SexViolHist Bib: Cases: Real Cases: Rape of Cecilia Chaumpaigne

»On 16 October 1379 Thomas Staundon filed a legal action against his former servant Cecily Chaumpaigne and Chaucer, accusing Chaucer of unlawfully employing Chaumpaigne before her term of service was completed, which violated the Statute of Labourers. Though eight court documents dated between October 1379 and July 1380 survive from the action, the case was never prosecuted and no details survive about Chaumpaigne's service or how she came to leave Staundon's employ for Chaucer's. (...)
Frederick James Furnivall discovered the case in 1873 via a quitclaim filed by Chaumpaigne releasing Chaucer from any legal responsibility for "all manner of actions related to [her] raptus" (Latin: "omnimodas acciones, tam de raptu meo"). Furnivall, Chaucer biographers, and feminist scholars speculated that Chaucer may have raped or abducted Chaumpaigne, but in 2022 Euan Roger and Sebastian Sobecki discovered two additional documents from the case in the British National Archives, revealing that "raptus" referred to the illegal transfer of service from Staundon's household to Chaucer's and that the case was a labour dispute in which Chaucer and Chaumpaigne were co-defendants.« -- More information: Wikipedia

K e y w o r d s

Chronological Index: Medieval History: 14^th Century | Geographical Index: European History: English History, Topical Index: Types: General: Rape

B i b l i o g r a p h y

[Info] Braddy, Haldeen. Chaucer, Alice Perrers, and Cecily Chaumpaigne. Speculum 52 (1977): 906-911.

[Info] Dunn, Caroline. The Language of Ravishment in Medieval England. Speculum 86 (2011): 79-116.

[Info] Harley, Martha P. Geoffrey Chaucer, Cecilia Chaumpaigne, and Alice Perrers: A Closer Look. Chaucer Review 28 (1993): 78-82.

[Info] Quinn, William A. The Rapes of Chaucer. Chaucer Yearbook 5 (1998): 1-18.

[Info] Roger, Euan, et al. »On Raptus, Quitclaims, and Precedents in Staundon v. Chaucer-Chaumpaigne: An Afterword.« The Chaucer Review 59 (2024): 10-21.

[Info] Watts, P.R. The Strange Case of Geoffrey Chaucer and Cecilia Chaumpaigne. Law Quarterly Review 63 (1947): 491-515.

[Info] Waymack, Anna. Teaching de raptu meo: Chaucer, Chaumpaigne, and Consent in the Classroom. Medieval Feminist Forum 53 (2017): 150-175.