Laura Gowing
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198207634
- eISBN:
- 9780191677755
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198207634.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History, Social History
This book examines for the first time women's experiences and gender relations in the diverse and mobile society of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century London. It focuses on disputes over sex, ...
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This book examines for the first time women's experiences and gender relations in the diverse and mobile society of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century London. It focuses on disputes over sex, marriage, and insults, with a detailed analysis based on legal records that have not been used before. It presents a powerful and vivid picture of the working of gender relations, honour, and morals in the practice of daily life.Less
This book examines for the first time women's experiences and gender relations in the diverse and mobile society of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century London. It focuses on disputes over sex, marriage, and insults, with a detailed analysis based on legal records that have not been used before. It presents a powerful and vivid picture of the working of gender relations, honour, and morals in the practice of daily life.
Kate Peters
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780197266250
- eISBN:
- 9780191869181
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197266250.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
This chapter traces the legal and political frameworks that underpinned rights of access to archives in the decades preceding the outbreak of civil war in 1642, showing that there were two different ...
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This chapter traces the legal and political frameworks that underpinned rights of access to archives in the decades preceding the outbreak of civil war in 1642, showing that there were two different cultures of access: one determined by the rights of subjects to consult legal court records; the other shaped by the culture of secrecy associated with the records of crown estates and royal prerogative. Over the course of the civil war, a new language of access emerged. The assertion of parliamentary sovereignty and the dislocating experiences of civil war mobilisation led to a radical, perhaps unprecedented, articulation of the rights of the people to control and access the information that defined their material rights and status. Ultimately this chapter argues that this new, if short lived, articulation of public right of access to records is important not only for the history of record-keeping, but also reveals much about the political and material interests that were at stake in the English revolution.Less
This chapter traces the legal and political frameworks that underpinned rights of access to archives in the decades preceding the outbreak of civil war in 1642, showing that there were two different cultures of access: one determined by the rights of subjects to consult legal court records; the other shaped by the culture of secrecy associated with the records of crown estates and royal prerogative. Over the course of the civil war, a new language of access emerged. The assertion of parliamentary sovereignty and the dislocating experiences of civil war mobilisation led to a radical, perhaps unprecedented, articulation of the rights of the people to control and access the information that defined their material rights and status. Ultimately this chapter argues that this new, if short lived, articulation of public right of access to records is important not only for the history of record-keeping, but also reveals much about the political and material interests that were at stake in the English revolution.
Lindsay R. Moore
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781526136336
- eISBN:
- 9781526144607
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526136343.00005
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter provides an overview of the major arguments in the book and maps out how women’s relationship to the law changed in England and colonial America under different legal jurisdictions. It ...
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This chapter provides an overview of the major arguments in the book and maps out how women’s relationship to the law changed in England and colonial America under different legal jurisdictions. It presents the argument that the law increasingly replaced patriarchy as the governing ideology of family and social relationships. It discusses the opportunities and limitations of using legal records as a source of historical evidence, and assesses how the work contributes to our understanding of women in the early modern period.Less
This chapter provides an overview of the major arguments in the book and maps out how women’s relationship to the law changed in England and colonial America under different legal jurisdictions. It presents the argument that the law increasingly replaced patriarchy as the governing ideology of family and social relationships. It discusses the opportunities and limitations of using legal records as a source of historical evidence, and assesses how the work contributes to our understanding of women in the early modern period.
Joanna Kopaczyk
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199945153
- eISBN:
- 9780199345939
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199945153.003.0007
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, English Language
This chapter offers an overview of the history of law in Scotland in the medieval and early modern period, with special emphasis on the role of the burghs in the development of legal customs, ...
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This chapter offers an overview of the history of law in Scotland in the medieval and early modern period, with special emphasis on the role of the burghs in the development of legal customs, institutions, and instruments. The contemporary English legal system provides a comparative background. It is crucial, however, to understand the distinctive features of Scots law and the influences from continental legal traditions (civil and canon law) to appreciate the linguistic patterns emerging in Scottish legal texts, brought frequently into the discussion to signal the links with the analytical part of the book. The focus is placed on feudalism and the rich legal machinery developed during that period: early burgh laws and the structure and functions of burgh courts. The special place of the burghs in the Scottish Parliament is also acknowledged. Finally, the discussion zooms in on early Scottish men of law and the texts they produced.Less
This chapter offers an overview of the history of law in Scotland in the medieval and early modern period, with special emphasis on the role of the burghs in the development of legal customs, institutions, and instruments. The contemporary English legal system provides a comparative background. It is crucial, however, to understand the distinctive features of Scots law and the influences from continental legal traditions (civil and canon law) to appreciate the linguistic patterns emerging in Scottish legal texts, brought frequently into the discussion to signal the links with the analytical part of the book. The focus is placed on feudalism and the rich legal machinery developed during that period: early burgh laws and the structure and functions of burgh courts. The special place of the burghs in the Scottish Parliament is also acknowledged. Finally, the discussion zooms in on early Scottish men of law and the texts they produced.
Melanie L. Williams
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782593
- eISBN:
- 9780804783903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782593.003.0006
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter focuses on the law and literature of Lewis Jones's Cwmardy and We Live It examines the revolutionary use of literature, highlighting the extent to which history and the legal record both ...
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This chapter focuses on the law and literature of Lewis Jones's Cwmardy and We Live It examines the revolutionary use of literature, highlighting the extent to which history and the legal record both gloss and subsume contestable accounts.Less
This chapter focuses on the law and literature of Lewis Jones's Cwmardy and We Live It examines the revolutionary use of literature, highlighting the extent to which history and the legal record both gloss and subsume contestable accounts.
Richard Burt
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804782593
- eISBN:
- 9780804783903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804782593.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Philosophy of Law
This chapter examines a series of related, uncritically examined and positivist and historicist assumptions about the law, secrets, sovereignty, and media. These assumptions are: secrets are ...
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This chapter examines a series of related, uncritically examined and positivist and historicist assumptions about the law, secrets, sovereignty, and media. These assumptions are: secrets are indivisible, hidden but waiting to be revealed; whatever media the law allows admitted in court as evidence are transparent, not opaque, and hence the evidence is evidently legible; live testimony is primary, its records secondary; transparent and complete legal records can be easily preserved and stored in documents, files, and archives; these records, some of which may include documents obtained by subpoena or secret documents only the judge reviews in chambers, can be reconstructed by historians, journalists, attorneys, and ordinary citizens; the judge, or sovereign, is indivisible; and fiction and testimony are opposites; fiction amounts to perjury, fully conscious testimony being truth “the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”Less
This chapter examines a series of related, uncritically examined and positivist and historicist assumptions about the law, secrets, sovereignty, and media. These assumptions are: secrets are indivisible, hidden but waiting to be revealed; whatever media the law allows admitted in court as evidence are transparent, not opaque, and hence the evidence is evidently legible; live testimony is primary, its records secondary; transparent and complete legal records can be easily preserved and stored in documents, files, and archives; these records, some of which may include documents obtained by subpoena or secret documents only the judge reviews in chambers, can be reconstructed by historians, journalists, attorneys, and ordinary citizens; the judge, or sovereign, is indivisible; and fiction and testimony are opposites; fiction amounts to perjury, fully conscious testimony being truth “the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
Roger Davidson
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781474441193
- eISBN:
- 9781474459877
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474441193.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This book seeks to chart how the Scottish legal system responded to what were deemed ‘illicit and unnatural practices’ after 1900. Using a wide range of prosecution and trial records, along with more ...
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This book seeks to chart how the Scottish legal system responded to what were deemed ‘illicit and unnatural practices’ after 1900. Using a wide range of prosecution and trial records, along with more recent newspaper coverage of court proceedings, it furnishes a fascinating insight into the relationship between the law, sex, and society in modern Scotland. Case studies of sex-related offences, including abortion, bestiality, brothel-keeping, child sexual assault, and wilful HIV transmission, reveal how far the legal process both reflected and reinforced contemporary moral panics and how far it was shaped by the interplay between law officers and forensic experts, by the prejudices of the local community and civic leaders, and by Scotland’s distinctive legal and moral identity. The law in practice is seen to have sustained important norms of sexual behaviour and masculinity along with an enduring double moral standard with respect to female sexuality. This volume thus affords a remarkable new perspective on the sexual behaviours and ideologies of Scottish society across the twentieth century and into the new millennium.Less
This book seeks to chart how the Scottish legal system responded to what were deemed ‘illicit and unnatural practices’ after 1900. Using a wide range of prosecution and trial records, along with more recent newspaper coverage of court proceedings, it furnishes a fascinating insight into the relationship between the law, sex, and society in modern Scotland. Case studies of sex-related offences, including abortion, bestiality, brothel-keeping, child sexual assault, and wilful HIV transmission, reveal how far the legal process both reflected and reinforced contemporary moral panics and how far it was shaped by the interplay between law officers and forensic experts, by the prejudices of the local community and civic leaders, and by Scotland’s distinctive legal and moral identity. The law in practice is seen to have sustained important norms of sexual behaviour and masculinity along with an enduring double moral standard with respect to female sexuality. This volume thus affords a remarkable new perspective on the sexual behaviours and ideologies of Scottish society across the twentieth century and into the new millennium.
Alison Rowlands
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- July 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780719052590
- eISBN:
- 9781781700167
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719052590.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Early Modern History
Given the widespread belief in witchcraft and the existence of laws against such practices, why did witch-trials fail to gain momentum and escalate into ‘witch-crazes’ in certain parts of early ...
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Given the widespread belief in witchcraft and the existence of laws against such practices, why did witch-trials fail to gain momentum and escalate into ‘witch-crazes’ in certain parts of early modern Europe? This book answers this question by examining the rich legal records of the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a city that experienced a very restrained pattern of witch-trials and just one execution for witchcraft between 1561 and 1652. The book explores the factors that explain the absence of a ‘witch-craze’ in Rothenburg, placing particular emphasis on the interaction of elite and popular priorities in the pursuit (and non-pursuit) of alleged witches at law. By making the witchcraft narratives told by the peasants and townspeople of Rothenburg central to its analysis, the book also explores the social and psychological conflicts that lay behind the making of accusations and confessions of witchcraft. Furthermore, it challenges the existing explanations for the gender-bias of witch-trials, and also offers insights into other areas of early modern life, such as experiences of and beliefs about communal conflict, magic, motherhood, childhood and illness. Written in a narrative style, the study invites a wide readership to share in the drama of early modern witch trials.Less
Given the widespread belief in witchcraft and the existence of laws against such practices, why did witch-trials fail to gain momentum and escalate into ‘witch-crazes’ in certain parts of early modern Europe? This book answers this question by examining the rich legal records of the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, a city that experienced a very restrained pattern of witch-trials and just one execution for witchcraft between 1561 and 1652. The book explores the factors that explain the absence of a ‘witch-craze’ in Rothenburg, placing particular emphasis on the interaction of elite and popular priorities in the pursuit (and non-pursuit) of alleged witches at law. By making the witchcraft narratives told by the peasants and townspeople of Rothenburg central to its analysis, the book also explores the social and psychological conflicts that lay behind the making of accusations and confessions of witchcraft. Furthermore, it challenges the existing explanations for the gender-bias of witch-trials, and also offers insights into other areas of early modern life, such as experiences of and beliefs about communal conflict, magic, motherhood, childhood and illness. Written in a narrative style, the study invites a wide readership to share in the drama of early modern witch trials.
Thomas J. McSweeney
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198845454
- eISBN:
- 9780191880643
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198845454.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Legal History
This chapter will examine some surviving rolls of cases heard by Henry of Bratton, who appears to have internalized the notions that plea rolls were authoritative texts and that the justices who ...
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This chapter will examine some surviving rolls of cases heard by Henry of Bratton, who appears to have internalized the notions that plea rolls were authoritative texts and that the justices who wrote them were jurists. As a result, Bratton began to approach his own rolls differently, crafting them for a potential audience who would be interested in the legal principles his cases represented, much as modern justices of the United States Supreme Court think about law students as an audience when drafting important opinions. In his rolls and the Bracton treatise, we see Bratton trying to position himself as the obvious heir to the great justices Martin of Pattishall and William of Raleigh and as a jurist learned in Roman law.Less
This chapter will examine some surviving rolls of cases heard by Henry of Bratton, who appears to have internalized the notions that plea rolls were authoritative texts and that the justices who wrote them were jurists. As a result, Bratton began to approach his own rolls differently, crafting them for a potential audience who would be interested in the legal principles his cases represented, much as modern justices of the United States Supreme Court think about law students as an audience when drafting important opinions. In his rolls and the Bracton treatise, we see Bratton trying to position himself as the obvious heir to the great justices Martin of Pattishall and William of Raleigh and as a jurist learned in Roman law.
Hannah Skoda
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199670833
- eISBN:
- 9780191749551
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199670833.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This introduction interrogates our own interest in violence, and suggests that the Middle Ages were characterised by a complex attitude towards physical brutality. Violence was, on some levels, ...
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This introduction interrogates our own interest in violence, and suggests that the Middle Ages were characterised by a complex attitude towards physical brutality. Violence was, on some levels, deemed necessary as communication or discipline, but, on the other hand, it provoked shock and disapproval. The historiography of violence is considered, from philosophical perspectives to socio-political history of the Middle Ages and diachronic approaches. The regions of Artois and Paris are briefly described and the source material introduced, ranging from sermons, to popular literature (fabliaux, the Renart stories and secular theatre), legal records, and penitentials.Less
This introduction interrogates our own interest in violence, and suggests that the Middle Ages were characterised by a complex attitude towards physical brutality. Violence was, on some levels, deemed necessary as communication or discipline, but, on the other hand, it provoked shock and disapproval. The historiography of violence is considered, from philosophical perspectives to socio-political history of the Middle Ages and diachronic approaches. The regions of Artois and Paris are briefly described and the source material introduced, ranging from sermons, to popular literature (fabliaux, the Renart stories and secular theatre), legal records, and penitentials.
