Medieval Prostitution in Secular Law: The Sex Trade in Late Medieval London, Paris, and Toulouse

Abstract:  This thesis focuses on the sex trade in three late medieval cities, London, Paris and Toulouse, in an attempt to determine why prostitution became a municipal institution in Toulouse but not in either of the other cities. The examination and comparison of medieval law codes and traditions in the various regions involved in the study appear to be a new angle for research on the topic of medieval prostitution. The main conclusion drawn from this study is that the legal traditions of the regions in question affected how the governments dealt with prostitution, and that the main difference lay in whether the main legal tradition was Roman or Germanic in nature.