Le droit de vengeance et son déclin dans les Pays-Bas (XIVe-XVIe siècles)

Abstract

This paper will consider how urban and state authorities’ perception of vengeance changed from the 14th century until the 16th century. The judicial archives preserved for the Low Countries shed light on vengeance appearing within physical violence cases. A true right to vengeance indeed still existed at the end of the Middle Ages in some principalities. The urban courts knew the rules according to which vengeance was allowed to be carried out. Concurrently, urban authorities tried to restrict the use of vengeance. Case studies testify to the part that towns, at first, played in framing vindicatory violence. Chronologically speaking, the State was the second actor to come into play with an attempt for eradicating vengeance.