Robert Bartlett has written a neat microhistory starting with the story of an execution and resurrection of a convicted criminal. As with all good microhistories, this story opens up windows on to a variety of other issues and details not readily approachable in works of larger scope. In the end, Bartlett vividly shows personal interactions between the classes and sexes as well as how their own expectations and assumptions merge or conflict. The result is a highly readable book that would be useful for teaching both historical methodology and British history.

The focus of this work is the execution and resurrection story of a Welshman named William Cragh. William de Briouze senior convicted Cragh of homicide and sentenced him to be hanged. The execution was carried out in November 1290. After he was dead, his body was taken down for burial, but William gradually came back to life. Observers attributed this miracle to the recently deceased bishop of Hereford, Thomas de Cantilupe, bishop from 1275 to 1282. In 1307, three well-placed and important ecclesiastics recorded the testimonies of nine eyewitnesses to this miracle as part of their preliminary investigation for Thomas de Cantilupe's canonization process. Among the nine eyewitnesses to this miracle was William Cragh himself, who invoked the saint on his way to the gallows.

Anyone familiar with police investigations, if only from television, knows that eyewitnesses invariably disagree about what they saw, and medieval witnesses were no different. Bartlett, however, does not try to reconcile the witnesses’ discrepancies in order to “find out what really happened,” nor does he offer scientific explanations for how this miracle might have happened. Instead he uses the differences in testimony along with the information that the witnesses left out of their testimonies as sources of information and inquiry in their own right. Bartlett also uses the more traditional method of prosopography to develop different contexts for understanding this story. The blending of methodologies shows nicely the historian's craft and the different riches that different methods produce.

The twelve chapters each explore a range of topics. Bartlett opens with a discussion of the source itself and the process of ecclesiastical investigation. The point he makes here is that in order for historians to get the most out of their documents, they need to understand how and why they were produced. Bartlett then goes on to use descriptions of Cragh's death and resurrection as a starting point for a discussion of hanging, and there are several black-and-white illustrations from medieval manuscripts that help expand his observations. I particularly liked his discussion of time and space. By using the discrepancies among the witnesses for how long ago the execution took place, Bartlett provides a nice discussion of the meaning of time and space, making the point that “subjective measure(s) of distance from the speaker's present was more natural … than to mark an objective point in a sequence of years” (55). This chapter also shows how medieval people measured distance by the length of time it took them to walk or ride it. Bartlett also explores more traditional topics, such as politics. Cragh's execution took place in the volatile world of the English conquest of Wales. The domination of colonial subjects played a role in arresting, convicting, and executing Cragh. One accusation was that Cragh was more than a murderer, but also a rebel, fighting with Welsh insurgents.

Less convincing perhaps is Bartlett's discussion of Lady Mary de Briouze, wife to William de Briouze senior, who ordered Cragh's execution. Lady Mary provides testimony about the miracle, as does her stepson William junior, her husband having died in the intervening years. To be sure, the activities of aristocratic women are less documented than those of men, and Bartlett does explain the political and economic concerns behind her marriage as well as the subsequent legal disputes with her stepson once she was widowed. The context of religious and material culture, however, could be better explored. Lady Mary tried to prevent Cragh's hanging, and having failed at that, she tried to provide him with a decent burial. Bartlett attributes her motivations to piety and women's roles as intercessors, and this is certainly plausible. Yet I would have liked further discussion of the religious world that Lady Mary inhabited. What literary works did women like her read; what religious foundations were near by? What were the physical surroundings of her life or the life of someone of her status? All of these issues come up in her testimony, and the local religious culture that Lady Mary might have participated in would have made her chapter more vivid and compelling, on par with the other chapters. This quibble aside, Bartlett has written a lovely work that shows not only how historians work with their documents but also the riches that medieval records have to offer. He offers no totalizing conclusions to his analysis, but this too serves the point of showing students that there are sometimes no neat and tidy conclusions. It is a nicely produced volume, with appropriate maps, a few useful charts, and several lovely if grisly illustrations. The range of topics discussed in one slim volume make this ideal for teaching.