Definition
An obsolete Law French term meaning hidden, buried, or concealed. In medieval English criminal law, *musce* (also appearing in the phrase *en muscettes*) described conduct carried out in secret, privately, or clandestinely. The term appears most prominently in connection with the doctrine of Englishery and the law of murder as it operated in the Norman and post-Norman periods. In that context, the secretive or hidden nature of a killing was a defining feature of the offense, distinguishing it from open homicide and triggering the murdrum fine imposed on the hundred where the body was found.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational hazard in medieval legal sources. Researchers encountering *musce* or *en muscettes* in early Year Books, plea rolls, or treatises such as Britton should understand that the word is functional rather than merely descriptive — it marks a legally operative element of murder as the offense was then understood. The clandestine nature of the killing was not just an aggravating circumstance; under the murdrum doctrine, it was part of what defined the act and triggered collective punishment of the surrounding community.
The historical definition provided by Burrill illuminates a broader definitional shift: after Englishery was abolished (the procedural requirement of proving the victim was English in order to avoid the murdrum fine), later writers including Staundford reformulated the definition of murder to include *both* secret and open killings — "whether Englishman or foreigner, secretly or openly." The incorporation of openness into post-abolition definitions was a direct response to the collapse of the murdrum framework. Researchers working backward from sixteenth-century treatise definitions of murder to earlier medieval sources must account for this shift, or they will misread what earlier sources meant by the term and why secrecy mattered.
Burrill's note that Staundford and others gave a broadened definition specifically *because* Englishery had been abolished is an important editorial observation. It signals that the modern common law definition of murder — which does not require secrecy — carries a residue of a much older framework that conditioned the offense's meaning on the victim's identity and the manner of concealment.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical dictionary source here, and it handles the term with appropriate precision. Burrill correctly identifies *musce* as Law French, correctly glosses it as hidden or buried (noting the parallel to concealed treasure), and correctly situates *en muscettes* as meaning in secret or clandestinely. Burrill's entry is more useful than its brevity suggests because it links the term directly to its operative legal context: the murdrum fine, the doctrine of Englishery, and the treatise tradition running through Britton and Staundford.
What Burrill does not supply — and what no single dictionary entry could fully provide — is a full account of how the murdrum doctrine functioned, the procedural mechanics of presenting Englishery, or the statutory history of abolition. Researchers should treat Burrill's entry as a pointer to those larger subjects rather than a self-contained account.
Jurisdictional Note
This term is exclusively historical and arises in the context of English common law before and during the medieval period. It has no operative force in any modern jurisdiction and no American counterpart.