Criminocorpus (May 2021)
Matérialité, acteurs et usages des prisons de Tournai à la fin du Moyen Âge : un état des lieux
Abstract
From the end of the xiiith century, the commune of Tournai has held, within the territorial limits of its suburbs, all of the rights of échevinage, but it has to deal with an increasingly significant royal jurisdiction, in the person of the bailiff of Tournai-Tournaisis, later the military governor. Added to this are the ecclesiastical jurisdictions of the bishop of Tournai and its officiality, as well as that of the cathedral chapter, which holds an island of immunity in the heart of the city, and jealously guards its privileges for its members. Two abbeys complete the picture of institutions holding jurisdictional rights.A reasoned inventory of the twenty-two prisons used by these different protagonists between ca 1300 and 1600, crossed with their territorial influence and their judicial prerogatives, makes it possible to draw up various observations. Prisons are numerous and fragmented among the different holders of justice rights, who show flexibility and adaptation to respond - imperfectly - to their specific detention needs. Diversity and proliferation of places of detention, very relative concentration, lack of resources and personnel, reassignment of existing buildings that are rather insecure and low specialization characterize Tournai prisons until 1600. From the point of view of prisoners, the situation is far from improve in the xvith century. The conditions of detention are deteriorating significantly and prison sentences, until then largely reserved for ecclesiastical jurisdictions, are also developing in the civil repressive arsenal.
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