Honor, Vengeance, and Social Trouble

An example of microhistory at its best, this book offers a new perspective on the socal history of medieval and early modern Europe and on historiography more broadly.

Peter Arnade is Professor of History and Dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. He is the author of Beggars, Iconoclasts, and Civic Patriots: The Political Culture of the Dutch Revolt and Realms of Ritual: Burgundian Ceremony and Civic Life in Late Medieval Ghent, both from Cornell. Walter Prevenier is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Ghent (Belgium) and the author or coauthor of numerous books, including From Reliable Sources: An Introduction to Historical Methods, also from Cornell, and The Promised Lands: The Low Countries Under Burgundian Rule, 1369–1530.

The novelty of this book lies in chapters 3 and 4, where the focus shifts from homicide to a set of pardon letters—statistically, a tiny minority—involving the abduction, real or alleged, of a woman. Here we get an illuminating glimpse of marriage law, interpersonal violence, the interaction between these two, and fifteenth-century life generally.

Thierry Boucquey:

"The merit of Honor, Vengeance, and Social Trouble: Pardon Letters in the Burgundian Low Countries lies in its attempt, wherever possible, to corroborate the cases it examines by unearthing supplementary archival data from a variety of sources, and to vividly and amusingly illuminate the social world in the towns and villages of the fifteenth-century Burgundian lands."

Walter Simons, Dartmouth College, author of Cities of Ladies: Beguine Communities in the Medieval Low Countries, 1200–1565:

In this fascinating study of pardon letters, juridical records at the interstices of legal custom, literary construct, and social action, Peter Arnade and Walter Prevenier offer expert guidance as we ponder the questions they raise about sex and gender, family and personal honor, social networking and individual resistance. Even more important, they open up a rich world of human crime and passion ignored by most traditional sources.

Wayne te Brake, Purchase College, State University of New York, author of Shaping History: Ordinary People in European Politics, 1500–1700:

Honor, Vengeance, and Social Trouble will be of interest to both historians and a broader reading public intrigued by its often dramatic themes. Peter Arnade and Walter Prevenier present a valuable and compelling view of the social world of a vital and often under-illuminated part of late medieval Europe. This book clearly models the effective use of complex and often-compromised sources in reconstructing the social worlds of ordinary people, and for that reason it will be a useful supplement in both undergraduate and graduate teaching.