Archives Nationales de France series JJ 200 folio 36 number 64 (Himanis p. 73)
Louis by the grace of God king of France. We make known to all in the present and to come that we have received the humble supplication of Andre Collet and Jehanne his wife, inhabitants of Clermont in the Diocese of Loderit (?). That seven or eight years ago or thereabouts Jehan Camarade, who is a man of the age of seventy years and some of his friends, had made a contract of marriage between Jehan Camarade, his son, with Kathrine, daughter of Jehan Alemant, licensed in the law, and of Sabile his wife. And because the said Katherine wasn’t of an age to be married, the said Jehan Camarade the older, who is a well-renowned man, wishing that the said Katherine to whom his son was affianced was well indoctrinated and of good morals, was content to take her and raise her in his hostel at his expense until she was of age to marry. And during that time and around the year 1465, the said Jehan Camarade the younger, who was a merchant, fiancé of the said Katherine, desiring to exercise his profession of merchant in the Levant, left the country in the said year in the month of September and went with the galleys of France, since which time he has not returned to our realm. During that time, and around the month of June 1466, the said supplicant who married the said Jehanne, who was the daughter of the said Jehan Camarade the elder and sister of the said Jehan Camarade, fiancé, left the said place of Clermont, together with his wife and all their children, and went to the town of Caux where the said Jehan Camarade the elder, father of the said Jehanne, lives, because the next day was the feast of Saint Gernais and Portrais, which was and is the festival of the said place of Caux, to make good cheer with this Camarade, father of his wife. And the day after the said feast of Saint Gervais this supplicant returned to his hostel in the said place of Clermont and left his wife and children in the said place of Caux. And during the time that he was in the said place of Clermont there were murmurs and words in the house of the said Jehan Camarade that the said Katherine, wife of the said Jehan Camarade the younger, was pregnant because she was not purged as she was accustomed to do and because of this the said supplicant had her father interrogate this Katherine about whether she was pregnant or not, to which she said multiple times that she was not at all pregnant. The which Camarade, believing that she told the truth didn’t mention it anymore and a little while later the said supplicant came back to the said place of Caux to find the said Jehanne his wife, also supplicant, to take the child of one called George Galhas of Clermont and be its godmother. His said wife said to the supplicant that she feared that the said Katherine, fiancée of her said brother, was pregnant and after and after [sic] this Jehanne supplicant said to her said husband, while crying, these words or similar, “If my father and mother who are old are informed once that this girl who they raised is pregnant in truth, seeing that such dishonor has come to them at the end of their days, they will immediately die of grief, which will be to our destruction and irreparable damage even without the dishonor that would come to us when it comes to the notice of the world.” And so the said supplicant counseled her said husband, also supplicant, in this, moved by the paternal and maternal love, that they should take the said Katherine with them and verify the truth of whether she was pregnant or not and if by chance she was pregnant that they do something to make her abort and that their said father and mother should know nothing in order to avoid their melancholy, sadness, and peril of death. And afterwards again or otherwise the said Camarade the elder interrogated this Katherine whether she was pregnant and that she swore and said that the truth and under pain of death she was not at all pregnant and that this Camarade had faith in her words, the said supplicant prayed the said Camarade her father that he give the said Katherine a sign that he wanted her to keep company with his wife on their way to Clermont where his said wife needed to take the child of the said George and they did such that he took her and was content. And when he, his said wife, the said Katherine, and his household had arrived in the said place of Clermont and that this supplicant had taken the child of this George, on a certain day the said supplicant asked this Katherine with great insistence, being in her house, if she was pregnant, who, either because of the menaces that the said supplicant threatened or otherwise, continued to persevere in her first opinion and a certain other day this supplicant asked her whether she was pregnant, who, either because of the menaces that the said supplicant threatened or otherwise, confessed to her and said that it was true that she was and that one named Raymont Tructavel, priest of the said place of Caux had known her carnally and she was pregnant by him. After which, the said supplicants kept the urine of the said Katherine in a urinal that the said supplicant took to one named Maistre Guille Masson, doctor of the said place of Clermont, to whom, so that he wouldn’t understand the case, she said that the urine was from a poor woman who was her friend and told him that he should please tell her what to do and that there was much need because she was very sick in her womb. The doctor, after having seen the said urine, believing that what he had been told by the said supplicant was true, said to the said supplicant that the woman who was sick in her womb needed to be bled as soon as was possible, the which supplicant after having heard what the said doctor said to her, went to her said husband and said what the said doctor had told her and then this Collet supplicant spoke to a barber of the said place of Clermont called Maistre Estienne Delinas and asked him if he wanted to bleed a dying woman from the veins of the womb and that he would pay him well, to which the barber agreed and the said barber came a little while later to the hostel of the said Collet supplicant and bled the said Katherine in four parts of her body, that is to say in each foot and in each arm, on many days and many times from the veins of the womb, with the said supplicants present, against the will of the said Katherine, who never consented once when he came to open up the head of the said veins because of which a few times she was pricked somewhere else than in the veins and also in the feet, the which barber then began to almost understand the case. The which things the said supplicant asked the said barber if he knew any things that were good for making the said Katherine abort and that he should give it to them. The which barber gave to the said supplicant many beverages and powders that the said supplicants made the said Katherine drink several times trying to make her abort that which she had in her body as the barber had said and a little after these supplicants, seeing that all that they had done had no effect, the said supplicant went to an apothecary of this place of Clermont named Pierre de Lala and said to him that she had a good woman who was her friend and that she was afollee and prayed him to give her that which was necessary for pushing out that which was in the body of the said good woman. The which Pierre de Lala gave her several times some syrups, beverages, and many pessaries, thinking that this was something to purge the said woman afolles of that which was in her womb. The which powders, beverages, and pessaries the said supplicant made the said Katherin drink and eat and placed in the middle of her nature the said pessaries in order to make her abort against her will. With which the said Collet, supplicant, hit this Katherine many times with a closed fist on the kidneys both while he had her in his hostel and also in the said town of Caux. And a little after the epidemic came in the said place of Clermont so this Collet and his wife, supplicants, their children and this Katherine went to the said place of Caux and when these supplicants were there, seeing that all that they had given and done to the said Katherine did not serve for anything to make her abort secretly, many times retained the urine of the said Katherine that the said supplicant took to Pezenas to show to Master Thomas Girona, physician of the said place of Pezenas and said to him that his wife was afolee and that he would please give him a remedy and said to the said physician that he wished to give the remedy more lightly. The which, after he had seen the said urines, ordered in the shop of one called Jehan Devan, apothecary of this place of Pezenas, many commands, syrups, powders, pills, or humors and opiates, readings, in many times and many passages, thinking that what the said Collet had told him was true. The which Collet, supplicant, working always towards the end above, took from the place of Pezenas many times the said beverages or humors, powders, pills, and pessaries and brought them to the said place of Caux secretly and there he and his wife, supplicant, gave and administered them to this Katherine, being in the house of the said Camarade the elder and gave her at the aforesaid the said pessaries against her will by her nature as the physician had said and otherwise because this physician had ordered them thinking that that which they had given him to believe was true and they gave the said Katherine baths, these supplicants bathed this Katherine in secret many times in a container of leather and they put in the said bath many herbs that the said physician had given to the said supplicant in the said place of Pezenas. The which supplicants, after they had done all that is said, seeing and knowing that God our creator was not pleased with what they had tried to do and that they could injure the said Katherine nor the swelling that was in her womb did not wish to persevere and afterwards did nothing to the person of this Katherine nor the said swelling and in the month of August that followed next the epidemic ran into the said place of Caux at which the said supplicants all their household and the said Katherine and also the household of the said Camarade went to the Priory of Saint Martin de Clemessan in the diocese of Besias and lived there all together until the month of January following without doing anything more to the person of the said Katherine and they being in the said Priory and that the said Katherine came to term, she gave birth the 13th day of January of a girl who was baptized and given to nourish and to the said girl dressed afterwards the said 13th day of January until the month of December last passed and the said supplicants believe that she is still alive. The which things afterwards came to the notice and knowledge of some of our officers and others. And for this cause these supplicants, fearing that one wishes to proceed rigorously against them in the case abovesaid if our grace and mercy is not imparted on them as they say. And for this they have humbly made a supplication and request to us that considering that which is abovesaid and that they have always been good people, peaceable and of good life, renown, and honest conversation without ever before having been accused or convicted of any other villainous case or reproach. And that the said swelling came to the light of life and was baptized and nothing that they did made it come out and that they did not want it, we are pleased to impart upon them our grace and mercy. Therefore, these things considered, we, wishing mercy to be preferred to rigor of justice to the said supplicants and to each of them in the case abovesaid have acquitted, remitted, and pardoned, acquit, remit, and pardon by special grace, full power, and Royal authority with all punishment, offense, and fine corporal, criminal, and civil that they could have incurred against us and justice for the occasion of this. And we have restored and we restore them to their good reputation and renown in the country and to their goods not confiscated and we gave and give of our said grace all appeals, defaults, and banishments that could be followed against them. Satisfaction given to the adverse party civilly only if it is not done. And we impose on this perpetual silence to our procurer in the present and to come and to all our other justices. So given in commandment by these present letters to the governor of our country of Languedoc and to all our other justices and officers or to their lieutenants present and to come and to each as it appertains to them, that by our present grace, acquittal, remission, and pardon they suffer and allow the said supplicants and each of them to enjoy and use fully and peaceably without because of this case vexing, bothering, molesting, or impeding nor allowing them to be bothered, molested, or impeded in body nor in goods now or in the future in any manner that is to the contrary. And if their bodies or any of their goods are or should be for this taken, seized, or impeded give them or have them given without delay in full deliverance. And so that this should be a firm and stable thing forever, we have had placed our seal on these present letters. Except in other things our right and the other in everything. Given at Montilz les Tours in the month of February the year of grace 1467 and of our reign the seventh. So signed by the King the Sire de Monsterent and other people. Toustain visa contentor DuBay
Loys par la grace de dieu roy de france Savoir faisons atous presens et avenir Nous avon receue lumble supplicacion de andre Collet et jehanne sa femme habitans de clermont ou diocese deloderit Que sept ou huit ans a ou environ fut par jehan camarade qui est homme aage de soixante dix ans et aucuns ses amis traicte le mariage de jehan camarade son filz avec kathrine fille de jehan alemant licencie en loir et de sabile sa femme et pour ce que ladite katherine nestoit en aage de sposer ledit jehan camarade laisne qui est homme bien renomme desirant que ladite katherine que son fil avoit fiancee fust bien en doctrinee et de bonnes meurs fut content delatenir et nourrir en son hostel a ses despens Jusques ace quelle fust en aage desposer et ce pendant et comme environ lan mil cccc soixante cinq ledit jehan camarade le jeune qui estoit marchant fiance de ladite katherine desiront excerter le fait de marchandise es parties de le levant parti oudit an ou mois de septembre du pais et sen ala avec les galees de france de puis lequel temps ne se retourne en notre royaume pendant lequel temps et comme ou mois de juing mil cccc lxvj ledit suppliant qui a esposee ladite jehanne laquelle est fille dudit jehan camarade laisne et seur dudit jehan camarade fiance sen partit ensemble ses femme et tous leurs enfans dudit lieu de clermont et sen allerent en la ville decaux ou fait sa demourance ledit jehan camarade laisne pere deladite jehanne Pour ce que le lendemain estoit la feste de saint gernais et portrait qui estoit et est la feste dudit lieu de caux pour faire bonne chiere avec icellui camarade pere desa femme et le lendemain deladite feste saint gervais icellui supliant sen retourna en son hostel audit lieu declermont et laissa audit lieu de caux ses femme et enfans et pendant les temps quil fut ainsi audit lieu de clermont fut en la maison dudit jehan camarade murmurs et parole que ladite katherine femme dudit jehan camarade le jeune estoit grosse denfant pour ce quelle ne sestoit purgie comme elle avoit acoustume et aceste cause ledit supliant fist interroguer par son pere icelle katherine se elle estoit grosse ou non laquelle dist quelle nestoit point grosse par plusieurs foiz lequel camarade cuidant quelle dist verite nen fist plus mencion et peu apres ledit supliant revint audit lieu decaur querir ladite jehanne sa femme aussi suppliant pour aler tenir lenfant dun appelle george galhas de clermont et estre sa commere auquel suppliant sadite femme dist quelle se doubtoit que ladite katherine fiancee de sondit frere eust grosse denfant et apres et apres [sic] icelle jehanne supliant dist asondit mary en plourant telles ou semblables parolles si mon pere et mamere qui sont vielz sont une foiz informez que ceste fille leur nors soit grosse denfant de verite voyant que tel deshonneur leur advient ala fin de leurs jours incontinent mourront de dueil qui feroit notre destrouction et inreparable dommaige sans le deshonneur qui nous en adviendra quant il viend ala notice du monde es pour ce conseilla ladite supliant a sondit mary aussi supliant ace esmeue damour paternelle et maternelle quilz emmenassent avec eulx ladite katherine et la verrony de vray si elle estoit grosse ou non et se daventure elle estoit grosse quilz feront quelque chose pour la faire avorter et que sesdis pere et mere nen savroient riens pour obvier aleur merencolie doulour et peril de leur mort et apres derechief ou autrement ledit camarade laisne eut interoguer icelle katherine si elle estoit grosse et quelle lui eust ure et dit que de verite et sur peine demourir elle nestoit point grosse et que icellui camarade eut adiouste foy a ses parolles ledit supliant pria ledit camarade son sire quil lui baillast ladite katherine saignant quil vouloit quelle tiensist compaignie asa femme jusques en clermont ou saidte femme devoit tenir lenfant dudit george et fist tant quil lammena et en fut content et quant lui sadite femme ladite katherine et son mesnaige furent arrivez audit lieu de clermont et que icelle supliant eut tenu lenfant dicellui george certain jour ledit supliant demanda a icelle katherine agrant instance estans en sa maison si elle estoit grosse laquelle tant par menasses que lui faisoit ledit supliant que autrement extroinet en perseverant tousiours en son oppinion premiere et certain autre jour icellui supliant lui demanda si elle estoit grosse laquelle tant par menasses que lui faisoit ledit supliant que autrement lui confessa et dist quil estoit verite quelle estoit et que ung nomme raymont tructavel presbtre dudit lieu decaur lavoit congneue charnellement et estoit grosse de lui apres lesquelles choses lesdis suplians firent retenir lorine deladite katherine en ung orinal laquelle ladite supliant portir a ung nomme maistre guille masson medecin dicellui lieu de clermont auquel a fin quil ne sa parteust du cas elle dirent a entendre que lorine estoit dune povre femme qui estoit samye et lui dist quil lui pleust dire et que lui seroit besoing car elle estoit fort malade de la mas lequel medecin apres ce quil eut veue ladite orine cuidant que ce que lui avoit dit ledit supliant fust vray dist a icelle supliant que la femme qui estoit malade de la mere il la failloit seigner le plus tost que on pourront la quelle suplians apres ce quelle eut oir ce que ledit medecin lui avoit dit se transporta pardevers sondit mary et lui dist que ledit medecin lui avoit dit et lors icellui collet supliant parla a ung barbier dudit lieu de clermont nomme maistre estienne delinas et lui demanda se vouloit segner une sacouhade des vaynes de lamere et quil paieroit bien don’t le barbier fut content et vint ledit barbier peu apres en lostel dudit collet supliant et seigna ladite katherine es quatre parties de son corps cest assavoir en chacun pie et en chacun bras par divers jours et diverses foiz des veines de la mere lesdis suplians presens contre la voulente dicelle katherine laquelle ace furoit aucune fois quant il la venoit prindre de la lentete esdis veynes alaquelle cause fut par foiz pointe ailleurs que es veynes et mesmement es pies lequel barbier lorz commenca acongnoistre le cas pres Lesquelles choses ledit supliant demanda audit barbier sil savoit aucunes choses quilz feussent bonnes pour faire avorter ladite katherine et quil les lui baillast lequel barbier bailla audit supliant plusieurs beuvraiges et pouldre que lesdis suplians firent boire aladite katherine adiverses foiz tendant la faire avorter tant quelle avoit en son corps ainsi que le barbier avoit dit et peu apres iceulx suplians voyans que tout ce quilz avoit fait ne sortoit effect ledit supliant ala devers ung apoticaire dicellui lieu de clermont nomme pierre de la la et lui dist y avoit une bonne femme qui estoit samye et qui sestoit afollee et lui pria quil lui baillast ce qui estoit necessaire pour gecter hors ce qui estoit dedans le corps deladite bonne femme lequel pierre delala lui bailla adiverses foiz des ensserops beuvraige et plusieurs passaires cuidant que ce feussent choses pour faire purger ladite femme afolles de ce que lui estoit demeure ou ventre lesquelles pouldres beuvraiges et passaires lesdis suplians firent boire et mangier aladite katherine et lui adun forerent par le millieu de sa nature lesdis passaires pour la faire avorter contre sa voulente avec ce ledit collet supliant frappa plusieurs foiz icelle katherine du poing cloux sur les reins aux fais que dessus la tenoit en son hostel et aussi fist en ladite ville de caux et peu apres limpedimie se mist dedans ledit lieu de clermont la icellui collet et sa femme supplians leurs enfans et icelle katherine sen allerent audit lieu de caur et quant furent icelux supplians voiant que tout ce quilz avoient baille et fait aladite katherine ne servoit de riens la faire aborter secretement furent par plusieurs foiz retenir de lorine dicelle katherine que ledit suppliant porta a perenas pour moustrer a maistre thomas girona medecin dudit lieu de perenas et lui dist que sa femme sestoit a folee et quil luy pleust de lui donner remede et es dist audit medecin a fin quil voulsist plus legierement ordonner le remede lequel apres quil oit veu lesdis orines ordonna en la boutique dun appelle jehan devan apoticaire dicellui lieu de perenas plusieurs commandes yssirops pouldres pilleures ou humeures et opiatas lectures en diverses foiz et plusieurs passants cuidant ce que ledit collet lui avoit dist feust vray lequel collet supliant tendant tousiours aux fins que dessus print de lieu de perenas adiverses foiz lesdis beuvraiges ou humeures pouldres pilleures et passaires et les porta audit lieu de Caux secretement et la vui et sa femme supliant les bailleroit et adminesterent a icelle katherine estans en la maison dudit camarade laisne et lui baillerent ala dessusdites lesdis passaires contre sa voulente par sa nature comme avoit dit ledit medecin et en oultre pource que icellui medecin avoit ordonne cuidant que ce que on lui avoit donne aentendre est vrai quon fist aladite katherine des baings icelux suplians firent baigner icelle katherine secretement par plusieurs fois dedens une conque de cuiure et mirent oudit baing plusieurs herbes que ledit medecin avoit baillet audit lieu de pezenas audit supliant lesquelz suplians apres ce quilz eurent fait tout ce que dit est voyans et cognoissans que dieu notre creatur ne ploureroit pas que ce quilz avoient fait sortise effort et peust iniure aladite katherine ne au postume qui estoient dedans son ventre ne vouldrent plus perseverer et depuis nont riens fait sur la personne dicelle katherine ne dudit postume et ou moys daoust lors prouchainement ensuivant limpidimie eut cours audit lieu de caur auxquoy lesdis suplians tous enfaire mesnaige et ladite katherine et aussi le mesnaige dudit camarade sen allerent ou prieure de saint martin de clemessan du diocese debesias et la demourerent tous ensemble jusques ou mois de janvier apres ensuivant sans plus faire ala personne dicelle katherine et eulx estans oudit prieure et que ladite katherine vint aterme elle acoucher le xiije jour de janvier dune fille qui fut baptisee et bailler anourrisse et aladite fille vestu de puis ledit xiije jour de janvier jusques ou moys de decembre derreniere passe et encores cuident lesdis suplians quelle vit Lesquelles choses sont depuis venues ala notice et congnoissance daucuns noz officiers et autres Et aceste cause iceulx suppliants doubtent que on voulsist contre eulx ala cause dessusdis Rigoureusement proceder se noz grace et misericorde ne las estoient sur ce imparties si comme ilz dient Et pource nous ont humblement fait supplier et requerir que actendu ce que dessus est dit et qui ont tousiours este gens paisibles de bonne vie renommee et honneste conversacion sans jamais avant este actains ou convaincus daucun autre villain cas ou Reprouche Et que ledit postume est advenu alumiere vie et batesme et na ce quilz ont ainsi fait sorty offert et ne vouldroient il nous plaise leur impartir noz grace et misericorde Pourquoy nous ce considere voulans misericorde preferer a rigueur de justice ausdis suppliants et chacun deulx ou cas dessusdis avons quicte Remis et pardonne quictons remettons et pardonnons de grace especial plaine puissance et auctorites Royal avec toute peine offense et amende corporelle criminelle et civile Enquoy pour occasion de ce ilz pourraent estre encourouz envers nous et justice et les avons restituez et restituons aleurs bonnes fames et renommees au pais et aleurs biens non confisquez et avons mis et metons de notredit grace tous appeaulx deffaulx et banissement qui se pouroit estre contre eulx ensuiz Satiffacion faite a partie civillement tant seullement se faite nest Et imposans sur ce sillence perpetuel anotre procureur present et avenir et atous noz autres justiciers Si donnons en mandement par ces presentes au gouverneur de notre pais de languedoc Et atous noz autres justices et officiers ou aleurs lieuxtenans presens et avenir et achacun deulx si comme alui appartiendra que de notre presente grace quittace remission et pardon ilz furent seuffrent et laissent lesdis supplians et chacun deulx joir et user plainement et paisiblement sans pour occasion de ce les vexez et travaillez molestez ou empeschez ne souffrir estre travaillez molestez ou empeschier en corps ne en biens ores ou pour le temps avenir en quelque maniere que ce soit aucontraire Et si leurs corps ou aucuns de leurs biens sont ou estoient pour ce prins saisiz ou empeschiez les leur metez ou faites mettre sans delay aplaine delivrance Et affin que ce soit chose ferme et estable atousiours nous avons fait metre notre scel aces presentes Sauf en autres choses notre droit et lautruy en toutes Donne aux montilz les tours ou mois de fevrier lan de grace mil cccc soixante sept Et de notre Regne le septiesme Ainsi signe par le roy le sire demonsterent et autres persons toustain visa contentor dubay
Summary
In this pardon letter seeking clemency for Andre and Jehanne Collet, we get a glimpse into the lives of middle-class people, medical professionals, abortion, and one woman’s experience having her bodily autonomy taken from her.
The letter’s supplicants are Andre and Jehanne, but the story revolves around Katherine, the daughter of Jehan Alement. Katherine was young when her parents made a marriage contract around 1459 or 1460 with Jehan Camarade, a well-known merchant, that promised Katherine to his son, the younger Jehan Camarade. At the time that the contract was drawn up, Katherine was too young to marry the young Jehan, so the older Jehan Camarade requested that Katherine live in his household until she became old enough to marry. The young Jehan, while still fiancé of Katherine, left his father’s household to work in the Levant (the Middle East) as a merchant. Katherine continued to live in Jehan’s house in Caux, and in June 1466 Jehan’s daughter, Jehanne, and her husband, Andre, came to visit for the feast of Saint Gernais and Portrais. When the supplicants came to stay at Jehanne’s father’s house, they heard rumors that Katherine’s menstrual cycle was disrupted and that she might be pregnant, so the supplicants pressured the older Jehan to question Katherine. Katherine denied being pregnant, but the supplicants did not believe her and the letter quotes Jehanne saying that she was concerned about her family’s honor should Katherine be pregnant not by her fiancé (young Jehan was still outside of the country) and should the community discover Katherine’s pregnancy. The supplicants then decided to discover for themselves if Katherine was pregnant, and if she was, they committed to terminating her pregnancy for the sake of the Camarade family. Andre and Jehanne pressured Katherine to confess, though the extent and violence of their pressure campaign is not clear, and Katherine admitted that she was pregnant, and the father was the priest of Caux. Then, the supplicants took Katherine’s urine a doctor in Clermont and told him that the urine belonged to a poor woman who was sick in her womb, and they asked about remedies for this imaginary woman. The doctor advised that the supplicants needed to bleed this woman, so the supplicants then went to a barber surgeon and offered to pay him well to bleed Katherine. The barber bled Katherine from her feet, arms, and uterus against her will. Katherine is never quoted in the letter, but the letter does note that abortive attempts happened against her will through force or coercion on the part of the supplicants. The supplicants asked the barber if he had any medicines that would make Katherine abort, and they forced Katherine to drink the beverages and powders that the barber recommended. The barber’s abortion methods did not work so the supplicants went to the apothecary of Clarmont and told him that they knew a woman who needed a cure for her broken womb. Against Katherine’s will, the supplicants administered the medicines that the apothecary gave to them, including a pessary to go inside her uterus and more beverages and powders. Then, the letter described how Andre punched Katherine in the abdomen to try to force her to abort the fetus. Desperate, the supplicants went to another apothecary, this time one in Pezenas, who sold them more beverages, powders, pills, pessaries, and even herbs to put in Katherine’s bath. However, by this time it was August and Katherine was still pregnant, so the supplicants stopped trying to force Katherine to abort. Katherine went to live at a Priory where she carried the pregnancy to term and gave birth to a girl on January 13th and gave her to a wet nurse. After officers and others in the community came to hear of everything Andre and Jehanne did to Katherine, they feared persecution and retribution so they embarked on the pardon process. The supplicants claim that because they failed to make Katherine abort the fetus and she gave birth to a child and considering that they have never done any other criminal acts, that they should be pardoned. The King granted Jehanne and Andre their pardons in 1467 in Montilz les Tours, restoring their tarnished reputations and preventing further inquiry into the events.
Essays
Honor Codes and Male Honor
An important component as to why the supplicants received a pardon despite the seriousness of their crime against Katherine stems from their wealth as a middle-class merchant family. The letter reveals that the Camarade family are a merchant family. While the letter does not state what Jehan Camarade, Katherine’s fiancé, traded in the Levant, based off their position in the middle class, one could speculate the likely trade. In the late 14th century and 15th century, the diaries of two Florentine merchants shows that the likely trade for middle class merchants included goods such as cloth, silk, jewels, horses, wine, and spices. Katherine’s fiancé was, of course, not a merchant from Florence but one from southern France, but these Florentine merchant diaries apply because their economic position mirrors that of the Camarade family. Similarly to the Camarade family who, the letter says, had property in Caux and Clermont, the Florentine merchants had large households including multiple properties. The ability to hold multiple properties points to the Camarade merchant family having traded in goods similar to that of middle class merchants in Italy. Katherine’s fiancé’s business in the Levant, meaning the Middle East, does not reveal itself in the letter. But merchants of Jehan’s economic status would have all carried similar objects with them while they lived away from their home for long stretches of time. Merchants used messenger badges, chests, and weights to conduct their trades (museum exhibit June 14). Messenger badges held documents for the merchant, and chests contained their merchandise (museum exhibit). The weights, which in some cases looked like very thick coins, served to standardize quantities and confirm accurate amounts of a good. These merchant tools could be decorated with family crests or other designs depending on the wealth and status of the merchant. The Camarades, being a wealthy middle-class family, likely did not have a family crest as those were reserved for members of the aristocracy, but Katherine’s fiancé could have carried well decorated merchant tools around the Levant with him none the less. Knowing the economic position of the Camarade family, and general details about their family’s profession provides context as to the privilege of this medieval family and speaks to the sway that wealth had in medieval pardon letters.
Further reading:
Brucker, Gene, ed. Two Memoirs of Renaissance Florence: The Diaries of Buonaccorso Pitti and Gregorio Dati. Translated by Julia Martines. Long Grove, Illinois: Waveland Press, Inc., 1991.
Pfau, Aleksandra, trans. “Andre and Jehanne Collet for Abortion,” 1467. Series JJ 200 folio 36 number 64. Archives Nationales de France.
How Katherine Came to Be Pregnant
This letter presented a lack of interest in the revelation that the father of Katherine’s baby was a priest because the Church irregularly enforced priestly celibacy and did not always expect celibacy from priests. This letter demonstrated the public’s lack of interest in holding priests to the church’s expectations of celibacy that was common in medieval Europe in the period before the Catholic Reformation movement. Katherine, who was too young to be married at the time that she left her parents’ house, became pregnant seven or eight years after she went to live with her fiancé's family. After continued questioning from her fiancé's sister and brother in-law, Katherine confessed that she was pregnant and “that one named Raymont Tructavel, priest of the said place of Caux had known her carnally and she was pregnant by him.” According to the supplicants whose perspectives the letter represents, the priest of Caux was the father of Katherine’s child. The Church did not always hold a contrary position towards their priests’ sexualities, but they continued to develop a stricter position through the Middle Ages. In earlier medieval years, papal decrees became more critical of priests’ children and married priests, and in the 12th century the First and Second Lateran Councils forbade the ordination of married men. However, by the time the 15th century rolled around the Church lessened its focus on priestly reform, and energy behind the enforcement of priestly celibacy waned. Priests and clergymen made appearances in other medieval pardon letters as brothel patrons, owners and managers of sex businesses, and as actors or bystanders in crime stories involving sex. While the church held a clear position on clerical celibacy in the fifteenth century, local enforcement of this policy varied and was not equally enforced across Europe in the 15th century. Katherine’s experience with her local priest demonstrated how her locality, Caux, did not hold their priest to the celibacy standards of the church.
Further Reading
Honor, Vengeance, and Societal Trouble: Pardon Letters in the Burgundian Low Countries by Peter Arnade and Walter Prevenir
“The Origins of Clerical Celibacy in the Western Church” by Charles Frazee
Why the Supplicants Would Seek an Abortion
Other pardon letters from the same period have shown that medieval society interpreted adultery committed by women as an affront to male authority and domestic order. Popular medieval literature highlighted the double standard of how women and men adulterers were treated by portraying women as cunning adulterers duping men, and male adultery as an unfortunate but normal behavior. Even though Katherine had not yet married her fiancé, the family considered her tied to him as if they were married, and they interpreted her pregnancy as evidence of adulterous behavior that would embarrass the family in the eyes of other community members. Jehanne Camarade’s quotation in the narrative put words to her motives for seeking an abortion, but importantly, these words should not be misunderstood as an accurate quotation from Jehanne, but rather part of the narrative she aimed to promote. The quote showed that the supplicants saw Katherine’s pregnancy as something that would dishonor the head of the Camarade family primarily, then secondarily Katherine’s pregnancy would cause the community to look down on the Camarades. The letter claimed that the supplicants felt moved by “paternal” and “maternal” love towards Katherine, but the quotation attributed to Jehanne showed that they mainly felt moved to act out of concern for the wellbeing of their father and their family name. The quotation in this letter showed how the supplicants might have phrased their motivations as part of their carefully worded narrative. In weighing the risks of procuring an illegal abortion or enduring the shame of this news breaking in their community, the supplicants proved the power of honor in choosing to seek an abortion for Katherine.
Further Reading
Honor, Vengeance, and Societal Trouble: Pardon Letters in the Burgundian Low Countries by Peter Arnade and Walter Prevenir
Who Could Practice Medicine
The formalization of the medical profession in the later Middle Ages resulted from universities taking up the mantle of training doctors and other medical practitioners. Though not every practicing medical professional in medieval France had official qualifications to work, in the later Middle Ages medical guilds, universities, and cities all invested in efforts to license medical practitioners and monitor the quality of health services. Medieval medical professions included doctors, trained surgeons, apothecaries, and barber surgeons, among others. Beginning around 1200, medicine’s status elevated resulting in the raised epistemological status of medical professionals, but especially doctors. To indicate that a medical doctor held a university degree, they would refer to themselves as “doctor”, though this title only described that a medical professional went to university and did not stipulate what kind of degree they graduated university with. On the other hand, the title “maistre”, meaning “master” in French, signaled the high level of respect that the community afforded this person. Someone referred to as “maistre” might have a university degree, but it would be more likely that that person was a member of a medical guild or was widely respected in the community. Medical officials trusted to work in a community could receive official recognition from many sources, including universities and guilds. In lieu of attaining a university degree, apothecaries and barber surgeons took other routes to license themselves. Apothecaries had to complete a certain number of years of apprenticeship and complete a test to receive authorization to open a practice. Barber surgeons certified their skills by taking an exam before a jury of other surgeons. As medicine formalized under universities, medical professions began to stratify. Barber surgeons and apothecaries could belong to medical guilds, but their profession still sat at the bottom of the medical hierarchy, with university-trained doctors at the top. The functions of medical practitioners stratified as well. Physicians’ guilds tried to protect the value of their profession by pushing that university-trained doctors should focus themselves on theorizing, diagnosing problems, and outsourcing treatment to other professionals. In the later Middle Ages, universities, medical guilds, and cities all helped to standardize health services and define the roles of medical professionals according to their training and occupation.
Further Reading:
“Medieval and Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice” by Nancy Siraisi
“Medieval Medicine: A Reader” by Faith Wallis
What Medieval Abortion Looked Like
The Trotula, a well-known Medieval medical text assembled in twelfth century Italy, serves as a useful summary of medieval gynecological knowledge. By the 15th century, this text could be found in its translated form outside of Italy where it originated from. While local specific knowledge and gynecological practice could be slightly different, medicine only continued to become more connected to institutions in later medieval times, and thus a collection like the Trotula that standardized women’s medicine was useful to the medieval medical field. The Trotula was also popular because it articulated the Galenic approach to medicine that gained traction as an approach during this time. In terms of specific theories about women’s anatomy, the trotula held that fundamentally women were colder than men, and they had menstrual cycles to purge their bodies of excess material that accumulated at higher levels than men due to women being the less active of the genders. When a woman stopped menstruating according to her regular cycles, this did not always immediately signal pregnancy to medieval medical practitioners. Loss of “purgation” or menstrual cycles could mean that a woman’s uterus was sick and a doctor would proceed by attempting to help the woman regain her regular cycle. Contraceptives existed in the Middle Ages, as did abortifacients and gynecological therapies. Gynecological therapies resembled medicines for other maladies of the body, except for pessaries, a therapy resembling a tampon, which medical practitioners wrapped or filled with medicine to restore a woman’s regular menstrual cycles. Phlebotomy, or bloodletting, could also treat a sick uterus through one of two strategies: either the phlebotomist opened a vein far from the afflicted area and therefore attempted to force blood to flow in another direction, or the phlebotomist opened a vein in the afflicted area to restore normal blood flow in that part of the body. To treat uterus troubles, phlebotomists often opened the veins under the curve of the knee or on the patient’s feet. In the Middle Ages, the Church and secular legal systems punished people accused of abortion, but legal consensus condemning all abortion did not exist prior to the 1500s. Because criminal theory could develop without emphasis on implementation of that theory, and jurists continued to theorize throughout the Middle Ages about the difference between terminating a pregnancy and infanticide, paths to return regular menstrual cycles existed for medieval women who wished that. Additionally, while jurists debated legal distinctions, medical theorists did not agree on when a fetus became more formed and therefore protected from pregnancy terminating procedures. Embryology was the enduring theory in the 15th century of when the soul entered a fetus, and it generally held that conception and formation were different events. In medieval England, for example, they used the term “quickening,” to denote the changes occurring in the fetus between four and 6 months of pregnancy, when a fetus became formed. In the months before the soul entered the fetus, or the “quickening” occurred, a legal gray area existed for women to restore their regular menstrual cycles. Medieval abortifacients looked like other medicines used to restore a woman’s periods and an apothecary could have sold them as menstrual inducers. In sum, official gynecological knowledge in medieval France would have resembled information found in the Trotula, a book with a wide reach in medieval Europe. Moreover, the legal and medical debates around abortion continued through the 14th century which made the divisions between menstrual restoring gynecological care and pregnancy termination less clear because a therapy for one could be used for the other in many situations.
Further Reading
“The Trotula: A Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine” by Monica H. Green
“The Criminalization of Abortion in the West: Its Origins in Medieval Law” by Wolfgang P. Müller
“Eve’s Herbs” by John M. Riddle
Katherine, my heart bleeds for you
This letter contains many interesting details about life in 15th century southern France, but as critical readers of this letter, it is important to ask what is missing in this account? Katherine exists in the letter as the largest gap in our understanding of the story of this crime. This letter, though it presents itself as an unbiased representation of the crime, actually has an agenda to obtain a pardon for the supplicants. Katherine’s experiences can only be unveiled through close inspection and questioning of the document. Historians of marginalized people must work, in many ways, against the documents that they examine because those documents often ignore certain people and perspectives. This challenge is not specific to historians studying medieval women, and historians studying any person on the margins of society must consider who the document empowers to act and why that is the case. Saidiya Hartman, in her research on Black women and queer folk in the late 19th century to early 20th century, had to reconstruct the lives of hard-to-reach people through photographs, social work documents, prison case files, reports from psychologists, and more. Hartman calls her analysis of historical documents a “counter narrative”, but this process could also be thought of as reading against the grain. Certain moments in this letter stick out as crucial to reconstructing what Katherine’s experience might have been. For example, when the barber came to bleed Katherine, the letter notes that this happened against her will, and the supplicants delivered medicine to her also against her will. If the letter meant to gain pardon for the perpetrators of these crimes against Katherine acknowledged that Katherine did not consent, we should wonder why Katherine was still subjected to this treatment. In order to bring to the forefront Katherine’s experiences, we need to acknowledge the ways in which living in your fiancée’s home would make a person vulnerable. What would this ordeal have been like for Katherine? There are moments where we see snippets of her reactions, but the largest acts of violence, like when the supplicant punches Katherine, are not narrated through the victim’s perspective. The letter ends by revealing that Katherine carried her pregnancy to term like she wanted, but the letter treats her almost as a background character and not the central figure of the story. This letter pushes Katherine to the margins in ways that must be treated with skepticism if her story is to be re-centered.
Further reading:
Hartman, Saidiya. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women, and Queer Radicals. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2019.
Pfau, Aleksandra, trans. “Andre and Jehanne Collet for Abortion,” 1467. Series JJ 200 folio 36 number 64. Archives Nationales de France.