14/10/2025
Über die Praxis der mittelalterlichen Begnadigung:
OPEN ACCESS🏆
The Power to Pardon in Medieval and Early Modern Christian Europe, eds. Ulrike Ludwig, Quentin Verreycken (Böhlau, October 2025)
https://www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com/themen-entdecken/geschichte/geschichte-der-fruehen-neuzeit/60171/the-power-to-pardon-in-medieval-and-early-modern-christian-europe
In medieval and early modern Christian Europe, the power to exercise pardon over rigor of justice was one of the strongest manifestations of sovereignty and, as such, it was almost ubiquitous. For merciful rulers, pardoning was a means to enforce peace and assert the supremacy of their judicial authority, whereas for subjects, it was primarily a way to save their lives and escape punishment, often at a lower cost than other mitigating practices. Studying the predominant role of pardon in medieval and early modern societies, this collective volume examines how pardons operated within complex legal systems marked by a plurality of legal orders, where various means of conflict resolution coexisted and litigants had to navigate multiple levels of authorities.
CONTENTS:
Towards a Comparative History of the Power to Pardon in Medieval and Early Modern Christian Europe. An Introduction -- Quentin Verreycken, Ulrike Ludwig
1. Norms, Pluralities, and the Challenges for Mercy
The Absolution (or not) of Solomon. Theology, Law, and Politics in a Twelfth-Century Debate on an Exceptional Case -- Philippa Byrne
By Mercy Bound. Pardoning, Petitioning and Tsarist Power in Early Modern Russia -- Nancy Shields Kollmann
Hanging or Pardoning? Coping with the Rebels after the Peasants’ War of 1525 -- Gerd Schwerhoff
2. Agency, Social Vulnerability, and Petitioning for Pardon
The Pope or the King of France? Where Could Killer Priests Turn for a Pardon in the Late 15th Century? -- Élisabeth Lusset
Pardons for and by the Enslaved and Racialised in Pre-Modern Portugal -- Darlene Abreu-Ferreira
Uses of Grace and Justice. Female Agency in Ancien Régime Spain -- Tomás A. Mantecón Movellán
3. Government, Multilevel Powers and the Construction of Sovereignty
From the Duke to the King. Pardoning Criminals in Dijon under the King of France after 1477 -- Rudi Beaulant
The Power to Pardon and the Privy Council of the Habsburg Low Countries. Evolution and Variation, 1540–1633 -- Luke Giraudet
Territorial-Princely Pardon as an Administrative Act. Preconditions and Effects of a Changed Territorial-Princely Pardon Practice in Electoral Saxony in the First Half of the 17th Century -- Ulrike Ludwig
