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IMC 2012: Sessions

Session 1316: Rules of Domestic Life in Medieval Court Records

Wednesday 11 July 2012, 16.30-18.00

Organiser:Brenda M. Bolton, University of London
Moderator/Chair:Kirsi Salonen, Department of History & Philosophy, University of Tampere
Paper 1316-aMarriage and Honour in the Town Council Court of 14th-Century Zürich
(Language: English)
Jamie Page, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Daily Life, Gender Studies, Law, Social History
Paper 1316-bDivorce on the Basis of Cruelty in 15th-Century York
(Language: English)
Sarah Crawford, Department of History, University of Sydney
Index terms: Canon Law, Daily Life, Gender Studies, Social History
Paper 1316-cActing against the Judicial Sentence: Cases of Recurrence in the Ecclesiastical Court of Freising
(Language: English)
Miriam Hahn, Historisches Seminar, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Index terms: Canon Law, Daily Life, Gender Studies, Social History
Abstract

The jurisdictional landscape of 14th- and 15th-century Europe offered a number of possibilities to men and women which sought legal means to pursue their domestic conflicts. Especially the ecclesiastical courts and - in some cases - the town council courts were occupied with familial conflicts as for instance marital cruelty, adultery, verbal assaults and disputes of all kinds. This session explores the unwritten community rules regarding marriage which are mentioned in ecclesiastical and town council courts. Furthermore it examines the connections between honour and marriage, the acceptable and unacceptable levels of domestic violence and the various social and legal litigation opportunities.