Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales PDF
Preview Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales
Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales 24781 THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor Edward Peters, Founding Editor A complete list of books in the series is available from the publisher. 24781 24781 Law and the Imagination in Medieval Wales Robin Chapman Stacey university of pennsylvania press philadelphia 24781 24781 Copyright © 2018 University of Pennsylvania Press All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of review or scholarly citation, none of this book may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104- 4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress Printed in the United States of America on a cid- free paper 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Stacey, Robin Chapman, author. Title: Law and the imagination in medieval Wales / Robin Chapman Stacey. Other titles: Middle Ages series. Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2018] | Series: Middle Ages series | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018008684 | ISBN 9780812250510 (hardcover : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Law—Wales—History. | Law, Medieval. | Law and literature—Wales—History. | Culture and law— Wales—History. | Imagination—Political aspects—Wales— History. Classification: LCC KD9430 .S73 2018 | DDC 349.42909/02—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008684 24781 24781 For my much-l oved son Will (1988–2012), and all that he was, and for his remarkable sister Anna and great love Kimmy, who have found the courage to embrace the world in all its sharp beauty and sadness 24781 24781 This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction. Reading Law 1 Part I. Imagined Landscapes Chapter 1. Britain and Wales 29 Chapter 2. Court and Country 56 Part II. Body and Bawdy Chapter 3. Bodies and Nobodies 91 Chapter 4. Humor and the Household 128 Chapter 5. Sex and Marriage 149 Part III. Violence Chapter 6. Dogs in the Nighttime 183 Conclusion. Law and the Imagination 212 List of Abbreviations 225 Notes 229 Bibliography 285 Index 317 Acknowledgments 333 24781 24781 This page intentionally left blank Introduction Reading Law Some years ago, I found myself teaching a class on medieval law. This was a seminar intended for history majors, many of whom were planning ultimately to enter the legal profession, and the students were both bright and curious. We were discussing a text I knew well, the Welsh Laws of Court, when a stu- dent raised her hand to ask about a passage that appeared to limit the sanctu- ary (nawdd) a female baker was allowed to grant an offender to the distance she could throw her baking scraper.1 I started in with an explanation of how nawdd worked and why persons of greater status would have been able to ex- tend more protection had they been approached. She looked confused, so I dramatized the event for her, imagining a scenario in which a wild- eyed of- fender with pursuers hot on his heels bursts into a prince’s kitchen searching for someone to help him. He rushes over to the baker, who is there scraping flour into a bowl, and hurls himself at her feet begging for sanctuary. Taking pity on him, she throws her baking tool into the air, and he then becomes safe from arrest as long as he stays within the space defined by her throw, remain- ing amid the pots and pans for several days while the terms for his release are negotiated. The questions that ensued were completely predictable. Even to me, the scene I was imagining sounded perfectly ridiculous. Would a person in trouble really seek out a kitchen servant for protection? What if she had hit someone with her scraper? And above all, why would something so incredibly silly be written into the law? Law was supposed to be true, not funny, and this sounded more like a joke or an excerpt from a story than anything else. Didn’t medieval people know the difference? The discussion that followed was lively, though ultimately inconclusive, not least because several students immediately pointed out that exactly the same privileges were extended to the laundress and her washing dolly, which 24781 24781
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