Early Modern

• Early modern

  • 1500-1700
• Heresy


  Belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (especially Christian) doctrine
• Treason


  The crime of betraying one's allegiance to one's sovereign or state
• Reformation


  Caused political instability
• Having the wrong beliefs


  Could lead to accusations of heresy
• Henry VIII


  Became Head of Church in 1534 and executed those who did not comply
• Edward

  Made laws to worship in a more Protestant way
• Elizabeth


  250 Catholics executed for treason
• Gunpowder Plot


  1. Aim: Blow up Parliament, kill King James, put a Catholic on the throne

  2. Plot: Guy Fawkes placed gunpowder beneath Parliament

  3. Failure: Anonymous letter warned a Catholic, Parliament searched and found Fawkes

  4. Fawkes tortured to reveal other plotters, all were hung, drawn and quartered
• Vagabondage


  Rising population, fewer jobs, suspicion that vagabonds were professional criminals, fear they would form criminal gangs
• Reasons for fear of vagabondage

  • "Idle hands do the devil's work" - Bible
  • Concern that vagabonds would turn to crime
  • Suspicion they were professional criminals
  • Fear they would form criminal gangs
  • Healthy people already paying poor rates, no need to pay extra
• Pamphlets were cheap and easily accessible, greatly influenced people's attitudes
• Realities of vagabondage


  • Unemployment due to rising population
  • Demobilised soldiers who couldn't find work
  • Bad harvests and falling wages
  • Protestant views on work and hostility to laziness
• Vagrancy Acts


  • 1495 Vagabondage & Beggars Act
  • 1547 Vagrancy Act
  • 1597 Relief of the Poor Act
• Witchcraft


  Accusations rose due to village tensions, poverty, and the poor having to ask wealthier neighbours for help, which they then threatened
• Victims of witchcraft accusations

  Mainly poor, vulnerable women
• Witchcraft in the Middle Ages

  Dealt with by Church Courts
• Witchcraft under Henry VIII, Elizabeth & James


  Laws tightened, became punishable by death
• Reasons for rise in witchcraft accusations

  • Religious upheavals
  • Superstitions, fear of the Devil
  • Civil war, breakdown of law and order
  • Cheap, exaggerated pamphlets increased fear of witchcraft
• Matthew Hopkins


  Self-proclaimed "Witchfinder General", searched East Anglia, found evidence against 36 people, obtained confessions through torture
• Matthew Hopkins' methods


  • Kept accused standing and awake for days
  • Claimed any animal like a mouse, fly or spider was a "familiar" creature created by the Devil
  • Any scar or mark was the "Devil's mark" where the familiar sucked the witch's blood
  • Swim test - sank innocent, floated guilty
• Witchcraft Acts


  • 1542 Witchcraft Act
  • 1563 Act Against Conjurations
  • 1604 Witchcraft Act
• Continuities in law enforcement 1500-1700

  • Hue and cry, constables, watchmen, coroners
• Watchmen


  Employed to patrol the streets day and night, expected to arrest criminals and vagabonds, but poorly paid and ineffective
• Rewards


  Offered for the arrest of criminals, could equal a year's income for a family
• Continuities in legal system 1500-1700


  • Local juries, manor courts, royal judges
• Justice of the Peace


  Handled manor court cases
• Quarter Sessions


  Held several times a year for serious crimes
• Habeas Corpus


  Introduced in 1679
• Bloody Code


  Introduced in 1688, greatly increased the number of crimes punishable by death
• Reasons for Bloody Code


  • Increased fear of crime
  • Cheap pamphlets
  • Concentration of executions
  • Growth of towns, less effective constables and watchmen
  • Sensationalist news on punishments
  • Landowner attitudes, government seen as protecting property and privilege
• Other punishments


  • Houses of correction, hard labour
  • From 1660s, transportation to America