Crime, Justice and Public Order in Old Regime France

The Sénéchaussées of Libourne and Bazas, 1696-1789

Julius R. Ruff

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781317372936
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: French History
• Index: History

This title, first published in 1984, is a case study of crime and criminal justice in rural, southwestern France in the last century of the Old Regime. Based on extensive research in criminal court records, often the only documentary evidence of the poor and illiterate, the study is a valuable addition both to our knowledge of Old Regime society and to our understanding of its judicial institutions.

Rural, Old Regime France seethed with violence. Assault, homicide, and a violence of speech occurred frequently at all levels of society. The author's finding that royal fiscal and judicial officials were recurring targets of this violence additionally contributes to our understanding of the revolutionary events ending the Old Regime. This system, providing in principle for judicial torture and corporal and capital punishments for relatively minor crimes, has long epitomized much that was wrong with pre-revolutionary France. But the law in principle is not the law in practice, and the author finds that both local and appeals courts seldom decreed such measures.

This book will be of interest to students of history and criminology.

INDEX

abortion 24, 70, 169, 170

adultery 24, 171

agricultural offenses 133, 137–38

Aides, Cour des 27, 33, 34, 137

alcohol, role in crimes 80–1, 119, 128, 161 191; see also taverns, wine

Alençon 56

Ambarès 153

Ambès 153

amende honorable 62, 164, 183

Amirauté 27

arms 24, 37, 78–79, 104, 113, 146, 147, 152, 155, 160

arson 24, 133, 139

artisans 9, 16, 97, 98, 122

assault 47, 52, 57, 62, 68, 70, 71, 75, 77, 79, 80, 84, 91, 97, 103, 112, 113, 136, 157, 161, 171

assemblées au désert, 165

assesseur in Maréchaussée, 28

Auvergne 6, 25

avocats 9, 30, 53, 156, 158

avocats du roi 29, 33

banishment 58, 60, 62, 63, 70, 71, 116, 160, 167

Barie 149

bastides 5, 7

Bazas, City of 15, 16, 81, 182

Bazas, Présidial of 35

Bazas, Sénéchaussée of: agriculture of 12–16, 75, 77–78, 83, 137; appeals of decisions of 62–63; assault in 70–71; concept of honour in 72–74; convictions by 56–57; district court 182; disturbances of peace in 160–61; efficacy of 48–51; geography of 12–16; statutory violations in 171–72; thefts in 113–33 (see also ‘thefts’); wines of 12–13

Beauperier 157

Beccaria, Cesare Bonesana, marchese di 55

Bergerac 5, 118, 120, 153, 163

bestiality 47, 171

blasphemy 58, 166, 182

Blois, Or...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• LIST OF FIGURES
• LIST OF TABLES
• LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTE ON SPELLING
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• I. LIBOURNE AND BAZAS
• II. THE OLD REGIME CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
• III. OLD REGIME JUSTICE IN PRACTICE
• IV. CRIMES OF VIOLENCE
• V. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY
• VI. CRIMES AGAINST THE POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS AND MORAL ORDER
• EPILOGUE
• APPENDIX: THE SOCIAL CLASSIFICATION SCHEME
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• INDEX