The Anatomy of a Medico-Legal System. Medical Practitioners and the Investigation of Suspicious Deaths in Early Modern Flanders

During the early modern period, medical practitioners came to play an increasingly important role in criminal proceedings throughout continental Europe. Nevertheless, medico-legal procedures Southern or Habsburg Netherlands have hardly received any attention from historians of forensic medicine. The present article aims address this issue by studying how suspicious deaths were investigated County Flanders. More specifically, three major aspects Flemish death investigation system are analysed: composition corps on which judicial authorities relied conduct post-mortem examinations, content reports, and arrangements for remuneration experts. Although surgeons initially constituted principal group examiners, university-trained physicians required participate investigations over course seventeenth eighteenth centuries. Furthermore, period also witnessed a gradual increase number internal autopsies. However, payment experts remained largely unchanged period.