Murder, mayhem and morality: Social order and the presses of early modern England and France

This dissertation, "Murder, Mayhem and Morality: Social Order and the Presses of Early Modern England and France," examines popular literature focused on reporting true crime. Pamphlets, ballads, plays, and treatises that described criminal acts taking place between 1550 and 1640 in England and France, provide a discourse from which to detect early modern attitudes about the family, the justice system, social hierarchy and the state. What the literature reveals are two societies caught in a multitude of crises. Each of these countries faced economic problems, instability on the throne, religious conflicts between Protestants and Catholics, and apprehension about the increasing size and importance of a bourgeois class. As a result of this general sense of instability, state and church officials of each nation focused on restoring order to the individual household.;This obsession reveals itself in the crime literature of England and France. A vast majority of these reports addressed violence within the household, including aggression among family members and that between masters and servants. The emphasis on homicidal violence within the household, particularly violence committed by its female members, runs counter to what statistical studies of early modern crime illustrate. In fact, women were far more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. Other scholars have interpreted this focus on female disorderliness as indications of the misogyny that was endemic to early modern Europe. This dissertation shows that assumption to be too simplistic. The concern over controlling women represented just one part of their larger obsession with restoring order. Thus, one sees changing expectations for both men and women, though females certainly suffered more legal consequences as a result of this moral crisis.;In addition to revealing the crisis of order in early modern England and France, this study allows a glimpse into some of the most personal areas of early modern life such as love, marriage and family relationships. By examining literature from two countries, this dissertation also offers a more panoramic view of the trends present in early modern Europe while illustrating the unique qualities of each nation's configuration of the ideal household.