Course: HIS 1820G Final Make-up Exam

Instructor: Dr. Frances Henry

Date of Exam: Friday, May 6 2022.
Exam Location: TBA.

Aids Permitted: 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper, double sided, with hand-written or typed notes on
it.

Additional Materials required: 2-3 exam booklets per student.

Student Signature:
 HIS 1820G Crime-Fighting in Premodern Europe
Final Exam /60 (30% of your final grade)
Instructions
You have 3 hours for the exam. You should use the full time allotted, with an hour on each
section. Please double space your answers in the exam booklets provided. You may use a
double-sided 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper, with whatever information you would like to include on it
(names, dates, legislation, etc).
Section 1 is comprised of short answer identification questions, drawn from the material covered
in the lectures. Answers should be approximately 4-5 sentences. To get full marks, you must
correctly identify the subject, who/what it is, its approximate date and state its significance to the
history of Medieval European criminal justice. You will need to answer 4 of the 8 options, for a
total of 20 marks (33.3% of the exam).
Section 2 is comprised of short answer questions, based on the provided primary source
document. Answers should be 4-5 sentences, and answer the questions thoroughly, drawing on
the skills you learned in tutorial and the source analysis and research papers. Answers should be
placed within the context of the course themes and materials. Worth a total of 20 marks (33.3%
of the exam).
Section 3 is comprised of long answer essay questions. Answers should consist of multiple
paragraphs, including an introduction and conclusion. Answer 1 of 4 options, worth 20 marks
(33.3% of the exam). Your answer should include material from throughout the course.
Questions will relate to the course themes, and you will need to draw on material from multiple
lectures and/or the textbook & readings.
There is a bonus personal reflection at the end, for 6 marks.
Good luck and thank you for a wonderful semester!
Section 1 /20
Identify and state the significance of four of the following:
Corpus Juris Civilis Comitatus
Trial by Ordeal Flagellants
Frankpledge Outlawry
Inquisitional Procedure Chivalry
Section 2 /20
Read the primary source document attached. Then, answer the following questions in 4-5
sentences, drawing on your knowledge of medieval criminal justice.
1. What kind of document is this? What are its strengths and weaknesses?
 2. In what ways does the Magna Carta limit the King’s ability to raise money through feudal
law? Your answer should include a description of the feudal system, as well as how the
Charter limits it.
3. Discuss how the Magna Carta seeks to reform the administration of justice. How do these
changes reflect medieval judicial corruption? Draw on the textbook as well as the
lectures.
4. Drawing on these sections of the charter, who in the kingdom seemed to have the
strongest grievances against the king, and what does that reveal about changing ideas of
kingship in the high Middle Ages? Use examples to support your claim.
Section 3 /20
In essay format, answer one of the following questions:
1. What is the relationship between penance and punishment? How did it change over the
course of the Middle Ages?
2. How did Roman law influence the development of medieval law? Discuss, using
examples from the early, high, and late Middle Ages.
3. Who is Robin Hood? How does he reflect changing understandings of medieval crime,
law, and justice?
4. How did gender influence the ways that medieval men and women understood crime?
How did was the criminal justice system gendered? Answer with examples from the
early, high, and late Middle Ages.

Bonus Question /6

What was one thing you learned during this course that particularly surprised or interested you
and what did you find interesting/surprising about it?
Primary Source Document
King John of England. Excerpts from Magna Carta: The Great Charter of Liberties [1215].
Transcribed by William Sharp McKechnie. In Amy R. Caldwell (ed). Sources of
Western Society. Volume 1: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment. Second Edition.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011: 144-145.
[The English kings had extensive possessions in France and spent much of their resources
trying to defend or expand these holdings. By 1215, King John – through a series of military
defeats and poorly conducted alliances – had lost many of these French lands. To make up for
his losses, John levied to the point of abuse, the feudal payments his vassals owed him. He
also harshly enforced other traditional rights, such as the laws governing the forests. In 1215,
his nobles forced him to issue a charter that would clearly define both royal rights and the
rights of subjects.]
John, by the grace of God, king of England, lord of Ireland, duke of Normandy and
Aquitaine, and count of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons … [and]
subjects, greetings …
We have also granted to all free men of our kingdom, for us and our heirs forever, all the
underwritten liberties, to be had and held by them and their heirs, of us and our heirs forever…
No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she prefers to live without a husband,
provided always that she gives security not to marry without our consent, if she holds [a fief] of
us, or without the consent of her lord of whom she holds, if she holds of another. …
No scutage [payment in lieu of performing military service] or aid shall be imposed on
our kingdom, unless by common counsel of our kingdom, except for ransoming our person, for
making our eldest son a knight, and for once marrying our eldest daughter, and for these there
shall not be levied more than a reasonable aid…
Neither we nor our bailiffs shall take, for castles or for any other work of ours, wood
which is not ours, against the will of the owner of that wood…
We will not retain beyond one year and one day, the lands of those who have been
convicted of felony, and the lands shall thereafter be handed over to the lords of the fiefs…
No freeman shall be taken or [and] imprisoned or desseised [dispossessed] or exiled or in
any way destroyed, nor will we [attack] him nor send [people to attack] him, except by the
lawful judgement of his peers or [and] by the law of the land…
To no one will we sell, to no one will we refuse or delay, right or justice.
 All merchants shall have safe and secure exit from England, and entry to England, with
the right to tarry there and to move about as well by land as by water….
We will appoint justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs only such as know the law of the
kingdom and mean to observe it well…
Since, moreover, for God and the amendment of our kingdom and for the better allaying
of the quarrel that has arisen between us and our barons, we have granted all these concessions,
desirous that they should enjoy them in complete and firm endurance for ever, we give and grant
to them the underwritten security, namely, that the barons choose five-and-twenty barons of the
kingdom, whomsoever they will, who shall be bound with all their might, to observe and hold,
and cause to be observed, the peace and liberties we have granted and confirmed to them by this
our present Charter.