Poaching in Yonderre

Not to be confused with Poaching (cooking).

End of the poacher by August Dieffenbacher, 1894

Poaching in Yonderre refers to the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals in the Serene Grand Duchy Yonderre. While usually associated with medieval practices, poaching has pesisted into modern times and is usually associated with land use rights, but modern poaching often resembles a pseudo-recreational activity and exists as a cheap way to obtain game meat.

Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets, particularly in periods of war. Prior to the Conquest of Joanusterra, hunting rights were not uniformly defined in the myriad East Gothic states. While some states held poaching as a capital offense punishable by hanging, others were more lenient. Poaching was particularly common in times of war and famine, such as during the Black Death. Poaching became widespread around the time of the Conquest of Joanusterra and became something akin to socially acceptable albeit taboo until stricter enforcement of poaching laws followed the First Potato War and the Great Confessional War.

History

During and immediately after the Conquest of Joanusterra, poaching became widespread in East Gothica owing to the limited enforcement of law and order during the years of conflict. This was worsened by the inherent instability of the lawlessness of the period, exacerbating poverty and famine in the region. With law and order reestablished around the 1480s, new criminal codes were introduced in the Yonderian Counties which included laws about poaching. Without exception, the laws all forbade the hunting of deer, fallow deer and boar in forests. All counties except Kubagne also forbade hunting and trapping of rabbits, which was legal in Kubagne only in certain periods. Those caught poaching were subjected to heavy fines or, in case of repeat offenders or especially large quantities, physical punishments such as public flagellation in town squares. Poaching came to be associated heavily with banditry in the late fifteenth century, whose way of life often necessitated living off the land. Poaching persisted into the sixteenth century but enforcement was comparably weak until the late sixteenth century. The death of Grand Duke of Yonderre Giles I Sentinelleau has at times been attributed to a poacher, but modern historians (and many contemporary sources) tend to agree that Giles I was assassinated by orders of his successor Joanus V de Banor.

The development of modern hunting rights is closely connected to the comparatively modern idea of exclusive private ownership of land. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the restrictions on hunting and shooting rights on private property were enforced by gamekeepers and foresters. They denied shared usage of forests, such as resin collection and wood pasture and the peasants' right to hunt and fish. However, by the end of the eighteenth century, comparably-easy access to rifles increasingly allowed peasants and servants to poach. The enforcement of laws regarding poaching in Yonderre was deferred to the Custodes Yonderre with its reform in 1833, although gamekeepers and foresters maintained special privileges to aprehend and detain people suspected of poaching. As agricultural practices had advanced greatly in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, poaching became unpopular in the public perception of the mid-nineteenth century Yonderian society. As many poachers came from the poorer ranks of society and had little to lose, it was not uncommon that it came to physical confrontation with gamekeepers and foresters who were authorized the use of deadly force in self defence.

Just as in history, the modern concept of poaching is usually associated with land use rights. Hunting permits and more specifically permits to hunt in the given area are prerequisites to hunting. The special privileges of gamekeeperss and foresters to aprehend and detain people suspected of poaching remain in place to this day, although the use of deadly force is practically unheard of in modern times.

See also

• Crime in Yonderre
• Custodes Yonderre
• Black Forest
• Vollardic Mountains