Monk's Hood

Monk's Hood
Cover of the Grand Central Publishing paperback edition
Author(s)	Ellis Peters
Series	Brother Cadfael
Genre(s)	Mystery novel
Publisher	Macmillan
Publication date	1980
Media type	Print (Hardcover, Paperback) & audio book
Pages	224 pp
ISBN	0333294106
OCLC Number	7374059
Dewey Decimal	823/.912 19
LC Classification	PR6031.A49 M6 1980
Preceded by	One Corpse Too Many
Followed by	Saint Peter's Fair

For the herb sometimes known as monkshood, see Aconitum.

Monk's Hood is a medieval mystery novel by Ellis Peters, first published in 1980. It was adapted for television in 1994 by Central for ITV. It is the third novel in the Brother Cadfael series.

Plot summary

The book is set in the late autumn and winter of 1138. After a tumultuous year (described in One Corpse Too Many), Abbot Heribert of Shrewsbury Abbey announces to the distress of many of the monks that he has been summoned to attend a Legatine Council and that his authority is in abeyance. Although much of the Abbey's business must also be suspended, one transaction proceeds assuming that it will be completed once Heribert is confirmed in authority or another Abbot is appointed. Gervase Bonel, the lord of a manor in late middle age, has ceded his manorial estate at Mallilie to the Abbey in return for a small house near the Abbey where his needs in retirement will be provided for.

The ambitious Prior Robert is left in charge of the Abbey while Heribert is away. Some days later, he sends a small gift, part of a roasted partridge, to Bonel. Bonel is taken ill immediately after eating it. Brother Cadfael, who is skilled in herbs and medicines, and Brother Edmund the Infirmarer try to aid him but are too late, and can only ease his last moments.

To Cadfael's alarm, he recognises Bonel's widow as Richildis Vaughan, to whom he was informally betrothed many years previously, before he went on Crusade. He also realises that the sauce in which the partridge was served was poisoned, by a rubbing oil he himself has made to treat muscular pains. Its active ingredient is monkshood (Wolfsbane), and many people around the Abbey are aware of its dangerous nature.

The murder is reported to the authorities in Shrewsbury Castle. Cadfael's friend, Deputy Sheriff Hugh Beringar, is away so the unsubtle Sergeant Will Warden investigates. Since Prior Robert ate the other half of the partridge without any ill effects, suspicion immediately falls on Bonel's household. Warden quickly finds that Edwin Gurney, Richildis's son from her first marriage to a Shrewsbury craftsman, was present at the meal but stormed out after a quarrel before Bonel ate the partridge. His motive for murdering Bonel appears to be plain, as Bonel (who had no lawful issue) had planned to make him heir to his estate, before he granted the estate to Shrewsbury Abbey. Since the agreement with the Abbey is not completed, Edwin remains the heir apparent.

Richildis refuses to believe her son capable of murder. Edwin has presumably taken refuge with her daughter Sybil Bellecote, living in Shrewsbury, although Warden has failed to find him. At Richildis's urging, Cadfael goes to Sybil to offer comfort and help. That night Edwin and his equally youthful nephew, Sybil's son Edwy, meet Cadfael in his workshop in the Abbey grounds. By pretending that Bonel was attacked with a sword or dagger, Cadfael establishes that Edwin did not know how Bonel died and is innocent of poisoning him. He disguises Edwin in a monk's habit and conceals him in one of the Abbey's barns. He then investigates the possibility that someone in the Abbey intended the poisoned dish to be eaten by the unpopular Prior Robert, but finds this to be unlikely.

The next day, Sergeant Warden questions Cadfael about the source of the oil. Cadfael cannot say whether it was stolen from his workshop or the Abbey's infirmary, but he suggests that Warden search for the bottle which the murderer used to carry it. Warden smugly replies that Edwin was seen to throw it into the River Severn. Momentarily shaken, Cadfael questions Edwin, who says that he actually threw a carved wooden reliquary, a gift intended for Bonel, into the river after their quarrel.

That night, Cadfael again visits Richildis, and asks whether anyone else had any motive or opportunity to murder Bonel. One servant, Aelfric, who carried the dishes from the kitchen, bears a grudge as Bonel deprived him of free status and made him a villein. The maid, Aldith, has no apparent motive. Richildis herself was never alone with the partridge. There was one other present in the house when Bonel died; Meurig, an illegitimate son of Bonel, who had been apprenticed to craftsman Martin Bellecote (Sybil's husband) in Shrewsbury and who was paying court to Aldith. He was on good terms with Bonel and appears not to benefit by his death.

Cadfael and Richildis have been overheard by Brother Jerome, Prior Robert's sanctimonious clerk. At Chapter the next morning, Jerome betrays Cadfael's former relationship with Richildis. Prior Robert forbids Cadfael to have any further contact with the widow, or even to leave the Abbey's precincts. Bound by his vow of obedience, Cadfael has no choice but to comply.

The same morning, Edwin is discovered in the barn by Abbey servants, and flees on horseback. He is captured after a chase lasting all day. When Cadfael is summoned to give spiritual comfort to him, he finds that the pursuers have actually caught Edwy Bellecote, who has distracted the authorities while Edwin escaped. Hugh Beringar has returned to Shrewsbury, and allows Edwy to return to his family on parole.

Although Cadfael may not leave the Abbey, he sends his assistant, Brother Mark, to search around Bonel's house for any bottle which might have held the poison. Mark does indeed find it, in a position to which Edwin Gurney could not have thrown it, further proving his innocence in Cadfael's eyes. Before Cadfael can report Mark's find to anyone, the Abbey's steward at Mallilie sends word that a brother at a remote sheepfold at Rhydycroesau in Wales belonging to the Abbey has fallen ill. Prior Robert seizes the chance to send Cadfael as far from Shrewsbury as possible to attend the sick brother. Cadfael realises for the first time that Mallilie's location near to or even within Wales alters some people's motives. In the Abbey's infirmary, he questions the aged Brother Rhys, a distant relation of Meurig's mother, a Welsh maidservant, about local relationships and customs around Mallilie, before departing. He tries to report his errand to Hugh Beringar at the Castle, but Beringar is absent, searching for the reliquary which Edwin threw into the river, and Cadfael does not confide his discoveries to the sceptical Sergeant Warden.

At Rhydycroesau, the ailing brother is soon recovering. Cadfael visits the manor at Mallilie and then takes Brother Rhys's greetings to his surviving kinfolk in the district. At the house of Rhys's widowed brother in law, Ifor ap Morgan, he discovers Edwin in hiding. Sergeant Warden has followed Cadfael, and takes Edwin into custody. Cadfael now has only one chance to prove Edwin's innocence, at the Commote court at Llansilin the next day.

Cadfael attends the court unobtrusively. Towards the end of the day's business, Meurig bursts in, producing written proof of his paternity, and lays claim to Mallilie. The manor lies within Wales, and under Welsh law (the code of Hywel Dda) any son, even an illegitimate son, has an overriding claim to his father's property. Cadfael intervenes, stating that Meurig cannot inherit as he murdered Bonel. He produces the small bottle which Brother Mark found, and challenges Meurig to display his scrip (purse or carrying pouch) to prove that the bottle did not leak the strongly scented oil into it. Meurig instead flees. Cadfael asks the court to send word of Meurig's guilt to Shrewsbury and returns to Rhydycroesau.

Meurig is waiting for him, armed with a knife. At the last minute, Meurig does not take his revenge on Cadfael, but instead confesses to Bonel's murder. He knew from an early age that he would inherit Mallilie under Welsh law, but Bonel's agreement to hand it to Shrewsbury Abbey would put it out of reach. Frantic to gain the manor before the agreement was completed, he purloined some of Cadfael's rubbing oil (which he had used to ease Brother Rhys's aches, and which Brother Edmund had warned him was fatal to ingest) from the infirmary, and having overheard Aldith say that the partridge was a gift for Bonel, added the oil to the sauce while briefly alone in the kitchen of Bonel's house. After Warden left the house to search for Edwin, he threw the bottle out of the window of the house.

Having heard Meurig's confession, Cadfael tells him his penance is to live a long life, doing as much good as he can. He then allows Meurig to escape on one of the Abbey's horses. Soon after the new year, he returns to Shrewsbury to find the monks eagerly awaiting Abbot Heribert's return. When Heribert arrives, he admits he is no longer their Abbot, but has returned as a humble brother to end his days. He then dashes Prior Robert's hopes of succeeding him by introducing Radulfus, their new Abbot appointed by the Legatine Council.

Though legal problems still abound, it appears that Edwin will inherit Mallilie under Bonel's earlier will. Although Cadfael has the opportunity to rekindle his relationship with Richildis, he is content to remain within the Abbey.

Background and setting

Although the characters and events in the novel are invented, Heribert and Radulfus were real abbots of Shrewsbury Abbey, and Radulfus really did replace Heribert in 1138. Prior Robert Pennant is also a real person,^[1] who eventually succeeded Radulfus in 1148.^[2]

This is one of the few Cadfael books in which Cadfael's Welsh background, with his knowledge of the language, and the customs and laws of Wales, are important to the plot. Although Cadfael has withdrawn from most worldly concerns by entering the Benedictine order, he retains a shrewd appreciation of Welsh customs and character.

The book highlights the degree to which family and blood relationships were important in the Middle Ages; the dead man Bonel, his wife's family, a host of smallholders in Wales, and the aged Brother Rhys in Shrewsbury Abbey are all related by blood or marriage.

Television adaptation

Monk's Hood was the fourth Cadfael book to be adapted for television by Carlton Media for distribution world wide, in 1994. It was out of sequence as two later books in the series preceded it on the screen.

The "Cadfael" series eventually extended to thirteen episodes, all of which starred Sir Derek Jacobi as the sleuthing monk. The series was filmed mostly in Hungary.

The adaptation for Monk's Hood stuck fairly closely to the original novel. Although several Welsh actors appeared, Jacobi retained an educated English accent.

Notes

1. ^ history.uk.com
2. ^ Talbot, Rob; Robin Whiteman (1990). Cadfael Country. Little, Brown and Company. p. 74. ISBN 0-316-90562-3. 

External links

• Monk's Hood at the Internet Movie Database