Chapter Eleven

WHO KILLED Janus Imperiale?

This is the question that was on the lips of London in the summer of 1379.

All that was known was that a prominent Genoese merchant, Janus Imperiale, had been murdered August 27 on St. Nicholas Acon Lane in the Ward of Langbourne.

Imperiale was in London to negotiate a commercial treaty between Genoa and England, as well as arrange the release of a Genoese vessel that had been seized by English privateers, but he was killed before he complete either mission.

At the coroner's inquest the next day, all the witnesses claimed that darkness prevented them from identifying the “malefactors and disturbers of the King's peace” who had “feloniously slain” Janus Imperiale, so the proceedings were adjourned to allow further investigation.

Finally, on September 27, coroner's jury met for the third time and began to provide some answers. They reported that Janus Imperiale had been sitting outside his lodgings with some of his servants on the evening of August 27 when two men, John Algor and John Kirkby, approached.

Kirkby, a member of the London Mercers' Guild, trod on Imperiale's foot so hard he drew an oath from the Genoese. Seeing their master's annoyance, Imperiale's servants began berating Kirkby, who quickly drew a knife and slashed several of them. When Janus Imperiale tried to separate them, Kirkby cut away the right side of his chin.

Imperiale, who was unarmed, reeled backwards. While Algor, a member of the London Grocers' Guild, held off the servants, Kirkby drew his sword and felled Imperiale in the middle of the lane. Then he dealt the Genoese two mortal blows to the head, each seven inches long and deep into the brain. Their business complete, Kirkby and Algor continued on their way.

In the weeks that followed, neither of Imperiale's assailants made any effort to hide or flee. Indeed, they continued to live and work in London as if they somehow expected protection from the authorities, instead of punishment. Finally, however, the coroner's report forced London Mayor John Philipot, who lived only a few blocks from the scene of the crime, to take action.

Although subsequently tried and convicted, the assailants steadfastly maintained their innocence until the day before Kirkby's execution, when Algor made a full confession. On December 3, 1380, Algor swore that he and Kirkby “met each other in a certain street called Cheap in London after sunset and proceeded thence to ... St. Nicholas Acon Lane, where a certain Janus Imperial of Genoa, merchant, lodged, in order to [kill him]...”

They wished Imperiale dead “because the said Janus Imperial was suing before the King's council to obtain the release of a certain ship which the servants of Richard Preston, his [Algor's] master, and the servants of [London Mayor] John Philipot ... had captured in war upon the sea and from which the said Richard Preston and John Philipot would have had a hundred pounds in profit...” Algor understood that his master and the mayor would lose the profit from their piracy if Imperiale won his suit.

Algor also cited another reason for the murder, which was actually much more important, since it threatened many prominent English merchants with the loss of much more than £100. Two years before, Imperiale had received a special royal patent allowing him to bring a merchandise-laden craft into any English port, load it with wool, and sail directly for Genoa, without stopping at the wool-staple in Calais or pay export duties, as all other exporters – Englishmen included – were required.

Now he was attempting to negotiate a more general set of commercial privileges for Genoese merchants. There is no doubt that the great London merchants found this prospect extremely alarming, for Algor recounted how he “frequently heard from rumour and gossip in the households of Nicholas of Brembre, William Walworth and the aforesaid Richard of Preston and John Philipot ... that the aforesaid Janus Imperial would destroy and ruin all the wool merchants in London and elsewhere within the realm of England in the event that he could bring to a conclusion what he had in mind.”

Walworth, Brembre, Preston and Philipot were adversaries to be reckoned with, as Janus Imperiale learned to his grief. The most powerful merchants in London at the time, they had been the leaders of the London guild revolution of 1376, which wrested the common council away from the general citizenry, and placed it in the hands of the city's guilds, just as the Florentine arti had done 80 years before. The guilds, in turn, were largely controlled by wealthy merchants like Walworth and Philipot. Neither was a wool merchant – Walworth was a member of the Fishmongers' Guild while Philipot was a member of the Grocers' Guild – but they still feared Imperiale's plan.