Judicial Affairs

The judicial system that was used during the 1300’s was extremely questionable and is clearly not based on the “judgement of God” like they once thought it was.

Trial by Combat

The way that the judicial system ran in the 1300’s of Medieval Europe would nowadays be considered quite corrupt and inhumane, but back then, “Trial by Combat” interested the people. Trial by combat was a way of figuring out a verdict to accusations, or figuring out a law case.  This was a judicially sanctioned duel, and whoever won this one-on-one fight to the death would be the winner, possibly in front of hundreds to thousands of witnesses.

Believe it or not, this was a common practice of the Germanic people in the middle ages.  In Carrouges and Le Gris’ case, the standard jury could not make a decision, so the case was sent to be by a judicial duel. These duels gave people something to watch, and were highly attended by Kings, Dukes, aristocracy, and a large majority of the lower class.   These ways of solving a case interested me a lot, and shows how much the judicial system has changed since the Medieval ages.

What Lies Beyond the Fence?

During the Middle Ages arenas were surrounded by large fences to ensure that the participants would not be able to flee from the battle. But these fences also had symbolic meaning. 

The Medieval Times

In one of the articles I read which was sourced from around 1063 CE by the Bishopric of Terouanne, we get a snapshot of what the rules of behavior were for ‘Holy Days’ and what was expected of people during those days. In doing so we also get to see what some of the common offenses of the time were among people.

How common some of these things were of course cannot be entirely known, but the fact that for a mere 4 days the bishop declared that these activities were to be prohibited, or offenders were to be excommunicated from the church shows that they were prevalent enough that the Bishop felt he needed to remind people NOT to do such things. This list includes:

“-no man or woman shall assault, wound, or slay another                                                                                                                                       -During the days of the peace, no one shall make a hostile expedition on horseback, except when summoned by the count; and all who go with the count shall take for their support only as much as is necessary for themselves and their horse

-All merchants and other men who pass through your territory from other lands shall have peace from you.”

You can clearly see that this particular region of France was one that probably had its fair share of conflict, with lots of raiding, stealing, and theft from foreign merchants or competing lords.

Much of this activity was most likely from the nobility, as they were usually the only ones with enough influence and weaponry who would be able to successfully raid other towns or merchants. We know that such activity was very common in Spain at this time, with El Cid being one of the most famous ‘raiders’ or ‘nights’ and was also a member of the nobility in Spain. It appears that France was not an exception when it came to such things. You can clearly see here that the church obviously had little or no control over these little conflicts that seemed to permeate medieval Europe. They were mostly against the fighting that regularly occurred among the nobility, but they had little power to stop it.

 

Was it really that bad for peasants?

Sure, the peasants were unable to have much social mobility in the very farming-heavy medieval Europe, but if they were obedient to their Lords, their life normally wasn’t all that bad.

There were several reasons why peasants did not overthrow their Kings as often as we’d think they would’ve. Their Lords gave them things that they maybe might not get if they didn’t live in their towns. The peasants, who usually had their own families living in their own house, would have a steady income from their lords (although it wasn’t much, and they still had to give some back to their Lords). But it was enough to feed their families, and gave them a place to live and a field to farm. Also, most villages/towns with a King had it’s own church where peasant’s and their families could go to church. Although some peasants were treated poorly by their kings, this is rarer than usual. The only times where it was normal for punishment against peasants was when the disobeyed their lord or didn’t pay them their rent. There was always a threat of possible punishment, which was another reason that kept them from revolting. Normally, the Lords/Kings would have a small army that would be able to enforce rule/law of the cities/towns.

Medieval Medical Innovation and it’s Impact on Modern Americans

A common misconception is that the more time passes, the more a civilization evolves, the more they learn and the “better” they become. It’s worth mentioning that a culture’s “value” or “advancement” are not quantifiable variables and are deeply rooted in racist ethnocentrism, but most American students are still taught to think this way. These notions are further reinforced by cultural regression or loss of knowledge generally being absent from the curriculum of most history classes, especially European history which most American’s claim as their own. Although we view medieval innovation, especially medical innovation, as primitive to what we know now, recent research has shown that our ancestors were far from unintelligent.