Crime and Plague: England c.1340-c.1360
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Cambridge
Department Name: History
Abstract
Throughout history, there has been a link between epidemic disease and increased criminal activity. Despite this, the
Black Death, potentially the greatest disaster prior to the twentieth century has been understudied in terms of crime. I
would like to discover if there was an increase in crime during the Black Death in 1348-50, and in the second pestilence
of 1361. I have chosen the period c.1340-c.1360 as it offers a picture of crime before, after and during the epidemics.
However, it ensures that my research is not spread too thinly and that I am able to consider a number of different courts.
There is a gap in the historiography on late medieval crime. I have a wealth of primary sources: firstly, the gaol delivery
rolls who heard all cases of people in prison awaiting trial, secondly the pleas from the King's Bench, which was the
premier criminal court, and finally, the local, manorial court records who dealt with minor crimes. Barbara Hanawalt has
completed a similar study for the early fourteenth century but has received criticism as her work was limited to the gaol
delivery rolls. This topic is a progression from my MPhil research, which is looking at law and order during the Black
Death. Therefore, I have a sound grasp of period, methodology, historiography and the relevant sources. I would like to
continue under the supervision of Dr Christopher Briggs and would welcome collaboration with the Centre for English
Legal History as my work falls within its remit
Black Death, potentially the greatest disaster prior to the twentieth century has been understudied in terms of crime. I
would like to discover if there was an increase in crime during the Black Death in 1348-50, and in the second pestilence
of 1361. I have chosen the period c.1340-c.1360 as it offers a picture of crime before, after and during the epidemics.
However, it ensures that my research is not spread too thinly and that I am able to consider a number of different courts.
There is a gap in the historiography on late medieval crime. I have a wealth of primary sources: firstly, the gaol delivery
rolls who heard all cases of people in prison awaiting trial, secondly the pleas from the King's Bench, which was the
premier criminal court, and finally, the local, manorial court records who dealt with minor crimes. Barbara Hanawalt has
completed a similar study for the early fourteenth century but has received criticism as her work was limited to the gaol
delivery rolls. This topic is a progression from my MPhil research, which is looking at law and order during the Black
Death. Therefore, I have a sound grasp of period, methodology, historiography and the relevant sources. I would like to
continue under the supervision of Dr Christopher Briggs and would welcome collaboration with the Centre for English
Legal History as my work falls within its remit
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Stephanie Brown (Student) |
 http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7797-8099
|
Publications
Brown S
(2021)
Town Courts and Urban Society in Late Medieval England, 1250-1500, ed. Richard Goddard and Teresa Phipps
in The English Historical Review
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ES/P000738/1 | 30/09/2017 | 29/09/2028 | |||
| 2123610 | Studentship | ES/P000738/1 | 30/09/2018 | 29/09/2021 | Stephanie Brown |
| Description | The main project result is the Medieval Murder Maps website. It includes: - Interactive maps of medieval murder cases for London, Oxford and York publicly available for researchers, history enthusiasts and the general public. - Additional maps on accidents, illnesses and sanctuaries for London. - Professional voiceover narratives of 150 events. - 36 'Discover More' pages that provide context information - 2 podcasts published so far, two more are currently being edited and more are in development. The project has taken longer than expected but it has been greatly improved by the addition of two new murder maps: York and Oxford. Dr Stephanie Brown researched York, while Manuel Eisner added more cases to London and researched Oxford. The Murder Maps were launched on 28 September 2023 in person and online. Over 50 people attended the launch in person. Over 190 people signed up to the virtual launch on zoom. The Office of External Communications at the University of Cambridge sent a press release that attracted articles in a range of publications: TIMES Higher Education, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The Independent and The Daily Mail. An appendix shows the analytics for the website/social media channels and a selection of media links. |
| Exploitation Route | This project builds on a previous unfunded phase, the London Medieval Murder Map, which was launched in 2018. Website visitors for the VRC (the research centre that hosted it) shot up from around 8000 a year to 63,443 in 2018 and 68,268 in 2019. Analytics collected before the launch of the new website - https://medievalmurdermap.co.uk/ - show that there has been constant interest since 2018: thousands are still visiting the old website. A pop-up has been added to transition followers to the new website. Analytics show that the new website attracted 37,000 visitors in the first month, with a huge peak on the day of the launch. Please see the Appendix for analytics of engagement, geographical regions of users and social media views of content shared prior and just after the launch. Metrics show engagement worldwide, particularly United Kingdom, United States, Austria, Germany, Japan, France, Canada, Australia, Hungary and Switzerland. Below is a selection of feedback we received soon after the launch, which shows great interest among academics, teachers and the general public. Congratulations on a superb launch yesterday. The interactive map is amazing, and the findings Stephanie presented were fascinating. I would not have thought Sunday was a hot week of homicide! Notwithstanding the data limitations you rightly acknowledged, I find such meticulous recording-keeping at the time incredibly fascinating. It is even better than what you find in many countries today! Thank you for a splendid launch party and introduction to the map site - it really is a great achievement, and for us, as well as its intrinsic interest, it's a fantastic example of how our maps can be used in new ways. I hope it will spark interest in our maps and stimulate people to do with them what we could never imagine, let alone achieve. I just wanted to congratulate you two on a job well done! The Medieval Murder Map is utterly fantastic. I have just made room for it on my syllabus for my "Medieval England" course in two weeks' time and cannot wait to see what my students think of it! I particularly appreciate all the "Discover More" tabs with the reference materials that will help students trying to think of essay topics for their research papers for the semester! This is really an impressive project that will be useful to both students and researchers alike. Well done! Congratulations on launching the site! I had a quick look already and it's really great. I plan to offer a seminar on daily life in medieval England in the next couple of semesters, and in my mind I'm already planning a session on crime where students use the site! I will also send it around to my colleagues who I think would be interested. I just wanted to congratulate you on the completion of the Murder Maps project. It is STUNNING and I am OBSESSED. I also feel I have a duty to tell you that some of Cambridge 18th and 19th inquest depositions have survived and are in Ely archive. Fancy a side project? Thank you for notifying me about the launch of the new Medieval Murder Maps website. I attended the event online, and I write to congratulate you and Manuel Eisner on a fantastic project and to thank you for an exciting new resource. Having worked with the London coroners' rolls (in graduate school I wrote a paper trying to make sense of the geography of homicide in London in c. 1320-1340 and to understand how the coroner compiled his inquest panels), I was familiar with the abundance of geographic data contained therein. I also had a sense that making real use of that data would be a project of immense proportions, and for that reason I am all the more astonished and appreciative at what you and your team have accomplished. I might find myself inspired to revisit my old paper draft now that I can look some of these cases up on your map! |
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