crime and punishment early modern

• List the 7 factors which are helpful in our study of crime and punishment

  Religion, government and lawmakers, key individuals, media, attitudes beliefs and values, urbanisation, travel and technology
• Name three new crimes in the Early Modern period

  Witchcraft, heresy, vagabondage
• What is heresy?

  The crime of going against the religion of the monarch
• What was the punishment for heresy?

  Burning at the stake
• What is another term used for vagabondage?

  Vagrancy
• What was vagabondage?

  People who were homeless and jobless who would wonder the countryside looking for work and accommodation
• What was the punishment for vagabondage?

  The Vagrancy Act of 1547 meant people could be branded with the letter V 

  The 1597 Act for the Relief of the Poor included whipping as a punishment
• What was the punishment for witchcraft?

  Hanging
• Who described himself as the ‘witchfinder general’?

  Mathew Hopkins
• Where in the country did the ‘witchfinder general’ work?

  The South East of England - mainly Essex
• What social upheaval occurred during the Early Modern period?

  The English Civil wars which started in 1642
• What year was the Gunpowder plot?

  1605
• What had the plan for the Gunpowder plot been?

  To blow up parliament and kill King James I
• Who was the leading figure of the Gunpowder plot?

  Robert Catesby
• What punishment did the Gunpowder plotters face?

  Hanging, drawing and quartering
• Which book did James I write which outlined his belief in witchcraft?

  Demonologie (1597)
• What did James I argue about witchcraft?

  That it was a crime against the King and God
• What was the Bloody Code?

  A huge numbers of crimes for which the death penalty could be imposed
• During whose reign was transportation introduced?

  James I introduced transportation to North America
• Where could people be transported to?

  America until 1776 and then Australia
• Name three reasons why transportation was used as a punishment

  • To deter people from committing crime 
  • To establish permanent colonies 
  • It gave prisoners the chance for reflection and rehabilitation
• How many people were estimated to have been transported to North America?

  An estimate of 50,000-80,000
• Who were Puritans?

  Extreme Protestants who believed in ‘moral’ laws in the 1650s e.g drinking and feasting was banned
• Why did smuggling increase in the 17th century?


  It was in response to the government’s import taxes
• Which law made poaching illegal in the Early Modern period?

  The 1671 Game Act made it illegal to hunt or fish on enclosed land
• Name three new law enforcement (policing) methods in the Early Modern period

  Town constables 

  Night watchmen 

  Thief takers
• Name a dodgy thief taker in the Early Modern period

  Jonathan Wild
• What was the main purpose of prisons in the Early modern period?

  To hold prisoners who were awaiting trial