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Biblical Influences on the Medieval and Early Modern English Law of Sanctuary

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Teresa Field
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In Act Three of Shakespeare's King Richard III the Duke of Buckingham asks Cardinal Bourchier to try and persuade Elizabeth Woodville to release the young Duke of York from sanctuary at Westminster. In the event of such tactics failing, Buckingham wishes Lord Hastings to accompany the Cardinal to Westminster and ‘… from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.’ The Cardinal's initial reaction is one of horror:

‘…if she be obdurate

To mild enteraties god in heaven forbid

We should infringe the holy privilge

Of blessed sanctuary not for all this land

Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Ecclesiastical Law Journal , Volume 2 , Issue 9 , July 1991 , pp. 222 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical Law Society 1991

References

1. Shakespeare, , King Richard the Third. Act III Scene I.Google Scholar

2. SirHoldsworth, W., A History of English Law. Vol iii (1936) Methuen and Co 303.Google ScholarThornley, I D. ‘Sanctuary in Medieval London’. (1933) NS Vol XXXViii Journal of the British Archaelogical Association 293.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Trenholme, N. M., ‘The Right of Sanctuary in England’, (1903) Vol i part 5 University of Missouri Studies, 3.Google Scholar

4. Buckland, W. W., The Main Institutions of Roman Private Law. (1931) Cambridge University Press 41.Google Scholar

5. The Oxford Annotated Bible with Aprocrypha. Revised Standard Edition. (1976) Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

6. Baker, J. H., ‘The English Law of Sanctuary’. (1990) 2 Ecclesiastical Law Journal 8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7. Gross, C., (ed) Select Coroners Rolls AD 1265–1413. (1895) Vol. 9 Selden Society 37.Google Scholar

8. Baker, J. H., (ed) Spelman's Reports. (1977) Vol. 94 Selden Society 337.Google Scholar

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11. Trevelyan, G. M., England and the Age of Wycliffe. (1909) Longman and Green 95.Google Scholar

12. Baker, , ‘The English Law of Sanctuary.’Google Scholar

13. Baker, , Spelman's Reports, p. 343Google Scholar

14. In ‘Hamlet and the Law of Homicide’, (1984) 100 Law Quarterly Review 282, T. G. Watkin has explored the shift from victim based liability in medieval times to a defendant based approach to lia bility in the sixteenth century. Henry's attack may be viewed in the context of such developments. With homicide, voluntary murder is to be distinguished from other killings. If accidental killings were to have no guilt attached to them and cases of manslaughter were to be eligible for benefit of clergy, the protection afforded for the remainder through sanctuary may well have seemed unjustifiable.Google Scholar

15. 22 Henry VIII 1530 c. 14.

16. Hunnisett, R. F., ‘The Last Sussex Abjurations’, (1965) 102 Sussex Archaeological Collections 49.Google Scholar

17. 32 Henry VIII 1540 c.12.

18. Baker, , Spelman's Reports p.346.Google Scholar

19. A statute of 1624, 21 Jac. 28 c. 7, abolished sanctuary.