scholarly journals A Piece of the Puzzle: Women and the Law as Viewed from the Late Medieval Court of Chancery

2019 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 751-767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cordelia Beattie
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Lower Court ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Common ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
Court Of Chancery ◽  
Women And The Law ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThis article uses fifteenth-century Chancery court bills to demonstrate how women negotiated solutions to social and legal disputes not just in Chancery but through a variety of legal jurisdictions. This approach sheds light on women's actions in courts where the records have not survived, and it also adds nuance to the long-running debate about whether equity was a more favorable jurisdiction for women than the common law. By bringing into view other jurisdictions—such as manorial, borough, and ecclesiastical ones—it demonstrates how litigants might pursue justice in a number of arenas, consecutively or concurrently. Some women approached Chancery because they did not think they would get justice in a lower court, while others were keen that their cases be sent back down so that they could be fully recompensed for the offences against them. A fuller understanding of the disputes to which Chancery bills refer complicates our understanding of why women “chose” Chancery. Chancery is only one piece of the puzzle of how women negotiated justice in late medieval England, but its records can also shed light on some of the missing pieces.

Arbitration and the Growth of Urban Liberties in Late Medieval England

1992 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorraine Attreed
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Dispute Settlement ◽  
Common Law ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Financial Investments ◽  
The Common ◽  
Late Medieval England ◽  
The City ◽  
Shed Light

In December 1448, the city of Exeter agreed with the bishop and dean and chapter of the cathedral church to abide by the arbitration of two local magnates who settled a complex dispute over urban jurisdiction. That the arbitrators decided against the city, which suffered a slight constitutional setback as a result, is only one of several important conclusions to be drawn from a study of the dispute and its resolution. The nature of the argument and the procedures by which both parties sought to resolve it shed light on the character of urban constitutional growth in the later Middle Ages, on legal procedures and what medieval people thought about the law, and on the lengths they were willing to go to assure a decision that was as favorable as possible without poisoning relations between two institutions that coexisted within city walls. The case also illustrates the important role arbitration played in dispute settlement and reveals this method to be as viable an alternative as recourse to the common-law and equity courts of the royal government.Exeter's case is unique in that so much written evidence survives to testify to the financial investments and political aims of both parties involved. Comparisons will be drawn to other boroughs that endured similar jurisdictional disputes in the fifteenth century, but their evidence is far less revealing of decision and motivation than that remaining for Exeter. Although many of the major documents associated with the case have been in print for over a century, and examined in some detail in a brief monograph published over fifty years ago, the nature of the records has focused more attention on the city's participation than on that of the cathedral.

‘For the Increase of Divine Service’: Chantries in the Parish in Late Medieval Bristol

1985 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clive Burgess
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Common People ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Catholic Faith ◽  
Profound Influence ◽  
The Common ◽  
Late Medieval England

While it is incontrovertible that the Catholic faith exercised a profound influence on the lives of the common people of fifteenth-century England, it is equally apparent that many aspects of contemporary belief and practice will never be wholly clear. This is not simply for want of evidence but more the result of the limitations of the sources. It may, for instance, be assumed that contemporaries' religious priorities would be illuminated by close examination of their wills since these documents almost invariably deal with pious provisions intended to benefit testators' souls. But tolerably represented by surviving wills as the wealthy and town-dwelling classes of late medieval England are, analysis of these documents is treacherous. Just as the scribes who registered them certainly standardised the presentation of different testators' wishes, so probate procedures militated against even faintly unorthodox expression. Moreover, the proportion of a testator's movable or immovable estate represented in any given will is impossible to gauge, as a result of which no measure may be taken of any testator's devotion by comparison of his religious bequests with those made for other purposes. It must also be remembered that wills reveal nothing of the pious provision that testators undoubtedly made during their lifetimes for their own benefit. Neither do they convey any impression of what family or friends may have agreed to discharge for the benefit of a testator's soul. Late medieval wills are undeniably disappointing and frequently misleading.

Legal English and the Vernacularization of Law

Law in Common ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 213-240
Author(s):  
Tom Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Legal Language ◽  
Common People ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Third ◽  
Local Contexts ◽  
The Common ◽  
Late Medieval England

This chapter explores the growing use of English as a written ‘legal vernacular’ over the course of the fifteenth century. It argues that one can only understand the emergence of vernacular writing in legal discourse by looking to the local contexts of legal production. The emergence of English as a legal vernacular did not take hold uniformly across late-medieval society, and so we need to think more carefully about the specific kinds of discursive value that it held; the chapter argues that, as a legal language, English worked as a signifier of authenticity, a mode of signalling fidelity to real speech, and as a way of gesturing towards wider audiences or publics. This leads to the third argument that the growing significance granted to English as a legal language affected common people in late-medieval England in ambivalent ways. While in some ways the processes of vernacularization in the fifteenth century seem to follow a trajectory towards a more inclusive public discourse, as the ‘common tongue’ spoken by the majority of the populace became a language appropriate for expressing ideas about legitimacy, it was ultimately constrained by the relatively limited modes in which English was allowed to be legal.

Money and Credit in the Fifteenth Century: Some Lessons from Yorkshire

1991 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer I. Kermode
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Financial Networks ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Late Medieval England

This article explores some of the methods used to raise credit in an important trading region of late medieval England during a decline in overseas trade and an international bullion famine. It argues that, because provincial credit arrangements depended on local as well as national factors, a combination of demographic and regional circumstances contributed to the commercial weakness of Yorkshire merchants as they faced growing competition from Londoners with access to more sophisticated financial networks.

The Indexical Self

Last Words ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Sebastian Sobecki
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Social Character ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Medieval Text ◽  
Late Medieval England

No medieval text was designed to be read hundreds of years later by an audience unfamiliar with its language, situation, and author. By ascribing to these texts intentional anonymity, we romanticize them and misjudge the social character of their authors. Instead, most medieval poems and manuscripts presuppose familiarity with their authorial or scribal maker. Last Words: The Public Self and the Social Author in Late Medieval England attempts to recover this familiarity and understand the literary motivation behind some of the most important fifteenth-century texts and authors. Last Words captures the public selves of such social authors when they attempt to extract themselves from the context of a lived life.

scholarly journals THE TWENTY-FIVE JOYS OF OUR LADY AN ENGLISH MARIAN ROSARY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY FROM BODLEIAN LIBRARY MS DON. D. 85

Traditio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 333-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN C. HIRSH
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
Middle English ◽  
Critical Edition ◽  
Medieval England ◽  
Bodleian Library ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
English Prose ◽  
Late Medieval England

“The Twenty-five Joys of Our Lady” is a study, examination, and critical edition of an unpublished fifteenth-century Middle English prose devotion preserved in Bodleian Library MS Don. d. 85. It is here associated with twenty-five “Joys of Our Lady” and presented as a vernacular Marian rosary, the first such to be identified in the period. The introduction to the edition considers early liturgical influences upon what became the tradition of Our Lady's Joys, their late-medieval development both across Europe and across England, and the circumstances that usually indicated fewer in number than is present in the devotion printed here. The introduction also concerns itself with the presence and practice of the rosary itself in late-medieval England and elsewhere and the limited evidence that has come down to us for its presence and circulation in England, including woodcut evidence in Caxton and allusions in other Latin devotions. It further indicates an ambiguity in this devotion's treatment of Christ's passion and concludes by considering the role and importance of joy as a pervasive, if often ignored, Christian attitude present in late-medieval English devotion.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document