KEY TERMS

• Wergild fine : Fines that were paid to the victim as compensation
• Outlaw : If you didn’t attend court then you’d be declared an ‘outlaw’ which meant anyone could kill you
• Hue and cry : Alarm raised when a crime was committed. All villagers had to help arrest the suspect.
• Trial by ordeal : Deciding guilt by inflicting a wound then inspecting it 3 days later for evidence of healing
• Murdrum fine : If a Norman was killed and no suspect was found, the hundred paid a fine to the king
• Heresy : Crime of following a religion other than the one approved by the monarch
• Tithing : Group of 10 men. If one broke the law then the others were required to bring him to court.
• Maiming : Punishment that inflicts pain without causing death e.g. amputation of the hand
• Theft : The most common crime in the medieval period
• Approver : A criminal who escapes punishment by providing evidence against other criminals
• Constable : Part-time, unpaid law enforcement officer. Led hue and cry.
• Custody : Period of detention between arrest and trial. Prisons were used for custody, not punishment.
• Coroner : Royal-appointed official who investigated unnatural deaths with the help of a jury
• Justice of the Peace : Local judges drawn from the gentry and nobility. Presided over quarterly sessions.
• Sheriff : Official responsible for pursuing outlaws and bringing them to court.
• Benefit of the clergy : Right of clergy to have a trial in a church court where there was no death penalty 
• High treason : Murdering or planning to murder the monarch
• Sanctuary : Right to escape arrest by claiming sanctuary in a church. Then either face trial or go into exile.
• Gallows : Wooden structure from which a noose was hung for carrying out an execution by hanging.
• Stocks : Punishment that saw a criminal held by his feet in a public place
• Psalm 51 : Known as the ‘neck verse’, reading this was the test to gain the benefit of the clergy
• Pillory : Punishment that saw a criminal held by his hands and head in a public place.
• Petty treason : Murdering your lord e.g. priest killing a bishop, servant killing master, wife killing husband
• Compurgation : Acquittal from a charge by swearing an oath that you are innocent.