The Saint Romain privilege

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The Saint Romain privilege allowed the chapter of Rouen Cathedral to pardon, each year on Ascension Day, a death row inmate. It was last practiced in 1790.

Here are the circumstances under which a certain Marquet Dubosc, from Ratiéville,was brought to enjoy this privilege in 1502.

" Marquet Dubosc, from the parish of Ratiéville near Clères, aged 30, after drinking at the Cauderon Tavern near St. Michael's Church in Rouen, went to play dice near the Beauvoisine gate.

There he won a few silver coins (Grossos Mediolanenses) from a man named Chouquet, who, outraged with anger, stabbed him in the lip. Chouquet had many friends there, and Dubosc could not take revenge, for the time being.

But on the next day, which was a Sunday, he went, as if for a walk, to Saint George, accompanied by his brother and seven or eight of their friends. Returning in the evening, they met Chouquet, in the woods, also accompanied by some friends.

At that moment, they merely insulted each other, exchanging a few threats. But later, when the two bands ended up in Croisset, the swords and daggers were drawn from both sides. Marquet Dubosc, struck with a sword in the thigh, struck back and killed the one who had wounded him; his brother went to seek asylum in the church of Saint-Vivien in Rouen, but Marquet Dubosc was nevertheless arrested.

Serving in Ireland, he had inadvertently killed an Irish captain with his crossbow. Marquet Dubosc “got elected for the pride”.

His brother came, the day after Ascension, to appear in the chapter, which declared the common election of the two brothers and their accomplices from both sides. Chouquet's friends, who, during the Croisset conflict, had killed companions of Marquet Dubosc, had gone, immediately after this murder, to seek asylum in the church of Mont-aux-Malades, near Rouen"...

(Amable Floquet. History of the privilege of Saint Romain. Volume II, page 376. 1833)

When a condemned man "got elected for the pride", he had to follow, on the day of Ascension, a procession from the Cathedral to the reliquary of the Haute Vieille Tour, where the shackles were taken from him; he then had to carry them back in procession to the Cathedral.

For more information :

- Le privilège de la Saint Romain sur Wikipédia

- La procession de la fierte sur le site Rouen-histoire.com

- le chapitre consacré au privilège de Saint Romain dans l’article La cathédrale de Rouen a détenu un record du monde par Laurent Ridel sur le site Histoire-Normandie.fr