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Jehanne was virtually unknown in the French city of Dijon during the winter of 1472, when she was the victim of an atrocious act of violence.
At that time, she was in an advanced state of pregnancy.
What happened next — analyzed by historian Sara McDougall in her new book, “Justice for Jehanne” — offers a surprising insight into medieval justice that challenges preconceptions about the era.
Warning: This article contains disturbing details about a sexual assault.
Based on the records of an investigation into the attack, the book takes the form of a medieval detective story, raising questions such as: what really happened that night? And who was the woman at the center of the events?
Who was Jehanne?
Born in Lorraine, in the northeast of France, into a humble family, Jehanne had traveled south to Dijon.
At that time, identity was a diffuse concept. In 1472, he declared to the investigator that he was "about 32 years old."
Since births were not registered, no one could know their own age exactly. She claimed to be married: she was the "wife of Jehan de Relanges."
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At that time, clothing determined, above all, the treatment that a person should receive; Jehanne's, it seemed, demanded a certain respect.
According to witnesses, his clothing was elegant. The long headdress that carefully covered her golden hair when she went out in public denoted her status as a married and respectable woman.
reign of terror
In Dijon, those were violent times, marked by war.
Intense combats were fought between Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, and King Louis XI of France; The city was under an imminent threat of invasion, as the monarch advanced through Burgundian territory.
To protect Dijon, the duke posted mercenaries around its walls. However, these men, savage and lawless, subjected the city to their own reign of terror.
"There were constant problems: men who, during the night, looked for potential victims to extort, abuse, kidnap or hold for ransom," McDougall told the BBC.
"The municipal authorities were not at all happy with the situation. This was a major source of conflict between the city and the duke."
The crime
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On the afternoon of January 3, 1472, Jehanne and the woman who was hosting her heard a sharp knock at the front door.
They met two local men who demanded that they accompany them.
After his refusal, one of the men ran to a nearby inn to recruit some of the duke's mercenaries.
According to Jehanne's story, the men dragged her to a nearby field and attacked her. They yelled at her that it didn't matter that she was pregnant; They had heard that the child she was expecting was from a priest and, therefore, illegitimate.
Jehanne described how men tried to have "carnal contact" with her as she struggled in the snow.
The advanced state of her pregnancy and her intense resistance finally managed to prevent it.
She reported that she was beaten, thrown face down and that she felt absolute terror for the health of her unborn child.
What happened next is surprising, given our modern conception of the Middle Ages.
There is a widespread belief that rape and sexual assault carried such a stigma that women who survived it were often ostracized by their communities and eventually pushed into prostitution.
This idea has its origins in a well-known book titled "Medieval Prostitution" (first published in 1988 and updated in 2010), by Jacques Rossiaud.
McDougall, a history professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, set out to verify Rossiaud's story, taking as a starting point a brief mention he made about a pregnant woman—whose name is not revealed—who was the victim of sexual assault at the hands of mercenaries in Dijon.
According to Rossiaud, at first the woman felt so ashamed that she did not dare to report what happened to the authorities.
Likewise, she maintained that many other survivors of sexual assault ended up, like her, in brothels.
The case seemed to largely overlap with Jehanne's.
However, when McDougall began to investigate – poring over 70 densely written pages of parchment preserved in Dijon's municipal archive – a very different story came to light.
Detailed investigation
The details of Jehanne's testimony were recorded by an investigator working for the municipal authorities: Jaques Borestel.
Upon learning that mercenaries had kidnapped and attacked a pregnant woman, Borestel immediately set to work to gather information about the victim and the alleged perpetrators.
His first interview with Jehanne took place the day after the attack. He found her in bed, dejected by what had happened and afraid for her baby.
Jehanne readily provided Borestel with the details of the attack, as well as all the information she could remember about the attackers. The next day, Jehanne gave birth to a baby girl.
Jehanne's decision to share her story was somewhat unusual. There were many reasons not to be so honest.
The city didn't exactly have an exemplary criminal justice record.
Technically, the punishment for kidnapping and assault was death; However, most crimes went unpunished.
In short, Jehanne didn't have much to gain by filing her complaint.
Thanks to the information provided by Jehanne, Borestel managed to quickly capture most of the attackers.
After being questioned, the men denied assaulting Jehanne. Borestel arranged a meeting in which Jehanne confronted her attackers and reiterated her version of events.
In the absence of a confession, the municipal authorities considered it acceptable to resort to "extraordinary" measures.
One of the men was subjected to torture using a method similar to waterboarding. Finally, everyone confessed.
With the confessions in their possession, the city determined the appropriate punishment: death. But a problem arose. Being mercenaries, the men were technically under the jurisdiction of the duke.
The duke had shortly before issued a statement condemning the behavior of the mercenaries and stating that he wanted the inhabitants of Dijon to feel safe.
Now he had the opportunity to publicly punish that wrongful act. Would you take advantage of it?
Investigating the plaintiff
Shortly afterward, municipal officials received word from the ducal authorities, who recommended that the men be released. The municipality resisted, trying to buy time.
Meanwhile, they ordered a new investigation: this time, on Jehanne herself. They did not intend to subject her to trial, but rather to evaluate her legitimacy as a plaintiff.
As Borestel wrote bluntly, his intention was to find out whether she was an "honest woman" (married and respectable) or a "woman of a bad life."
Borestel questioned neighbors and other people who might have information about Jehanne. Many claimed that she seemed like a respectable woman; No one pointed out or blamed her for having suffered the attack.
However, details soon came to light that contradicted the version she had given to Borestel.
A neighbor reported that two years earlier, Jehanne had given birth to another son in a nearby monastery. The father was believed to be a priest with whom Jehanne shared a room at the time.
Apparently, Jehanne had not seen her husband for several years.
image copyrightBlaise Dubrocq/ Princeton University Press
Borestel met with Jehanne again to confront her with this latest evidence. Since the last time they spoke, she had received threats from the mercenaries' defenders.
Despite the imminent risk of retaliation, some neighbors and acquaintances helped her find places to hide. Finally, he ended up in a hospital, where he worked.
Jehanne confessed to Borestel that she had previously told some lies.
She acknowledged that her husband had abandoned her several years ago to go fight in the war. After that, she met a priest, became his lover and had two children with him.
So did this make Jehanne a "light-living woman"?
In his own words, as recorded by Borestel: "It was better to use his body to make a living than to resort to robbing people."
New perspective
This fit with the complex sexual morality of the time. Sexual relations before marriage were, in theory, prohibited, but in practice they were widely tolerated.
Priests were supposed to be celibate, but they kept lovers and fathered illegitimate children.
Prostitution was considered, in theory, a grave moral sin, but it was widely tolerated.
Jehanne was not who she said she was; She was not the demure wife she had initially appeared to be. It turns out that he "lived in sin."
But the interesting thing is that it didn't matter.
The prosecutors, even after learning the latest evidence provided by Borestel, decided to move forward with the case.
The fact that she had had an illegitimate child with a priest turned out to be irrelevant. The authorities wanted to see those mercenaries dead.
But another problem arose: the mercenaries were no longer in prison.
The ducal authorities had argued that the men were members of the clergy and were therefore only subject to ecclesiastical laws.
Although this was nonsense—since the clergy were prohibited from carrying weapons—the municipal authorities found themselves with their hands tied. After two months of confinement, the men were released.
It's impossible to keep track of what happened to Jehanne next.
Did she become a prostitute? It is possible; At that time, in Dijon, there were other women named Jehanne who ended up being one.
However, the records are too fragmentary to say with certainty.
Regardless of how her story ended, McDougall relished the opportunity to learn about this small fragment of Jehanne's life, preserved in a 600-year-old file of court documents.
"I have great admiration for her. I'm very impressed with the way she continued to defend herself."
Despite living in a hostile time, "she considered herself a person with the capacity for action and options."
More importantly, Jehanne's story challenges assumptions about the Middle Ages.
"In this medieval society, at least as far as I've been able to find out, there was no practice of blaming or shaming the victim," says McDougall.
"Women could file complaints; they were not required to have a perfect memory or to be blameless virgins."
Even after Jehanne filed her complaint, her neighbors came to her aid.
Life was undoubtedly extremely hard for women in medieval times, and some survivors undoubtedly received deplorable treatment.
However, Jehanne managed to report a crime, be taken seriously, find support during that ordeal, and obtain, at least to some extent, justice.
Whatever he did next, at least he was able to take that with him.
*This article was published by BBC Culture. Click here to read the original English version.
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