PAST CRIMESand another thirteen around the skeleton that pinned down her clothing. The
woman was buried without a coffin or shroud in a shallow grave. Another
woman was surrounded by seventeen dice. This is an unlucky number for
Italians, and women were forbidden to play dice games. However, in this case
the graveyard was in consecrated ground, and the excavator has speculated
that these women were from influential families who could use their
connections to have them buried by the church.^8
A violent era
The fourteenth century was one of the most violent eras in the history of
Britain–one calculation is that it was ninetyfive per cent more dangerous
than the present day. Ten times as many homicides took place–between 36
and 52 people per 100,000 were killed in London each year in the first half
of the century, compared to 25.9 per 100,000 in New York City in 1993,
and just 9.3 per 100,000 for the USA as a whole in 1992. Everyone carried
a knife, and quarrels easily got out of hand. The fourteenth century was a
dreadful time. The climate deteriorated badly, leading to crop failures and
murrains among cattle and sheep. As a result, people starved. Then in 1349
the Black Death arrived. The battle for survival was sometimes very
vicious.
One of the most violent towns seems to have been Oxford. Between 1297
and 1322, thirteen murders were committed by students at the university.
There were riots and battles between the townspeople and the students and
staff of the colleges. A threeday riot began as a pub brawl in 1355. A group of
students went to an inn near Carfax, but took exception to the poor quality of
the wine there. They complained to the innkeeper, who answered them back
rather robustly. The students threw the jug of wine at his head. The locals took
up the side of the innkeeper, armed themselves with bows, and went out to
attack any students they could find. It turned into a whole series of running
battles in the streets, with university buildings set on fire and the death of six
members of the university.
There was little correlation between alcohol and murder, however. Most
people drank ale (as the water was notoriously unsafe), which was quite weak,
and wine was a drink for the wealthy rather than the common people.
Drunkenness as a crime does not appear until the later Tudor period.
The most popular day for committing a murder appears to have been
Sunday–thirtyeight per cent in London with another twenty per cent on
Monday. In Oxford, Saturday was the most perilous day of the week–twenty
nine per cent of murders were committed on Saturdays. Modern murders are