Sexual Violence during the Lancastrian Occupation of Normandy

Using archival evidence, this presentation challenges the master narrative of the history of sexual violence in the Middle Ages by looking at the case of Lancastrian-occupied Normandy. This time period provides a wealth of information about how sexual violence was presented and prosecuted in both ecclesiastical and secular courts. Typical narratives frame the history of sexual violence around three points; that rape was infrequently prosecuted or penalized lightly because the courts did not see it as a serious transgression, that rape was underreported, and that only women of high status could get justice in a court. The extraordinary case of Corvière v. Le Mire challenges these long-held assumptions. While Jeanne Corvière did get justice from the legal system, her ten-year legal fight illuminates the intricacies and multiple jurisdictions of fifteenth-century Normandy.

Jennifer D. Thibodeaux is Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (USA). She is the author of two books and several articles on the subject of gender and masculinity in medieval Normandy.