The Two Faces of Pardon Jurisdiction in the Burgundian Netherlands. A Royal Road to Social Cohesion and an Effectual Instrument of Princely Clientelism

Prevenier, Walter

doi:10.1484/m.stmh-eb.3.2425

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The granting of pardon letters could also be an instrument of political clientelism for monarchs who favoured the members of some powerful families or local patricians (Prevenier, ). The practice of intercession, allowing a petitioner to obtain the support of a servant or a relative of the monarch, clearly privileged those with a large social and political network.…”

Section: Pacification Coercion and The Rise Of The Early Modern Statementioning

confidence: 99%

The power to pardon in late medieval and early modern Europe: New perspectives in the history of crime and criminal justice

Verreycken

2019

History Compass

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Over the past 30 years, few sources have been the subject of more scholarly attention than medieval and early modern pardon letters. These charters, issued by the royal or princely chancery in response to a petition addressed to the monarch and his council, were the strongest manifestation of the sovereign's right to remit crimes in many European polities, including France, England, the Low Countries, Castile, and Portugal. Following the paradigmatic interpretation of ordinary violence as the expression of well‐integrated social behaviours, historians of crime and criminal justice have found in petitions and pardon letters records of powerful narratives describing episodes of violence in the population's everyday life. Yet scholars have also debated the reliability of these stories, as they were obviously designed to support the petitioners' claim for pardon. Another major historiographical controversy concerns the articulation between the power to pardon and the criminal policies of the monarchs. While some historians considered the granting of pardon letters as the product of a weak or corrupted justice system that preferred to remit crimes in exchange for money rather prosecuting the perpetrators, others argued that the rise of the power to pardon followed the process of early modern State‐building and served to temper criminal prosecutions and assert the sovereign's right over the life and death of his subjects. This essay introduces the reader to the historiography of pardon letters and shows its connections with the recent developments in the history of crime and criminal justice in late medieval and early modern Europe.

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Section: Pacification Coercion and The Rise Of The Early Modern Statementioning

confidence: 99%

The power to pardon in late medieval and early modern Europe: New perspectives in the history of crime and criminal justice

Verreycken

2019

History Compass

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, the petitioners who did not have a high standard of living could afford a royal or a princely pardon only with the financial support of their families. Nobility was usually overrepresented amongst the supplicants because of the politics of patronage and clientelism developed by the monarchs (Prevenier, 2010). Yet in France and the Burgundian Low Countries, noblemen rarely represented more than two percent of the pardon beneficiaries could be favoured by royal or princely mercy.…”

Section: Speeches Of the Selfmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘En nous humblement requerant’: Crime Narrations and Rhetorical Strategies in Late Medieval Pardon Letters

Verreycken

2019

Open Library of Humanities

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The Two Faces of Pardon Jurisdiction in the Burgundian Netherlands. A Royal Road to Social Cohesion and an Effectual Instrument of Princely Clientelism

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

The power to pardon in late medieval and early modern Europe: New perspectives in the history of crime and criminal justice

The power to pardon in late medieval and early modern Europe: New perspectives in the history of crime and criminal justice

‘En nous humblement requerant’: Crime Narrations and Rhetorical Strategies in Late Medieval Pardon Letters

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