Author: Sara M. Butler
The King George III Professor in British History at The Ohio State University. I teach medieval and early modern British history with a specialty in social history of the law. I can be reached at butler.960@osu.edu.
Resisting Visitation in Late Medieval England
All Bastards are Free: The Medieval Origins of the Common Law Rule
Weird and Wonderful: The Mixed Cultural Heritage of England’s Common Law
“Pryket, Pryket, Pryket”: The Persistence of Orality in Fifteenth-Century English Legal Culture
Raptus: What did it mean to Medieval Justices and Jurors?
Pilgrimage, Anglo-Venetian Relations, and Public Urination: The Murder of English John
‘Gon in pilgremage’: Good for the Soul, Great for the Criminal
Who Gets to Keep the Child? A Thirteenth-Century Wardship Dispute Turns Ugly
Legislating Sanctity: Protecting the Graveyard in Medieval England
Regulating the Working Dog in Medieval England
Who killed Licoricia of Winchester? A Medieval Murder Mystery
The Steelyard, Hansard Merchants, and a “Misliving” Singlewoman in Late Medieval London
Forgive us our Trespasses: Reconciliation in Later Medieval England
Alito’s Leaked Draft Majority Opinion and the Medieval History of Abortion
Performing Anti-clericalism: Rioting in Church and against Clergymen in Late Medieval England
Nobody Messes with Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester: Punishing the Violators of Sanctuary
“Horys, strumppettes and fyssenagges”: Defamation in the Courts of Later Medieval England
Freedom comes at a Price: The Medieval History of Bail
Surviving an Execution in Medieval England and Modern Ohio: Miracle, or Incompetence?
Trouble with the In-laws? Marriage and Murder in Thirteenth-Century England
Law Enforcement Officials and the Limits of Violence in Medieval England
Carts, Ships, and Trains: Abusing the Deodand
Hearing and Speaking the Law in Medieval England
How to tell a Serf from a Slave in Medieval England
Could Priests Claim Sanctuary in Medieval England?
Femme Sole Status: A Failed Feminist Dream?
“Woe unto those who know not how to syllabificate”: The Languages of Medieval Law
A Jewish Woman’s Appeal of Murder in Thirteenth-Century England
Citizen v. John Foreigner: The Politics of Inclusion in Medieval England’s Urban Centers
Persons under the Law? Medieval Animal Rights
Gunpowder, Peine forte et dure, and Medieval Penance
From Game of Thrones to Steven Pinker: Just how Lawless were the Middle Ages?
Reading the Legal Record like a Physician
When did the Poor become Deserving or Undeserving?
Suffering Indifference: Pre-Reformation Approaches to Sacred People and Sacred Space
Legal History Miscellany 