Let’s talk about Agnes Hungerford and a murder most foul, a murder kind of ancillary to the court of Henry VIII in which she was hanged for it.
In the heart of Somerset, amidst rolling hills and whispered legends lies the ruins of Farleigh Hungerford Castle. It is a testament to the history of power, ambition, and mysterious events that unfolded within its walls.
One of those events is the story of Lady Agnes Hungerford. Her birth and early life are shrouded in mystery, but her later years marked by accusations and a trial and a tragic end have echoed through the ages. Many of Agnes’ contemporaries may have chosen to forget her, but the castle walls remember.
Today, we are going to journey through time to talk about the story of a lady and two husbands’ mysterious death and the haunting echoes that remain. So Agnes’ life reads like the pages of a riveting historical drama. Her first husband was John Cotell and he was the steward of Edward Hungerford.
Edward Hungerford was a wealthy landowner. He actually would go to the Field of Cloth of Gold with Henry VIII in 1520, so here’s a very wealthy landowner. John Cotell was his steward and Agnes, she’s also sometimes called Alice, was his wife. So on July 26, 1518, John’s life came to an abrupt end within the walls of Farleigh Hungerford castle.
Not long after, Agnes married, Edward. So this was a step up for her. She was first married to the steward, now she’s married to the boss. Edward had lost his first wife, Jane a little bit before. So the exact timeline between John’s death, John could tell his death, and Agnes’ subsequent wedding is a little sketchy.
But definitely by the end of the year, by December 28th, Agnes and her servants had made Farleigh Castle, the Hungerford family’s residence their permanent home. So her husband dies July 26th, by the end of December, she’s married and she is the lady of the manor.
Agnes and Edward never had any children. But she was the stepmother to Edward’s son, Walter, who was from his first marriage. Walter was about 15 when Agnes stepped into their lives and the marriage seemed to be quite happy.
Edward actually died on January 24th, 1522 but in his will, he left Agnes everything. He had just redone his will the year before and he left her everything. Made her the sole executor and Walter wasn’t named at all in the document. He completely disinherited his son according to the will.
So then the peaceful facade crumbles as always happens and there are thoughts that Edward knew more about John Cattell’s death than maybe he let on and he had been protecting her. So suddenly these whispers that might have been going around before become louder.
John Cattell’s death wasn’t natural. Stories emerge, claiming that two yeomen of Heytesbury William, Mathewe, and William Ignes, who had worked for Agnes had strangled John on Agnes’ orders and then burned his body in the castle’s furnace. The law caught up with them. Agnes along with her servants face trial by November 1522.
So it was only 10 months after Edward died. The next year, Mathewe and Agnes were sentenced to death for their roles in the murder and they were executed at Tyburn in February 1522. Agnes’ final resting place was Grey Friar’s church in London. William Ignis on the other hand, initially escaped justice, but he was caught eventually and he was also executed.
So it’s a puzzle, right? Nobody knows exactly what happened in this situation, but the general consensus seems to be that Agnes might have orchestrated her first husband’s death to pave her way to a more advantageous marriage with Edward. The peculiar disposal of her husband’s body, coupled with the silence during Edward’s lifetime, stir suspicions of his involvement.
Oddly, because she was the sole inheritor and she then was killed, all of the property, went to Henry VIII, went to the crown but within a few months, most of the property was handed back to Walter who by rights should have inherited it in the first place, except for Heytesbury.
So given the fact that Walter had been completely left out of his father’s will, it’s tempting to think that he might’ve had something to do with making this whole thing public and bringing everything to light in the first place.
Even centuries after the tumultuous events of her life, Farleigh Castle holds whispers of Agnes’ spirit. Numerous visitors and locals have told stories of encountering a spectral presence believed to be Agnes, especially around twilight when the boundaries between day and night blur.
Within the cold stone walls and echoing halls of the castle, many have reported a feeling of being observed or of a sudden chill in areas that are otherwise warm. A particular favorite haunt for this ghostly figure seems to be the vicinity of the chapel.
Eyewitnesses speak of a fleeting vision of a woman ethereal in beauty, who appears just for a moment before fading away into the encroaching shadows. Moreover, some accounts have described distant sounds reminiscent of a woman’s lament, echoing through the castle’s corridors, particularly on stormy nights.
Others have even claimed to catch the scent of a burnt aroma eerily reminiscent of the tragic event that transpired in the kitchen furnace. The tales of Agnes’ apparition serve as a haunting reminder of her tumultuous past and the castle’s grim history.
While many may dismiss these stories as mere lore, others believe that Agnes, Lady Hungerford is still bound to Farleigh Castle, searching for solace or perhaps seeking to tell her side of the story. Maybe there was more to it. Maybe she was actually one of the victims in all of this, I don’t know. If you are ever brave enough to visit, please let me know if you see her ghost.
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Heather Teysko is the creator, writer, and producer of The Renaissance English History Podcast,  the original Tudor history podcast, started in 2009. She's been writing about history online for over 25 years, since her first site on Colonial American history became number one in history on Yahoo in 1998. In 2019 she created Tudorcon, which is now a yearly event, in addition to writing books, and running TudorFair.com - a whimsical Tudor Merch shop. She has been passionate about Tudor England since she first read Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII 20 years ago, and subsequently moved to London after college to spend her time immersed in Tudor history.