1st Edition

Crime in Medieval Europe 1200-1550

By Trevor Dean Copyright 2001
    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    206 Pages
    by Routledge

    What is the difference between a stabbing in a tavern in London and one in a hostelry in the South of France? What happens when a spinster living in Paris finds knight in her bedroom wanting to marry her? Why was there a crime wave following the Black Death? From Aberdeen to Cracow and from Stockholm to Sardinia, Trevor Dean ranges widely throughout medieval Europe in this exiting and innovative history of lawlessness and criminal justice. Drawing on the real-life stories of ordinary men and women who often found themselves at the sharp end of the law, he shows how it was often one rule for the rich and another for the poor in a tangled web of judicial corruption.

    List of illustrations ix
    Preface xi
    Editor’s Preface xiii
    Abbreviations xv
    1. Courts, Crimes and Causes 1
    2. Judicial Corruption 30
    3. Late Medieval Crime Waves? 47
    4. Women and Crime 73
    5. Outside the Law? Avengers, Clerics, Students 96
    6. Punishment 118
    7. Crime in Literature 144
    Conclusion 162
    Bibliographical note 164
    Index

    Biography

    Trevor Dean is Professor of History at Roehampton University.