Customary law before the Conquest
In trying to discover how disputes were settled by mediation in Anglo-Saxon England, I found that the practice must have relied on a quite sophisticated law of property.
Alienated from the womb: abortion in the early medieval West, c.500-900
Early medieval churchmen, rulers, and jurists saw multiple things in abortion and there were multiple perspectives upon abortion.
Medieval Student Violence
Throughout the middle ages university towns such as Oxford, Paris and Bologna were incredibly dangerous places to live.
Anglo-Saxon Double Monasteries
Monks and nuns living together: not a cause for scandal but, as Barbara Mitchell explains, an intriguing window onto the variety of monastic life – under the aegis of remarkable abbesses – before the Conquest.
Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland
Many scholars have written about ‘the Irish law of dynastic succession’ since Eoin Mac Neill published an article with that title in 1919.
Foundlings, asylums, almshouses and orphanages: early roots of child protection
Historically, when societies faced serious economic problems, competing demands for resources, or implicit cultural expectations, those with the lowest social status fared poorly.
Defining a community: Controlling nuisance in late-medieval London
Looking only at late-medieval London, this study examines nuisance and social regulation through an analysis of secular court records, as well as other relevant municipal sources.
Slavery and the slave trade in pre-colonial Africa
Slavery and the Slave Trade have been age old institutions and practices in almost every continent in the world.
Medieval Rothley, Leicestershire: manor, soke and parish
In 1882 George Clark gave a paper on the manor and soke of Rothley which he described as ancient demesne, and he saw the soke as a place of safety enfranchised by the king for the holding of a court for tenants who held in socage.
Homo Sacer: Power, Life and the Sexual Body in Old French Saints’ Lives
It might of course be argued that the comfort for this torture that Christine receives by God’s grace draws attention away from the cruelty of her punishments…
Utopia Pre-Empted: Kett’s Rebellion, Commoning, and the Hysterical Sublime
Utopia Pre-Empted: Kett’s Rebellion, Commoning, and the Hysterical Sublime Holstun, Jim (State University of New York, Buffalo) Historical Materialism, 16 (2008) Abstract In…
The Remarkable Role of Women in 16th Century French Basque Law Codes
The Remarkable Role of Women in 16th Century French Basque Law Codes Frank, Roslyn M. and Lowenberg, Shelley (University of Iowa) Proceedings of the Western…