A knight's tale: a rare case of inter-personal violence from medieval Norton Priory

Abstract

The opportunity to assess human skeletal remains from Norton Priory, near Runcorn (Cheshire), led to the discovery of peri-mortem blade trauma on an adult male skeleton. The burial evidence suggests that this individual was a wealthy knight and lay benefactor of the priory in the thirteenth century and skeletal evidence has revealed that he was the victim of inter-personal violence. Additionally, many skeletal elements were affected by advanced Paget’s disease, which may have resulted in a certain level of vulnerability due to restricted movement of his arms as a result of Pagetic thickening of the bones. This is the only evidence found of weaponrelated trauma on the Norton Priory skeletal assemblage, making it a rare case and contributing to our understanding of inter-personal violence associated with an ecclesiastical establishment in medieval Britain.