Gwen Seabourne
Biographic Data
| ID | 5747473 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gwen Seabourne |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gwen |
| FAMILY NAME | Seabourne |
| SIGNATURE | SEABOURNE G |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bristol |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7752-0889 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1997 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Law and Constitutional Change
A collection of some of the best papers presented at the 25th British Legal History Conference at Queen's University Belfast in July 2022, Law and Constitutional Change examines the role that law plays when countries experience a major constitutional upheaval. It examines the interaction of law and politics in history across different legal jurisdictions with different legal traditions. The theme of the conference was 'Law and Constitutional Chan…
Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England, by Elizabeth Papp Kamali
This book tackles a set of questions, of great importance and significant difficulty, surrounding the importance of intention and mental state to felony adjudication in the common law of England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It does so with style, ingenuity and wisdom. The author of such a book must negotiate the tricky path of the legal historian: looking in depth at law in a particular period but with an eye to the connections thr…
Judging a Hereford hanging
This article considers an appeal of homicide brought by the widow of a hanged Hereford man, the background to which was what R.A. Griffiths calls the ‘forcible arrangement’ by powerful men of Herefordshire and the Welsh marches of the trial and execution of those said to have been guilty of murdering Watkin Vaughan of Bredwardine. While this incident has been considered in the context of disorder perpetrated in England, Wales and the Marches by p…
It is necessary that the issue be heard to cry or squall within the four [walls]’
This article considers the test used to determine the presence or absence of life in newborn babies, in relation to a widower’s entitlement to remain in land brought to the marriage by his wife, as tenant by the curtesy of England. To qualify for curtesy, a widower needed to have produced a live and legitimate child, but, since even a short period of life was sufficient, there might be disputes as to whether a child which was now dead had ever be…
Deeds, Words and Drama
Review of the film Suffragette (2015), written by Abi Morgan and directed by Sarah Gavron, considering its use of fiction to explore women’s history, comparing it to other dramatic treatments of the suffrage campaign, its historical accuracy and its portrayal of the legal and social position of women, and wives, during the early twentieth century
Drugs, Deceit and Damage in Thirteenth-century Herefordshire
Discussion of Plomet v Worgan, a thirteenth-century case in which a medical man was found to have used a drug (dwoledreng) to obtain sex from a female patient. Issues which arise include: the nature of the drug in question; the nature of surgical practice in this early, provincial, setting; ideas about sexual consent and incapacity and the response of the legal system to such medical misconduct. The case shows the flexibility and complexity of id…
Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon law has not been a major focus of the Journal of Legal History, with only seven or eight articles devoted to this area over more than thirty years. Likewise, the Selden Society concentr
Assize matters
This article deals with the regulation of the price and weight of bread in medieval London, drawing mainly on the manuscript Liber de Assisa Panis. It concludes that, at least in the fourteenth century, and particularly in the reign of Edward II, there is evidence of determined and robust attempts to make the regulations work, with a variety of different tactics and techniques, and with important participation by high-status individuals in the ci…
Expectations of the Law in the Middle Ages
The Law on Suicide in Medieval England
This article considers medieval English secular law on suicide. Using information in treatises and in court and inquest records of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we examine the reasons why suicide was regarded as an offence, the definition of felonious suicide in terms of conduct and intention and the mechanism for detection and reporting of suicide. The picture of the law which emerges from court and inquest records has some important …
Controlling Commercial Morality in Late Medieval London
This article examines evidence from a series of usury trials which took place in London in 1421, in order to draw conclusions both about the specific matters which were being dealt with in those cases, and about the way in which usury was regarded and prosecuted in early fifteenth century England. The article also relates the London cases of 1421 to the other rules about and mechanisms for prosecution of usury in fifteenth century England, most i…
A local rule on legitimation by subsequent marriage
The Law on Suicide in Medieval England
This article considers medieval English secular law on suicide. Using information in treatises and in court and inquest records of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we examine the reasons why suicide was regarded as an offence, the definition of felonious suicide in terms of conduct and intention and the mechanism for detection and reporting of suicide. The picture of the law which emerges from court and inquest records has some important …
Controlling Commercial Morality in Late Medieval London
This article examines evidence from a series of usury trials which took place in London in 1421, in order to draw conclusions both about the specific matters which were being dealt with in those cases, and about the way in which usury was regarded and prosecuted in early fifteenth century England. The article also relates the London cases of 1421 to the other rules about and mechanisms for prosecution of usury in fifteenth century England, most i…
A local rule on legitimation by subsequent marriage
Controlling Commercial Morality in Late Medieval London
This article examines evidence from a series of usury trials which took place in London in 1421, in order to draw conclusions both about the specific matters which were being dealt with in those cases, and about the way in which usury was regarded and prosecuted in early fifteenth century England. The article also relates the London cases of 1421 to the other rules about and mechanisms for prosecution of usury in fifteenth century England, most i…
The Law on Suicide in Medieval England
This article considers medieval English secular law on suicide. Using information in treatises and in court and inquest records of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, we examine the reasons why suicide was regarded as an offence, the definition of felonious suicide in terms of conduct and intention and the mechanism for detection and reporting of suicide. The picture of the law which emerges from court and inquest records has some important …
Expectations of the Law in the Middle Ages
Assize matters
This article deals with the regulation of the price and weight of bread in medieval London, drawing mainly on the manuscript Liber de Assisa Panis. It concludes that, at least in the fourteenth century, and particularly in the reign of Edward II, there is evidence of determined and robust attempts to make the regulations work, with a variety of different tactics and techniques, and with important participation by high-status individuals in the ci…
Deeds, Words and Drama
Review of the film Suffragette (2015), written by Abi Morgan and directed by Sarah Gavron, considering its use of fiction to explore women’s history, comparing it to other dramatic treatments of the suffrage campaign, its historical accuracy and its portrayal of the legal and social position of women, and wives, during the early twentieth century
Drugs, Deceit and Damage in Thirteenth-century Herefordshire
Discussion of Plomet v Worgan, a thirteenth-century case in which a medical man was found to have used a drug (dwoledreng) to obtain sex from a female patient. Issues which arise include: the nature of the drug in question; the nature of surgical practice in this early, provincial, setting; ideas about sexual consent and incapacity and the response of the legal system to such medical misconduct. The case shows the flexibility and complexity of id…
Capital and Corporal Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon law has not been a major focus of the Journal of Legal History, with only seven or eight articles devoted to this area over more than thirty years. Likewise, the Selden Society concentr
It is necessary that the issue be heard to cry or squall within the four [walls]’
This article considers the test used to determine the presence or absence of life in newborn babies, in relation to a widower’s entitlement to remain in land brought to the marriage by his wife, as tenant by the curtesy of England. To qualify for curtesy, a widower needed to have produced a live and legitimate child, but, since even a short period of life was sufficient, there might be disputes as to whether a child which was now dead had ever be…
Judging a Hereford hanging
This article considers an appeal of homicide brought by the widow of a hanged Hereford man, the background to which was what R.A. Griffiths calls the ‘forcible arrangement’ by powerful men of Herefordshire and the Welsh marches of the trial and execution of those said to have been guilty of murdering Watkin Vaughan of Bredwardine. While this incident has been considered in the context of disorder perpetrated in England, Wales and the Marches by p…
Felony and the Guilty Mind in Medieval England, by Elizabeth Papp Kamali
This book tackles a set of questions, of great importance and significant difficulty, surrounding the importance of intention and mental state to felony adjudication in the common law of England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It does so with style, ingenuity and wisdom. The author of such a book must negotiate the tricky path of the legal historian: looking in depth at law in a particular period but with an eye to the connections thr…
Law and Constitutional Change
A collection of some of the best papers presented at the 25th British Legal History Conference at Queen's University Belfast in July 2022, Law and Constitutional Change examines the role that law plays when countries experience a major constitutional upheaval. It examines the interaction of law and politics in history across different legal jurisdictions with different legal traditions. The theme of the conference was 'Law and Constitutional Chan…
Political science (10 works) · History (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Medieval Literature and History (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · History (5 works) · Politics (5 works) · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity (5 works) · Classics (4 works)