Writing a medieval mystery or thriller? Here are sources on medieval crime
Canterbury Cathedral, stained glass- ancient panel showing the Murder of St Thomas a becket in the Cathedral, 13th century(?)
BY B.J. SEDLOCK
Are you thinking of writing a mystery or thriller set in medieval times? Here are some print and online research resources that can get you started, or give you story ideas dealing with medieval crime and justice. All illustrations are in the public domain.
PRINT BOOKS
BLOOD ROYAL: A TRUE TALE OF CRIME AND DETECTION IN MEDIEVAL PARIS, by Eric Jager. Little, Brown, 2014. 9780316224512
A lost parchment discovered in a French chateau in the 1660s reveals how a murder in the 1400s was solved by provost of Paris, a true crime case solved by a medieval sleuth.
CRIME AND FORGIVENESS: CHRISTIANIZING EXECUTION IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE, by Adriano Prosperi, trans. By Jeremy Carden. Belknap Press/Harvard University, 2020. 9780674659841
How Christianity “transformed capital punishment into a great public ritual and made the condemned person a figure of Christ…, expected to offer an example of a Christian death, declaring remorse for what they had done…”—preface. If your novel contains the execution of a criminal, this book would be very helpful.
CRIME AND JUSTICE IN LATE MEDIEVAL ITALY, by Trevor Dean. Cambridge, 2010. 9780521153836
“Examines the history of crime and criminal justice in Italy from the mid-thirteenth to the end of the fifteenth century”—blurb. Chapters include revenge, sex crimes, poisons, etc.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND EARLY MODERN AGE: MENTAL-HISTORICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF BASIC HUMAN PROBLEMS AND SOCIAL RESPONSES, edited by Albrecht Classen and Connie Scarborough. De Gruyter, 2012. 9783110294514
The articles in this book examine texts “which shed light on …perceptions of what constituted criminal behaviors and how society responded punitively to those found guilty of violating normative patterns of behavior”—p.11. Suicide and cannibalism are among the topics.
CRIME IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE 1200-1550, by Trevor Dean. Longman/Pearson, 2001. 0582326761
Covers England, France, and Italy, with some information about other Western European countries. Chapter examples: judicial corruption, women and crime, and punishment.
THE CRIME OF POISON IN THE MIDDLE AGES, by Franck Collard, trans. By Deborah Nelson-Campbell. Praeger, 2008. 9780313346996
“This book deals with criminal actions that involve poison and in no way does it concern poison as such”—introduction. It won’t help you select a medieval poison to incorporate into your book, but it will enlighten you on how poison cases were handled.
CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD IN A MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC SOCIETY: NARRATIVES FROM CAIRO AND DAMASCUS UNDER THE MAMLUKS, by Carl F. Petry. Middle East Documentation Center, 2012. 9780970819987
Here’s a non-Western resource for the period, which surveys crimes committed in the two cities in the subtitle between 1250-1517 CE. Information on historical cases in this book might give you some story ideas.
William of Nottingham lecturing to a group of students at Oxford or Cambridge, ca.1350
University students were not subject to civil authority, which could lead to town and gown violence
FINAL ARGUMENT: THE IMPRINT OF VIOLENCE ON SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE, edited by Donald J. Kagay and L.J. Andrew Villalon. Boydell Press, 1998. 0851157106
Essays “deal with vehement human action and the reaction of human society to it…”—introduction. Includes clerical violence, the code duello, conflict in pre-modern Iran, etc.
GENDER AND PETTY CRIME IN LATE MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: THE LOCAL COURTS IN KENT, 1460-1560, by Karen Jones. Boydell Press, 2006. 184383216x
The author used the Canterbury Cathedral archives to research how local courts treated men and women differently. It has chapters on physical violence, sexual misbehavior, and offenses against property, with charts listing types of goods stolen and social status of offenders (story ideas here!).
JEWS AND CRIME IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE, BY Ephroam Shoham-Steiner. Wayne State University Press, 2021. 9780814345597
The author overcame the scarcity of source material to present three sections on thievery, blood crimes like murder, and women in crime among the Jewish population.
MAGIC AS A POLITICAL CRIME IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ENGLAND: A HISTORY OF SORCERY AND TREASON, by Francis Young. I.B. Taurus, 2018. 9781788310215
The preface says that in the 14th-17th centuries treasonous plots often contained a magical element, such as astrology or occult knowledge of poisons. Some chapters are devoted to noted cases.
MARGINS OF SOCIETY IN LATE MEDIEVAL PARIS, by Bronislaw Geremek, tr. By Jean Birrell. Cambridge University Press, 1987. 0521301564
Deals with Parisians who were outside of the norm; criminals, beggars, performers, prostitutes, etc., during the 13th-15th centuries.
MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN MURDER: LEGAL, LITERARY AND HISTORICAL CONTEXTS, edited by Larissa Tracy. Boydell Press ,2018. 9781783273119
A collection of academic essays “which explor[e] the interdisciplinary aspects” of murder in the Middle Ages—introduction. Some interpret murder as depicted in medieval literature, while other essays are about particular cases.
MEDIEVAL JUSTICE: CASES AND LAWS IN FRANCE, ENGLAND AND GERMANY, 500-1500, by Hunt Janin. McFarland and Co., 2004. 0786418419
Presents a survey of medieval justice for the general reader. Chapter 8 is a compilation of specific cases that ought to provide story ideas.
MEDIEVAL UNDERWORLD, by Andrew McCall. Sutton Publishing, 2004 (reprint of 1979 ed.). 0750937270
Covers “men and women who were seen to be on the margins of society…outlaws, brigands, homosexuals, heretics, witches, Jews, prostitutes, thieves, vagabonds…”—blurb.
1430: Intentional homicide. A man with a dagger in his chest says in the speech scroll: “I have enough”. The standing man with the sword in full swing replies: “You shall have more.”
OUTLAWS IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN ENGLAND: CRIME, GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY, c.1066-c.1600, edited by John C. Appleby and Paul Dalton. Ashgate, 2009. 9780754658931
A collection of essays by academics on the role of outlaws in the Middle Ages in England. Chapters cover their relationship with the church, how they interacted with local officials, and poachers and gamekeepers.
SEEKING SANCTUARY: CRIME, MERCY AND POLITICS IN ENGLISH COURTS, 1400-1550, by Shannon McSheffrey. Oxford University Press, 2017. 9780198798149
If your medieval mystery plot has a criminal seeking sanctuary, you will want to check your facts and learn how sanctuary worked in English law, politics, culture and religion from this book.
SOME REFLECTIONS OF A MEDIEVAL CRIMINOLOGIST, by Ralph B. Pugh. The Raleigh Lecture on History, British Academy, 1973. Printed in the Proceedings of the British Academy, volume 59, by Oxford University Press, 1973. 0197256937
A pamphlet reprint of Pugh’s lecture, which gives a snapshot of the state of British crime during the reign of Edward I. Example: theft was the most common offense, with stolen clothing being the most often pilfered item.
VIOLENCE AND THE MEDIEVAL CLERGY, edited by Gerhard Jaritz and Ana Marinkovic. Medium Aevum Quotidianum/Central European University, 2011. 9786155053269
Are you planning to set a mystery in a monastery or church setting? This book might give you some ideas. “Members of the clergy played an important role in recording such evidence [of violence]”—blurb. One essay discusses violence cases via stabbing with a bread knife.
VIOLENCE IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE, by Warren C. Brown. Longman/Pearson, 2011. 9781405811644
“Historical, anthropological, and sociological insights…on the question of how people in the Middle Ages conceptualized, justified, and deployed violence…”—preface.
Ypres Tower in Rye, East Sussex, believed to have been used as a prison in 1430
ONLINE RESOURCES
HOW GENDER SHAPED CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN THE MEDIEVAL WORLD
Differences in the treatment of men and women criminals in medieval times.
LAW & ORDER IN MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
Author Elizabeth Kamali gives an extensive interview about her book on felony crimes in medieval England.
English Heritage explains laws that had severe punishments for violating them, such as hunting royal deer or royal fish, playing football (!), or wearing clothing either indecent or inappropriate to one’s station in life
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT – MEDIEVAL WORLD FACT SHEET
The Reading Museum (UK) offers this basic information aimed at schoolchildren, but it might be a good place to start for authors new to the topic.
A blog post from the British Museum about one of the most famous murder cases in England in medieval times. If you use the “search” box at the top and do a search on “Thomas Becket” you can find additional resources from the museum on this case.
Students at Hendrix College in Arkansas have transcribed and translated into English several medieval crime cases from France. These ought to spark story ideas, such as one case where a man beat another to death during a snowball fight.
Murder of Candaules,
ca.1475
This is a dot com site, but it is run by former academics who are medievalists, and one of their guiding principles is “tell no lies.” They offer podcasts about different medieval crime cases.
HISTORY OF YORK – MEDIEVAL PRISONS
A brief overview of what prisons were like in a provincial city like York in medieval times. Use the search box to find an additional page on how executions were conducted.
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN MEDIEVAL BRITAIN, C.1250-C.1500 – OCR B
A brief overview aimed at schoolchildren about medieval crime, which might be useful to authors new to the topic.
“Discover the murders, sudden deaths, sanctuary churches, and prisons of three thriving medieval cities,” London, York and Oxford. This would be a real treasure-trove of story ideas for a medieval mystery. Select one of the cities, then “view the map,” and then you can click on an icon on the map to get a summary of the crime committed there.
HOW A MEDIEVAL MURDER MAP HELPED SOLVE A 700-YEAR-OLD LONDON COLD CASE
An article about how the maps on the above site were used to solve a very cold case.
About the contributor: B.J. Sedlock recently stepped down from full-time librarianship to part-time archivist at Defiance College in Defiance, Ohio. She writes book reviews and articles for The Historical Novels Review, judges the First Chapters contest, and has contributed to The Sondheim Review.
