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Noble out of the window?

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sleeperul

Lt. General
Jul 11, 2014
1.340
105
So there was this fictional scene in Braveheart where King Edward I trowed the lover of his son and also noble out of the window to his death.
My question is if this happened in real life would anything happen to Edward I? He was popular and powerful would there be any consequences? Would there be any consequences for any similarly powerful medieval king if he did such an thing?
 
The king is, per definition the law and as such slightly above it.
But depending on who the guy was he threw down the tower, the family and their allies might bring requests for bloodmoney/weregeld or simply go to war against him.
 
I don't have the knowledge for that.
You'd have to more or less map out the whole power structure and also answer who the victim is.
 
Klausewitz said:
The king is, per definition the law and as such slightly above it.
But depending on who the guy was he threw down the tower, the family and their allies might bring requests for bloodmoney/weregeld or simply go to war against him.
Click to expand...
This is not true by the time of Edward I.

The Magna Carta written 60-70 years before the time portrayed in the film set out quite explicitly that the law was above the king. That is, the king was not allowed to arbitrarily murder someone.

Edward I actually reissued the Magna Carta and set in place the strong interdependence between the ruling classes and their subjects which endured until the King lost control of Taxation in the civil war.
 
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Depends, another thing is that he threw a criminal out of the window. But even there it has consequences. Life was very regulated in those times even or maybe especially for a king.
 
Kings can get away with anything if their subjects let them, and they can be blamed for anything if their subjects want to, too. Being King was always a kinda tenuous position - there's always somebody around who'd rather be King; or otherwise wants a piece of your power/lands/treasury whatnot (and if it's nobody in your own backyard it's probably some foreign power).

It's probably best not to give anyone any excuses.
 
Whether or not anything would happen to the king would likely depend on the loyalty and reliability of his personal guards and court attendants. "An unfortunate accident" is not punishable, murder is.

Then again, the entire Braveheart movie was so much of an "over the top" stereotyping of good versus evil that the whole thing was comical. No indication that the happy Scots dancing harmlessly in the forests were actually raiding settlements and attacking traders, and deserved roughly half of the blame for the hostile situation.

My favorite part of the film was the English army arrayed in their "silver credit card" covered armor....which as we all know, is only useful for charging.
 
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