Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "of the ravishment of maids." In English legal history, *de raptu virginum* was the name given to a specific form of criminal appeal — a private accusation brought by or on behalf of a victim — used in cases of rape. It was not a writ or a common law action in the modern sense, but a procedural mechanism of the old appeal system, by which the crime of ravishment could be prosecuted through private initiative rather than exclusively by the Crown. The appeal *de raptu virginum* was part of the medieval framework for addressing sexual violence, operating under a legal conception of rape that was heavily bound up with property interests in women's bodies and chastity, particularly as those interests affected fathers, husbands, and lords.
Common Language
*Raptus* in classical and medieval Latin carries a range of meanings including seizure, abduction, and ravishment. In medieval English law, "rape" (from *raptus*) often encompassed both forcible sexual violation and abduction — the two were not always sharply distinguished. The term "virgins" (*virginum*) reflects not merely a descriptive fact but a legally significant status: the loss of virginity bore consequences for inheritance, marriage contracts, and family honor that shaped how the law treated the offense.
The gap between any modern understanding of "ravishment of maids" and the legal function of *de raptu virginum* is substantial. Modern readers may treat this as an archaic equivalent of rape prosecution. In practice, the appeal system under which *de raptu virginum* operated was a private, quasi-adversarial mechanism that had little in common with modern criminal prosecution — the "appeal" could be withdrawn, settled, or defeated by procedural failure in ways that modern criminal proceedings do not permit.
Common Confusion
*De raptu virginum* is sometimes loosely equated with the Statute of Westminster II (1285) or the Statute of Rapes, which restructured rape law in medieval England. These are related but distinct. The appeal *de raptu virginum* was a pre-existing procedural form; the statutes altered the substantive and procedural landscape within which such appeals operated. Researchers should also be careful not to conflate "appeal" in this context with the modern appellate review of a lower court's decision. In medieval English law, an "appeal" (*appellum*) was an accusation — a private criminal prosecution — not a challenge to a prior judgment.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in sources dealing with medieval English criminal procedure and will be encountered most often in treatises, abridgments, and histories of early English law rather than in case reporters or statutes. Key traps for researchers:
**The appeal system is obsolete.** The criminal appeal — distinct from the appellate process — was abolished in England in 1819. Any source using *de raptu virginum* in an active procedural sense predates that abolition by centuries.
**Bracton is the anchor source.** Both Black's and Burrill's cite Bracton, *folio 147*, as the primary authority. Researchers tracing this term should go directly to *De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae* (Bracton's treatise, mid-13th century) for the fullest medieval exposition. Reeve's *History of the English Law* (cited as "2 Reeve, Eng. Law, 38" and "2 Reeves' Hist. 38") is the secondary historical source most readily available to 19th-century compilers and is a useful bridge text.
**The term is not a cause of action in equity or common law pleading.** Do not expect to find it in pleading manuals or forms books outside of strictly historical discussions.
**Jurisdictional transplant did not occur.** This appeal form was not carried into American law. American researchers encountering *de raptu virginum* are dealing with a purely English historical artifact, useful for understanding the medieval roots of rape law but without operative American legal significance.
**Corpus connection — rape law history.** Researchers using the Law Mind corpus to trace the development of rape law will find *de raptu virginum* at the earliest stratum. The conceptual evolution from private appeal to public prosecution to modern statutory frameworks is a continuous thread; this term marks the beginning of that thread.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill's are in complete agreement on both the translation and the characterization of *de raptu virginum*: it is "the name of an appeal formerly in use in England in cases of rape." All three sources treat it as a historical artifact, not a living doctrine. None of the historical dictionaries elaborates on the substantive elements of the offense as it would have been proved under such an appeal, the standing of complainants, or the procedural mechanics beyond the bare identification of the form. This is a notable gap: the historical dictionaries function here as indexing tools pointing toward Bracton and Reeves, rather than as self-contained explanations. Researchers should treat the dictionary entries as waypoints, not endpoints.
Burrill's adds marginal value by positioning the entry in sequence with related writs (including *de rationabilibus divisis*), which reflects the abridgment tradition's alphabetical organization rather than any substantive connection between those writs.
Jurisdictional Note
Strictly English in origin and application. The private criminal appeal system of which *de raptu virginum* was a part was an institution of English common law with no operative equivalent in American jurisdiction. American rape law developed through different statutory and common law channels.