This article is a study of lordship, conflict and some very unpleasant people, based on the record of a shocking crime presented at the 1293/4 Yorkshire eyre ‒ the murder of four members of the Mowbray family of Little Busby on the orders of a local magnate, Sir Nicholas Meynil of Whorlton. A fortunate wealth of sources, mainly in the form of court records, illuminates both the personalities involved and the issues that linked some and divided others, making it possible to trace their relationships in unusual detail. The killings apparently stemmed from Meynil’s determination to maintain his superiority in those parts of the North Riding where he was already the principal landowner. But that determination was intensified when it interacted with conflicts at a lower level of society, with quarrels involving the Mowbrays which precipitated another violent death and something close to a vendetta. In a wider perspective, the killings and their aftermath shed light on attitudes towards vengeance, and its position with regard to law, on the importance of the eyre as a means of controlling the activities of men like Meynil, and on royal priorities in the later years of Edward I’s reign.

本文基于在约克郡艾尔 1293/4 年发生的令人震惊的犯罪记录，研究了领主、冲突和一些非常不愉快的人——根据当地的命令谋杀了 Little Busby 的 Mowbray 家族的四名成员。富豪，沃尔顿的尼古拉斯·梅尼尔爵士。幸运的财富来源，主要以法庭记录的形式，阐明了所涉及的个性以及将一些人联系起来和使另一些人分裂的问题，从而有可能以不同寻常的细节追踪他们的关系。这些杀戮显然源于 Meynil 决心在他已经是主要土地所有者的 North Riding 地区保持优势。但是当它与社会较低层的冲突相互作用时，这种决心就会加强，莫布雷家的争吵引发了另一场暴力死亡和一些接近仇杀的事情。从更广泛的角度来看，这些杀戮及其后果揭示了人们对复仇的态度及其在法律方面的立场、艾尔作为控制像梅尼尔这样的人的活动的手段的重要性，以及后来的皇室优先事项爱德华一世在位的岁月。