This 14th-century bollock knife, named for its distinctive hilt, was commonly used in the European Middle Ages as an eating utensil, tool, and weapon. Often referred to as a"kidney dagger," it would have been carried by many medieval students at Oxford—an uncommon number of whom apparently harbored murderous intent.
The coroners’ rolls identified 75 percent of murderers and 72 percent of murder victims in Oxford as “clericus,” a term for student and teachers at the university., who wasn’t involved in the project, explains that the early university was funded by the church, and all students were “clerks in minor orders”—the lowest rank of churchmen—even if they had no religious inclinations.
Given Oxford’s much smaller population, the researchers estimate that’s about five times the murder rate of London and York at the same time. In addition, they note that the murder rate in those medieval cities was about 20 times that of today—a difference they think partly due to the lack of modern policing and medical treatments.
"On Sunday after the feast of St. Nicholas, about the hour of curfew, David took a 'harlot' named Christiana, of Worcester, with him, to a street called Scolestrete [School Street], and entered one of the schools. There certain clerks [students], whose names are unknown, were lying in wait for David. They made an assault on him, so in that assault he was wounded, whereof he died on the Saturday."of the University of Cambridge, a co-researcher on the project.
Savvy, tenacious, and ready to preserve their family’s power at all costs, these formidable women left their mark on history.