La justice échevinale, la violence et la paix à Douai (fin XIIe-fin XVe siècle)
(2011)
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- (en) This study focuses on the development of urban judiciary policy and practice in the Flemish town of Douai at the end of the Middle Ages. The town’s legislation provides for different means of settling conflicts, including informal agreements, agreements made under the aegis of urban authorities and decisions of criminal judges. Crimes committed could then result in a peace, a truce, an oath, arbitration, or a criminal sentence and punishment, procedures that were not mutually exclusive. Some violence, for instance in avenging one’s honour, was not unacceptable, yet maintaining public order and social cohesion was necessary, no matter what procedure was followed. This diversity of procedures was further complicated by the interactions amongst the different authorities — the town, the count and the king — that shared judicial competence. The various means for dealing with conflicts in Douai must be seen also in the light of the development of judicial mechanisms of repression on a state level, with the reinforcement of central ized powers, first royal, then Burgundian. The frequent recourse to appeal and to letters of pardon testifies to the expectations of a population for whom the peace of the town was no longer enough.
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Nikichine, M. (2011). La justice échevinale, la violence et la paix à Douai (fin XIIe-fin XVe siècle). https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/149643