Today, college students become ridiculously drunk. In medieval England, they have become ridiculously deadly

What words come to my mind when you think of the Middle Ages, also known as the medieval period? If you think of “violence”, you are not mistaken (although I would have added “smelly”).

To investigate the propagation of medieval violence, researchers in the United States and the United Kingdom have developed medieval “murder cards” of London, Oxford and York by translating 355 murders between 1296 and 1398. They studied investigations on the historic jury on strange dead, which describe when the attack took place, the location of the body, The reason behind.

This approach revealed insightful models of urban violence from 600 to 700 years, including the fact that university students were even more ridiculously annoying than middle school students today.

Armed and murderous students

“The homicides were very concentrated in the key nodes of urban life such as markets, squares and arteries”, in addition to hot spots such as bank fronts and ceremonial spaces, researchers explained in a study published earlier this summer in the Criminal Review Law Forum. In terms of calendar, Sundays were the deadliest days, especially around the curfew. The morning church was frequently followed by alcohol consumption, sports and fights later in the day.

However, each of the three cities had very different local models of local violence. Oxford, for example, had a homicide rate three to four times higher than London or York. Although this may seem in disagreement to the chic university city that you probably imagine, the Chic University is in fact the exact reason for these surprising rates.

“The medieval university has attracted young men aged 14 to 21, many live far from home, armed and imbued with a culture of honor and loyalty to the group,” wrote at the University of Hull and the study of the University of Cambridge, two criminologists and co-authors of the study, for the conversation. “Students organized themselves as” nations “according to their regional origins and their quarrels between the North and the Southerners regularly broke out in street battles.”

To worsen things, students were often considered above the Common Law, so that their violence can be prunted. In fact, Oxford Homicides were concentrated in or near the university district, also following conflicts between students and city dwellers.

The more audiences, the better

In London, medieval homicide hotspots included Westcheap, the “commercial heart and ceremonial of the city”, according to Brown and Eisner, as well as the seafront of Thames Street. The first was the murder site associated with guild rivalries, professional quarrels and public revenge attacks, while the second saw violence among sailors and business species.

York has seen significant homicide levels in one of its main entrances to the city, an area that has also welcomed a significant commercial, civic and social life. The concentration of travelers, locals and traders would have naturally caused conflicts. Stonegate, an estimated street in York which was part of a ceremonial road, has also experienced a lot of violence. Perhaps unexpectedly, such rich areas have offered possibilities of competition, revenge and public honor events.

In fact, “in the three cities, some homicides were committed in spaces of high visibility and symbolic significance,” wrote the team in the study. These public shows could have solidify the reputation of an individual and / or make a horribly convincing point. Interestingly, there have been fewer murder surveys in the poorest marginal districts of medieval England – although it is worth considering the possibility that there was not much pressure to investigate unusual deaths in less privileged communities in the first place.

However, “the study also raises broader questions about the long -term decline in homicide”, concluded researchers in the study, “suggesting that changes in urban governance and spatial organization may have played a crucial role in reducing deadly violence”.