[alexander_busek]

While legend has it that Eadric Streona (“Grasping Eadric” or “Eadric the Acquisitor”) irritated the monarch by beating him in a game of chess, Middle Ages chroniclers attributed his fate to the just deserts of inveterate treachery.

I didn't know that there were DESERTS in medieval England!

Regards,

[HartleyMBaldwin]

“Just deserts” is correct usage in this context. One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of “desert” is “deserved reward or punishment — usu. used in plural”. It’s derived from the Old French verb desirvir, meaning to deserve.