Captivity and Imprisonment in Medieval Europe, 1000-1300

This book explores the growing importance of prisons, both lay and ecclesiastical, in western Europe between 1000 and 1300. It attempts to explain what captors hoped to achieve by restricting the liberty of others, the means of confinement available to them, and why there was an increasingly close link between captivity and suspected criminal activity. It discusses conditions within prisons, the means of release open to some captives, and writing in or about prison.

JEAN DUNBABIN is a Fellow of, and tutor at, St Anne's College, University of Oxford. She is also Reader in Medieval History at the University.

Introduction Abbreviations The Late Roman Legacy in Western Europe c. 1000 The Means of Detention in the High Middle Ages Castellans, Jailers and Guards The Keeping of Captives in Private Houses Coercive Captivity Custodial and Punitive Captivity Conditions of Captivity Release from Prison Ecclesiastical Imprisonment Imprisonment and the Medieval Imagination Conclusion Further Reading Index