Jury, State, and Society in Medieval England

Jury, State, and Society in Medieval England PDF Author: James Masschaele
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The jury system has a rich history, dating back to the twelfth century and beyond. It was a surprisingly vibrant institution in its earliest days, called upon to make tough decisions about innocence and guilt as well as to render verdicts on many other matters, often unrelated to law enforcement. In this new account of the historical formulations of the jury system - the first major study of the subject in over two decades - James Masschaele looks at how jurors carried out their numerous tasks, the role they played in the expansion of royal government, and the experiences of real medieval people who provided jury service."--BOOK JACKET.

Jury, State, and Society in Medieval England

Jury, State, and Society in Medieval England PDF Author: James Masschaele
Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
"The jury system has a rich history, dating back to the twelfth century and beyond. It was a surprisingly vibrant institution in its earliest days, called upon to make tough decisions about innocence and guilt as well as to render verdicts on many other matters, often unrelated to law enforcement. In this new account of the historical formulations of the jury system - the first major study of the subject in over two decades - James Masschaele looks at how jurors carried out their numerous tasks, the role they played in the expansion of royal government, and the experiences of real medieval people who provided jury service."--BOOK JACKET.

Politics and Society in Mid Thirteenth-Century England

Politics and Society in Mid Thirteenth-Century England PDF Author: Peter Coss
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198924305
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 332

Get Book Here

Book Description
Despite the multidirectional nature of modern research, the interpretation of the political history of thirteenth-century England has remained locked into a traditional framework bequeathed by the mid-twentieth-century historian, R. F. Treharne, and embellished by the emphases and accentuations of his present-day successors. Characterised by its conception of community, its constitutionalism, its ready identification of a national enterprise, and its predilection for idealism and 'progressive' thinking, this framework remains close to the Whig interpretation of English history. It is reinforced by the continuation of reverence for the baronial leader, Simon de Montfort. In contrast, Peter Coss offers here an alternative approach to the period which is anchored in social mores and cultural values. More emphasis is placed upon the interests, ambitions, and needs of contemporaries, upon social networks of various kinds, and upon how interests both clashed and cohered as people strove to improve or preserve their situations. This was a crisis born of political instability, but in the context of institutional, administrative, and legal growth, that is to say at a particular point in the evolution of the state. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the book reconsiders the generation of the crisis, the factors which influenced its course, and its (partial) resolution. In short, it explores the anatomy and physiology of a troubled realm.

Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England

Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England PDF Author: Elizabeth Papp Kamali
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108498795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
Explores the role of criminal intent in constituting felony in the first two centuries of the English criminal trial jury.

The Fifteenth-century Inquisitions Post Mortem

The Fifteenth-century Inquisitions Post Mortem PDF Author: Michael Hicks
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 1843837129
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
Essays offering a guide to a vital source for our knowledge of medieval England. The Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs) at the National Archives have been described as the single most important source for the study of landed society in later medieval England. Inquisitions were local enquiries into the lands heldby people of some status, in order to discover whatever income and rights were due to the crown on their death, and provide details both of the lands themselves and whoever held them. This book explores in detail for the first time the potential of IPMs as sources for economic, social and political history over the long fifteenth century, the period covered by this Companion. It looks at how they were made, how they were used, and their "accuracy", and develops our understanding of a source that is too often taken for granted; it answers questions such as what they sought to do, how they were compiled, and how reliable they are, while also exploring how they can best be usedfor economic, demographic, place-name, estate and other kinds of study. Michael Hicks is Professor of Medieval History, University of Winchester. Contributors: Michael Hicks, Christine Carpenter, Kate Parkin, Christopher Dyer, Matthew Holford, Margaret Yates, L.R. Poos, J. Oeppen, R.M. Smith, Sean Cunningham, Claire Noble, Matthew Holford, Oliver Padel.

The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature

The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature PDF Author: Elise Wang
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192698257
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Making of Felony Procedure in Middle English Literature explores the literary inheritance of criminal procedure in thirteenth to fifteenth century English law, focusing on felony, the gravest common law offense. Most scholarship in medieval law and literature has focused on statute and theory, drawing from the instantiating texts of English law: acts of Parliament, judicial treatises, the Magna Carta. But those whose job it was to write about the law rarely wrote about felony. Its definition was left to its practice--from investigation to conviction--and that procedure fell to local communities who were generally untrained in the law. Left with many practical and ethical questions and few legal answers, they turned to cultural ones, archived in sermons they had heard, plays they had seen, and poetry they knew. This book reads the documents of criminal procedure--coroners' reports, plea rolls, and gaol delivery records--alongside literary scenes of investigation, interrogation, and witnessing to tell a new intellectual history of criminal procedure's beginnings. The chapters of The Making of Felony Procedure guide the reader through the steps of a felony prosecution, from act to conviction, examining the questions local communities faced at each step. What evidence should be prioritized in a death investigation? Should the accused consider narrative satisfaction when building his plea? What are the dangers of a witnessing system that depends so heavily on a few "oathworthy" men? What can a jury do if the accused's guilt seems partial or complex? And what if the defendant-for whatever reason--refuses to participate in this new, still--delicate system of justice? The book argues that answers they found, and the sources that informed them, created the system that became modern criminal procedure. The epilogue offers some thoughts about the resilience and incoherence of the concept of felony, from the start of the jury trial to the present day.

Government and Political Life in England and France, c.1300–c.1500

Government and Political Life in England and France, c.1300–c.1500 PDF Author: Christopher Fletcher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316300218
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 393

Get Book Here

Book Description
How did the kings of England and France govern their kingdoms? This volume, the product of a ten-year international project, brings together specialists in late medieval England and France to explore the multiple mechanisms by which monarchs exercised their power in the final centuries of the Middle Ages. Collaborative chapters, mostly co-written by experts on each kingdom, cover topics ranging from courts, military networks and public finance; office, justice and the men of the church; to political representation, petitioning, cultural conceptions of political society; and the role of those excluded from formal involvement in politics. The result is a richly detailed and innovative comparison of the nature of government and political life, seen from the point of view of how the king ruled his kingdom, but bringing to bear the methods of social, cultural and economic history to understand the underlying armature of royal power.

Women in the Medieval Common Law c.1200–1500

Women in the Medieval Common Law c.1200–1500 PDF Author: Gwen Seabourne
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134775970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 190

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines the view of women held by medieval common lawyers and legislators, and considers medieval women’s treatment by and participation in the processes of the common law. Surveying a wide range of points of contact between women and the common law, from their appearance (or not) in statutes, through their participation (or not) as witnesses, to their treatment as complainants or defendants, it argues for closer consideration of women within the standard narratives of classical legal history, and for re-examination of some previous conclusions on the relationship between women and the common law. It will appeal to scholars and students of medieval history, as well as those interested in legal history, gender studies and the history of women.

Crossing Borders: Boundaries and Margins in Medieval and Early Modern Britain

Crossing Borders: Boundaries and Margins in Medieval and Early Modern Britain PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004364951
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 307

Get Book Here

Book Description
A set of essays intended to recognize the scholarship of Professor Cynthia Neville, the papers gathered here explore borders and boundaries in medieval and early modern Britain. Over her career, Cynthia has excavated the history of border law and social life on the frontier between England and Scotland and has written extensively of the relationships between natives and newcomers in Scotland’s Middle Ages. Her work repeatedly invokes jurisdiction as both a legal and territorial expression of power. The essays in this volume return to themes and topics touched upon in her corpus of work, all in one way or another examining borders and boundaries as either (or both) spatial and legal constructs that grow from and shape social interaction. Contributors are Douglas Biggs, Amy Blakeway, Steve Boardman, Sara M. Butler, Anne DeWindt, Kenneth F. Duggan, Elizabeth Ewan, Chelsea D.M. Hartlen, K.J. Kesselring, Tom Lambert, Shannon McSheffrey, and Cathryn R. Spence.

Peasants and historians

Peasants and historians PDF Author: Phillipp Schofield
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526104709
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

Get Book Here

Book Description
Peasants and historians is an examination of historical discussion of the medieval English peasantry. In this book, the first such study of its kind, the author traces the development of historical research aimed at exploring the nature of peasant society. In separate chapters, the author examines the three main defining themes which have been applied to the medieval economy in general including change affecting the medieval peasantry. In subsequent chapters debates in relation to demography, family structure, women in rural society, and the nature of village community are each considered in turn. A final chapter on peasant culture also suggests areas of development and, potentially at least, future directions in research and writing. Offering an informed grounding in the main areas of historical writing in this area, it will be of interest to researchers as well as to those coming new to the topic, including undergraduate and postgraduate students.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History PDF Author: Allen Boyer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003846130
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 373

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the development and application of the law of treason in England across more than a thousand years, placing this legal history within a broader historical context. Describing many high-profile prosecutions and trials, the book focuses on the statutes, ordinances and customs that have at various times governed, limited and shaped this worst of crimes. It explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book. This book also considers why treason as both a word and a concept remains so potent in wider modern culture, investigating prevalent current misconceptions about what is and what is not treason. It concludes by suggesting that the abolition or 'death' of treason in the near future, while a logical next step, is by no means a foregone conclusion. The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History is a thorough academic introduction for scholars and history students, as well as general readers with an interest in British political and legal history.