Pain, Penance, and Protest - Peine Forte Et Dure in Medieval England

An examination of peine fort et dure, the coercive medieval punishment for defendants refusing to plead to criminal indictments.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. Peine Forte et Dure: the medieval practice; 2. Standing mute in the courts of medieval England; 3. Due process and consent to jury trial; 4. Peine as Barbarity? putting the practice in context; 5. Why stand mute?; 6. Standing mute as Imitatio Christi; 7. Rejecting the jury, rejecting the common law, rejecting the king; Conclusion; Works cited; Index.

About the author

Sara M. Butler is the King George III Professor in British History at the Ohio State University. She is the author of three books: The Language of Abuse: Marital Violence in Later Medieval England, Divorce in Medieval England: From One to Two Persons in Law, and Forensic Medicine and Death Investigation in Medieval England.

Summary

In medieval England, a defendant who refused to plead to a criminal indictment was sentenced to peine forte et dure – pressing with weights. Using this punishment as a lens, this book blurs the lines between law, religion, and literature to understand how it functioned within the medieval criminal justice system.

Product details

• Authors: Sara M. Butler, Butler Sara M.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.04.2024
• EAN: 9781009065726
• ISBN: 978-1-0-0906572-6
• No. of pages: 488
• Series: Studies in Legal History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Social sciences, law, business > Law > General, dictionaries; European History, LAW / Legal History, CE period up to c 1500, Medieval History, Legal History, European history: medieval period, middle ages, HISTORY / Europe / Medieval, C 500 CE To C 1000 CE