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Knives were as common in medieval England as shoes, trousers or shirts. The most commonly used one was known as thwytel, which later evolved in English to become the word “cut.” It was a small dagger that cost just a penny and was used as cutlery or to perform everyday tasks.
Some, however, chose to carry axes, which were a common instrument in homes. It was used to cut wood and to protect itself from possible attacks. Many men also carried a cane which, if necessary, could be used as a defense. And then there were the swords. According to records, around 12% of homicides in medieval London were committed with this weapon.
Mapping known murders
A Cambridge University project is mapping all known murder cases from the 14th century and has concluded that the student community living in Oxford was by far the most violent social group 700 years ago.
Estimates indicate that the per capita homicide rate in Oxford was four to five times higher than that of medieval London or York. Hence it is considered that the university city was the capital of murders. “He had a deadly combination of conditions,” says Professor Manuel Eisner, director of the Cambridge Institute of Criminology.
Portion of the map of the murders on an Oxford street 700 years ago
“The Oxford students were all male and typically aged between fourteen and twenty-one, at the peak of violence and risk-taking. These were young boys freed from the strict controls of family, parish or guild, and thrown into an environment full of weapons, with ample access to beer halls and sex workers,” he recalls.
Eisner also notes that many of the students belonged to regional fraternities called ‘nations,’ which became “an additional source of conflict within the student body.” Among Oxford people with known backgrounds, 75% were identified by the coroner as “clericus,” the same label used by 72% of all homicide victims in the city. During this period, clericus most likely referred to a student or member of the university.
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Using the Historic Towns Trust’s scrolls and maps, Cambridge researchers have constructed a street atlas of 354 homicides in the three cities. From here, a website has been created that allows comparing causes and patterns of urban violence.
In York’s “Golden Age” in the 14th century, when the borough was driven by trade and textiles, the city flourished as the Black Death subsided. Many of the murder cases document disputes between artisans of the same profession, from knife fights between tannery workers to attacks between glove makers.
Example of a list of coroners recounting the “Death of Hervey of Playford”
The London map, first published in 2018, has been reshaped to include accidents, sudden deaths, church relations and prison deaths. The incidents with the church involved, for example, an alleged criminal who fled to the holy land.
“When an alleged murder victim was discovered in late medieval England, the coroner was sought, and the local sheriff assembled a jury to investigate,” Eisner notes in a statement. “The typical jury was made up of local men of good standing. Their task was to establish the course of events by listening to witnesses, evaluating evidence and then naming a suspect,” he adds.
Detective work and rumors
According to Cambridge investigators, the reports being made were a combination of detective work and rumors. Some jurors strategically constructed narratives intended to influence verdicts such as self-defense.
“We don’t have any evidence to show that the jurors intentionally lied, but many inquiries would have been a ‘guess’ based on the information available,” says historian Stephanie Brown.
Important learning center
At the beginning of the 14th century, Oxford was one of the most important centers of learning in Europe. The city had a population of around 7,000, of which about 1,500 were students. Eisner and Brown estimate their homicide rate in the late Middle Ages to be between 60 and 75 per 100,000. This is around 50 times higher than current rates in 21st century English cities.
The mix of youth and alcohol was often a tinderbox for violence. On a Thursday night in 1298, an argument between students in a tavern on Oxford High Street resulted in a massive street fight involving swords and axes. The coroner recorded that student John Burel had “a fatal wound on the crown of his head, six inches long and a depth reaching to the brain.”
Two men engage in a sword fight
Relationships with sex workers could end tragically when students became violent. An unknown person murdered Margery of Hereford in the parish of St. Aldate in 1299. The murderer preferred to stab her to death and flee her place rather than pay what she owed for her sexual relations.
In another incident, a gang of students killed one of their own, David of Trampedhwy, after he brought a “whore” called Christiana of Worcester to their school in the winter of 1296. They also escaped justice.
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Some Oxford incidents reveal divisions between academics because of their origins in different parts of the British Isles. Accommodation was often organized according to the students’ regions of origin, and friction between northerners and southerners, or between Irish, Welsh and English, was common.
In the spring of 1303, the student Adam of Sarum was playing with a ball in the street when he was attacked by a trio of Irish scholars, who stabbed him in the face and throat. Just a month earlier, two Welsh academics attacked students, at which point a Durham student tried to intervene and was beaten to death.
Students taking exams at Oxford University
The medieval sense of street justice, coupled with the ubiquity of weapons in everyday life, meant that even minor infractions could lead to murder. The London cases include altercations that began over throwing eel skin in the trash and carelessly urinating, only to end in homicide.
Not even law enforcement officials were safe. Richard Overhe, a preserver of the “King’s peace,” was brutally attacked by four Oxford students “with swords, shields, and other weapons” during a summer night in 1324, and was found dead in his house.
“Guns were never far away and male honor had to be protected,” Eisner explains. Still, this does not mean that anarchy reigned. “Life in medieval urban centers could be harsh, but it was by no means anarchic. The community understood its rights and used the law when conflicts arose,” he concludes.
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