War and the City: The Urban Justice of Dijon and the Violence of Soldiers in 15th-Century Burgundy

Verreycken, Quentin [USL-B] Beaulant, Rudi [Université de Bourgogne]

From a military point of view, the city of Dijon has been relatively spared by the events of the Hundred Years War until the mid-fifteenth century,. However, the presence of soldiers in the town increased from the 1460s and the 1470s, during the campaigns led by Charles the Bold who fought against the French and the Swiss armies. This military presence seemed to be accompanied by violences committed by soldiers, as observed by historians in many territories by the end of the Middle Ages. This paper will focus on the procedure engaged by urban justice against these soldiers in order to investigate if there were differences in the judiciary treatment of the militaries compared to the rest of the inhabitants of Dijon. The paper will also address the question of the jurisdictional issues of ordinary justice, as the jurisdiction of the urban authorities upon soldiers had been limited after King Louis XI ordered the construction of the castle of Dijon in the late fifteenth century.The “military criminality” itself has to be analysed carefully in order to understand the nature of the violence used by soldiers on the inhabitants. Besides, when studying the legal proceedings against soldiers, it is necessary to take account of the efforts by the urban authorities to preserve the town from violence and to prosecute the militaries that threatened public order. Finally, the criminal court records themselves, and especially the depositions by the witnesses, reveal how the population perceived soldiers and tried to deal with them when living in the city.