Early Modern England

• Early Modern England, 1500-1700
• Murder continued to be a crime against the person
• Petty theft of food and household items continued to be a crime against property
• Treason continued to be a crime against authority
• Population growth and urbanisation led to an increase in crime as some people struggled to find work and resorted to theft to survive
• Enclosure was used to create larger, more efficient farms by breaking down open land into privately owned fenced fields, leading to increased poverty and more petty theft, poaching, and fishing in private enclosures
• The 1671 Game Act made it illegal to take food from privately owned enclosures, contributing to conflicts between landowners and the poor
• Religious change and the Reformation resulted in religious unrest and confusion, with worshiping in a different church than the monarch being considered heresy and punishable by burning at the stake
• Protestants were executed for heresy, while Catholics were executed for treason for refusing to acknowledge the monarch as the head of the Church of England
• Reformation, growth in population, and increase in enclosure led to new crimes
• Heresy increased due to the introduction of the Protestant Church during Henry VIII's reign
• Vagrants committed crimes such as theft, assault, and murder
• People viewed vagrants as suspicious, sinful, and potential criminals
• Different types of vagrants included drummerers, freshwater mariners, whipjacks, kinchin morts, and priggers of prancers
• Vagrancy Acts were passed to deal with vagrants, including branding and corporal punishment
• Witchcraft became a criminal offence in 1542
• Smuggling increased as explorers discovered the New World and luxury goods were imported into England
• Law enforcement in early modern England mostly relied on the local community and continued some practices from medieval England
• Policing continuity:

  • The hue and cry method was used to raise the alarm after a crime
  • Members of the local community, led by the constable, searched for criminals
  • A posse of men over 21 was summoned by a sheriff to assist in emergencies
  • Parish constables protected citizens part-time without weapons or uniform
  • Parish constables could arrest and punish criminals, including vagrants who were whipped
  • Constables were responsible for offenders held in prison before trial
• Changes in law enforcement:

  • Larger towns employed watchmen to patrol streets at night
  • Watchmen carried a lamp and rang a bell to warn people and arrest vagabonds and drunks
  • Town constables were appointed by town authorities to turn serious criminals over to courts and collect community payments
  • Ordinary people could obtain arrest warrants from Justices of the Peace to catch criminals
  • Rewards were given for the arrest of criminals
  • Wealthier householders hired armed guards for protection
  • Limited success of constables and watchmen led to the use of professional thief takers
• Trials continuity:

  • JPs judged manor court cases for crimes committed on the lord's land
  • Community punishments like fines, stocks, pillory, and whipping were handed out
  • Manor courts dealt with local and minor crimes
  • Royal judges visited counties twice a year for serious offences
  • Church courts judged churchmen and those claiming benefit of the clergy
• Changes in trials:

  • JPs met at quarter sessions four times a year to judge serious crimes and sentence offenders to death
  • More people could claim benefit of the clergy using the 'neck verse' by 1600
  • The Habeas Corpus Act of 1679 prevented indefinite imprisonment without charge
  • Those arrested had to appear in court within a certain time for trial or release
• Punishments in early modern England were intended to humiliate criminals, act as retribution or deterrence, inflict pain, or remove the criminal altogether
• Continuity in punishments:

  • Fines were common for swearing, gambling, and failure to attend church, acting as deterrence
  • Stocks and pillory were used for public shaming and humiliation
  • Corporal punishment like whipping was used to humiliate and deter criminals
  • The death penalty was used for serious crimes like murder, treason, poaching, smuggling, witchcraft, arson, and heresy
• Prisons were used to house offenders awaiting trial or those who failed to pay off a debt, rarely as a punishment on their own
• New punishments introduced in early modern England:

  • Houses of correction for hard labor and whipping
  • Carting for vagrancy and adultery, dragging offenders around the streets on a cart
  • Transportation as a punishment from the 1660s, sending convicted criminals to prison camps overseas like America or Australia
• In 1603, King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England, introducing new laws against Catholics who were treated more harshly than before
• The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 involved a group of Catholics led by Robert Catesby planning to blow up the Houses of Parliament to kill the king and replace him with a Catholic monarch
• Guy Fawkes, one of the 13 plotters, was given the task of filling the vault below the Houses of Parliament with about 36 barrels of gunpowder
• After the Gunpowder Plot, James I passed stricter measures against Catholics, including the Popish Recusants Act in 1606, which required Catholics to swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch and participate in Church services or pay a fine
• Guy Fawkes and the surviving plotters were found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, a harsh punishment used to deter any future rebellions by Catholics
• Who was the head of the gun powder plotters?

  Robert Catesby
• The early modern period in England saw the greatest political upheaval the country had ever experienced, including a civil war between Royalists and Parliament, leading to the execution of King Charles I and creating a feeling of insecurity and fear
• Between 1645 and 1647, approximately 250 accusations of witchcraft came before the authorities in East Anglia, resulting in the largest number of accusations in one place over such a short time, described as a 'witch hunt'
• Matthew Hopkins, the self-proclaimed Witchfinder General, was at the center of these witchcraft accusations, accusing as many as 300 women of witchcraft and gaining confessions through questionable means
• Reasons for the increase in witchcraft accusations between 1645 and 1647 include the role of Matthew Hopkins, social tensions due to economic hardship, changes in laws making witchcraft a crime, religious changes, and the unsettled atmosphere of the English Civil War
• What 5 Factors lead to an increase in witch accusations in Early Modern England?

  Attitudes toward women

  Social Upheaval

  Poor Harvests

  James I

  English Civil War
• What role did Hopkins have that led to an increase in witchcraft accusations?

  Hopkins was willing to find evidence and gain confessions to prove the accusations of witchcraft. He was paid for his work. Without him, there may not have been an increase in accusations.
• What role did James I have that increased witchcraft accusations?

  James I’s fear of witchcraft created panic throughout England. His book Daemonologie (1597) described what people thought of as the horrors of witchcraft, gave reasons for believing in witches and provided instructions on how to run witch trials. Readers were encouraged to find witches and put them on trial. He influenced a wider belief that witchcraft was a crime against the monarch and God.
• How did social tensions contribute to a larger number of witchcraft accusations?

  The English Civil War led to a period of economic hardship, especially in villages. This increased tensions and distrust between the rich and poor. The wealthier villagers were unsettled when the poor asked for help. Elderly and vulnerable women were often blamed when things went wrong.