I Found Medieval Court Records Where the Defendant Was a Pig. They Kept Receipts.
I’m making a small medieval survival roguelike set around 1407 Liège (pre Battle of Othee), so I’ve been digging into late-medieval legal oddities in the area.
I expected inheritance disputes, fake relic sellers, tavern violence, guild quarrels, and neighbors fighting over land. But the animal trial records are somehow stranger and more bureaucratic than anything I would have invented.
In 1408, a pig at Pont-de-l’Arche was kept in royal prison after being accused of killing a child. The jailer charged for feeding it at 2 deniers per day until it was hanged. He did get paid, and the receipt is still around to prove it. There was also a rope charge after the pig apparently escaped the prison.
In 1403, a sow accused of devouring a child generated an execution expense report: jail costs, cart costs, rope costs, gloves, and payment for the executioner to come from Paris.
In 1457, a sow and six piglets were tried at Savigny. The sow was condemned, but the bloodstained piglets were not immediately punished because the court said it was not clearly proven they had participated.
The weirdest part is not just “animals were punished.” It’s the procedure: prison fees, witnesses, execution costs, rope invoices, and legal doubt over whether piglets had enough evidence against them.
Does anyone know other real medieval court records or customs that sound fake but actually happened?