CRIME

• Social Crime - An act most people don't believe is criminal and which they are prepared to commit or ignore.
• Crimes Against the Person included:

  • Murder
  • Assault
  • Rape
• Crimes Against Property included:

  • Arson
  • Theft (75% of all medieval crime)
  • Counterfeiting coins
  • Poaching
• Crimes Against Authority included:

  • Treason
  • Rebellion
• Theft increased in Spring, summer and Harvest Season. It also increased when there was a bad harvest - people would need to steal to survive.
• Poaching was seen as a social crime, as people needed to hunt to survive.
• Existing Saxon laws were retained by William I, as he wanted continuity from previous monarchs.
• Forest Laws (1072)

  • 30% of England became Royal Forest (for Nobility)
  • Illegal to cut down trees, take firewood and hunt (poaching)
  • Social crime - seen as unfair
• In Norman England, Rebellion was seen as a very serious crime, punishable by death, as William I wanted to keep control of his new subjects.
• The Murdrum Fine was introduced to stop revenge killings. If a Norman was murdered by an Anglo-Saxon, a large sum of money had to be paid by the hundred where the body was found.
• Harrying of the North, 1069 - an estimated 100,000 people starved to death due to the destruction of farmland and animals.