A ‘perfect storm’ of hormones, alcohol, and deadly weapons made this iconic city a murder hot spot in the 14th century.
An example of the coroners' rolls, this one recounting the 'Death of Hervey de Playford.” It comes from a roll from London documenting 1315 and 1316.found that Oxford’s student population was the most lethal of all social or professional groups, committing about 75 percent of all homicides.plots crime scenes based on translated investigations from 700-year-old coroners’ reports.
They estimate that the per capita homicide rate in Oxford was potentially 4 to 5 times higher than late medieval London or York. It also put the homicide rate at about 60 to 75 per 100,000—about 50 times higher than the murder rates in today’s English cities. The maps, however, don’t factor in theBy the early 14th century, Oxford had a population of roughly 7,000 inhabitants, with about 1,500 students.
“A medieval university city such as Oxford had a deadly mix of conditions,” lead murder map investigator and University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner. “Oxford students were all male and typically aged between fourteen and twenty-one, the peak for violence and risk-taking. These were young men freed from tight controls of family, parish or guild, and thrust into an environment full of weapons, with ample access to alehouses and sex workers.
Many of the students also belonged to regional fraternities known as “nations,” which could have added more tension within the student body.. According to the coroner’s report, a student named John Burel had, “a mortal wound on the crown of his head, six inches long and in depth reaching to the brain.
“Knives were omnipresent in medieval society,” said Brown. “A thwytel was a small knife, often valued at one penny, and used as cutlery or for everyday tasks. Axes were commonplace in homes for cutting wood, and many men carried a staff.”that they hope this project encourages people to reflect on the possible notices behind historic homicide and explore the parallels between these incidents and the altercations in the present.
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