History crime and punishment

• Across all three eras there were some actions that have always been regarded as crimes, such as theft and murder
• Crimes in medieval England

  • Crimes against the person (e.g. murder, rape, public disorder)
  • Crimes against property (e.g. theft, counterfeiting coins)
  • Crimes against authority (e.g. treason, rebellion)
• Murdrum fine


  A law used to help establish Norman control over the conquered population. If an Anglo-Saxon murdered a Norman and the culprit was not caught, a large sum of money had to be paid by the hundred where the body was found.
• William I punished crimes of rebellion far more harshly to try to assert his authority, including punishing those not directly involved
• Reasons why ordinary people hated the Forest Laws

  • They led to people being evicted from the land
  • They restricted access to resources like wood and hunting
  • They were enforced harshly by foresters who were often feared and hated by local communities
• Anglo-Saxon law enforcement

  • The community was largely responsible for both preventing crime and catching criminals
  • The Church played a huge role in law enforcement
• Norman and later medieval law enforcement

  • The Anglo-Saxon system of tithings, the hue and cry and the court system continued
  • Parish constables were appointed to lead the chase for criminals and try to keep the peace
  • Knights were appointed as keepers of the peace and the role of the sheriff expanded to track down criminals
• Trial by ordeal and by combat were abolished in 1215
• Types of medieval punishment

  • Fines and compensation
  • Corporal punishments (e.g. stocks, mutilation)
  • Capital punishments (e.g. beheading, hanging)
• Changes in medieval punishments

  • Use of capital and corporal punishments rose dramatically under the Normans
  • Use of capital punishment gradually decreased in the later medieval period, although crimes against authority were still harshly punished
  • Fines became more common
• Medieval punishments varied depending on class and gender
• Benefit of clergy

  Throughout the 13th century Church courts were used to try people accused of moral crimes, and members of the clergy for all crimes. People proved their right to benefit of clergy by reading a passage from the Bible, as punishments given by Church courts were generally more lenient.
• The influence of the Church was extremely powerful throughout this period and it played a role in deciding what constituted a crime, how the accused was tried and what punishments were handed out
• Benefit of clergy

  1. People proved their right to benefit of clergy by reading a passage from the Bible

  2. Priests were some of the few members of society who could read

  3. Many laymen memorised the passage so they could recite it in court and claim benefit of clergy

  4. Punishments given by Church courts were generally more lenient than those given by other courts, as the Church wanted to give people the chance to reform
• Benefit of clergy was not available to women as women couldn't be priests
• Trial by ordeal

  1. In cases where a person's guilt or innocence could not be decided by a court, the Church would use a trial by ordeal

  2. Various methods were used but the outcome of all these trials was seen as God's judgement on the guilt or innocence of the accused

  3. In 1215, the pope ordered priests to stop administering these trials and they quickly ended
• Trial by ordeal

  • Trial by hot water or iron (if the burn healed well the person was innocent)
  • Trial by water (if the person sank they were innocent)
  • Trial by consecrated bread (for priests only, if they choked they were guilty)
• Sanctuary offered protection from the law to those who fled to certain important churches
• Sanctuary and benefit of clergy were significant because they showed how the Church operated an alternative justice system outside the control of other authorities
• The Church was the focal point of medieval villages and towns
• Increase in population and decline of feudalism led to higher unemployment, which meant more people moved to urban areas in search of work, so towns and cities grew
• The end of feudalism and new farming methods led to enclosure of land (fencing it off for the exclusive use of the landowner)
• Changes in people's religious beliefs and the religion of the monarch led to an increase in crimes against authority such as heresy and treason
• Treason


  The crime of plotting or acting to overthrow or harm the ruler or country
• Heresy


  The crime of having religious beliefs that were different to the official religion of the country
• Heresy first became a crime in 1382 as both the Church and monarch felt threatened by different beliefs, so heresy was classed as a crime against authority and usually punished by being burned to death at the stake
• Vagabondage or vagrancy - an unemployed, homeless person - increased due to the increasing population, falling wages, rising food prices and no system to help the needy (especially after the closure of the monasteries in 1536)
• Vagabondage laws

  1. 1547 Vagrancy Act - the able-bodied without work were branded with the V and sold as a slave

  2. 1494 Vagabond and Begging Act - the law was impossible to enforce

  3. 1597 Act for the Relief of the Poor - divided the poor into two categories: deserving and undeserving, the undeserving could be branded, whipped or sent to a correction house
• Smuggling increased dramatically when import tax on certain goods, including brandy and tea, was introduced in the 17th century
• Witchcraft had been a minor crime in medieval times but new laws against it were passed in the early modern period, making it a very serious offence because people saw it as harmful and were very afraid of it
• In 1542, Henry VIII made witchcraft punishable by death, in 1563 Elizabeth I changed the law so charges of witchcraft had to be tried in common court, and in 1604 James I instructed the death penalty to be given to people's 'evil spirits'
• People were expected to raise and join the hue and cry to catch criminals when a crime took place, and there was no national police force, with the methods and effectiveness of preventing crime and catching criminals varying widely across the country
• The early modern period saw the justice system become far more secular as the Church itself became less powerful in society
• Henry VIII allowed non-clergy 'benefit of clergy' only once and people were branded to show they had received the privilege, and Edward VI made serious crimes, such as murder, exempt from benefit of clergy
• From 1576 Church courts couldn't try criminal acts (only moral ones) so everyone, including clerics, were tried in secular courts. People could still claim benefit of clergy and receive more lenient sentences than others, however
• Henry VIII stopped exile abroad for those claiming sanctuary, instead they had to keep to designated sanctuaries in England, and in 1629 James I abolished sanctuary altogether
• Fines, pillory or stocks, flogging or maiming, and hanging continued to be common forms of punishment, with retribution and deterrence as the main aims
• The 'Bloody Code' saw the number of crimes punishable by death increase dramatically by 1688, with the aim of frightening people so they wouldn't commit crime
• Transportation to North America as a punishment began under James I, providing an alternative to execution for petty crime, giving criminals a chance at rehabilitation while still acting as a deterrent, and providing inhabitants and workers to establish the American colonies
• After 1570, when the pope called on Catholics to depose Elizabeth, more laws were imposed that prevented Catholics from practising their faith