{"title":"The crowd’s two faces: keeping the peace and fearing the stranger in late medieval Flanders","authors":"Mireille J. Pardon","doi":"10.1080/03044181.2023.2188605","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the reputation of crowds in relation to judicial practice in fifteenth-century Flanders. Medieval chronicles tend to frame rebellious crowds as frighteningly irrational rather than strategic in order to discredit the political movements they described. Legal records from Bruges and Ghent suggest this stereotype extended to disturbances unrelated to revolt. Bailiffs’ accounts and banishments reveal concern for neighbourhood unrest and sudden violence stemming from interpersonal disputes as well as political action. Although bailiffs pursued individuals for instigating conflicts, the crowd played an important role in judicial practice, from investigations to executions, affirming legal decisions and preserving urban peace. These contrasting stereotypes affected patterns of prosecution in fifteenth-century Bruges and Ghent. Bailiffs tended to place blame on individual instigators when the crowd acted against the interests of law enforcement. As the reputation of the crowd was law-affirming, the riotous crowd had to stem from an outside, corrupting influence.","PeriodicalId":45579,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"JOURNAL OF MEDIEVAL HISTORY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/03044181.2023.2188605","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article examines the reputation of crowds in relation to judicial practice in fifteenth-century Flanders. Medieval chronicles tend to frame rebellious crowds as frighteningly irrational rather than strategic in order to discredit the political movements they described. Legal records from Bruges and Ghent suggest this stereotype extended to disturbances unrelated to revolt. Bailiffs’ accounts and banishments reveal concern for neighbourhood unrest and sudden violence stemming from interpersonal disputes as well as political action. Although bailiffs pursued individuals for instigating conflicts, the crowd played an important role in judicial practice, from investigations to executions, affirming legal decisions and preserving urban peace. These contrasting stereotypes affected patterns of prosecution in fifteenth-century Bruges and Ghent. Bailiffs tended to place blame on individual instigators when the crowd acted against the interests of law enforcement. As the reputation of the crowd was law-affirming, the riotous crowd had to stem from an outside, corrupting influence.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Medieval History aims at meeting the need for a major international publication devoted to all aspects of the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. Each issue comprises around four or five articles on European history, including Britain and Ireland, between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance. The Journal also includes review articles, historiographical essays and state of research studies.