Crimen atrocissimum:
prosecution and punishment of exceptional crimes and its representation in the Canterbury Tales
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25145/j.cemyr.2019.27.04Keywords:
exceptional crimes, rape, types of penalties, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury TalesAbstract
This paper analyses some of the main legal texts that regulate the prosecution and pu- nishment of exceptional crimes in medieval English law, and their transposition into Geoffrey Chaucer’s literary work. Some fundamental features of the legal framework for the prosecution of these crimes between the 12th and the 14th centuries are also studied; the procedural singularities of this type of prosecution are explored through the analysis of the trial and execution of Hugh Le Despenser (1286-1326) and through the rape theme in Geoffrey Chaucer’s works, with a particular focus on The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer writes in a new context, when conceptual, terminological and typological clarification of rape as a heinous crime against the person, a crime that carried the death penalty, was seeing significant progress.
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