Crime in Medieval Europe: 1200-1550

by Dean; Trevor

• ISBN13: 9780582326767
• ISBN10: 0582326761
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-10-24
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Trevor Dean is Professor of Medieval History at the University of Surrey, Roehampton.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	ix
Preface	xi
Editor's Preface	xiii
Abbreviations	xv
Courts, Crimes and Causes	1	(29)
Judicial Corruption	30	(17)
Late Medieval Crime Waves?	47	(26)
Women and Crime	73	(23)
Outside the Law? Avengers, Clerics, Students	96	(22)
Punishment	118	(26)
Crime in Literature	144	(18)
Conclusion	162	(2)
Bibliographical note	164	(4)
Index	168