Abstract：The male-dominated justice of medieval England showed compassion towards women, primarily reflected in the right of female offenders of “pleas of the belly” and the resulting establishment of juries of matrons. Previously, some Western scholars believed that juries of matrons would help female criminals evade the death penalty, suggesting that women had a certain degree of independence from the patriarchal justice. However, judicial archives indicate that the likelihood of female criminals invoking the pleas of belly was not high, and their requests were sometimes rejected by the juries of matrons. The limited medical knowledge of the medieval period made the examination and identification work of the juries of matrons crude and challenging, and the specific standards of judgment also changed over time. Overall, the role of juries of matrons remained limited and was always under the control of the male-dominated justice.

Published on The World History Review, Issue 3, 2024.