¹ Orwell, George, Coming up for Air (London, 1959), 47.Google Scholar

² To name but a few examples: The Song of Roland, the Robin Hood legends, sagas, epics, most chronicles and the poetry of Bertrand de Born.

³ P.R.O., JI 3/48 m. 9d.

⁴ Sharpe, R. R., Calendar of Coroners Rolls of the City of London, A.D. 1300–1378 (London, 1913).Google Scholar

⁵ Salter, H. E., Records of Medieval Oxford, Coroners' Inquests, the Walls of Oxford, etc. (Oxford, 1912).Google Scholar

⁶ The pioneering study in homicide was done by Wolfgang, M. E., Patterns in Criminal Homicide (Philadelphia, 1958).CrossRefGoogle ScholarMorris, A.Homicide: An Approach to the Problem of Crime (Boston, 1955).Google Scholar The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation also provides statistics on the cyclical nature of crime in its annual Uniform Crime Reports.

⁷ Plucknett, T. F. T., A Concise History of the Common Law, 5th ed. (New York, 1956), 445.Google Scholar For a full discussion of pardons, see Hurnard, N. D., The King's Pardon for Homicide before A.D. 1307 (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar and Green, T. A., “Societal Concepts of Criminal Liability for Homicide in Medieval England,” Speculum, XLVIII, no. 4 (1972), 669'CrossRefGoogle Scholar roll shows that the jurors were making decisions on some accidental homicides and not bringing criminal indictments against the killers. In a Northamptonshire case a clerk was shooting arrows at a target and accidentally struck a three-year-old girl behind it. The inquest jurors called this a case of misadventure. P.R.O. JI 2/107 m. 2. In another case one boy accidentally killed another while playing, and the jurors did not classify it as a homicide. P.R.O. JI 2/114. There is also a case in London, Sharpe, p. 83. If the jurors were softening the definition of homicide at the indictment level, they were probably also doing so at the trials by returning verdicts of innocent. In other words, the jurors were making distinctions in practice which do not become statute law until the close of the fourteenth century.

⁸ Plucknett, , Common Law, 445:Google Scholar

⁹ Kaye, J. M., “The Early History of Murder and Manslaughter, Part I,” The Law Quarterly Review, 83 (06, 1967), 365–95Google Scholar has an excellent discussion of the early distinctions and the history of the 1390 statute.

¹⁰ lbid., 371.

¹¹ For a full discussion see Hunnisett, R. F., “The Origins of the Office of Coroner,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., VIII (1959), 85–104.Google ScholarHunnisett, R. F., The Medieval Coroner (Cambridge, 1969).Google Scholar

¹² Hunnisett, , The Medieval Coroner, 9–36 for a complete description of inquest procedure.Google Scholar

¹³ Hunnisett, R. F., “The Medieval Coroners' Rolls,” The American Journal of Legal History, III (1959), 207–8.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ibid., 211–13.

¹⁵ Ibid., 221. The coroners, by a statute of 1487, were to turn over their inquests and indictments to the assize justices.

¹⁶ The preservation of early fourteenth-century rolls in Northamptonshire and not in most other counties is perhaps the result of the Northamptonshire eyre of 1329–30.

¹⁷ Hunnisett, , “The Medieval Coroners' Rolls,” 215.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Pike, L. O., A History of Crime in England (London, 1873), I, 254–5.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Russel, J. C., British Medieval Population (Albuquerque, 1948), 285–7Google Scholar finds from the 1377 poll tax a population of 35,000 and guesses that the population before the plague was nearer to 60,000. The lowest figure would certainly be in excess of 33,000 as Thrupp, S. L. points out in The Merchant Class of Medieval London (Ann Arbor, 1962), 52.Google Scholar

²⁰ Uniform Crime Reports, Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice (Washington, D.C., 1965).Google Scholar

²¹ Bohannan, P., “Patterns of Homicide among Tribal Societies in Africa,” Studies in Homicide, M. E. Wolfgang, ed. (New York, 1967), 218.Google Scholar

²² Felonies in the fourteenth century included robbery, burglary, larceny, arson, rape, receiving and homicide. When comparisons are made in this paper to modern homicide figures, they are also based on these basic felonies.

²³ Uniform Crime Reports, 51. In calculating this figure, I have left out aggravated assault since it was not a felony in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century England. However, since it is possible to argue that more assaults ended in homicide in the Middle Ages because of ineffective medical care, I also did a calculation including assaults with homicides and arrived at 8%— still considerably lower than medieval England. Wolfgang has observed that the rising of assault and the lowering of homicide in Philadelphia is due to the influence of better medicine during the twentieth century. Wolfgang, , Patterns of Criminal Homicide, 116–8.Google Scholar In modern England the percentage of homicides compared to all other felonies is .02%. Morris, T. and Blom-Cooper, L., A Calendar of Murder; Criminal Homicide in England since 1957 (London, 1964), 277.Google Scholar

²⁴ Morris, and Blom-Cooper, , A Calendar of Murder, 277.Google Scholar In England from 1900 to 1949 there were 7,500 murders, or only about 1500 more murders than the number of people killed on the road yearly.

²⁵ In the period 1300–30, only four years of coroners' rolls have eight homicides or more, giving an average of eleven as the projected yearly number of homicides. Not only is the evidence scanty, but since the method of preservation before 1337 was erratic, we must be doubly skeptical of the results.

²⁶ 1300–29, 11 per year; 1330–39, 13 per year; 1340–49, 21 per year; 1350–59, 10 per year; 1360–69, 18 per year; 1370–79, 14 per year. The other decades do not have sufficient evidence to make an average.

²⁷ Pail, Rot.., II, 172.Google Scholar

²⁸ Statutes of the Realm, 10 Edward III, St. v, c. 2–3.Google Scholar

²⁹ Although in modern criminal statistics homicide appears to be fairly stable (Morris, and Blom-Cooper, , A Calendar of Murder, 278),Google Scholar even in England homicides rose during the Second World War. Lunden, W. A., Crimes and Criminals (Ames, Iowa, 1967), 84.Google Scholar

³⁰ 1300–09, 20%; 1310–19, 20%; 1320–29, 20%; 1330–39, 27%; 1340–49, 22%; 1350–59, 23%; 1360–69, 30%; 1370–79, 22%; 1380–89, 25%; 1390–99, 19%. The decade of the sixties was the only period of strikingly high figures on homicide.

³¹ The application of standard statistical tests showed these figures to be significant.

³² Wolfgang, , Patterns in Criminal Homicide, 99.Google ScholarLunden, , Crimes and Criminals, 27–9.Google Scholar

³³ Cohen, J., “The Geography of Crime,” Readings in Criminology and Penology, Dressier, D., ed. (New York, 1964), 230.Google Scholar

³⁴ Bennett, H. S., Life on the English Manor (Cambridge, 1937)Google Scholar has good descriptions of the seasonal activities of peasant life.

³⁵ Wolfgang, , Patterns in Criminal Homicide, 106–7.Google Scholar

³⁶ Pollock, E. and Maitland, F. M., The History of English Law, 2nd ed., vII(Cambridge, 1968), 468, 493.Google Scholar

³⁷ Lunden, , Crimes and Criminals, 27–9.Google Scholar

³⁸ Northamptonshire: total number of accused 634 men, 14 women. Oxford:64 men. London: 194 men, 15 women.

³⁹ Sharpe, , London, 87–8.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Hanawalt, B. A., “The Female Felon in Fourteenth Century England,” Viator, V (1974), 259.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Bohannan, , “Patterns of Homicide,” 219.Google Scholar The homicide pattern of African tribal women was close to the medieval figures, 2% to 9% of the total offenders. In United States, women commit 18% of the homicides. Lunden, , Crimes and Criminals, 102.Google ScholarWolfgang, , Patterns in Criminal Homicide, 32,Google Scholar found the same figure (18%) in Philadelphia.

⁴² Verkko, V., “Static and Dynamic lsquo;Laws’ of Sex and Homicide,” Studies in Homicide, Wolfgang, M., ed. (New York, 1967), 42.Google Scholar

⁴³ Wolfgang, , Patterns in Criminal Homicide, 62–3.Google Scholar It does not fit American homicide figures and it leaves out a variety of other factors which might explain the differences in rates between men and women.

⁴⁴ Verkko, , “Static and Dynamic ‘Laws’,” 42.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Northamptonshire: 547 men, 37 women. London: 133 men, 14 women. Oxford:55 men, 2 women.

⁴⁶ Verkko, , “Static and Dynamic ‘Laws’,” 37–41.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Bohannan, , “Patterns of Homicides,” 219.Google Scholar African women were victims in an average of 32% of the homicides. In modern Britain women are victims in 55% of the cases. Gibson, E. and Klein, S., Murder, 1957 to 1968; a Home Office Statistical Division Report on Murder in England and Wales (London, 1969), 17.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Hanawalt, , “The Female Felon,” 254–61,Google Scholar for a brief summary of the problem.

⁴⁹ Northamptonshire: 503 men, 172 women. London: 46 men, 11 women. Oxford: 23 men, 8 women. In suicide the sexes are split equally.

⁵⁰ Cooper, B. P. and Nicholas, G., Crime in the Sixties (London, 1963), 20.Google Scholar About one-fifth of the victims of murder were children under the age of five.

⁵¹ P.R.O. JI 2/109 m. 7.

⁵² P.R.O. JI 2/107 m. 5d.

⁵³ P.R.O. JI 3/48 m. 4d.

⁵⁴ Sharpe, , London, 222.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Salter, , Oxford, 27.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Holdsworth, W. S., A History of English Law, IV (Boston, 1924), 501.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Hurnard, , The King's Pardon for Homicide, 169.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Helmholtz, R. H., “Infanticide in the Province of Canterbury during the Fifteenth Century,” History of Childhood Quarterly, II (1975), 384.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ The subject is coming to have a considerable vogue. See for instance Trexler, R. C., “The Foundlings of Florence, 1395–1455,” History of Childhood Quarterly, I, no. 2 (1973), 257–94.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ Sharpe, , London, 91–2.Google Scholar

⁶¹ P.R.O., JI 2/106 m. 1. Another example JI 2/111 m. 27.

⁶² It would perhaps be more accurate to describe these as lower middle groups within the peasant community. The minimum assessment of movable goods for tax purposes in the fourteenth century was about 10s. Willard, J. F., Parliamentary Taxes on Personal Property, 1290–1334 (Cambridge, Mass., 1934), 88.Google Scholar

⁶³ Hunnisett, , The Medieval Coroner, 31, 33.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Westman, B. Hanawalt, A Study of Crime in Norfolk, Yorkshire and Northamptonshire, 1300–1348, Doctoral Dissertation, The University of Michigan (1970), 152.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Seventy percent were killed in their place of residence, 15% were killed one to five miles from it, 10% six to ten miles and 5% more than ten miles.

⁶⁷ Westman, B. Hanawalt, “The Peasant Family and Crime in Fourteenth-Century England,” The Journal of British Studies, XIII (05, 1974), 4.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Morris, and Blom-Cooper, , A Calendar of Murder, 280.Google Scholar In Philadelphia 29.2% were related. Wolfgang, , Patterns in Criminal Homicide, 209.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Westman, Hanawalt, “The Peasant Family and Crime,” 5.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Bohannan, , “Patterns of Homicide,” 223–5.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Sheehan, M. M., “The Formation and Stability of Marriage in Fourteenth -Century England; Evidence of an Ely Register,” Medieval Studies, XXXIII (1971), 249–52.Google Scholar

⁷² Compare to modern England where 33% of the murderers used sharp instruments. Gibson, and Klein, , Murder, 24.Google Scholar In Africa 30% to 71.4% of the murderers used sharp instruments. Bohannan, , “Patterns of Homicide,” 227.Google Scholar

⁷³ P.R.O. JI 2/110 m. 13.

⁷⁴ Gibson, and Klein, , Murder, 24.Google Scholar In modern England 17.4% use blunt instruments. Among African tribes, 11.8% to 5 1% used blunt instruments. Bohannan, , “Patterns of Homicide,” 227.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ The Bedfordshire data for the late thirteenth century derived from Hunnisett, R. F., The Bedfordshire Coroners' Rolls (Bedfordshire Historical Society, XVI, 1960)Google Scholar is more detailed and gives the following breakdown: arguments are 4 8% of the total homicides; 18% unspecified, 6% drinking, 17% property, 2% revenge, 5% domestic quarrels. These figures are probably more accurate since the coroners' rolls were more carefully kept in the thirteenth century.

⁷⁶ Wolfgang, , Patterns in Criminal Homicide, 191.Google Scholar 191. In Philadelphia 35% of all homicides are the result of trivial arguments. Gibson, and Klein, , Murder, 23Google Scholar find that in modern England 33% originate in trivial arguments.

77 Gross, C., Select Cases from the Coroners' Rolls, 1265–1413, Selden Society, IX (London, 1869), 69.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Sharpe, , London, 114–6.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Bell, C. H., Peasant Life in Old German Epics (New York, 1959), 70.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ This figure is close to the modern English one in which 36.8% of the motives for homicide arose out of thefts. Gibson, and Klein, , Murder, 23.Google Scholar But in Philadelphia, Wolfgang found that robbery accounted for only 6.8% of the motives, 191.

⁸¹ Gross, , Select Cases, 16.Google Scholar

⁸² Bellamy, J. G., Crime and Public Order in England in the Later Middle Ages (London, 1973), 66.Google Scholar

⁸³ The most graphic example of burglary techniques comes from a century earlier but describes conditions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries as well. “Towards vespers at twilight on 1 September 1267 six thieves came to Honeydon in the parish of Eaton Socon and found a boy Philip son of Roger Golde, who was coming from his father's fold, beat, ill-treated and wounded him, and forced him to lead them to Ralph son of Geoffrey of Honeydon's house and called to Ralph to let them in. Ralph recognized Philip and opened the door. The thieves entered, assaulted, wounded and then bound Ralph, killed his mother Denis and his servant William of Roxton and then robbed the whole house and took away all its goods. From there they went to William Courtepie's house and broke it, assaulted and badly wounded William with swords, axes and anlances and stole goods of the house. From there they went to the house of Margery Levot, a widow, and killed her with swords. From there they went to Mathew le Messer's house, assaulted, beat and wounded him, struck his wife Isabel, breaking her left arm and took away the goods of the house. From there they went to Roger Golde's house and Roger, hearing the great noise of the slain and wounded; immediately took his wife and boys and hid in the croft; the thieves entered his house, robbed it of all its goods and took them away. From there they went to Joan la Fililer's house, broke it, killed Joan and took away the goods of the house. From there they went to William Lossay's house bound him and took away the goods of the house. From there they went to William Motte's house in Goodwick, wounded William, left him for dead and then burned his house; he died before prime on 5 September, having had the rites of the church. At length Philip, Roger Golde's boy, who had been captured at the fold, escaped from the hands of the thieves and raised the hue.…” Hunnisett, , Bedfordshire CoronersApos; Rolls, 7.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Fourteen out of 2,933 homicides in gaol delivery rolls or .5%. The percentage was .3% in the Northamptonshire coroners' rolls.

⁸⁵ Westman, Hanawalt, “The Peasant Family and Crime,” 11–12.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ For examples see P.R.O., JI 3/113 m. 14d. and Hunnisett, , Bedfordshire Coroners' Rolls, 114.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ P.R.O. JI 3/48 m. 6.

⁸⁸ Hurnard, , King's Pardon for Homicide, 161–70.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Sharpe, , London, 170.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Rot. Part. II, 170.Google Scholar

⁹¹ In the last five years the percentage of solved murder cases in the United States has been going down because the pattern of criminal homicide has been changing. There is more random killing of victims, which makes it more difficult for the police to trace suspects.

⁹² Redfield, H. V., Homicide, North and South (Philadelphia, 1880).Google Scholar

⁹³ Machiavelli, N., The Prince, tr. Bergin, Thomas G. (New York, 1947), 49.Google Scholar

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