Medieval Coroner Reports

On Saturday, August 9th, 1298, a candle on the wall in a small shop in Oxford fell onto the floor and ignited the straw flooring. John and Alice Trivaler, the husband and wife operators of the shop, that was also their home, rushed out of the burning building; however, no sooner than when they reached safety, to Alice's utter horror, she remembered her infant son of only four weeks was still in his crib. She hastened back into burning building and was ultimately overwhelmed by the smoke and the flames.

Lately, I've been listening to a lot of audio books about the topic of medieval history. Currently, I'm in the middle of a series of lectures about the history of England from the Roman Empire to about the end of the Tudor dynasty. It's been very interesting to hear how gradually the British Isles converted to Christendom and the kings and politics throughout the ages. Those, I find, are just as interesting as courtly romance practices and romance in general. King Arthur is believed to be a romanticized telling of a 9th century king (I think named Aethelwood or Aethelwud).

But what I find even more fascinating than the romances or the politics are the rare glimpses I get of the life of everyday folks. These are very rare, as history rarely writes about the little guy, especially when a majority of the population are illiterate. However, during King Edward I, (Yes, the Edward Longshanks from Braveheart) a wave of change swept across the land, and people started taking a lot of records. This led to the Coroner Reports.

The main purpose of these reports was to ensure that every case was accounted for and that the royal treasury gobbled up as much assets as it could. See, Edward was in need of money to fund his war with the Scots and to hold on to British lands in France, and instead of negotiating with barons for funds or raising taxes, one source of revenue was from the deceased. If you died and had no legal heirs, all your wealth and land was then transferred to the king. If you were guilty of murder, you were (most likely) executed, and all your stuff would be given to the king. As every little bit mattered, Edward had these reports standard issue in the realm. He also added in a bunch of changes in the legal field, like having pre-made writs available for purchase for purposes of bringing legal charges to others, among a variety of other uses.

But these coroner reports are absolutely fascinating. The ones I've read from Oxford in the late 13th century have tales of murder, tragedy, and human sorrow.

Give it a look if you're interested. You may find something to use in your next work. Just be mindful that there are a lot of spelling errors (and some incomplete translations) as this seems to have either been a rush job or the results of a computer scan-to-text function.