I was aware that the medieval Coroners’ Rolls for Oxford had been used by Trevor Aston as part of his study of the medieval University, and the results of his research can be found in Past and Present.
I remember reading it and, by analysing to and by whom violence was proffered, and where and when, it was clear that venturing out alone at night was definitely not advisable, especially if you were a student. I have come across at least one Oxford student, future bishop, Thomas Polton, was to be involved in a fight that resulted in the death of another student. The incident did little harm to his career, which took him to the deanery of York, the sees of Hereford, Chichester and Worcester, and the Councils of Constance, Pavia-Siena and Basle. The article argues that the safest members of the Oxford community were the respectable wives of the town tradesmen, who stayed home of an evening.
However I came upon a new presentation of some of this material in a video from Medieval Madness. This uses examples from the records from round about 1300 which deal with street crime, with domestic violence and with mishaps. In their rather laconic way the rolls reveal many incidental details of daily life as well as specific human tragedies. To anyone who knows Oxford these are all the more interesting as the roadways and some of the actual buildings still survive.
The video - the title suggests a surfeit of clickbait - can be seen at These Mysterious Medieval Murders Will Leave You Scratching Your Head...
The makers of the video have produced a similar one based on the evidence from the same period for London. Due to the way the city has been rebuilt and rede developed over the centuries the instance of given seem likely less immediate but they record an often violent world. Despite the somewhat curious pronunciation of place names by the narrating computer the stories are striking. That video can be seen at 5 Pretty Mysterious Medieval London Murders…
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