Law and Justice in Medieval England

In this essay I will discuss a central ambiguity in the enactment of the Statute of labourers: whether it was meant to serve the interests of noble employers or all employers, and how successfully the enforcement of it was motivated on a local level. While the Statute cannot but be described as a complete failure on the broad national economic terms it evokes, it is clear that it was widely known and enforced in a way not replicated by contemporary European legislation. What made the English legalisation special was its continued attempts to make itself more pragmatic. Its ultimate success or failure depended on its ability to address itself to the motivations of its enforcers, the local peasant elite.

This thesis concentrates on the visit of the itinerant justices to Oxfordshire in January 1261, an event that occurred shortly after the demise of the baronial council. The contents of the eyre’s surviving roll provides a valuable insight into how local society viewed  centre impacted upon the shires and the shires viewed the of the political manouvering upon local society. The justices conduct and whether they enforced the baronial reforms are fundamental issues addressed by this study Using the contents of the roll itself, the study examines whether the justices conducted proceedings in accordance with the baronial reforms instituted in 1258-9. The thesis similarly explores the revenues generated by the visitation are analysed to establish whether the reforms impacted financially before turning to a wider discussion of how 1261 profits compared to issues raised in the eyres of Henry III’s personal rule and that of his son Edward I. The thesis likewise looks at the role played by the knights of Oxfordshire. Drawn from the grand assize panels on the roll, examines the fundamental question concerning the motivation and actions of those who supported or opposed the crown or who chose to remain aloof.
The study discusses the range of criminal business that came within the eyre’s jurisdiction before discussing the efficiency of the county’s law enforcement system. The question of whether there was an increase in crime levels in the thirteenth century is also addressed. Focusing upon reported homicides, the evidence has been drawn from all the surviving Oxfordshire eyre rolls. This is followed by a discussion of the civil business heard in the 1261 eyre. The composition of those engaged in civil litgation is discussed before there is a discussion of the range of civial actions coming before Oxfordshire’s itinerant justices between 1241 and 1281 and establishes whether there were any significant differences in their composition. Finally, this thesis provides a full transcription and indexes of the contents of the roll itself.

Common law was an all-male system, with one glaring exception: juries of matrons. If a convicted felon requested a reprieve from execution on the grounds of pregnancy, it was the responsibility of a group of twelve matrons to perform an inspection in order to determine if she was in fact pregnant. Matrons were in a position of great authority. Their verdicts were definitive: if they decided a woman was pregnant, then she was sent back to prison. Despite the significance of their role, little is known about medieval matrons and what qualified them to sit on a jury. Were they mothers? Honorable wives? Midwives? The goal of this paper is to argue that matrons had training in obstetrics. This was particularly important for medieval matrons because the quickening (that is ensoulment, signaled by the first fetal movements) did not become the focal point of the matrons' assessment until at least 1348. Before this, the diagnosis was much more medically challenging as matrons had to determine whether a felon had conceived. Overall, the medieval records demonstrate great confidence in medieval matrons and their obstetrical expertise.

The practical necessity of sight to effective participation in Anglo-Saxon life is reflected in the multifaceted depictions of punitive blinding in late Anglo-Saxon literature. As a motif of empowerment or disempowerment, acts of blinding permeate the histories and hagiographies of the eleventh and twelfth centuries and each narrative mode illuminates different societal attitudes to the practice. These narratives reflect a social discomfort and lack of evidence for a prevalent culture of punitive blinding, alongside a growing acceptance in late Anglo-Saxon England of the measure as a practical penalty. As a codified legal punishment, blinding was reserved for recidivist criminals: mutilation punished while preserving the soul for the redemption of repentance. An eleventh-century legal innovation, the histories and chronicles relating events of this period similarly display a growing acceptance of blinding as a practical expedient deprivation of personal political agency. In contrast, the trope of blinding in hagiographical narrative frequently displays a social commentary that opposes these political and legal powers. Blindings, attempted blindings and healings are motifs used to correct the wrongs of temporal agents and bestow God's favour upon a saint. The conflicting narratives demonstrate the conflicted attitude to blinding inherent in a culture that considered sight as a vehicle for power.

Since Piers Plowman occupies a central place in the study of medieval English literature, much attention has been paid to the vexed question of the poem's authorship. This justified interest in revealing the human agent behind the family of interrelated versions of the poem, usually named A, B, and C, continues to feed a vibrant industry of speculative scholarship on the person behind the poem. This article reassesses the relevance of the 'Langland' myth for the contemporary reception of the poem, and argues that medieval audiences of the B Version associated the work with a 'Long Will' author-persona. In this context, the case of a previously unnoticed Norfolk poacher in the weeks leading up to the 1381 rising, a William Longewille, and his encroachment on the estate of the former sheriff and tax collector Richard Holdych echo the Ploughing of the Half-Acre in Piers Plowman, in particular as it is presented in the B Version of the poem. As a result, this article proposes that both the A and B Versions of the poem may have been available to (some of) the rebels of 1381, and that the B Version may have circulated in Norfolk along Cluniac and Benedictine networks before and after the unrest.

The English Common Law, as it emerged in the thirteenth century owes more than we English always admit to the Ius Commune of Western Christendom, a practical conflation of Roman law with the canon law of the Church. A good illustration is the way the development together of our notions of Due Process and the summary process needed to raise the probabilities of conviction of the non-respectable, heretics and others.

In 1272 some dozen men in Northamptonshire, England were pursued by king’s wardens for poaching deer in the royal forest of Rockingham. Legal records for the ensuing case, a “forest plea,” tell us that the wardens caught up with the poachers at a certain forest track where members of the band set up a deer’s head on a stake, intended as an insult to the king and his men. Bo Almqvist, in his defining work Norrön Niddiktning (1965), cites this incident, which occurred in a Norse settlement area, as an instance of Old Norse sculptural níð. Thomas L. Markey references it again in his own study (1972). Since then little notice has been given to it. But should there be? After all, detailed descriptions of sculptural níð are rare in historical sources. This study revisits the claim that this forest plea contains an instance of sculptural níð. In examining the strength of the evidence, the study raises several methodological questions specific to this case but also to the study of níð in general. This study finds that the Rockingham forest plea cannot be definitively linked to sculptural níð as depicted in Old Norse sources. Nevertheless, it is a warranted comparison that informs us about the structure, function, and possible boundaries of níð. More- over, certain agreement in details might be used to discern additional níð-like practices in Old Norse sources.

When someone commits a crime nowadays, witnesses and/or victims notify the police. But what would people do if no police force existed, as was the case in medieval Britain? How would criminals be apprehended and brought to justice? Not for the faint-hearted, this course will explore how both men and women experienced and dealt with crime in medieval Britain through a variety of (sometimes grisly) topics, including feud, murder and theft, prison and bail, outlawry and execution. It will also tackle difficult themes, such as the crown's attempts to increase its control over crime and punishment through royal officers such as coroners and sheriffs, as well as how far experiences with the law were gendered. Twenty-first-century television depicts the medieval world as lawless and lacking in justice, and largely portrays women as helpless bystanders or victims of crime. But how accurate are these portrayals? After reading coroners' reports, jury verdicts, law codes, royal statutes and many other juicy primary sources, you will see that women were not so helpless and that medieval society – even without a police force – was not terribly lawless. By the end of this exciting and wide-ranging course, you will have a new appreciation for the complexities and role of law in Medieval Britain.

Studying premodern societies’ efforts to define and cope with deviance continues to generate insights about the usefulness of the pre/modern divide. Such study historicizes what appear, from a modern perspective, to be perennial problems and staple characteristics of crime and punishment. To accommodate the influx of quality research in this field, this series provides a congenial venue for works exploring the social, legal, institutional, religious, and cultural aspects of premodern crime and punishment.

The series invites scholars at any stage of their careers and with a geographical focus on any sub-region within Europe and the Mediterranean World to share their book proposals and draft manuscripts with us.

The series is interested in both monographic studies and proposals for developing edited volumes dealing with specific crimes (such as murder) and punishments (such as the death penalty) from a comparative and trans-regional perspective, as well as thematic volumes exploring the relations of gender and crime, religion and punishment, and the spatial and performative dimensions of justice in premodernity.

The Gascon Rolls are the main source on "English" Gascony kept at the National Archives (TNA) of Kew. Since 2008, three editorial projects are publishing on the web the calendars of this source for the period 1317 to 1467.
Guilhem Pépin has finished to complete the period 1399-1453 which is now available online.