Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

Get access

Oath of truce
(873 words)

1. General

Medieval legal sources occasionally designate an oath of truce (German Urfehde) with the Latin terms caucio or confirmatio (a “guarantee” or “promise” under oath). In the Lexicon juridicum (1721) of Samuel Oberländers, a late contemporary of oaths of truce, describes them as “a kind of guarantee [Caution]” or an “assurance under oath” [3. 724 f.], with which the person swearing the oath of truce forewent vengeance or, originally, the further conduct of a feud. Modern scholars underst…

Cite this page
Blauert, Andreas, “Oath of truce”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 06 June 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_029415>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20200128



▲   Back to top   ▲