Ultimate Party Girl banished from Oxford, 1443.

In the 1922 edition of the Dictionary of National Biography we learn that Thomas Gascoigne was Chancellor of Oxford University for the third time in March 1543 and served until Easter Term of 1545 when he would be elected for a fourth term but refused to serve. During this third term Gascoigne seems to have presided over an unusual number of actions against women of ill-repute. According to Kavanagh:

Overall, the inquisition led by Gascoigne between March 1443 and April 1444 questioned twenty-one people associated with various forms of illicit sex. Of these, eight were women thought to be acting as prostitutes, one was a woman accused of procuring alone, seven were men involved with prostitutes, two were women involved with prostitutes, one was a woman who associated with evil doers and two were married couples seen to be acting immorally.¹

The following are two cases that can be considered representative.

The first is the case of Lucy Colbrand. She may have been a particularly “hard case”. She “was the occasion within the University [of] quarrels, fornications, fights, and murders”. Fornication was only part of her portfolio. She was a one woman wrecking crew.

Isto eodem anno, scilicet anno divinae incarnationis millesimo quadringentesimo quadragesimo tertio, in crastino S. Gregorii Papae, bannita fuit publice Lucia Colbrand, pronuba et meretrix, pro multiplicibus rebellionibus et perjuriis, quibus antea juraverat se extra Universitatum et ejus Praecinctum [pro] in perpetuum extituram; quae tamen, non obstante juramento, non exivit, sed occasio fuit infra Universitatem ex. Qua lites, fornicationes, pugnae, et homicidia sequebantur; unde, quia sic occasio fuit et causa plurium malorum et perturbationis pacis, et quia incorrigibilis non emendans se post incarcerationem, ideo die praedicta publice in praesentia plurium Doctorum et Magistrorum bannita fuit in scriptis, in forma quae sequitur: In Dei nomine, Amen. Nos, Thomas Gascoigne, Cancellarius natus [pro hac vice] Universitatis Studii

In that same year, that is, in the year of the divine incarnation of one thousand four hundred and forty-three, on the morrow of St. Gregory the Pope, Lucia Colbrand, a pimp and harlot, was publicly excommunicated for multiple rebellions and perjury, to which she had previously sworn to be outside the University and its Precinct so long as she will live; which, however, despite the oath, did not leave, but was the occasion within the University by which quarrels, fornications, fights, and murders followed; wherefore, because she was thus the occasion and the cause of many evils and disturbance of the peace, and because he was incorrigible, not reforming himself after her imprisonment, therefore on the aforesaid day, in the presence of many Doctors and Masters, she was publicly banned in writing, in the following form: In the name of God, Amen. We, Thomas Gascoigne, Chancellor [for this term] of the University of Studies

Oxoniensis, te Luciam Colbrand de et super perturbatione pacis multiplici, lenocinii, pronubatiae, perjurii, et aliis multis enormibus trangressionibus et delictis, coram officio judicialiter et alias legitime convictam, et confessam, et omnino incorrigibilem, decernimus te super proemissis banniandam, prout in his scriptis te bannimus; monentes primo, secundo, et tertio peremptorie quod exeas et recedas infra triduum ah ista Universitate, et extra ejus praecinctum, iterum non reversura sub poenis et comminationibus ex privilegiis superinde nobis concessis. Acta sunt haec in die S. Benedicti confessoris, Oxoniae in quadrivio, et poena incarcerationis indicta cuilibet eam illicite recipienti infra Universitatem vel ejus praecinctum.

of Oxford, you Lucy Colbrand of and upon multiple disturbances of the peace, lechery, adultery, perjury, and many other enormous transgressions and offenses, before the office judicially and other lawfully convicted, and confessing, and absolutely incorrigible, we decide upon these premises for banishment, accordingly in these instruments we banish you; admonishing first, second, and third peremptorily that you leave and withdraw within three days from this University, and outside its precincts, not to return again under penalties and threats from the privileges granted to us above. These things took place on the day of St. Benedict the Confessor, at the crossroads of Oxford, and the penalty of imprisonment was prescribed for anyone who unlawfully received her within the University or its precincts.

What is most surprising, however, is that she was only punished by an order to stay off of university property at first. It was an order that she disobeyed. The result seems to have been excommunication which had no effect. For her next infraction she received a brief stay in prison. Again no apparent effect.

After all of this, she was banished from being within three days journey of the town of Oxford. This was enforced by threatening to imprison anyone within that range who would take her in. It is difficult not to believe that prostitution was ignored if possible and lightly punished if not. The orderly operation of the university would seem to have depended upon the availability of prostitutes who could keep matters within bounds.

The next case we quote was a laundress names Christina. She was accused of being accessory to immoral activities of “suspect persons”. This undercover of being a laundress.

Christina in parochia S. Martini Oxoniae . . . . notorie ream ultra non exercere comitiva mala certarum personarum suspectarum, nee ulterius uti arte lotricis Scholari nec pro Scholaribus Oxoniae, quia sub illo colore multa mala perpetrata fuerunt, et falso colore excusata et tecta, unde carcerata fuit, et sponte praedicta mala abjuravit in praesentia Magistri Thomas Gascoigne, sacrae theologise doctoris, et tunc Cancellarii nati Studii Universitatis Oxoniensis, eo quod tunc senioris theologi.

Christina in the parish of St. Martin, Oxford. . . . neither the above stated notorious things nor to assist the evil practics of certain suspected persons, nor to use any more the trade of laundress for Scholars nor the Scholars of Oxford, because many evils had been perpetrated under that color, and excused and covered up under a false color, whence she was imprisoned, and voluntarily abjured the aforesaid evils in the presence of the Master Thomas Gascoigne, a doctor of sacred theology, and then Chancellor of the University of Oxford, being then a senior theologian.

As we see, her punishment was to abjure the trade of laundress.

1 Kavanagh, Helen. The Topography of Illicit Sex in Later Medieval English Provincial Towns (2020). 45.

Source: Anstey, Henry. Munimenta academica (1868). II.533-4.

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