History crime and punishment enforcing law and order

• Law enforcement, c.1250-c.1500


  • No paid police force
  • Carried out by sheriffs, constables and ordinary people
• King's Peace

  The king was in overall charge of keeping the peace
• Statute of Windsor (1285)

  Shaped law enforcement in England for hundreds of years
• Constables of the hundred

  • Maintained law and order in their area
  • Ensured every free man between 15 and 60 was ready to take up arms to support the king
• Everyone in society had to play their part in policing their own area
• Hue and cry


  Victims of crime called it, setting people to drop their work and hunt for the criminal if they failed to join they could face a
• Parish constable

  • Law enforcement officer in charge of a village
  • Ensured his parish responded properly to a crime
  • Could apply armed men when needed
• Hue and cry

  • Allowed the hue and cry to mobilise a group of local residents to help track down criminals that local groups had failed to find
• Watchmen

  • Patrolled towns at night
  • Arrested and handed over criminals in the morning
  • Unpopular job
• System of courts

  Established to deal with serious and petty crimes
• Royal courts

  • Heard the most serious criminal cases
  • Overseen by a paid judge
  • Jurors drawn from the criminals' local area
• Judges visiting counties

  From 1293, visited each county two or three times a year to try cases of serious crime
• Justices of the Peace (JP)

  • Took over hundred courts run by a county sheriff
  • Judged people in their own counties
  • Did this four times a year at the quarter sessions
• Manor courts

  • Dealt with most crimes in England
  • Included offences by the lord's villeins
  • From 1951, dealt with all petty crimes that affected the local community
  • Run by the lord and wealthy villagers made up the jury
• Borough courts

  • Towns had them
  • Similar role to hundred courts
• Church courts

  • Dealt with crimes considered un-Christian
  • No juries
  • Priests handled the evidence and passed judgement
• Medieval juries were often unwilling to convict
• Juries used their knowledge of the accused's background to reach their verdict
• Juries had to know as much as possible about a case before going to court
• The judge accepted the jury's verdict and few court cases lasted longer than a day
• Law enforcement, c.1250-c.1500

  • Although the king was in overall charge of keeping the peace, his work was carried out by a range of different law enforcement officers and courts
  • The local community was key both in helping to maintain peace and in passing judgement on crimes committed