The Middle Ages did not know divorce. On the other hand, it knew about marital infidelity and criminal desires. This is the story of castellan Jakub Boglewski, his wife Dorota and chaplain Jan Pieniążek. There is great love in it, betrayal and gut pulling.
- My name is Jakub Boglewski, I am a happy man - this is how our knight could begin the story. - I was born in a noble family, I am the castellan and starost of Ciechanów. I also have a beautiful wife, Dorota. We are not one of those couples, which are cemented by agreements between families. Yes, my Dorota is the daughter of Rogala from Węgrzynów, the voivode of Masovia. Yes, my Dorota brought me 300 zlotys as a dowry, but these are details. This is the woman of my life. Of course, a lot of people envy me, hence the nasty rumors, but if you believed everything that people say, you would go crazy ...
Prongs must die
This is what Jakub Boglewski would tell us in the evening of January 5, 1466, when he went to sleep in his seat in Łęczeszyce (today's Grójec poviat). 24 hours later, the castellan of Ciechanów was already in that world, and his shredded body could not be put together .
In demand, like… a medieval priest?
The rumors about Dorothy turned out to be true. Not only did she have an affair with Jan Pieniazek, a chaplain and co-native of Boglewski (both of them had three spears and a call to Jelit in their coat of arms), but together they decided to murder the stag-castellan.
Imperfect alibi
There were more conspirators - apart from a couple in love, we have a notary, Jakub Jaczechowski, who was in the service of the castellan, and the servant of the priest chaplain:Plichta and Komaski. Dorothy's maid also knew about the whole thing. The night Boglewski was sleeping next to his beloved wife, the murderers fell in with spears, swords and axes - and literally chopped him to pieces.
Place of action:Łęczyszyce. The illustration shows an 18th-century church with a belfry.
Immediately after the murder, chaplain Jan Pieniążek, Plichta and Komaski rushed towards Łęczyca (they drove almost 20 miles the same night) to get an alibi.
Compelling evidence
The next day, Mikołąj Boglewski, brother of the murdered, accompanied by numerous knights from the neighborhood, appeared in Łęczeszyce and captured three conspirators:notary public Jakub, Dorota and her maid. Next to the widow, a letter from Jan Pieniążek was found, in which he described the plan to murder the castellan.
Pensive parson. Was he devising a crime plan in his head?
What happened next shows what discrimination against women was like in the Middle Ages. The chronicler Jan Długosz states that:because of her sex ... she was released from any responsibility:
Mikołaj Boglewski touched by pity, under the influence of the requests of the Franciscans-observers of the rule of St. Bernardine from the convent in Warsaw, who begged to at least ensure the immunity of the women, released the aforementioned Dorota and her young maid from punishment, who were to be buried alive to the ground.
And the judges' sentence condemned the aforementioned Jakub. Tearing his insides alive, despite screaming, he had him dismembered so that someone, following his example, would not be seduced by the wicked love of women.
Crime without penalty
Chaplain Jan Pieniążek, thanks to the protection of his father (he was a chamberlain of Kraków) and the archbishop of Gniezno, finished quite well, especially compared to Jakub's notary. The clergyman spent three and a half years "in a hideous prison, in the dark pit of the tower", then he was released.
He died in 1490 as a canon of Gniezno. Even in 1466, it was remembered that somehow it would be appropriate to punish the murderer Dorota. However, she fled to the Teutonic state in time. And she was not alone again - a Czech man, a man, kept the companionship of the tempting widow.
Jan Długosz. A great gossip, without whom the story of Jakub Boglewski would not have survived to our times.
Did they live happily ever after? It is not known. Maybe another demoralized vicar stood in the way of their happiness…