Policing a Society at War: Governmental Social Control in Regensburg before and during the Town War (1381–1389)

Abstract

This study investigates how the council of the Free City of Regensburg reacted to and tried to cope with the challenges posed by the so-called Town War (1387–1389) to everyday life in a late medieval city. One hundred and forty-one ordinances (Ratsverordnungen) issued by the Regensburg council between 1381 and 1389 are surveyed, investigating how the councillors sought to regulate human interaction in a city threatened by war, how they tried to implement their regulatory measures and which means they used to encourage the urban population to comply with their precepts. Furthermore, the study explores the Town War’s effects on the council’s standing and authority, and elucidates the delicate political negotiations necessary to legitimize the surveyed regulations. Overall, the paper sheds light on the Town War as a crisis during which governmental social control accelerated, thus contributing to long-term processes of late medieval Herrschaftsverdichtung.