‘Horrible and Execrable Murthour’: Spousal Homicide in Seventeenth-Century Scotland

Rooted in close analysis of the manuscript records of the High Court, this article explores and assesses the phenomenon of spouse-killing in seventeenth-century Scotland. It begins by unpicking contemporary understandings of this offence compared to other forms of homicide, before anatomising the crime as it emerges from surviving judicial processes. It finishes with an assessment of what this analysis can tell us about the wider mentalities of early modern society, particularly with reference to marriage, gender and the social function of emotion.