meeplemaiden

I'm finding this story very interesting. It is based on a true event in 1543 in Cologne in Germany. An English cloth merchant has taken the widow of one of his clients, who died in mysterious circumstances, to court because he says that her husband tried to swindle him by returning a ship-load of cloth saying that it was sub-standard. The merchant agrees that the cloth that was returned was not just sub-standard but rotten, however, he maintains that it wasn't the same cloth he delivered and that the husband and wife were, together, trying to cheat him. He even suspects that she murdered her husband. Normally, a wife couldn't be held responsible for her husband's transactions in those days but the Judge rules that as she was his countersignatory and also helped him collect his debts, she was doing business for herself and should therefore be made accountable. He wants to make an example of her. She, on the other hand, suspects the Englishman of killing her husband and she maintains that her husband forced her to do everthing for him by threatening the life of her daughter. It will be interesting to see how it all pans out.