Ebook: Controlling Misbehavior in England, 1370-1600

First published 1998. First paperback edition 2002.

This important new study describes how English people defined and attempted to control misbehavior during the later medieval and early modern periods. Professor Mclntosh argues against the suggestion that social regulation was a distinctive feature of the decades around 1600, resulting from Puritanism. Instead, through an examination of public court proceedings from 255 villages and small towns distributed throughout England, she demonstrates that concern with wrongdoing mounted gradually between 1370 and 1600. In an attempt to maintain harmonious relations, preserve order, and lessen the social damage of poverty, local leaders prosecuted people who slandered or quarreled with their neighbors, engaged in sexual misdeeds, operated unruly alehouses, or refused to work. Professor Mclntosh also explores who the offenders were as well as the factors that led to misbehavior and shaped responses to it. More generally, her findings shed light on the transition from medieval to early modern patterns and open up little-known sources and new research methods. This novel study will be of interest to medievalists and early modernists, with interests ranging from social and economic history to legal and religious history.