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chrism591 — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 06:18:27 CDT

WELCOME TO MEDIEVAL CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
Here you will learn all the things you need to know about Medieval crime and punishment.

This was my Ancient history medieval assignment for last year hope you like it... took a while but... oh well... :D

Stocks and pillories. The Humiliation

chrism591 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:57:30 CDT

Stocks and Pillories were used for humiliation. The stocks were a form of punishment. They were used for crimes that were not considered server crimes.

In 1495 law required vaggabonds to be in the stocks for three days, living on bread and water. By 1351 every town was required to have and maintain a set of stocks.

Crimes that required as a punishment the stocks were criems such as: Drunkeness ( 6 hrs at the stocks), drunkard (4 hrs) and swearing (1hr).
All these crimes could avoid the stocks, if the accused could pay the fine for the crime they committed.

stocks

pillories

Once a person was at the stocks they were " at the mercy of the mob". Once the accused was at the stocks the crowd would pelt them with literelly anything that could fit in their hands. The crowd threw vegetables and fruit that were rotten, mud, dead rodents especailly rats, excretment and stones.

The individual not only suffered humilation, abuse and mockey but also the pain of not been able to move. Some individuals evn had their ears nailed to the stocks to prevent them moving even more. Sometime in order to avoid the rotten vegetables and other items that were thrown at them, the accused would move and in the process rip their ears, which was exteremly painful.

Some people in history that suffered the humiliation and pain at the stocks:

*Names*	*Reason For Been In The Stocks*
John Waller	Robbery and Prejury
Ann Marrow	Fraud and Same Sex Marriges (three).
Vere Street Coterie	Homosexual Offences
Titus Oates	Prejury and the inventor of the Popish Plot

The Crime FitsThe Punishment

chrism591 — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:50:37 CDT

*The Crime*	*The Punishment*
Treason	Death. This could be by hanging or execution.
Theft	Publicly tortured. This could be in the form of the Stocks. See Stocks. The other form was medieval torture.
Babington conspirator.	Hanged, Drawn And Quartered
rebellion	Hung.
fraud	The stocks and imprisoned.
entering a same sex marriage	The stocks and imprisoned. Utter Humiliation.
Murder	Death. Hung or Execution.

CRIME IN THE MIDDLE AGES

chrism591 — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 00:01:06 CDT

Crimes in the middlews ages ranged from theft to treason. Below are some crimes that were in the middle ages.

Rebellion/treason: This crime was punished by the accused been hung. Just before he died he/she would be drawn from the hangman's noose and quarted alive.
Most biggest rebellions were: The Pilgrimage of Grace, 1536 and Kett's Rebellion, 1549.

Heresy. This was among the many crimes that resulted in death. King Henry VIII became the head of the church. To go against the king was not only a crime but also a sin. It was going against " god".

Witchcraft: as mentioned in the WITCHES AND THEIR PUNISHMENT page.

Vagrancy - Avagrant is a person, usually poor, who wanders from place to place without a home or regular work. In Medieval Europe this was considered a crime. From the 1530's this was punishable by getting whipped and from the 1540's were hung.

Smuggling - In the 1700s people smuggled in goods from abroad eg. Tobacco, Brandy, Tea and Silk. Why? Because the government had placed 'tariffs' on them.

Highway Robbers:Stagecoaches were a popular target as they usually carried people with lots of money and jewellery.

between 1300 -1348
Theft: 73.5% of all offences
Murder: 18.2%
Receiving stolen goods: 6.2%
Arson, counterfeiting coins, rape, treason and all others: 2.1%

Criminals were considered as people who disturbed the king's peace. If the crime committed was only a minor crime, then the lords had authority to punish the offenders in their local court house.

The sheriff/police were responsible for keeping the criminal under lock and key until their trial commenced. Criminals relied on family and friends to bring them food and other necessities. Otherwise the accused would starve to death.

The jails (gaols) back in the medival era were dirty and filthy. If criminals were jailed for a long time, they would have died from disease and possible starvation.

Wrong-doing in medieval ages were servely punished, crime like stealing, murdering and treason were punishable by death. Lesser crime however were pounishable by fine and humiliation at the stocks.

FORMS OF TORTURE CONTINUED

chrism591 — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:00:12 CDT

The Breast ripper: is self explanatory. The sharp instrument would literally rip of the breasts of accused females.

Torture was so extreme because the "police" and people in charge believed that if people were afraid of the consequences of breaking the law, then they wouldn't do it.

The Rack: The victim was bound on an oblong wooden frame with a roller at each end. If the victim refused to answer questions, the rollers were turned until the victim's joints were pulled out of their sockets.

The Branks: was a mask that had a metal piece that goes in your mouth. The mouth piece has spikes on it, which makes you unable to talk.

The Juda Cradle: The victim is hung above a cone pyramid type object and then is lowered upon it. the sharp tip of the cone or pyramid is forced into the area between the legs. Extremely horrible torture.

.
The whirligig: This was One of the tortures that weren't considered that bad. The whirligig just span the accused individual around and around until they vomited.

Cat Paw: This was a short pole with a pitch fork at one end. It was used to tear the the flesh of the victim.
The chair of spikes: Literally a chair of spikes. The victim would sit in the chair and weights would be applied onto the victim forcing his body into the metal spikes.

Tongue slicer: This scissor type instrument was used to slice the tongue up after the victims mouth was forced open.

*The medieval torturers usued many tortures which involved molten metal and lead.

The Copper Boot:The foot was placed inside the boot and filled to the brim with molten lead causing first degree burns.

The Sprinkler:filled with molten metal and dripped on the stomach, back, and other body parts of the victim.

Water Torture: the victims nostrils were pinched shut and fluid was poured down his throat. Intstead of water, sometimes vinegar, urine, or urine and a combination of diarrhea were forced down the throat.

*Many tortures were meant to burn,tear or break the skin/bones of the accused individual.

CHURCH

chrism591 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:27:00 CDT

The church in Medieval times used to punish people who fell asleep or didn't go to church. Sometimes the church or country will torture people of other religions in oder for them to conform in to the Christian Baptist/ religion of that country..

Rosary
Was a used for people who did not go to church or fell asleep during the service.

The church also used torture to make people who aren't catholic conform and believe and take up the catholic religion. The torture was both deadly and extremely painful.
The church could not sentence the heretics to death, therefore the church would use the HEAD VICE. This device was large enough to fit the Heretics head in, then the device would be turned and tightened. This resulted in the victims head been crushed. The teeth of the victim were also crushed and the bones were broken, eventually the eyes of the victim would fall out of their sockets from the immense pressure the head was under.
Head VICE
heretic fork: this was a two sided prong that went between your chin and your chest. You could not talk with instrument in place and it was very painful

FORMS OF TORTURE

chrism591 — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:16:39 CDT

There were many forms of torture in the Medieval period. These tortures could be used as a punishment, to persuade Jews, Muslims, and other non-believers to accept Christianity or they could be used as a way to make people tell the truth or tell what they know about a certain person.

Below are some of the most common tortures in the medieval period. Most of them were used to get a confession out of the acussed individual.

	Baker`s Chair for bakers who sold too many loaves of bread, which were too small.
	Thumbscrews The thumbscrew was simple placed on the thumb and tighten until it crushed the thumb. The tool was also used on toes. There were many forms of torture that destroyed the genetials on both males and females. Such torture included the

tooth bars, the spanish donkey and the juda cradle.

The tooth bars were used for males only. They would literally crush the male testicals.
The spanish donkey, one of the most painful torture ever performed
victims would sit on the spanish donkey, Wieghts would be placed on the victims foot until the wieght was so great that it destroyed the genetials.

The pear was aslo one of the most torturous ways of torturing women.
The pear was a metal object that is shoved inside the mouth anal cavity and vagina. Once in place the screw at the end was turned and the pear opened up inside the cavity. This caused much damage and lead to death.

TOWER OF LONDON

chrism591 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 20:53:41 CDT

The tower of London was one of the worst prisons in history. The Tower housed many criminals and many murders and torturous activities were practised in the Tower.

Many were the deaths in the Majesty's Tower of London.

YEAR	PERSON	REASON	DETAILS
1196	FITZOSBERT William	Protesting against the taxation levied for the rescue of Richard I.	Hanged in chains.
1226	HERLISUN John	murder of Lambert Leglis	pardoned henry the 8th
1540	Lord GREY Leonard Viscount Grane	High treason in Ireland.	Beheaded on Tower Hill in 1541.
1586	SAVAGE John	Babington conspirator.	Hanged, drawn and quartered on 20 Sept 1586
1586	BABINGTON Anthony	Involvement in the Plot to murder the Queen and proclaim May, Queen of Scots.	Hanged, drawn and quartered at Lincoln's Inn Fields on 20 Sept 1586.
1615	WESTON Richard	Administering poison to Overbury.	confessed and was hanged at Tyburn.
1671	OVERSKELDT Daniel van	Suspected Dutch Spy.	An exchange prisoner in 1674.
1615	Mrs Anne Turner	Supplying poison to those responsible for Overbury's death.	she was hanged at Tyburn in November 1615
1605	KEYES Robert	Involvement in the Gunpowder Plot.	Hanged at Old Palace Yard with Guy Fawkes.

These were taken from http://www.camelotintl.com/tower_site/prisoners/index.html. These are just some people that were prisoners in the tower of London. Most of them were hung or executed. You can also see why they were hung/executed.

Some people who were executed within the walls of the tower were:William le Marish, William Wallace, Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester,Henry VI, Edward V and Richard Duke of York,Clarence brother of Richard Duke of Gloucester and many, many more.

WITCHES AND THEIR PUNISHMENT

chrism591 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:06:02 CDT

Witches were forbidden in Medieval times, especially in England. Sorcery however was very popular and something had to be done about it. It made Medieval people feel uneasy especially since England and Europe were considered a Christian nation. Witches were seen as devilish. most natural disasters were blamed on them because people believed through "magic" potions and spells the witches triggered the disaster.
The most common torture for a witch/Sorcerer was been burnt at the stake. Some other forms of torture included been left naked, legs and arms spread out, under the sun. This resulted in extremely bad sun burns. Another form of torture for witches was been hanged.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN ENGLAND

chrism591 — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 04:53:19 CDT

In England during the Medieval period life was very hard. The lives of all the people especially the pheasants, were made alot harder with the law and order which England was ruled with. During the reign of Herny 2nd a new law system was created. Henry's law system said that every person found gulity must go through a Ordeal. There were 3 ordeals that an accused person could go through.

ORDEAL BY FIRE: The accused person had to hold a red hot iron bar and walk three paces. His hands were then bandaged up and left for three days, if their hands were starting to heal they were innocent otherwise they were guilty.

ORDEAL BY WATER: The person was tied up and thrown into the ocean, if they floated they were innocent if they sunk they were guilty.

ORDEAL BY COMBAT: This was normally used for the nobility. The noble who was accused would fight with the person who accused him/her. The winner was right, the loser was most probably dead by the end of the fight.

In 1215 a jury and trial system was introduced. The accused would go before a jury and be tried. Most people didn't like this idea though because they thought that their neighbour might find it as an opportunity to have revenge on them.
In 1275 if a person was found guilty of a crime their punishment was extremely sever.
PUNISHMENTS: THEFT: if found gulity accused would have their hands cut of. WOMEN WHO COMMITED MURDER: Would be strangled and burnt. HIGH TREASON: Hung, drawn and quarted
ILLEGAL HUNTING: ears cut off.