‘In Corona Populi’

Abstract

Chapter 2 examines the coroner’s inquest, asking how homicides become known and categorized, and how this changed over the period. Coroners held an office that dated from the late twelfth century, but one freshly charged from around 1487, when statutes sought to press the coroners to action through fees and fines. The coroners’ determinations of the nature of a sudden death, in early years, focused on the financial incidents owed to the king. Over time, financial interests in a killing became more diffuse and the king’s interests became more expansively understood. The active intervention of the Privy Council and the Court of Star Chamber helped police the efforts of inquests. The mix of lay participation and central oversight gave the early modern inquest a special flavour. Coroners’ inquests came to be seen as serving not just the king’s interest and the king’s peace, but something conceived as public justice.