ABSTRACT

Now in its second edition, Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England has been updated to include more texts about witchcraft, murder, and sexual deviance and discussions about the historical climate within which crimes occurred; voice and print culture; and types of crime and criminals.

This volume contains modernized and annotated chapbooks related to crimes such as murder, theft, infanticide, rape, and witchcraft with accompanying illustrations that depict the acts and punishments of criminals in Tudor and Stuart England. In this edition, special attention has been paid to demonstrating significant overlaps and encouraging students to question authors’ reasonings behind including multiple crimes in a single work. Alongside this, further useful prompts have been included to stimulate discussion about why parables were used to open chapbooks, the historical context underpinning certain criminal acts, the value of these sources to scholars, and how certain texts compare and contrast with others.

With five new chapters and an updated introduction and bibliography, the second edition of Stories of True Crime in Tudor and Stuart England is an essential resource for all students of crime and punishment in early modern England.

chapter |23 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|6 pages

The blood-thirsty papist

chapter 2|9 pages

The jealous mercer and the smitten lover

chapter 3|10 pages

The strange discovery of sundry murders

chapter 4|5 pages

The boy without any fear

chapter 5|9 pages

The minister's mutilation and murder

chapter 6|7 pages

The cock-a-doodle-doo miracle

chapter 7|7 pages

The life and death of a bawd

chapter 8|10 pages

The hog-keeper and her daughter

chapter 10|7 pages

The gentlewoman's unnatural crimes

chapter 11|10 pages

The unhappy litigant

chapter 12|13 pages

The Flowers at Beaver castle

chapter 13|12 pages

The life and death of a churlish knave

chapter 14|9 pages

The Devil's secretary

chapter 15|6 pages

The witches of St Edmundsbury

chapter 16|6 pages

The baronet at the bar

chapter 17|7 pages

The child-killer of St Olave

chapter 18|18 pages

The Cavalier killer gets pressed

chapter 19|5 pages

The gardener's gallows reprieve

chapter 20|4 pages

The murderous siblings of Monmouth

chapter 21|4 pages

The widow's murder

chapter 22|4 pages

The beastly highwaymen

chapter 23|4 pages

The fire in the GARRET

chapter 24|6 pages

The penitent apprentice

chapter 25|3 pages

The common witch, Goody Buts

chapter 26|5 pages

The kindly widow and the shopkeeper's wife

chapter 27|3 pages

The madness of Mary Philmore

chapter 28|7 pages

The French midwife's miserable moan

chapter 29|8 pages

The wicked life of Captain Harrison

chapter 30|21 pages

The earl's fatal stroke