78 



^ gcttigsljivf BtaUjl m tljc 15t!) €rntuvg. 



By Henry Kirke. 



|N the year of grace 1428 — three years before Jeanne 

 d'Arc was cruelly done to death in the market 

 place of Rouen — an unseemly and murderous 

 deed was done in the High Peak of Derbyshire. 

 Such deeds of blood could not have been uncommon in an age 

 which was one of violence and bloodshed, when private wars 

 were ordinary occurrences, when gangs of ruffians held the roads, 

 and murders were open and organised, when even the scholars 

 of Oxford and Cambridge " arrayed themselves in habiliments 

 of war," and exercised a reign of terror and blackmail over the 

 neighbouring counties. There are, however, some traits about 

 the narrative of this particular brawl which are unusual, and 

 which give rise to certain speculations — not without wonder. 



The story as set forth in a MS. in the British Museum, 

 co.talogued as Add. MSS. 28,111, is as follows: — 



"8th Henry VI. (1429-30) Robert Eyre, of Padley, in Co. 

 Derby, gentleman, was indicted before John Dunbaben, one of 

 the King's Coroners for the said county of Derby, for the 

 murder of William Woodrove, of Hope, in the said county, 

 gentleman, and on his trial before Peter Pole and Gerard 

 Maynel, the King's Justices assigned to deliver his gaol at 

 Derby of the said Robert Eyre on Monday next after the feast 

 of St. George the Martyr, 8 H 6, the following circumstances 

 appeared : — 



" On the Sabbath day next after the feast of the Holy Cross 

 on the 7th year of the reign of the King, the said Robert and 



