Violence

Violence against people and property was commonplace during the Renaissance. Society held conflicting attitudes about violent acts. It approved of some forms of violence, such as war and physical punishments for crimes, but punished other forms, including murder and rape. Still other types of violence, such as duels and feuds, were technically illegal but still widespread.

Violence could break out anywhere, but cities were generally safer than the countryside because they had walls, armed guards at gates, and police forces. When traveling in the country, merchants and other travelers often joined armed groups called convoys as a safeguard against highwaymen. Unprotected peasants risked falling victim to bandits—or to violent nobles who preyed on the common people. Undisciplined soldiers posed another threat, often attacking and robbing helpless civilians. To protect themselves, most Renaissance men went about their daily business armed with some sort of weapon. Women without male protection faced the threat of rape.

Violent Crime. Renaissance society recognized several crimes of violence, and their punishments varied according to the nature of the crime. Authorities tended to view fighting as normal behavior. Those who engaged in brawls might receive a minor fine or escape punishment completely. If they had shed blood, however, the matter became much more serious. The punishment for violent crimes such as assault and murder depended upon the judge's interpretation of the attacker's motives and state of mind. "Crimes of passion," committed in the heat of the moment, generally received lighter sentences than cold-blooded crimes based on self-interest. Robbers and hired killers faced much more severe punishment than someone who committed a senseless murder during a drunken brawl.

Renaissance judges were especially concerned about speech as a form of violence. They believed that violent words gave rise to violent actions, such as feuds (ongoing battles between families) and attacks on public officials. Some communities outlawed specific insulting words and gestures. Punishments for verbal violence were very severe. In fact, in some cases, threatening someone could carry a more severe penalty than physically attacking the person.

The law treated sexual violence as a minor form of assault and punished it less severely than robbery or violent speech. Judges determined the seriousness of a rape by the age and social rank of the victim. The rape of a young girl or boy was a much more serious crime than an attack on a married woman or a widow. The rape of a single woman of marriageable age was generally viewed more as an outburst of uncontrollable male passion than a crime, and such rapists frequently escaped punishment altogether. Other rapists might have to pay a fine or marry their victims. Few were ever executed. By the late 1500s, however, women had begun to demand that officials take a sterner attitude toward sexual crimes.

Group Violence. Individual acts of violence often reflected the anger between larger groups. The family feud, for example, was a series of violent outbursts between individual members of warring families. This tradition had begun during the Middle Ages, when families, rather than governments, took the responsibility for punishing crimes committed against their members. The men of the family would hunt down men of their enemy's family, making no effort to conceal the attacks. Renaissance governments tried to stamp out feuds because these conflicts among leading families threatened the stability of the state. Feuds turned gentlemen into outlaws. Exiled for their crimes, these individuals often turned to theft or murder-for-hire to support themselves. Another danger came from the armed guards often employed by feuding families. These guards, called bravos, posed a threat not only to their employers' enemies but also to helpless peasants and citizens.

In the late 1500s the spread of the pistol and the rapier (a sharp, lightweight sword) made combat much more deadly. As a result, warring families gave up street brawls in favor of the DUEL, a ritual fight between two individuals. Dueling first became popular in Italy, and in the late 1500s it spread to the rest of Europe. The group violence of feuds gradually gave way to the individual violence of duels.

Political demonstrations could turn violent as well. Markets, public squares, and other urban gathering places often saw outbreaks of group violence, such as riots against public officials or brawls among the supporters of rival elite* families. Both men and women took part in these violent outbursts. Women with families to feed were especially likely to be involved in bread riots, which occurred when food was scarce or expensive.

Some acts of group violence occurred as part of social rituals. Gangs of young, single men, known as youth abbeys, sometimes terrorized the least powerful members of the community. For example, they engaged in noisy ceremonies called charivaris to mock people whose marriages or sexual relationships seemed to depart from community standards, such as old men who married young girls. Although the ritual mostly involved singing mocking songs and banging pots and pans, it could lead to arson*, assault, or even murder. The abbeys also subjected women to gang rapes. Women shamed in this way often had no choice but to turn to a life of prostitution.

Violence formed a part of certain SPORTS and public spectacles as well. In the Italian city of Venice, neighborhood gangs held "bridge battles" in which they fought to gain possession of a bridge. These fights with fists and heavy sticks could cause serious injuries and even deaths. The upper-class sport of jousting, in which mounted fighters tried to knock each other from their horses, also resulted in some accidental deaths. Many people enjoyed watching carnival sports that involved the torture of animals, such as bearbaiting, in which dogs attacked a chained bear. Crowds also gathered to witness the public torture or execution of criminals.

Lawful and Unlawful Violence. During the Renaissance the line between lawful and unlawful violence was often blurred. Many types of organized violence under state control could easily shift into unlawful forms. One gray area was PIRACY. The state authorized some sailors, called privateers, to attack and loot the vessels of enemy nations. However, many of those who referred to themselves by this name were really freelance pirates who preyed on both neutral and enemy ships.

Soldiers could also cross the line into unlawful violence, turning into highway robbers. Because all governments faced critical shortages of manpower for their armies and police forces, they often recruited paupers, criminals, and outlaws. They also relied on mercenaries, professional fighters who offered their services for hire. The spread of professional soldiering in the 1400s and 1500s created a rootless class of people trained in violence. Many of them formed criminal bands. These shady figures—known as rogues in England, pícaros in Spain, and ribaldi or vagabondi in Italy—became the basis of the literary form called the picaresque* novel.