Women on the Wrong Side of the Law.
Some Examples from Medieval Urban Settlements
of the Sava and Drava Interamnium
Marija Karbic
Some laws were present more or less in all commumttes, while others
were applied only in ce1tain periods and areas. But, regardless of that, it is a fact
that laws as a means of regulating people’s relationships, and breaking these
laws, can be found in various human societies. Both men and women can get on
the wrong side of the law.1 In this contribution I shall deal with the means by
which women in the medieval urban Settlements of the Drava and Sava interamnium
came into conflict with the law.
Extant medieval sources from this area originated mostly in Gradec
(Zagreb) and Varazdin, thus, the examples which shall be presented here come
mainly from these cities and were w1itten down in judicial and property books
or city council records.2 Unfortunately, the information that these records convey
is often brief, which leaves many things unknown.
Besides the information found in the sources as a product of the eve1yday
practices of the communities, I shall also use the regulations that are recorded in
the so-called statute of llok!Üjlak from 1 525. This legal code was not a specific
statute book, but offers regulations that were applicable to all so-called
tavemical cities, in other words, cities in which the decisions of the city judges
could be appealed to the royal tavemical court. It is an important source for
researching the Slavonian and Hungarian legal past in general? This is even
1 While researching crime in the Middle Ages, Irevor Dean in his study Crime in Medieval
Europe 1200-1550 (Harlow: Longman, 2001), dedicated a chapter on women and crime
(73-95).
2 Documents from medicval Gradec (Zagreb) are published in Ivan Krstitelj Tkalcic and
Emilij Laszowski, Povjestni spomenici slob. kralj“. grada Zagreba. Monumenta historica
liberae regiae civitatis Zagrabiae (hencefOJth: MCZ), vol. 1-16 (Zagreb: Brzotiskom K.
Albrechta, 1889-1939); the ones from Varazdin in Zlatko Tanodi and Adolf Wissert, Poviestni
spomenici slobodnoga kralj“evskoga grada Varaidina. Monumenta historica liberae
regiae civitatis Varasdini, 2 vols. (Varazdin: Nakl. slob. i kralj. grada Varazdina, 1942-
1944); Josip Barbaric et al., Zapisnici poglavarstva grada Varaidina. Protoco/la Magistratus
liberae et regiae civitatis Varasdini (henceforth: ZPGV), vol. 1-3 (Yarazdin: Driavni
arhiv, 1990-1992).
The statute ofllok consists of five books; the privileges that Nicholas of Ilok gave to llok in
the second half of the fifteenth century are published in the first book. The four other books
21
more important if it is assumed that similar regulations were valid in the urban
Settlements that were not part of the group of tavernical cities because of similarities
in economic and city life in general, and because of the professional and
personal ties that existed among them and the movement ofthe population.
Women appear as defendants in vatious types of lawsuits in Varazdin and
Gradec, from those for relatively minor misdemeanours such as arguments, insults
or fights, to the major ones like murders. An example of a misdemeanour,
is a case from Gradec in 1439, when Catherine, wife of Leonard Theutonicus
and sister ofBenedict, son of Michael Sebastiani, managed to prove in the court
of law that the wife of Thomas, a shield maker, had called her names and
roughly pulled her clothes, for which she was fined.4 A similar case was
recorded in 1 363, when some peasant women from the estate of Susedgrad had
beaten the wife of a certain Strabon.5 In the court records of 1 3 84 is recorded a
physical confrontation between the wife of Ratko and the wife of Andrew that
led to blood being spilled.6 All of these examples attest that women belonging to
different layers of society were involved in street argurnents and confrontations
– from peasant women of nearby vitlages to the members of the highest layers of
Gradec society, such as Catheline in the case in 1439. In fact, her grandfather,
Sebastian, her father, Michael, and her brother, Benedict, were city judges,
consist of legal regulations that were valid in eight Hungarian comrnunities (Buda, Pest,
Kosice, Bardejov, Trnava, Presshurg, Presov, and Sopron) helonging to the group of
tavernical cities. The statute was confirrned hy King Louis li in 1525. For more on
tavernical Jaw and the cities see Stefania Mertanova, Jus tavernicale: stildie o procese
formovania prava tavernickych mies/ V etapoch vyvoja taverniickeho sudu V Uhorsku (1 5.-
17. stor.) [lus tavernica/e: Srudies on the forrnation process of the Jaw of tavernical cities
through the stages of development of the tavernical coun in Hungary (from the fifteenth to
the seventeenth century)) (Bratislava: Slovenskej Akademie Yied, 1985); Lujo Margetic,
Hrvatsko srednjovjekovno obiteljsko i nasljedno pravo (The Croatian medieval family and
inheritancc law) (Zagreh: Narodne novioe, 1996), 286-87; Teodora Shek Bmardic,
‚Tavernik, tavemika1ni sud i tavernikalno pravo“ (Tavernicus, tavernica1 coun and
tavemical law), Arhivski vjesnik 40 ( 1 997): 1 79-98. On the statute of Ilok see Andrija
Zdravcevic, „llocki statut iz 1525. godine i njegova nasljednopravna regulacija“ (The
statute of Ilok from 1525 and its hereditary-legal regulation), unpuhlished doctoral thesis
(Osijek: Pravni faku1tet, 1 992); Lujo Margetic, „Ilocka pravna knjiga (tzv. Ilocki stantt)“
[IIok’s law hook (the so-called statute of Ilok)], Zbornik Pravnogfakulteta u Zagrebu 44, 1 –
2 ( 1 994): 93- 1 16; Darko Vitek, „Drutveni odnosi u srednjovjekovnorn Iloku prikazani
Ilockim statutom iz 1525. godine“ (The social relations in medieval Ilok according to the
statute ofllok from 1525), MA thesis (Zagreh: Filozofski fakultet, 2000); idem, „Struktura i
izvorite teksta Hockog statuta“ (The structure and origin of the text of the starute of Ilok),
Scrinia Slavonica 1 (2001): 404-20. The statute of Ilok was puhlished hy Rudolf Schmidt,
Statut grada 1/oka iz godine 1525 (The statute of the city of llok from the year 1525]
(henceforth: Jlocki statut), Menumenta historico-juridica Slavorum Meridionaliurn, vol. 1 2
(Zagreb: JAZU, 1938).
4 MCZ 6, 319.
5 MCZ 4, 271 . See Nada Klaic, Povijest Zagreba I. Zagreb u srednjem vijeku (The history of
Zagreh I. Zagreh in the Middle Ages) (Zagreh: Liher, 1982), 6 1 .
6 MCZ 5, 215.
22
holders of the highest functions within the city authority, while her other
brothers were also members ofthe city magistracy.7
From the most difficult cases which involved women one example from
1486 shall be mentioned, when Margaret, the wife of George Zobaj, poisoned
her busband and was sentenced to be burned at the stake.8 To such terrible deeds
one can certainly add infanticide, including abortions, for which the statute of
Ilok prescribed the punishment of being burned alive,9 although other types of
capital punishrnent (for instance, drowning) or banjshrnent were usually used in
practice.10 Two examples, one from Gradec (Zagreb) and the other from
Varazdin, can be given. ln 1469, the community of Gradec confirmed the sale of
the forest that belonged to Helen, widow of Mathias Kerzowaych, who was
flogged and banished from the city because of her malicious acts, first of all,
because of the abortion of a child.11 At the end of the sixteenth century, in
Varazdin, Helen, the daughter of Morovic, secretly gave birth to a baby, killed
and buried him. When she was caught, the court determined that she should be
buried alive with thoms placed beneath her.12
Practicing magic was considered a serious crime, but the treatment of
accused women was not the same in all periods. In fourteenth-centUiy Gradec,
there is no mention of the use of torture in the investigations of the cases of
witchcraft nor are there rccords of anyone being bumed alive for this crime.
from this period, there are only records of threats to those accused of witchcraft,
but not of any specific punishment.13 Such a case is recorded in 1 360, when
Alice and Margaret had to swear, together with six witnesses, that they were not
involved in witchcraft, thus absolving themselves from the allegations. In the
7 Bruno Skreblin, „Etnicke i paliticke skupine u srednjovjekovnom gradu. Primjer gradeckih
/ingui“ (The ethnic and political groups in the medieval city. The example of the /inguae of
Gradec), Povijesni pri/ozi 27 (2008) 35: 1 1 1 .
MCZ 8 , 38-39.
9 Book 3, eh. 1 5 entitled De mu/ieribus, que prolern in adu/terio susceptam interfecerint, et
que propriam fi/iam suam ad prostibulum tradiderint states: ltem, Si mu/ier in viduitate
constituta, ve/ a/ia quepiam, adu/terando ve/ methando conceperit, et conceptum pepererit,
ac parturn interemerit, aut a/iqua propriam fi/iam ad prostibulum pro pecunia tradiderit, et
hoc sulficienti testimonio, id est proprioris sui, ve/ a/iorum fidedignorum et honestorum
virorum testimonio fuerit approbatum, ta/is debet duci ad patibulum, et ibi igne consumi et
1° comburi (l/ocki statut, 43). Cf. Marija Karbic. „Sto znamo o nezakonitoj djeci u gradskim naseljima u medllljecj u Save
i Drave tijekom srednjeg vijeka?“ (What do we k.now about illegitimate children in the
urban settlements of the Sava and Drava Interomnium in the Middle Agcs?), Scrinia
Slavonica 2 (2002): 1 74-77.
11 … proprer sua maleficia nephandissima et signanter propter deperdicionem cuiusdam pueri
sui, quem ipsa c/andestine pepererat et tumulaverunt, que propter huiusmodi sua facinora
de ipsa civitate existit expercussa et baculata, cui introitus eiusdem civitatis ulterius es/
prohibitus (MCZ 1 0, 274). 12 ZPGV2, 5 1 , 1 59-60.
13 MCZ 4, XXV.
23
court’s decision, it is emphasized that if the accused were later caught for the
same crime, they would be punished as they deserved. 14
Unlike the fourteenth century, in the fifteenth century the burning of
persons convicted of witchcraft is recorded. Such a punishrnent was inflicted on
several individuals in 1496. 1 5 In the court records of Gradec, in 1429, the community
confirmed that a housc was sold that previously bad belonged to
Margaret, the widow of Matthew, a tax col!ector. Together with her daughter,
Elisabeth, she was marked as mulier meleficara. Both of them were bumed for
witchcraft because they had burned a bam and grain belonging to the juror
Stephan, called Ban. 16 Still, these verdicts from the fifteenth century were not
brought only because of witchcraft, but also for some other crime connected to it
(such as burning the bam and grain in this case from 1429 or murder in the cases
from 1496). The treatment for practicing witchcraft in the urban settlements of
medieval Slavonia is a special issue, however, that should be dealt in greater
detail in the future.
Here T shall deal in greater detail with the criminal acts that, in a way,
constituted a profession for the women who were committing them (or, at least,
provided them with an extra source of income): theft and prostitution.
In the court records of Gradec numerous thefts are recorded, and quite
often the perpetrators were women. Among them one finds people from the
lowest layers of society, but also those who were „ordinary“ members of society
whose deterioration in economic position might have made them emumit thc
crimes. Such is one example from 1452, when Helen, the wife ofthe boot-maker
Mathias, stole some money from another boot-maker, Peter, and was banished
from the city.17 In this case, the reason for Helen’s action might have been the
fact that she was a widow, meaning that the death of her busband had put her i n
a difficult material position.
Besides the theft of money, there are also records of the thefts of other
things, frequently clothes or fabrics. Elisabeth, daughter of Paul Kokotacic, stole
from Peter, son of Drago, a tight-fitting braided jacket (suparam vulgo surlycza),
one shirt, and two towels; for these actions she was banished from the city in
1457. 18 ln another case, Ursula, daughtcr of Agatha, stole four ells of fabric
together with Janko, son of Jansa Boletinie (who was also convicted of the theft
of a horse). For these thefts they were punished by cutting off thcir ears and
banishing them from the city. 19
14 MCZ 4, 180. The record does not specify the type of magic, but TkalCic thinks that one of
them, the one that was a baker, sprinkled bread with urine before baking so that sales would
be better, but I am not sure on what basis he came to that conclusion. Cf. MCZ 4, xxv.
IS MCZ 8, 1 1 2-13.
16 MCZ 9, 180.
17 MCZ ? 34
18 MCZ ?: 12S-29.
19 MCZ 7, 208.
24
The usual punishment for theft was either banishment or cutting off one
or both ears. In the case of lsa of Vugrovec, in 1375, the punishment was
banishment from the city, and if she were to retum, her ear would be cut off.20 It
should be noted that there was no difference between the punishments for theft
by male or female perpetrators. This is in accordance with the fact that women
generally had a relatively good position in the W’ban settlements in this research
area, which came from their roles in the lives of these communities, from the
importance that their work had for their families and also for the city on global
scale.21
In the cases when clear evidence of someone’s guilt did not exist, the
defendant could purge hirnself with an oath. For example, when Benedict Magyar,
the familiaris of a certain Sovan, sued a servant named Kate for theft but
could not prove his allegations; the comt requested that she should purge herself
with an oath, „together with three of her kind.“ lf she did so, Benedict would
have to pay her a substantial financial compensation (homagium vivum ). I f Kate
did not take an oath, sbe would be convicted. 22
lt should also be noted that thieves often joined f01·ces. A textbook example
where several women teamed up comes from 1453. Catherine, the
daughter of the late Briccius Mejnosec of St. Helen, together with Lucy,
daughter of Anne and wifc of Paul, the 1ibbon maker, stole some things belonging
to Greg01y Impric of Jamnica. Later, Helen, daughter of Andrew Zedmeric,
helped them to reseil the stolen items.23 For these actions, they were
sentenced to have their ears cut off and to be banished from the city.
Women are also known to have been involved in thefts together with their
spouses, such as Agatha, who helped her busband in more than one theft in 1475
and was banished from the city?4 Their partners in crime were occasionally their
unwed partners or Iovers. Helen, the concubine of Emeric, an agricultural
20
MCZ 5, 20. 21 Cf. Marija Karbic, „Nije, naime, njezina dusa drugacija nego kod muskarca – polozaj zena
u gradskim naseljima medurjeja Save i Drave u razvijenom i kasnom srednjem vijeku“
(Her soul, namely, is not different from the one ofmen. The position of women in the urban
Settlements of the Sava and Drava Interomnium in the high and late Middle Ages) i n
Andrea Feldman (ed.), iene u Hrvacskoj. ienska i kulturna povijest (Womcn in Croatia.
Shc-story and cultural bisto1y) (Zagreb: Institut Vlado Gotovac, Zenska infoteka, 2004),
57-76 (with extensive bibliography). 22 MCZ 8, str. 95. Homagium vivum (Croatian vraida) was the amount of money paid as a
retribution for murder or inflicting bard physical injuries. For more on it see Vladimir
Mazuranic, Prinosi za hrvatski pravno-povjestni rjecnik (Contributions to the Croatian
legal and historical dictionary) (Zagreb: JAZU, 1975), vol. 2, 1602-1604. False accusation
could have bad severe consequences and seriously threatened the life of a suspect. Thus, the
fine for it was that high.
23 MCZ 7, 48-49.
24 MCZ 7, 442.
25
worker, was caught tagether with him in a theft, so they were banished from the
city after each ofthem had one ear cut off?5
Some women were involved in more than one crime of different sorts. A
certain Anne is mentioned in the court records of 1460 when she had her ear cut
off because she had stolen a towel and a pillow from the wife ofTancec. Besides
that, the same Anne is mentioned in a record stating that Elisabeth, wife o f
Stephan called Cuk (the Owl), paid her one golden tlorin to bum down the
houses of Kelec, a boot-maker, and his neighbour, Clement. For these reasons,
Alme was banished from the city after being beaten and she was forbidden to
retum to its territory.26 Additionally, Anne was a mulier publica, which raises
the second topic to be presented here – prostitution.
The question of prostitution is a complex problern which can be addressed
from different points of view.27 It is connected to the issue of sexuality, but also
to one’s position in society, social problems, and demographic structure. The
attitude towards prostitution during the Middle Ages was significantly influenced
by the Christian worldview which disapproved of all extra-marital,
sexual relations. Even Church fathers, however, were sometimes willing to telerate
prostitution as a means of preventing greater evils, such as adultery or
sodomy?8
In the urban settlements of the Sava and Drava interamnium, prostitution
was considered a great evil, which is confinned in the regulations of the statute
of Ilok. There one finds severe condemnation for a mother leading her daughter
into prostitution. lt the same article that deals with the murder of an illegitimate
child, it is stated that a woman who Ieads her daughter into prostitution should
be treated like a woman who has killed her illegitimate child, that is, bumed.29
The link between those two activities can be explained with the
understanding that in both cases the point in question is killing one’s own child.
ln the first case the child’s body was killed and in the second case its soul.
25 MCZ 7, 366-67. 26 MCZ 7, 192.
27 There is a nwnber of works on prostitution in various medieval societies. See, for example,
Jacques Rossiaud, Medieval Prostitution (Oxford: Blackwell, 1988); Leah Lydia Otis,
Prostitution in Medieval Society: the History of an Urban Institution in Languedoc
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984); Guido Ruggiero, The Boundaries of Eros:
Sex, Crime and Sexuality in Renaissance Venice (New York: Oxford University Press,
1985). Within Croatian historiography greater attention was not givcn to that topic, but
certain works exist. See, for example: Gordan Ravancic, „Prostintcija u kasnosrednjovjekovnom
i renesansnom Dubrovniku“ (Prostitution in late medieval and Renaissance
Dubrovnik] in Tomislav Popic (ed.}, Gradske marginalne skupine u Hrvatskoj kroz srednji
vijek i ranomoderno doba (Urban marginal groups in Croatia in the Middle Ages and the
early modern Period), Biblioteka Dies historiae, vol. I (Zagreb: Hrvatski studiji, 2004), 89-
105. 28
John K. Bracket!, „The Floremine Onesta and the Control of Prostitution, 1403-1680,“ The
Sxi teenth Century Journa/ 24 (1993): 276.
29 Ilocki statut, 43.
26
According to the statute of Ilok, those who led girls or young women into
fomication would also be severely punished. Those persons were to be shackled
and then „sunk in deep water.“ This should be done regardless of whether they
were doing it for money or out of „affection,“ although this regulation was
primarily targeting women who were doing it for money, as it is said in the
title.30
It has to be pointed out, however, that the statute of Ilok does not contain
a single regulation directed against the prostitutes themselves. It is interesting
that even if the victim of a rape was a prostitute it was not an extenuating
circumstance for the perpetrator of rape. The punishment prescribed for raping a
prostitute was the death penalty, the same as in the cases of honest women and
girls.31 Although it is not k.nown how it functioned in practice, the very existence
of a consciousness that even in the case of a woman of suspicious morals it was
not justified to use force to coerce her into sexual intercourse is significant.
A negative attitude towards prostitution is also shown by the fact that one
of the biggest insults was to call a woman a prostitute (meretrix) and a man, a
son of a prostitute. Law suits originating from these kinds of insults are
mentioned frequently in court records. It is, for instance, recorded that a maidservant
of the blacksmith, Michael, testified that a young man bad called her a
prostitute, to which she responded that she would bc that if she were to be his
mother.32 Since such statements were considercd to be a great insult, the
punishment was grave as weil. When Kate, widow of Janko, accused Benedict
Magyar of an insult, to be precise, of calling her a prostitute of monks, priests,
and hundreds of thieves (meretrix monachorum et presbiterorum ac centum
/atronum) and proved her allegations with witnesses, Benedict was sentenced to
pay homagium vivum.33 Similar insults are also found within a family. Thus,
Annc, the wife of the juror Peter, son of Thomas, proved in court that her brother,
Stephan, had called her a prostitute and concubine of Vuk, the tax collector,
so the formcr was sentenced to pay homagium.34
There are not many suits conceming prostitutes themselves in the court
records. The punishment for engaging in prostitution was banishment from the
30 Book 3, eh. 1 6 entitled De Ienis, que virgines, et juvenculas mulieres pro pecunia obducunt,
states: Jrem, si que veru/e, virgines, auf juvenculas mu/ieres, ad sluprum vel adulterium pro
pecunia aut fauore, domicel/is, c/ientibus, auf a/iis quibuscunque personis extra marrimonium
existentibus abduxerint, et hoc sufficienter contra ipsas per viam iuris vt expedit
approbatum fuerit, extunc ta/es vetule debebunr viue in factis ligari, er in aquis
vehementibus submergi (llocki statut, 43).
31 Book 3 , eh. 22 entitled De opprimentibus publicam mererricem potencia/iter, states: Item,
si quis publicam mererricem per potenciam oppresserit, ipsa c/amore facto pro i/lata porentia,
protestata fuerit, probanre sufficienti restimonio, ralsi sentencie capitis subiacebir,
rracrus in cauda equi sub paribulo decollabirur (1/ocki starur, 45). For punishment in other
eases of rape see eh. 1 8-20 o f the third book ofthe statute ofllok (44-45).
32 MCZ 4, 188.
33 MCZ 8, 95.
34 MCZ 6, 346.
2 7
city, but convicted women were frequently pardoned.35 Thus, in 146 1 , Dorothy
Kuhinacic, widow of Martin Kranjec, after being caught several times engaging
in prostitution (propter maliciosum opus concubinatus sepius reperta fuit et
desistere noluit et manifeste reperta fuit), was banned from the city, but at the
request of many people she was pardoned.36
One interesting example was recorded in 1454 when a whole group of
women was punished for engaging in prostitution. Unlike other cases, where the
subjects in question were girls or widows, this time they were manied women.
Jalsica, wife of Cosmo, Mayhena, wife of the tailor Stephan, Margaret, wife of
the shoemaker Lacko, Elisabeth, wife of George Krcmaric, and her daughter
Catherine were caught in manifesto meretricio et pluribus maleficiis. Thus, they
were supposed to be punished „according to their merits,“ as was recorded in the
source, but on the plea of many noble and honourable men they were pardoned;
so they were merely banned from the city.37 The nature of the original punishment
is not stated, but it is probable that it was the death penalty, since banishment
from the city was perceived as a lighter and reduced punishment. Such a
severe punishment may be explained with the fact that the protagonists were
married women. Besides engaging in prostitution, they had committed adultery
as weil, for which, according to the legal practice of Gradec, the prescribed
punishment was death.38
It is important to highlight that pardoning and reducing the punishment
was the usual practice in both Varazdin and Gradec, and that it was not specifically
connected with prostitution. Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that
the „honourable and noble men“ who spoke on behalf of the plainti ffs were their
customers. The reasons which led to such a practice could be debated (from
mercy as a virtue accentuated in the Christian world to the fact that the inhabitants
of these cities were mutually bound with various ties – family, neighbourhood
– to practical problems such as the difficulty ofhiring executioners), but in
any case, showing mercy was not a rarity in these urban settlements.
Besides the women who were prostituting themselves, the sources also
mention procuresses. One of them was Margaret, concubine of the late George,
servant of the late John Kostibol, a castellan of Stupnik castle. At the beginning
of 1454, Margaret was banished from the city because she had led some girls ad
meretricium circa plures concubitores, but she soon retumed and was again
caught in the same business. This time, the verdict highlighted that she had been
35 The banislunent from the city was also a severe punislunent and tbe individual’s existence
was seriously threatened. With it, he lost the protection of the community and the material
grounds of existence.
36 MCZ 7, 208, 212.
37 MCZ 7, 73.
38 On the amown of adultery i n the cities of the interamnium, see Marija Karbic, „The ‚ lllicit
Love‘ in Medieval Slavonian Cities,“ in Isabel Davis, Miriam Müller, and Sarah Rees
(eds.), Love, Marriage and Family Ties in the Middle Ages, International Medieval
Research, vol. I I (Tumhout: Brepols, 2003), 3 3 1 -40.
28
caught in procuring girls more than once, as the source states, „for priests and
other men,“ and she was banished once more.39 It is visible from this that the
punislunent for procuring girls was in practice more benign than that prescribed
in the statute ofllok.
The wife of the belt-maker, Petres, was also accused of procuring. The
allegations agairrst her were presented by Margaret, called Brodarica (the wife of
a ship-owner) claiming that the accused kept several prostitutes in her house.
The wife of Petres purified herself with an oath, and it is thus not even known
whether the allegations were truthful. It has to be taken into account that
Margaret, on the one hand, and Petres and his wife, on the other, had been in
dispute several years before this event over some allegations of theft and various
insults.40 It also seems that Margaret was a problematic person to begin with.
Besides Petres and his wife, she also had disputes in 1359 with Nicolas, son of
John, and with Farkas.41 A year later, she had disputes with the wife of Suleh42
and in 1 3 6 1 with Martin, a boot-maker.43 Therefore, it is possible that Margaret
invented the accusation against the wife of Petres, but also that she used the reallife
Situation to hurt her neighbour.
Widows were often involved in organizing prostitution, which can be
explained by the deterioration of their material position after the deaths of their
husbands and because of the need to eam a living. The sources mention that
widows kept prostitutes, and if it was proven, they paid fines.44 lt is interesting
to note that in these cases fines were employed and not banislm1ent from the
city. This may show a certain consideration by the city authorities and their
tmderstanding of tbe problern those women faced after being left without a
husband.
Besides punishing prostitution, attempts are also found in the sources to
prevent it. In 1 378, the city council forbade a young widow to go to the Chapter
arca, specifically directing her that she should not enter houses there. lf, as the
source mentions, she „should be caught in evil,“ the city authorities would
confiscate her property and banish her. It should also be noted that soon after
this decision of the city magistrate was rescinded and because of „the plea of an
honourable man she was restored to her initial civil freedom.“45
In the urban Settlements researched here, prostitution cannot be connected
with any specific part of the city.46 Mentions of prostitutes are rare and it is also
not possible to pinpoint the location of houses where they worked or lived. Also,
39 MCZ 7, 72.
40 MCZ 4, 1 1 1 , 1 1 3, 1 17.
41 MCZ 4, 129, 131, 135.
42 MCZ 4, 166.
43 MCZ 4, 200-0 I.
44 MCZ 4, xxvi.
45 MCZ 5, XXX, 144.
46 In Dubrovnik, the prostitutes mainly operated in the part of the city called Castelleto. Cf.
Ravancic, „Prostitucija,“ 95.
29
city regulations that would have localised them in some area did not exist, since
in principle they were not allowed to act anywhere.47 Besides, it seems that they
often operated in the houses of their customers. The sources mention girls that
wandered through the city and the district and entered the houses of bachelors.
In the lawsuits against them, the witnesses were often city guards, who reported
on movement that they had noticed during the night.48
lt should be emphasized that prostitutes often belonged to the lowest layer
of urban society, and that, besides prostitution, they were known to be connected
with other crimes, as it is apparent in the case of Anne, who also engaged in
theft, and arson for pay. Granda belonged to that lowest layer of prostitutes;
who, after being banished from the city together with her husband for theft,
retumed secretly. Then she was caught in meretricio with the priest Martin of
lvanic and banished once again.49 She was pardoned in 1369.50
Women in the Sava and Drava interamnium were also involved in various
other forms of breaking the law. There are many topics connected with this
research problern that are waiting to be investigated. In future research it would
be interesting, for instance, to find out the extent to which the extant sources
allow an analysis of the representations of individual types of crime in the
female population, so that it could be compared with distribution of crimes by
men. But this remains to be done in the future.
(Translated by Suzana Miljan)
47 Those regulations existed in certain Dalmatian cities, for instance, in Split. Cf. Ravancic,
„Prostitucija,“ 94.
48 MCZ 7, XX.
49 MCZ 7, 325-26.
50 MCZ 7, 358.
3 0
AT THEEDGE OFTHE LAW
MEDIUM AEVUM QUOTIDIANUM
SONDERBAND XXVIII
At the Edge of the Law:
Socially Unacceptable and Illegal Behaviour
in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period
Edited by
Suzana Miljan
and
Gerhard Jaritz
Krems 2012
MIT UNTERSTÜTZUNG
DER ABTEILUNG KULTUR UND WISSENSCHAFT DES AMTES DER
NIEDERÖSTERREICHISCHEN LANDESREGIERUNG
KULTUR 1!\ NIEDERÖSTERREICH ‚W
Copy editor: Judith Rassan
Cover illustration:
Justitia: St Michael and the Virgin Mary
Pembroke College, Cambridge
(Photo: Mirko Sardelic)
Alle Rechte vorbehalten
-ISBN 978-3-901 094-30-X
Herausgeber: Medium Aevum Quotidianum. Gesellschaft zur Erforschung der materiellen
Kultur des Mittelalters, Körnennarkt 13, 3500 Krems, Österreich. Für den Inhalt verantwortlich
zeichnen die Autoren, ohne deren ausdrückliche Zustimmungjeglicher Nachdruck,
auch in Auszügen, nicht gestattet ist.
Druck: KOPJTU Ges. m. b. H., Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1050 Wien.
Table of Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Damir Km·bic, The Thin Border Between Justice and Revenge,
Order and Disorder: Vraida (Enmity) and Institutional Violence
in Medieval Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Marija Karbic, Women on the Wrong Side ofthe Law.
Some Examples from Medieval Urban Settlements
of the Sava and Drava Interomnium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1
Sabine Florence Fabijanec, Ludus zardorum:
Moral and Legal Frameworks of Gambling
along the Adriatics in the Middle Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 I
Gerhard Jaritz, Outer Appearance,
Late Medieval Public Space, and the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Zoran Ladic, C1iminal Behaviour by Pilgrims
in the Middle Ag es and Early Modern Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Paul Freedman, Atrocities and Executions
of the Peasant Rebe! Leaders
in Late Medieval and Early Modem Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Lovorka Coralic, Unacceptable Social Behaviour or False Accusations:
Croats in the lnvestigations of the Venetian Inquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Slaven Bertosa, Robbers, Murderers, and Condemned Men in lstria
(from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
List of Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Preface
This publication contains selected papers from a conference held in
Zagreb (Centre for Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb) in 2009, dealing with
the medieval and early modem period, and translated into English for this
purpose. • The main goal was to gather papers on a topic that has not been
researched enough amongst Croatian historians, that is, the socially unacceptable
and illegal behaviour of individuals who were „walking at the edge of the
law.“ The general idea was also to present various research questions at the
intersection of social and legal history, from the problern of feuding in medieval
society to the various types of delinquency by pilgrims. The emphasis was put
on the Croatian territory in the Middle Ages (from Slavonia to lstria and Dalmatia)
and set in a broader (East) Centrat European context. The articles follow
a chronological sequence, starting from the High Middle Ages, with a particular
focus on the late medieval and early modern period.
The first paper is by Damir Karbic, who dcals with the use of violencc as
a means of obtaining justice and re-establishing order, which was one of the
peculiarities of the medieval legal system when compared with Roman law.
After presenting different cases of feuds in Croatian sources, he discusses, how
medieval communal legislation treated feuds as a separate legal institute, using
the example of the city statutes of Split.
Marija Karbic concentrates on the ways in which women from the
medieval urban settlements of the Sava and Drava interamnium came into
conflict with the law by various criminal actions, from insults or brawls to
abo11ion and murder. She connects those problems with the economic situation
of these women, basing the analysis mainly on theft and prostitution cases. The
women were sometimes punished severely, but sometimes pardoned or punished
minimally.
The problern of gambling along the eastem Adriatic coast is the research
subject of Sabine Florence Fabijanec. She analyses the urban statutory regulations
Stretching from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centUJy. She deals with the
adoption of legal provisions against gambling and shows the diversity of approach
to gambling from city to city.
Gerhard Jaritz analyses the interdependence between Jate medieval
material culture, human behaviour, religious discourse, and legal culture using
the example of actions connected with superbio that played a role in public
• The Croation version of the conference proceedings is publisbed as Suzana Miljan (ed.), Na
rubu zakona: dru§tveno i pravno neprihvatljiva pona§anja kroz povijest, Biblioteka Dies
historiae, vol. 3 (Zagrcb: Hrvatski studiji, 2009).
7
urban arguments. The secular authorities emphasized moral, national, and religious
components, highlighting the necessity of averting God’s wrath.
The perception of the behaviour of pilgrims is the topic of Zoran LadiC’s
contribution. He shows, in cantrast to the idealized vision of pilgrimages and
pilgrims, that pilgrimages made by average medieval or early modem believers
were also considered superstition and that the pilgtims often engaged in fights,
robberies, prostitution, and other forrns of delinquent behaviour.
Paul Freedman offers an ariicle on late medieval and early modem public
acts of torture and execution, which were carefully choreographed events whose
solemnity and meticulous preparation made the infliction of mutilation and
death horrifyingly impressive. He also concentrates on the various topoi of peasant
rebellion as described by literate contemporaries, such as rape, murder,
cannibalism, the roasting of victims, and so on.
Lovorka Coralic deals with Croats accused in the records of the Venetian
Inquisition. Four types of accusation can be recognized: conversion to Islam,
Protestantism, the use ofmagic, and conduct considered improper for clergymen
(priests and other mcmbers of religious orders).
The last article is by Slaven Bertosa, dealing with poor social conditions
in Istria in the early modem period that led to hunger, poverty, depopulation,
and generat insecurity, which in rum provoked dangeraus behaviour, robbery,
and murder. Capital crimes were under the jurisdiction of the Potesta and
Captain of Koper or, respcctively, the Captain of Raspor with his seat in Buzet.
The village communities were also starting to organize themselves by introducing
patrols, although in a modest way.
The collection of articles tries to popularise the topics for one plain
purpose, that is, to erase the border between history and legal studies, since until
now one carmot actually speak of „interdisciplinarity,“ but only of looking at
many research problems from various reference points. Hopefully, this volume
will be useful not only for historians dealing with this poorly researched topic of
(Croatian) historiography, but also for a wider public generally interested in the
functioning of the legal and social system in the past.
Finally, my special gratitude goes to Judith Rassou for copy editing the
volume and to Gerhard Jaritz for offering the opportunity to publish it as a
special issue of Medium Aevum Quotidianum, thus promoting this research on
an intemational level.
Suzana Miljan
8
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Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture Online
