Trial By Fire, Trial By Combat | The Medieval Ordeal

For centuries in the Middle Ages, one of the ways in which certainty was obtained in legal judgments was through the trial by ordeal. These challenges called upon divine aid in order to reveal innocence or guilt and took a variety of different forms. In this video we explore the different types of ordeal and how this practice rose into prominence and later fell out of favour.

Recommendations for further research:
-Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: the Medieval Judicial Ordeal, 1986.
-Patrick Geary, "Judicial Violence and Torture in the Carolingian Empire," in Law and the Illicit in Medieval Europe, ed. Ruth Mazo Karras, 2013.
-Hincmar of Reims, The Divorce of King Lothar and Queen Teutberga, trans. and ed. Rachel Stone and Charles West, 2016. (If you want to look at the original Latin, you can find it as De Divortio Latharii Regis et Theutbergae Reginae in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, ed. Letha Böhringer, 1992)

#medievalhistory #ordeal #legalhistory #law #history #medieval #educational #duel #thelastduel #churchhistory #trial #trialbyfire #trialbycombat

[PoseidonXIII]

Interesting how even some church leaders of the time saw the practice as supersitious. Paints a more complex picture of spirituality in the middle ages.

[qboxer]

Great video - highly informative and well narrated. A personal recommendation would be to use more pictures and less narration with your own face. This is something I have noticed highly popular YouTube channels and generally seems to help them grow, as medieval imagery in general is more evocative than a modern face.

Cheers and please keep it up!

[johnmclachlan]

And the "nobles" are still sending others to fight their battles.

[kevyn]

Trial by cross is such a goofy concept