Beggars, Vagrants and Romanies: Repression and Persecution in Portuguese Society (14th–18th Centuries)

Abstract

he social exclusion and the fragility that the present economic situation bears is not a new phenomena in Europe. Forced by uncontrolled circumstances or as a result of individual or group choices, the non integration into society carries elements of disorder, insecurity and fear that go through all times and spaces. The trauma brought on by the Black Death, associated with the process of transformation of the dominant political model in Europe and to changes in the economic structures, made it easier to implement actions to discipline society and to reduce the violence. In the Europe that witnessed the construction of the Early Modern States, those who did not have an occupation, refused to work or search for a “master”, were stigmatized, severely persecuted, marginalized and expelled from their communities. T