Violent crime looks quite a bit different today than it did in medieval times, when educated men were most likely to commit murder, usually in affluent areas, and often proceeded with impunity, according to new research. For decades, University of Cambridge criminologist Manuel Eisner has been creating "murder maps," which chronicle homicides in extraordinary detail, per the Washington Post. In the latest versions, he and colleagues chronicle more than 350 murders across the English cities of London, Oxford, and York, finding similarities and important differences in violent crime over the centuries, and even uncovering an apparent motive for one especially brutal killing.
On May 4, 1337, a priest named John Ford was attacked by three men, who stabbed him and slit his throat, on a bustling street in London. Ela FitzPayne, a leading figure of the English aristocracy, was said to have ordered the killing, for which one of her former servants was convicted. According to Eisner, records suggest the married noblewoman ordered the "mafia-style assassination" of her former lover in revenge after he informed the Archbishop of Canterbury of the adultery to avoid prosecution, resulting in a penance for FitzPayne, per the Guardian and ArsTechnica. But that's just one intriguing case. The murder maps also include "a man stabbed to death after he stumbled over a heap of dung while trying to flee a fight," per the Post.
Unlike in modern times, many of the medieval killings used an anelace, or foot-long dagger; were concentrated in affluent areas; and perpetrated by male college students. More than 90% of victims and suspected killers were men, though crimes against women may have gone underreported. Gang-like fights were common and "homicide was much more frequent than it is in modern times," with Oxford's homicide rate "spectacularly high," Eisner notes. The city, with a large student population, had an estimated homicide rate of 100 per 100,000 inhabitants in the 14th century, while London and York's rate was around 20 to 25 per 100,000. As of 2023, London's homicide rate was 1.2 per 100,000.
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At this time, "violence is seen as a way of dealing with things right across the social spectrum" and "some of the things that aristocrats and the well-off get up to in this period are completely terrifying," University of Oxford historian Hannah Skoda tells the Post, noting she discovered "a murder had taken place literally right outside my window in the 14th century!" Only 23% of homicides resulted in an arrest in part because killers were often viewed as acting in self-defense, says Eisner, whose research was published Friday in Criminal Law Forum.
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