Private and public violence in Elizabethan England

This essay examines hotly debated issues at the core of Elizabethan discourses of violence. It discusses theological and legal views of public and private violence, laying stress on debates on the legitimate and illegitimate use of violence. It shows how, as part of the long and complex process of centralization of authority, of legislative, judicial and executive powers, the state reserved for itself the monopoly of violence and endeavoured to curb abuses of power by the nobles and gentlemen who had long been a thorn in the side of centralization of power, because of their fondness for violent self-help and private wars and their reluctance to give up their administrative and judicial autonomy.