Cracking down on illegal gambling in Medieval Livonia
Just like their modern day counterparts, medieval cities had to deal with their own criminal underworlds – the sex trade, gambling, and violence taking place within their walls. At the International Medieval Congress, held earlier this month at the University of Leeds, these issues were explored as part of session #706: Perceiving and Regulating Vices.
The Afterlife of the Dead: Reform in Attitude Towards Medieval Burials, Corpses and Bones
The International Medieval Congress is taking place at the University of Leeds, I’m on hand this week to report on the conference. This blog post reports on my first session.
Imprisoning the Mentally Ill in Medieval England
What to do with mentally ill individuals who are violent? This is a question that modern and medieval societies had to deal with.
Pigs and Prostitutes: Streetwalking in Comparative Perspective
‘No one shall keep pigs which go in the streets by day or night, nor shall any prostitute stay in the city.’
Medieval poaching site discovered in England
Archaeologists working in northern England have uncovered a stone-lined cess pit that was filled with dozens of bones from deer. The evidence suggests that they were dumped here by poachers.
Bishops and Their Towns
Another #KZOO2015 post – this one examines Bishops and Their Towns.
Shadow of the Sword (The Headsman)
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau gives us a sympathetic Headsman in Reformation Austria, in the ‘Shadow of the Sword (The Headsman)’.
Of thieves, counterfeiters and homicides: crime in Hedeby and Birka
Material evidence of prehistoric crime is rare. A compilation of finds from Hedeby harbour however offers three case studies, where three different offences – thievery, counterfeiting and homicide – are likely.
Magna Carta: The Road to Runnymede
A look at the creation of the British Library’s Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy exhibition.
Four Kidnappings in Thirteenth-Century Aragon: Christian Children as Victims of Christian-Muslim Domination
We don’t have to probe too deeply to identify the impetus for these acts: it was simple greed.
Capital and Corporal Punishment may have been rare in Anglo-Saxon England, researcher suggests
A long standing belief about early medieval justice was that many offenders would be executed for serious crimes, or face punishments such as amputations for lesser offences. However, an examination of archaeological data suggests that these kinds of punishments were rare in Anglo-Saxon England.
Managing Criminal Women in Scotland: An Assessment of the Scarcity of Female Offenders in the Records of the High Court of Justiciary, 1524-1542
The records of Scotland’s High Court of Justiciary that run from 1524 to 1542 contain a remarkably low number of women charged with felonies and pleas of the crown, and reveal the justiciar’s reluctance to convict or execute female offenders.
Slippery When Wet: Madness and Eroticism in the Countess Elizabeth Bathory
The Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a 16th century Hungarian noblewoman, is purported to have killed and bathed in the blood of 600 virgin girls
The Names of Criminals in Medieval England
Agnes Daythef, Henry Golichtly, Godwin Haluedeuel and Walter Litlegod – how did they get such names?
The Importance of Parks in Fifteenth-Century Society
In this paper, my aim is to consider the role of parks in the fifteenth century.
Peasant Anger and Violence in the Writings of Orderic Vitalis
This paper examines the representation of peasant anger in the writings of Orderic Vitalis. In his texts, Orderic often associates peasant anger with divine vengeance and just violence.
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950)
The Contours, Frequency and Causation of Subsistence Crises in Carolingian Europe (750-950) Timothy P. Newfield Crisis Alimentarias en la Edad Media: Modelos, Explicaciones…
INTERVIEW: A Conversation with SD Sykes about Plague Land
My interview with fiction author, SD Sykes about her fantastic medieval crime novel, Plague Land.
The Floating State: Trade Embargoes and the Rise of a New Venetian State
This paper was given by Georg Christ and examined embargoes and state formation in the late medieval and early modern period in Venice.
Extralegal and English: the Robin Hood Legend and Increasing National Identity in the Middling Sorts of Late Medieval England
The legend was clearly not the only work of popular culture in what I propose as the long fifteenth century, but it does serve as a very useful representation for examining the growth of Englishness.
An Analysis of Child Sexual Abuse During the Byzantine Empire
During the Byzantine Empire, child sexual abuse was more prevalent and less stigmatized than it is today.
Sleepwalking and Murder in the Middle Ages
It happens that many people get up at night while asleep, take weapons or sticks, or ride a horse.What is the cause of this? What is the remedy?
Conversion on the Scaffold: Italian Practices in European Context
11 January 1581 was a fine day in Rome. That morning, Michel de Montaigne, recently arrived in the city, had gone out on horseback when he encountered a procession accompanying a condemned man to execution. Montaigne stopped to watch the sight.
Murder, Alchemy and the Wars of the Roses
What follows is a kind of murder mystery, but not a whodunit. The identity of the man who carried out the crime, while indeed a mystery, is probably unknowable and actually unimportant.
Medieval Prisons: Between Myth and Reality, Hell and Purgatory
When were medieval prisons founded? What was life inside them like? How did contemporary observers perceive them?