The prostitute and her community in late-medieval London

© 2010 Jasmine NorrieThis thesis explores the relationship between prostitute, law, and community in late-medieval London. However much society maligned and marginalised her, the prostitute (and her occupation) was in constant demand and thus became a recurring theme in London’s law books throughout the later medieval period. I argue that this juxtaposition of reviled yet necessary woman in society was a reflection of community concerns: while the promiscuity and financial aspects of prostitution were tolerable, the prostitute’s connections with London’s malefactors were not. Turning to a variety of legal sources from London’s later-medieval period, particularly London’s civic ordinances, we find that while the prostitute was a constant fixture in these records, laws by and large regulated her movements, and at times even protected the prostitute from both the public and her employers. More commonly, ordinances sought to segregate the prostitute from the wider community because the presence of prostitution was linked to theft, violence, and general disorder. Similarly, records from the Commissary courts – a community court that functioned as a tool for social control – reveal that the community was far more concerned with the containment of offenders whose behaviour might lead to the broader spread of social decay: namely, the pimps and bawds who routinely recruited women into prostitution. I demonstrate that despite her acknowledged venality, the community tolerated the prostitute as a necessary evil, and possibly even forgave those prostitutes who acted out of desperation. Of greater concern were those individuals who associated with the prostitute: pimps and bawds who encouraged lechery and profited from the sins of others, suspicious persons who drank and committed acts of violence and walked the streets after curfew