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TV shows like Game of Thrones lead us to believe that the medieval world was an extraordinarily violent era, in which no one was held accountable for their crimes. How accurate is that perception?
In this talk, we will examine crime and punishment in the Middle Ages and talk about why people today want to believe the medieval world was so violent. Murder was not committed with impunity in the Middle Ages. Those who committed murder were caught and punished, although not always as we might expect. Catching criminals in an era before forensics and police forces was not easy. This talk will analyze how medieval communities worked together to catch murderers, and in doing so we'll touch on the foundations of the modern legal system, including: the medieval coroner and his inquest jury, the sheriff and his posse, trial by ordeal, and the origins of the trial jury.
This talk is appropriate for ages 12 and up.
Sara M. Butler is the King George III Professor in British History at The Ohio State University. Her books include: The Language of Abuse: Marital Violence in Later Medieval England (2007), Divorce in Medieval England: From One to Two Persons at Law (2013), Forensic Medicine and Death Investigation in Medieval England (2016), and Pain, Penance and Protest: Peine Forte et Dure in Medieval England (2022). She is the co-founder and regular contributor to the blog Legal History Miscellany. Her current project is on malicious accusations of homicide in thirteenth-century England.
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