The Black Assize Flashcards
When did the Castle start being used as a jail?
In the mid-12th century when England’s country sheriffs were given instructions to use the King’s castles for imprisoning wrongdoers. In 1216, part of Oxford castle was set aside for the detention of misbehaving students from the university, and from the 1230s, the castle was being used as the common jail for the county
When was the Castle formally constituted as a county jail?
1531, 300 years after it was already being used to house rule-breakers. By then, most of the buildings that had been associated with the earlier defensive and military role of the castle had fallen into ruin or had been quarried for stone. The castle hall which still remained was converted into the county court
What infamous event occurred at the county court in the 16th century?
The Black Assize. On 6th July 1577, a saucy and foul-mouthed Roman Catholic bookseller called Rowlande Jenkes was brought before the Assize court to be tried for his allegiance to the pope and his bad-mouthing of Queen Elizabeth I, which was illegal during the Reformation. His defence failed to impress the jury and he was sentenced to the pillory where he was pilloried by his ears, meaning he had to cut off his ears in order to escape. He did survive though
What did Rowlande Jenkes do after he was sentenced in the county court?
He pronounced a violent curse on the court, jury and city of Oxford. Almost immediately afterwards, people began to drop dead of a mysterious illness. There were stories of men hurling themselves into the river to drown to no longer have to withstand the pain suffered through possessing the illness. Around 600 people were said to have fallen ill on the day on Jenkes’ trial
How long did the Jenkes’ curse illness last for?
The infection raged in the city for over a month. By then the list of deaths included two judges, the coroner, the county sheriff, a clerk and many members of the jury at Jenkes’ trial. Around 300 people died with the disease in Oxford and 200 others died outside of the city
Who did Jenkes’ curse not affect?
No women, children or poor folk died of the illness. This led many to believe that the illness must have been linked to some sort of black magic or divine intervention of some sort, depending on which religion they stood for during the Reformation. The court proceedings came to be known as the Black Assizes
How was the Jenkes’ curse interpreted across the different religions?
Catholics believed that it was God who created the mysterious contagion for it to be infected on to Protestants. Protestants believed that it was popish sorcery. The modern view is that it was probably just a rampant outbreak of gaol fever. A disease like this would have flourished due to the insanitary conditions that many prisoners who were confined in tight spaces with other prisoners would have lived in. However, I’ll let you be the judge on which theory you would like to believe
