The buckinghamshire vampire attacked his victims at night.
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Introduction
The Buckinghamshire Vampire case was about an English vampire told orally by William of Newburgh. He was related to Stephen, the archdeacon of Buckinghamshire. The man wasn’t considered a vampire at the time because that term didn’t come into the English language until the 18th century.
The Story
The story started with a man dying in 1192 in Buckinghamshire. The night after he was buried he made a ghostly visit to his sleeping wife. He climbed into bed with her and started to press all of his weight on her, a phenomenon known as Old Hag Syndrome. He almost killed her, and he continued to visit her every night. On the third night his wife invited people over so that he would not harm her. When the vampire came in, it was driven away when everyone shouted at him. Instead of attacking continuing his attack on her, he went to visit his brothers who lived in the same town. They made loud noises and were left alone, so instead he would disturb other sleeping people and even sleeping animals. People were forced to stay up and keep guard, but that didn’t stop him. He was then seen in daylight and was said to possess an evil presence.
Stopping the Vampire
The townspeople turned to the archdeacon Stephen for help. He then wrote a letter to the bishop of Lincoln, St. Hugh, and asked what to do about the spirit.
St. Hugh asked priests and others about the attacks, which they found similar stories in England. They found out that this would end if the corpse was dug up, the organs burned. He didn’t want to do this because it seemed wrong to do, so Hugh wrote an absolution, a document with written forgiveness. He told Stephen to open up the coffin and place this document on the man’s chest and rebury him. When Stephen opened up the tomb, the body was not decayed and the absolution was placed on the corpse’s chest and reburied. The vampire was never seen walking around again.
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