The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Booby-trap statue killed
Was the tiny village of Fettercairn the site of history’s most bizarre assassination? T h a t ’s the question pondered by John Withington, the author of Assassins’ Deeds, published this week.
It covers the Swiss military leader murdered by a man dressed as a bear.
And the Austrian empress killed by a needle so fine she didn’t realise she had been stabbed.
However, the prize for the weirdest assassination in history could go to Lady Finella, who lived in Fettercairn in the Mearns and used a booby-trapped statuette to snare a king.
Jo h n’s new book, Assassins’ Deeds: A History Of Assassination From Ancient Eg ypt To T he Present Day, tells how in 995 King Kenneth II of Scotland was killed by Finella after falling victim to her cunning death trap.
“King Kenneth was trying to secure the succession for his son, Malcolm, but this meant putting a number of noses out of joint,” explains John, a leading disaster historian and former TV producer and journalist.
“In those days, the Scottish throne did not pass from father to son.
“Instead the k i n g ’s successor was selected from all the adult male descendants of previous kings.
“The upside was supposed to be that you did not get underage monarchs. The downside was that there were plenty of disputes.”
Wr i t i n g in the 14 t h Century, John of Fordun, a Scottish chronicler born in Fordoun in the Mearns, said many nobles opposed Kenneth, and that Constantine the Bald plotted “unceasingly” against him.
He and his supporters persuaded the “wily” Finele – also known as Finella – daughter of the Earl of Angus, to help them.
She had a grudge against Kenneth because he had her son put to death.
In an “out- of- the- way little cottage” in Fettercairn, she set a trap.
“In spite of her son’s fate, Finele always presented ‘a cheerful countenance’ to the king, and ‘ beguiled him by flattery and treacherous words’,” says John.
“She ‘besought him with great importunity to come into her house’, affirming that her son had deserved his punishment.
“Then, ‘ tripping up to the king, she whispered in his ear’ that she could name names of people plotting against him.
“Convinced, he went with her to the house and closed the door behind them, so she could impart her secret.”
Under the pretence of amusing her royal guest with some of the curiosities in the cottage, Finella conducted him to an area where there was a bronze statue of a boy.
This cunningly contrived figure was so made that it shot out sharp arrows whenever it was touched.
“The king was immediately intrigued by the statue and Finele said that if he touched its head, a ‘marvellous and pleasant jest comes of it’,” says John.
“He could not resist laying a hand on the figure’s head.”
This released the levers and handles of the crossbows and he was shot by arrows from all sides and fell dead to the ground.
Another version of the story says the statue held a golden apple which Finella told the king had been specially prepared for him as a “token of her love”.
When he reached out to touch the ill-omen fruit, the arrows pierced him to the heart.
Finella fled from the scene and reached a deep gorge near St Cyrus which has since been known as the Den of Finella.
The story goes that to avoid capture she took her own life by hurling herself 150 ft into the foaming waters below.
“When the king’s retinue found Kenneth’s body, they ran off in all directions looking for Finele, but to no avail, so they set fire to the village and ‘reduced it to ashes’,” says John.
“H o w e v e r, not all historians are convinced by the tale, some suggesting that, although Kenneth was indeed murdered, Finele was a mythical figure.”
Another strange tale in John’s new book is that of King James I, killed in his castle in Perth.
He tried to escape through a sewer but it had been blocked because he was tired of losing tennis balls down it.
“King James II had an uneasy relationship with one of his most powerful nobles, the Earl of Douglas,” explains John.
“In 1452 James invited him to dinner at Stirling Castle under safe conduct, but when he appeared the king accused him of treachery and stabbed him in the neck.”
James himself came to a sticky end eight years later. As he tried to fire a salute in honour of his wife, a gun exploded and killed him.
“Incidentally, James II’s father, James I, had himself been assassinated in his palace at Perth 15 years earlier by supporters of a rival claimant for the throne,” says John.
“He had tried to escape through a sewer but unfortunately it had been blocked a few days earlier because the king was fed up of losing tennis balls down it.”
John’s book details a host of weird assassination methods.
One is the story of Swiss leader Jörg Jenatsch, one of the main figures in the Thirty Years War. He was hacked to death by a man disguised as a bear at a carnival party in 1639.
Just as s t r a n g e l y, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary was killed by a customised industrial needle, so fine the victim did not realise she had been stabbed.
The story goes that to avoid capture she took her own life by hurling herself 150ft into the waters below