Where the Middle Ages Begin
All three types of source need careful interpretation. Suicide is notoriously elusive to records even in modern times, and more so for the Middle Ages. Once due allowances have been made for each genre, however, it is some reassurance that they agree on certain basics, and that these, in turn, agree with estimates from better-recorded centuries…
Seven Shillings and a Penny: Female Suicide in Late Medieval England Callaghan, Caitlin G. Medieval Feminist Forum, 43, no. 1 (2007) Abstract In 1961, the United Kingdom eradicated all penalties for attempted suicide with Parliament’s passage of the Suicide Act.1 Although previous legal provisos had already restricted certain penalties, such as the loss of property, […]
Were medieval jurors more inclined to condemn female self‐killers to a suicide’s death because of the familiar figure of the mad, possessed woman?
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