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5 - Discipline and Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2023

Wilfrid R. Prest
Affiliation:
University of Adelaide
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Summary

The first section of this chapter, ‘The Scope of Discipline’ traces the fashion in which the benchers initially sought to impose disciplinary constraints on members’ behaviour and demeanour. The growth of the inns after 1550 made it increasingly difficult to police the personal lives of junior members. But the benchers became more anxious to maintain and enhance their own authority, establishing sumptuary regulations on apparel, long hair and beards which emphasised the subordinate status of those below the bench, and sharply escalating measures against casual interpersonal violence within the societies.

They seem to have had some success in eliminating armed assaults, if not other forms of physical violence, while traditional violent behaviour outside the walls of the inns appears to have waned towards the end of our period.However, as ‘The Range of Defiance’ illustrates, collective defiance of and disobedience to the bench became a feature of life from the 1610s onwards, with sporadic outbreaks continuing until the end of the century and beyond, over sumptuary regulations, gambling at Christmas commons, and other issues.

The final section, ‘Authority and Revolt’ proposes that outbreaks of protest and rebellion in the latter half of our period were closely related to the major institutional changes examined in the preceding chapters.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Discipline and Disorder
  • Wilfrid R. Prest, University of Adelaide
  • Book: The Inns of Court under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts
  • Online publication: 15 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955737.007
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  • Discipline and Disorder
  • Wilfrid R. Prest, University of Adelaide
  • Book: The Inns of Court under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts
  • Online publication: 15 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955737.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Discipline and Disorder
  • Wilfrid R. Prest, University of Adelaide
  • Book: The Inns of Court under Elizabeth I and the Early Stuarts
  • Online publication: 15 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955737.007
Available formats
×