Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Outlawry

Episode Date: October 25, 2020

I’m sure everyone is familiar with the word outlaw. It mostly used as a synonym for “criminal”. However, if I can paraphrase Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, “that word does not mean what you think it means.”. Learn about the ancient punishment of outlawry, and how it was used throughout the world and throughout history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm sure everyone hearing this is familiar with the word outlaw. It mostly is used as a synonym for criminal. However, if I can paraphrase Nago Montoya from the Princess Bride, that word does not mean what you think it means. Learn more about the ancient punishment of outlawry and how it was used throughout the world and throughout history on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison. Then your yoga teacher says that sex traffic children are being sacrificed. by satanic liberals, but it's all okay.

The Great Awakening is coming. What is happening? Every week on Conspiratuality Podcast, we explore the fever dreams that suck friends, family, and wellness gurus down the right-wing cult spiral in a search for salvation. This episode is sponsored by Audible.com. My audiobook recommendation today is The Notorious Reno Gang, the wild story of the West's first brotherhood of thieves, assassins, and train robbers by Rachel Dickinson.

They were the first outlaws to rob a moving train, but from 1864 to 1868, the Reno brothers and their gang of confederates, robbers, burglars, and safecrackers, also held the town of Seymour, Indiana, hostage, making a large hotel near the train station their headquarters. You can claim your one-month trial to Audible and your two free audiobooks by going to audibletrial.com slash everything everywhere, or by clicking on the link in the show notes. When you hear the term outlaw, you think of criminals, perhaps from the Old West and names like Billy the Kid or Jesse James. If you're Australian, you might think of Ned Kelly. As most people understand the term today, an outlaw is someone who has violated the law, or who has done things

outside the law. That certainly is true, at least in terms of the contemporary use of the word. However, the word outlaw has a much more ancient and more specific meaning, one which goes back centuries. The word stems from the medieval English common law where a of outlawry could be issued against someone. They were usually issued against people who were not present in court because they failed to honor a summons or because they fled. It was also only used in criminal matters. The writ would give the person the status of Kaput Lupinum, which is Latin for Wolf's Head. What this did was set the person outside the protection of the law, hence they became outlaws. The Wolf's Head thing comes from the fact that they would have the legal

standing of a wolf in the realm. A person outside the rule of law could be killed by anyone without punishment, and all of their property could likewise be taken without any repercussions. Moreover, no one else was allowed to assist or help you in any way. If you did, you could be found guilty of aiding and abetting, which could also get you in trouble. Killing an outlaw was not only legal, it was considered a good deed. If you killed an outlaw, you were to announce the fact and report it immediately. It should be noted that a writ of outlaw, wasn't necessarily a sentence of guilt. It was usually passed when someone fled justice, even if they were innocent. The best known example of an English outlaw would be the fictional

character Robin Hood. Why was Robin Hood an outlaw? According to the story, he was a supporter of King Richard the Lionhearted, who went off to fight in the Crusades, and an enemy of the usurper King John. King John issued a writ of outlawry against Robin Hood and tried to get rid of him. That was why Robin Hood had to hide out in Sherwood Forest. He couldn't just hang out in a populated area where anyone could kill him. That was why he grouped with other outlaws, his band of merry men. They would probably also explain why he robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. It was a PR campaign to get the people on his side who would otherwise have an incentive to kill him. The idea of putting someone outside the protection of the law was used in many

countries. In many medieval German and Scandinavian countries, they had similar concepts. In Germany, it was known as Vogelphrey, which means free bird or free as a bird. We have been socially conditioned by Leonard Skinner to think of being a free bird as being a good thing. But that wasn't what it meant back then. Here's the translated text of the Penal Code from 16th century Bamberg in what is today Germany. Quote, as you have been lawfully judged and banished for murder, so I remove your body and good from the state of peace and rule of them strifed and proclaim you free of any redemption and rights, and I proclaim you as free as the birds in the air and the beasts in the forests and the fish in the water, and you shall not have peace nor company on any road or by

any ruling of the emperor or king. His body should be free and accessible to all people and beasts and to the birds in the air and the fish in the water so that none can be made liable for any crimes committed against him." If such a person was killed, their body was not to be buried so it would be consumed by the birds and the beasts. Al-Lari was also used for political ends. Perhaps the best example of this came from ancient Rome. During the first civil war, the dictator Sulla issued a list of people who were proscribed. The prescription list was a list of his enemies who also just so happened to be rich. Anyone killing a prescribed person was entitled to a percentage of their estate, with the rest going to the government. It was an easy way to eliminate all

his opponents and fill the treasury in one fell swoop. Octavian and Mark Anthony also issued a prescription list when they took control during the second triumvert as well. At the Congress, of Vienna in 1815, several nations in Europe declared Napoleon Bonaparte to be an outlaw, putting him beyond the protection of the law. So, coming back full circle to the examples which I gave at the start of the episode, was outlawry something which existed in the United States? Were Billy the Kid and Jesse James outlaws in the traditional sense of the word? The existence of wanted dead or alive signs might lead you to think that it was. The idea behind wanted dead or alive is right in tune with the concept of outlawry. The answer, however, is not really. In the United States,

we have a thing called the Constitution, which explicitly requires due process of law. Even if someone is a mass murderer and you know that they are guilty, you can't just go up and kill them. They have to have their day in court. The wanted dead or alive posters were legally suspect, and if they were ever challenged before an actual court, they almost certainly would have been ruled invalid. In many parts of the Old West, there was little to nothing in the way of form more legal oversight, and many of the things that were done probably shouldn't have been. Today, the modern equivalent of Outlawry would be bounty hunting. You can put a price on someone's head and have a licensed bounty hunter chase them down, but they can't just outright

kill them. There's one final thing about Outlawry that I should mention before I finish, and that is the British Outlawry's bill. This is the ceremonial bill, which is the first bill introduced after the Queen's speech to open up a session of Parliament. The bill is totally symbolic and represents Parliament's independence from the monarchy and freedom to discuss whatever subjects they wish. There's nothing special about the bill other than tradition. There are other parliaments around the world which use other bills instead. The British have used the outlawry's bill since 1727. The bill isn't actually written down or read, so it doesn't even clear what would be in it. The last time it was actually written down was in the 19th century.

It doesn't even really matter because the purpose of the bill isn't for it to be actually enacted. It's just tradition and ceremony. It actually. It actually is a very important. It actually. It actually actually has nothing to do with trying to get outlawry back. There aren't really any true outlaws in the traditional sense of the word anymore. The line between enforcing outlawry and vigilanteism is thin, and not having people legally killed on the street in the 21st century is probably a good thing. Executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is James McAlla. Please remember to support the show over at patreon.com,

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