Author: Tom Hamilton, Department of History, Durham University - Academia.edu, ResearchGate

Contents:

	List of Illustrations, Figures, and Maps (p. xvii)
	Abbreviations and Conventions (p. xix)
	Who's Who (p. xxi)
	Introduction (p. 1)
	1. Inheritances (p. 9)
	2. Rape at Chaumot (p. 29)
	3. The Great License of Soldiers (p. 48)
	4. The Persistent Widow (p. 68)
	5. Waging Law (p. 85)
	6. Testifying to the Troubles (p. 103)
	7. Execrable Crimes (p. 121)
	8. Legacies (p. 143)
	Conclusion (p. 169)
	Bibliography (p. 177)
	Index (p. 205)

Description: »Paris, 1599. At the end of the French Wars of Religion, the widow Renée Chevalier instigated the prosecution of the military captain Mathurin Delacanche, who had committed multiple acts of rape, homicide, and theft against the villagers who lived around her château near the cathedral city of Sens. But how could Chevalier win her case when King Henri IV's Edict of Nantes ordered that the recent troubles should be forgotten as 'things that had never been'?
A Widow's Vengeance after the Wars of Religion is a dramatic account of the impact of the troubles on daily life. Based on neglected archival sources and an exceptional criminal trial, it recovers the experiences of women, peasants, and foot soldiers, who are marginalized in most historical studies.
Tom Hamilton shows how this trial contributed to a wider struggle for justice and an end to violence in postwar France. People throughout the society of the Old Regime did not consider rape and pillage as inevitable consequences of war, and denounced soldiers' illicit violence when they were given the chance. As a result, the early modern laws of war need to be understood not only as the idealistic invention of great legal thinkers, but also as a practical framework that enabled magistrates to do justice for plaintiffs and witnesses, like Chevalier and the villagers who lived under her protection.« (Source: Oxford University Press)

Interviews:
- Byars, Jana, int. »A Widow's Vengeance After the Wars of Religion: Gender and Justice in Renaissance France.« New Books in Early Modern History. New Books Network 2024. - Bibliographic Entry: Info

- Roussel, Diane, int. »Tom Hamilton, A Widow’s Vengeance after the Wars of Religion. Gender and Justice in Renaissance France.« Criminocorpus (2024). - Bibliographic Entry: Info

Reviews:
- Baddeley, Susan M. Renaissance Quarterly 78(3) (Fall 2025): 920-921. - Full Text: Cambridge Core (Restricted Access)

- Barker, Sara. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 76(3) (July 2025): 683-685. - Full Text: Cambridge Core (Restricted Access)

- Dortmann, Fine. Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung 111(1) (2025): 389-391. - Full Text: De Gruyter Brill (Restricted Access)

- Goderniaux, Alexandre. Journal of Religious History 49(2) (June 2025): 264-265. - Full Text: Oxford Academic (Restricted Access)

- Patterson, Jonathan. French Studies: A Quarterly Review 79(1) (January 2025): 294-296. - Full Text: Liverpool University Press (Restricted Access), Project MUSE (Restricted Access)

- Roberts, Penny. French History 39(3) (September 2025): 294-296. - Full Text: Wiley Online Library (Restricted Access)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of France / France in the early modern period | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in France, Wartime sexual violence | War: French Wars of Religion