Later Middle Ages

• policing methods in later Middle Ages

  • village constable- led hue and cry
  • coroners- royal officials, investigate deaths
  • sheriff- was responsible for organising posse if hue and cry failed
• trials in the later Middle Ages

  • manor courts- local courts for minor crimes
  • royal judges- travelled around country for more serious cases
  • trial by ordeal- abolished 1215
• Fines in later middle ages

  minor crimes paid to kings officials
• public humiliations in later Middle Ages

  • stocks and pillories- used for selling weak beer or underweight bread
  • whipping- used in public with stocks and pillories
  • punishments were meant as a deterrent
• capital punishment in later middle ages

  execution increased. hanging seen as necessary public deterrent to reduce crime
• clergy

  archbishops, bishops, priests, monks and other churchmen
• constables


  men from ever village or town appointed to uphold law and order. they did this in their own time and received no payment
• deter


  use harsh punishments to scare or warn people to not commit crimes
• pillory


  a wooden frame with holes in it that locked in the head and hands of the offender
• posse


  a group of men over age 15 called on by sherif to track down a criminal
• stocks


  a wooden frame with holes in it that locked in feet of the offender