I use the word ritual because in cases of treachery use of a general ‘script’ as ordered by these two accounts emerges with surprising frequency in England in the late 13th and early 14th century.
European Written Sources on the Counterfeiting of Coins in the Middle Ages
November 25, 2012 By
Counterfeiting of coins is mentioned in a multitude of medieval written sources, manuscripts and books, starting with the Laws of the Visigoths in the mid 7th century, through the Visitation of the Chapter of Esztergom in 1397, to the Inferno, first part of Dante Alighieri’s most important work, the Divina Comedia.
An 11th-Century Scandal
November 18, 2012 By
Complaints from Damian about the church’s unwillingness to confront the sexual behavior of the clergy, however, met with inaction. In 1049 Damian wrote to Pope Leo IX (1048-54) about the cancer of sexual abuse that was spreading through the church: boys and adolescents were being forced and seduced into performing acts of sodomy by priests and bishops; there were problems with sexual harassment among higher clergy; and many members of the clergy were keeping concubines.
Thirteenth-century knight was a murder victim, researchers believe
October 26, 2012 By
The remains of a thirteenth-century skeleton discovered buried at Norton Priory in western England were likely of a knight who was murdered by a sword cut to his upper back.
Social Deviancy: A Medieval Approach
October 10, 2012 By
Why bother with the weakest members of society by allocating substantial resources for keeping them alive and well in designated spaces?
Nomadic Violence in the First Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Military Orders
October 8, 2012 By
That the threat posed by bands of marauders was taken seriously by the early crusader settlers can be seen by some of the barons’ brutal reactions to it.
The King’s Mercy. An Attribute of Later Medieval English Monarchy
September 9, 2012 By
Modern assumptions about medieval justice still tend to see this process of amelioration as merely occasional and exceptional: mercy needed to be applied only where special circumstances made it inappropriate to apply the full rigours of the law. This, however, is seriously to misunderstand both the purpose and the pervasiveness of mercy in the operation of medieval justice.
A Medieval Murder – Interview with Frederik Pedersen
August 22, 2012 By
Frederik Pedersen, Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, talks with Medievalists.net about the murder of William Cantilupe on March 23, 1375.
Homicidal Pigs and the Antisemitic Imagination
August 20, 2012 By
This is not parody. It is not carnival. It is not a bestiary. The case of the black-snouted sow of Senlis is an actual legal document – one of upwards of thirty-five such cases known-in which various beasts were tried, convicted, and punished for criminal acts of brutality.
The Outlaws of Medieval England
August 12, 2012 By
In reality, the outlaws of medieval England had much more in common with a modern Mafiaso than they did with the gallant hero of Anglo-Saxon legend.
Arboriculture and the Environment in Manosque, 1341-1404
July 19, 2012 By
This thesis uses records of criminal inquisitions from 1341 to 1404 to take up the question of medieval environmental consciousness.
Of the Thief on the Cross: The Problem of Pain in Punishment
July 15, 2012 By
Legal and social historians assume that once a state structure became involved in the punishment of crimes, the aim of punishment was obviously deterrence. The spectacle of hanging or of broken bodies hoisted on the wheel served that end.
Wergeld: Crime and the compensation culture in medieval England
July 5, 2012 By
Wergeld is the payment demanded of a person who has killed someone. That is, until the 9th century when it was replaced by capital punishment. The history of ‘compensation culture’ is older than some might think.
First Catch Your Toad: Medieval Attitudes to Ordeal and Battle
June 18, 2012 By
Emma, the mother of Edward the Confessor, had walked over hot iron ploughshares to disprove an allegation of intimacy with Alwyn Bishop of Winchester, while Curthose, the Conqueror’s son, is reputed to have undergone the ordeal to prove his paternity.
The Roman De La Rose and the Thirteenth Century Prohibitions of Homosexuality
June 11, 2012 By
This paper, a tentative approach by someone who is not an expert in this area or on this text, argues that Guillaume de Lorris offers a veiled description of a male to male love relationship.
The Origins of Public Prosecution at Common Law
June 3, 2012 By
Judge and jury we can trace back to the high Middle Ages. But the prosecutor became a regular figure of Anglo-American criminal procedure only in Tudor times.
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
May 6, 2012 By
The medieval English forest has long been a space of contested legal meanings. After King William I first created the 75,000-acre New Forest, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a multiplicity of sites in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced.
The Stealing of the “Apple of Eve” from the 13th century Synagogue of Winchester
April 21, 2012 By
In January 1252, King Henry III sent a remarkable writ to the sheriff of Hampshire.
The Harsh Life on the 15th Century Croatia-Ottoman Empire Military Border: Analyzing and Identifying the Reasons for the Massacre in Cepin
April 4, 2012 By
Turkish intrusions into what is today the continental part of Croatia began in 1391 and continued throughout the 15th, and the beginning of the 16th century when a large part of continental Croatia was incorporated into the Turkish Empire.
Medieval Prostitution in Secular Law: The Sex Trade in Late Medieval London, Paris, and Toulouse
February 24, 2012 By
In order to understand the regulations that were put into place to deal with prostitutes and their trade in medieval England and France, it is important to have an understanding of what the legislators were trying to regulate. Who were these prostitutes? What acts constituted prostitution? What actions made a person a procurer, pimp, or bawd?
State power and illicit sexuality: the persecution of sodomy in late medieval Bruges
February 14, 2012 By
The study of marginal groups in the late medieval Low Countries is much neglected. The issues of when, where and how homosexuals came to be marginalized, to be regarded as a danger to social order, have not been specifically investigated in this part of Europe.
Be My Medieval Valentine?: Five Fabulous Books on Love!
February 14, 2012 By
Five fabulous books to enjoy with your Abelard or Heloise! Happy Valentine’s Day Medievalverse!
The Rectitudines singularum personarum: A Pre- and Post-Conquest Text
February 8, 2012 By
The most important extant document for our understanding of Anglo-Saxon manorial social structure is a text scholars call the Rectitudines singularum personarum
Torture and Plea Bargaining
February 5, 2012 By
Under certain circumstancesthe law permitted the criminal courts to employ physical coercionagainst suspected criminalsin orderto induce them to confess. The law went to great lengths to limit this technique of extorting confessions to cases in which it was thought that the accused was highly likely to be guilty…
Review: The Countess
February 3, 2012 By
The Countess is a 2009 film about Elizabeth Báthory. It is the Julie Delpy’s third directorial effort. Julia casts her self in the starring role as Erzsébet Báthory.
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