Laura1949
Executioner
This is a continuation of my previous offering
The Autobiography of Lady Agetha Alcorn York England 1485
I Lady Agetha and the Baroness DeLacy no longer bore titles of lower nobility once we entered our five years of servitude under the High Sheriff of York so I will continue my memoir simply as the widow Agetha and the dowager Agnes.
I endured hardship for many fortnight as an indentured slave of the cruel man who helped defeat my noble King Richard. As a widow I had no man to protect my body or my virtue and neither was the poor Agnes who despite her age was forced to perform hard labours in the stone quarry lifting heavy pieces of limestone from dawn until the darkness.
Poor Agnes suffered more than I who over the course of weeks found that my musculature had enabled me to endure the monotonous and exhausting tasks without being slashed across my back by the dreaded leather whip carried by the quarry overseer.
On each day before the blessed Sabbath when the indentured were allowed a half day of rest a punishment of ten lashes across the bared back was administered to any who had not met the weekly quota of four tonnes of stone transported from the quarry. Those men or women deemed lethargic were in turn stripped naked and fastened to a large oak post to which was attached two heavy iron rings. Tied by the wrists to either side of the post by lengths of cow rawhide the whip was applied to the naked back.
I bore that punishment twice and poor Agnes much more often. Her once clear unblemished pearl white skin now hued brown from the sun was crisscrossed with welts cuts of the lash. She bore her punishments silently and with dignity and defiance. Sadly my resolve was less stoic and I was reduced to uncontrolled sobbing and shamefully begged for mercy after each stroke of the whip across my back.
Sidebar: During a partial archeological excavation of York Castle grounds in 1926 the remains of an oak post and two heavily rusted rings were discovered. These were subsequently carbon dated to the late 15th century next to the stone foundation of what was once a dwelling or barracks.
At the beginning and end of each long day the men and women were walked back to the wattle and rough stone structure that served as our place of bedding and board. There was no privacy nor separation of men from women and thus in the darkness it was common to hear the grunting of a man as he mounted and thrust his manhood into any woman who he fancied.
Being among the older women neither Agnes or yours truly were pestered as those women of younger years in age but we were regularly raped when other women were not available for their thrusting manhood. Through many childbirths and Agnes having been stretched to the Pear of Anguish our passages were wide and not coveted by men wih normal size sexual endowment. Our mouths and anus served many of the men who used us in those dreaded nights when they came for us.
On a cold windy November 3rd 1485 which was All Souls Day and also a market day in York my dear companion Agnes was once again to be taken to the Minster to receive the five lashes of her forty lash sentence for aiding the escape of her son Baron deLacy who had escaped to France following the defeat our our dear departed King Richard. Agnes began her journey in the manner ordained by the Church for any woman found guilty of treason or adultery.
Before passing under the portcullis of York Castle the poor woman was stripped of her single article of clothing, a ragged grey dress of unbleached wool and left to stand naked in full view of the Lord High Sheriff and all members of the castle garrison. Her white hair was once again shorn from her head by a crone of a woman holding iron shears.
Despite our meager diet of oat gruel, unleavend bread and water Agnes had remained a woman of unusual beauty. The punishing hard labour had toughened and expanded her muscles and saggy melon breasts adorned with the thick and long teats of a mother whose children had suckled for nourishment had remained as firm and full as any woman half her age. Her buttocks and legs had become almost manly but retained the curvaceous shape of a woman.
Because the five whip strokes were to be applied to her pudendum the thick thicket of curls covering her mons veneris was removed with the blade of a finely honed knife wielded by a youthful soldier while as she was forced to stand with her legs held wide. Once bared of the shielding pelt the clam shell shaped crescent of thick wrinkled saggy flaps,the pink inner folds surrounding the entrance to her womb and the wrinkled worm like appendage which no longer fully retracted into it's protective fleshy hood were exposed to the leering, smiling assemblage of men.
Sidebar: The translation of the original medieval text by noted historian and author Penelope Cresswell in 1912-13 described the woman's clitoris as an "appendage". Agnes , then Baroness deLacy , was tortured following her arrest in September 1485. An account of how Agnes was tortured was written on parchment by Dungeon Master Sir Robert Courtemanche and discovered in 1 1974 at Wressle Castle . The clitoris was burned with a red hot iron rod prior to her sex passage being stretched open with the infamous Pear of Despair leading to her confession of High Treason..
Thus prepared, heavy iron shackles were laced around each of the wrists connected by a length of chain and a rope was knotted onto the chain which led to the tailboard of a two wheeled cart and drawn by a withered swayback nag. The procession of six castle guards dressed in the livery of the High Sheriff and the unfortunate Agnes was led out from the castle gate and I and others brought to witness her humiliation watched as the naked statuesque figure with head held high disappeared from view. With the crack of his whip in the cold frosty air we led away and returned to the stone quarry for another day of hard labour,
As I struggled in the cold dry air my ears could discern the distant hum of humanity emanating from the direction of the Minster whose towers were visible above the stone walls of the castle. I knew that in those moments when the thrum grew loudest that Agnes had received a stroke of the whip.
sidebar: An account written by diarist and diplomat Comte de Tours, Special Envoy of King Charles V11 of the punishments of women including Agnes Fitzhugh at York Minster on All Souls Day 1485 and translated in Modern English and published in 1869 will be appended to Lady Agetha's journal.
To be continued.
The Autobiography of Lady Agetha Alcorn York England 1485
I Lady Agetha and the Baroness DeLacy no longer bore titles of lower nobility once we entered our five years of servitude under the High Sheriff of York so I will continue my memoir simply as the widow Agetha and the dowager Agnes.
I endured hardship for many fortnight as an indentured slave of the cruel man who helped defeat my noble King Richard. As a widow I had no man to protect my body or my virtue and neither was the poor Agnes who despite her age was forced to perform hard labours in the stone quarry lifting heavy pieces of limestone from dawn until the darkness.
Poor Agnes suffered more than I who over the course of weeks found that my musculature had enabled me to endure the monotonous and exhausting tasks without being slashed across my back by the dreaded leather whip carried by the quarry overseer.
On each day before the blessed Sabbath when the indentured were allowed a half day of rest a punishment of ten lashes across the bared back was administered to any who had not met the weekly quota of four tonnes of stone transported from the quarry. Those men or women deemed lethargic were in turn stripped naked and fastened to a large oak post to which was attached two heavy iron rings. Tied by the wrists to either side of the post by lengths of cow rawhide the whip was applied to the naked back.
I bore that punishment twice and poor Agnes much more often. Her once clear unblemished pearl white skin now hued brown from the sun was crisscrossed with welts cuts of the lash. She bore her punishments silently and with dignity and defiance. Sadly my resolve was less stoic and I was reduced to uncontrolled sobbing and shamefully begged for mercy after each stroke of the whip across my back.
Sidebar: During a partial archeological excavation of York Castle grounds in 1926 the remains of an oak post and two heavily rusted rings were discovered. These were subsequently carbon dated to the late 15th century next to the stone foundation of what was once a dwelling or barracks.
At the beginning and end of each long day the men and women were walked back to the wattle and rough stone structure that served as our place of bedding and board. There was no privacy nor separation of men from women and thus in the darkness it was common to hear the grunting of a man as he mounted and thrust his manhood into any woman who he fancied.
Being among the older women neither Agnes or yours truly were pestered as those women of younger years in age but we were regularly raped when other women were not available for their thrusting manhood. Through many childbirths and Agnes having been stretched to the Pear of Anguish our passages were wide and not coveted by men wih normal size sexual endowment. Our mouths and anus served many of the men who used us in those dreaded nights when they came for us.
On a cold windy November 3rd 1485 which was All Souls Day and also a market day in York my dear companion Agnes was once again to be taken to the Minster to receive the five lashes of her forty lash sentence for aiding the escape of her son Baron deLacy who had escaped to France following the defeat our our dear departed King Richard. Agnes began her journey in the manner ordained by the Church for any woman found guilty of treason or adultery.
Before passing under the portcullis of York Castle the poor woman was stripped of her single article of clothing, a ragged grey dress of unbleached wool and left to stand naked in full view of the Lord High Sheriff and all members of the castle garrison. Her white hair was once again shorn from her head by a crone of a woman holding iron shears.
Despite our meager diet of oat gruel, unleavend bread and water Agnes had remained a woman of unusual beauty. The punishing hard labour had toughened and expanded her muscles and saggy melon breasts adorned with the thick and long teats of a mother whose children had suckled for nourishment had remained as firm and full as any woman half her age. Her buttocks and legs had become almost manly but retained the curvaceous shape of a woman.
Because the five whip strokes were to be applied to her pudendum the thick thicket of curls covering her mons veneris was removed with the blade of a finely honed knife wielded by a youthful soldier while as she was forced to stand with her legs held wide. Once bared of the shielding pelt the clam shell shaped crescent of thick wrinkled saggy flaps,the pink inner folds surrounding the entrance to her womb and the wrinkled worm like appendage which no longer fully retracted into it's protective fleshy hood were exposed to the leering, smiling assemblage of men.
Sidebar: The translation of the original medieval text by noted historian and author Penelope Cresswell in 1912-13 described the woman's clitoris as an "appendage". Agnes , then Baroness deLacy , was tortured following her arrest in September 1485. An account of how Agnes was tortured was written on parchment by Dungeon Master Sir Robert Courtemanche and discovered in 1 1974 at Wressle Castle . The clitoris was burned with a red hot iron rod prior to her sex passage being stretched open with the infamous Pear of Despair leading to her confession of High Treason..
Thus prepared, heavy iron shackles were laced around each of the wrists connected by a length of chain and a rope was knotted onto the chain which led to the tailboard of a two wheeled cart and drawn by a withered swayback nag. The procession of six castle guards dressed in the livery of the High Sheriff and the unfortunate Agnes was led out from the castle gate and I and others brought to witness her humiliation watched as the naked statuesque figure with head held high disappeared from view. With the crack of his whip in the cold frosty air we led away and returned to the stone quarry for another day of hard labour,
As I struggled in the cold dry air my ears could discern the distant hum of humanity emanating from the direction of the Minster whose towers were visible above the stone walls of the castle. I knew that in those moments when the thrum grew loudest that Agnes had received a stroke of the whip.
sidebar: An account written by diarist and diplomat Comte de Tours, Special Envoy of King Charles V11 of the punishments of women including Agnes Fitzhugh at York Minster on All Souls Day 1485 and translated in Modern English and published in 1869 will be appended to Lady Agetha's journal.
To be continued.