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63 Cambridge L.J. 743 (2004)
Mediaeval Rape: A Conceivable Defence

handle is hein.journals/camblj63 and id is 757 raw text is: Cambridge Lan' Journal, 63(3). November 2004, pp. 743-769 Prined in Great Britain MEDIAEVAL RAPE: A CONCEIVABLE DEFENCE? ELISE BENNETT HISTED* AT five o'clock in the morning of 30 July 1436 William Pulle, together with a small band of ruffians, broke into Bewsey Hall in Lancaster where Lady Isobel Butler, widow of Sir John Butler, and her three children lived. There he raped and abducted her, taking her into the wylde and desolate places of Wales-to Birkenhead in the County of Chester-and imprisoned her for nearly a week. He then took her to the nearby parish church at Bidstone and forced her to marry him, threatening her with death if she refused. After the marriage, she was taken back to Birkenhead and raped again. Pulle, becoming aware of the issue of the King's Commission to take him prisoner, consequent upon the protestations of Lady Butler's friends, then fled, leaving her to be found in Birkenhead by Sir Thomas Stanley, one of the King's Commissioners. The wronged lady, however, was not one to ignore such an outrage, and she petitioned the King in Parliament twice-once to ask that a Writ of Proclamation be issued out of the Chancellery of Lancaster, requiring Pulle to appear before the justices of the County Palatine or be attainted of high treason if he did not, and once to ask that she have her appeal of rape against the miscreant within Lancaster rather than Chester (neither County Palatine having power over the other), despite the marriage.' There Lady Butler's sad story might have ended, another casualty of the lawless era which presaged the Wars of the Roses, but for a curious addendum in a later case report from which it * Monash University. I would like to thank Professor John Mee and Mary Donnelly. both of Cork University, and my colleagues Pam O'Connell and Associate Professor Bernadette McSherry, of Monash University for their thoughtful and perceptive comments upon the draft of this essay. Lady Isobel's petitions, containing her story, may be found in the Rolls of Parliament (Record Commission), IV. 497-498. It should be noted that later writers (e.g., W. Farrer and J. Brownbill, The Victoria History of the County of Lancaster, Vol. 1, pp. 346-347) state that the attack happened in 1437. As the year of the petitions to Parliament was 1436, this does not seem likely, although it is possible that it occurred even earlier, in 1435, as the petitions date the attack to the Monday next after the Feast of Saint James the Apostle last passed. The Feast of St. James was 25th July. The only other records extant appear to be two writs, the first of which (PRO PL 26/1/2 f. 38) is a command to the Sheriff of Lancaster to exact (or call for the appearance of) the already indicted William de Pull (amongst others), in five of his county courts. On the reverse of the writ is the response of the Sheriff noting that none of those indicted had appeared at the courts and thus had been outlawed. The second writ (PRO PL 26/1/2 f. 37), almost identical in format to the first, serves the same function for John Gregory, servant of William del Pole.

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