Judging your neighbor: Litigants' strategies and the importance of witness narratives in medieval Marseille, 1400--1430 (France)

This study examines Marseille's court records from 1400--1430 that contain witness narratives. It argues that, while litigants had strategies to create a coherent self-presentation, witness narratives did not always support this coherence. Often this conflict between litigants and their witness reveals what neighbors judged to be acceptable behavior in families, among friends, and in business. For the judge, a witness came before the court to establish the truth of a narrow, legal claim. For the litigant, the witnesses appeared to bolster a story and lend whatever status they had to the litigant's consequence. The witnesses, however, also had a much broader role as an arbiter or a teacher of social norms.; Self-representation was a strategy in the courts used by the witnesses as well as the litigants. Recent studies have argued persuasively about the legal savvy of medieval litigants; they knew the law, manipulated the law, and involved witnesses in the creation of the story they were presenting to the judge. Beyond defining who were and were not permitted to act as witnesses, medieval historians have paid little attention to the witnesses' testimony in medieval criminal and civil court trials. My dissertation explores the intersection between a litigant's self-presentation and the witness narratives. Witnesses who participate in trials support one side over another, but they also present social attitudes in passing judgment on the behavior of the litigants. The standards may compete with those offered by the laws of Marseille.; The court proceedings in Marseille demonstrate a sophisticated legal system with its set of clearly delineated rules. The law courts provided a common forum in which artisans and nobles, Christians and Jews, men and women made their cases and were judged not only by the presiding officials but by their supporting witnesses. These under-explored witness narratives offer news material by which historians may better understand medieval standards for familial, religious, and neighborly relationships.