Assaults, murders, insults and blasphemies: Rural Violence in the farmlands of Cordoba in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

This work examines violent actions and crimes committed in the farmlands around Cordoba, in the south of the Crown of Castile, during the Late Middle Ages. The first section deals with the sources used in this study, especially Cordoba’s municipal archive and the records of court cases preserved in the archive of the Chancellery in Granada —a hitherto under-exploited source of information for the kingdom of Cordoba. Subsequently, I shall present some examples of personal confrontations that began with insults and threats and often led to physical assaults and murder. Then, I shall examine verbal insults and blasphemies, which were often the origins of more serious affrays, as well as their portrayal in the written record.