Women, Crime and Punishment in Fourteenth-Century London

This thesis examines how women were punished for various crimes in late medieval London within the context of social expectations of female behaviour. Three forms of punishment are closely analysed: fining (or amercement), imprisonment, and public shaming. Each of these punishments had distinct meanings in medieval society and conveyed different messages to both the offender and society at large. This thesis seeks to make a contribution to the historiography of women, crime and punishment, whilst analysing how responses to female offending were themselves particularly gendered.