Research project The Research project examines how royal mercy, guilt and forgiveness was articulated in petitions to the king concerning capital crimes and in the minutes of the Judicial Inspection during the 17th and 18th century.
The project’s purpose is to study the narrative content of petitions and how they conveyed perceptions of crime, sin and punishment. It will also consider how knowledge about the justice system and the opportunities and limitations of the supplication system played into the petitioning of serious crimes as well as the Judicial inspection’s praxis in ruling over matters of royal mercy.
