to be placed in separate quarters.
The disgraced lady sat on the dank, hard floor weeping at her plight and shivering from the cold for some good long time before soldiers came again and threw at her a simple white cotton shift to cover herself. Once attired, she was seized and dragged to a larger chamber where an iron collar was locked around her neck with a chain attached to a ring in the wall; she was thus obliged to stand and very soon the priest, still naked, was dragged into the room. Before her eyes, her lover was thrust onto a large cartwheel which lay on the floor and his limbs were bound by strong ropes to the wheel with other ropes over his body binding him down.
Her Ladyship screamed most bitterly as two soldiers took heavy hammers and proceeded to assault the bound victim. His limbs were soon broken in many places and then the hammers descended upon his softer parts causing him to scream in his agony. With extreme ferocity the blows rained down until the body was still and silent and then a final blow was landed crushing his skull to ensure that the deed was complete.
Lady Kathryn was in great terror that her fate would be the same as her priest but her collar was removed and she was thrown back into her dungeon to await whatever may befall her.
Her father entered the dungeon alone and disclosed to her what was to befall.
“You have shamed your family and your name so, henceforth, you will be Kathryn no more. You shall only be called Harlot and you shall be true to your new name. Before this day, I would have said that you had no knowing of the ways of men so you would not know that there is attached to the barracks a chamber set aside to assuage the base desires of our guards. I will give you unto the keeper of that place with instructions that you serve, not the officers of the guard, but only the basest soldiery and that the men be made aware that they have freedom to indulge whatever is most base in their lust fueled desires.
“I could have given you over to the sheriff to be tried for corrupting a priest and you would surely have been found guilty and hanged in the public square but I have chosen a way that avoids making your foul conduct known about the village and surrounding countryside. To further protect our name and the secrecy of this matter, the soldiers who come to take you to your new trade will be instructed to first ensure that you are not recognized for who you formerly were.”
And then he turned and left without further words. It was not long before three soldiers came into the chamber bearing scissors and plyers. Harlot (as she now was) tried to shy away from them but she was grabbed and held by two of them while the third sheared her of her fine, long blonde hair.
This alone would perhaps change her appearance but now she was put on the hard floor on her back with a hand on her forehead and another on her chin forcing wide her sweet mouth. Amidst her cries of great pain and anguish, the iron plyers withdrew three front teeth but still her altering was incomplete.
One soldier pulled on the metal gauntlet of his armour and crashed his hand into the center of her face smashing her pert nose which, for the rest of her life on Earth, would change her appearance and the manner of her speech.
With blood streaming from her face, she was held by two of the men and dragged down to the brothel which was a long, low chamber with much of its length divided by wooden walls into spaces each sufficient for a simple wooden bed and bowl of water. This was a poorly lit place full of the stink and sound of men taking their crude enjoyments.
There is no record of exactly what had passed between the priest and Lady Kathryn so we cannot know whether they only shared sweet but intimate caresses. If that is the case then it may be that her maidenly membrane was intact when she entered the brothel but that circumstance did not endure. Some men were actually drawn by her short, ragged hair and her crooked nose and her days were brutal and exhausting.
The keeper of the brothel was a hard woman as she needed to be to deal with her clientele. Food for the girls was a corn-based mash ladled daily into their bowls from a great cauldron. Of course, no girl was working constantly but if a girl did not have a client her price would be reduced so that the next soldier was quick to snap up a bargain. No window was large enough to permit escape and the windows were set high in the walls. A soldier sat on a stool at the door to control those entering but also to make it impossible for a girl to exit.
A whore dissenting from what was sought of her would be struck by her impatient client or even beaten by the brothel keeper. Day or night were of little import for the girls were available for trade whenever it came and they half slept between clients in as far as they could sleep amid the grunts of soldiers, howls of the whores and continuous foul curses.
On the partition of each girl was her name in whitewash so that a client could easily return to a favorite whore and, of course, one sign simply read, “Harlot”.
When a whore became too sick to earn or became with child, she was taken out into the forest for nature to take its course or, if a man was merciful, for a swift thrust with a dagger.
Instruction had been left with the brothel keeper that when Harlot expired – as it was taken for granted, she soon would – the Secretary of the Earl must be informed and one day this man, made entrance to his master’s office.
“My Lord, I bear tidings as instructed. The girl named Harlot is no more.”
The Secretary continued with his message.
“It seems that she….”
The Earl raised his hand.
“Thank you, Daniel, you have fulfilled your task. I would know no more.”