Key topic 1 crime and punishment

• Crime in Anglo Saxon England


  • More opportunity for crime against the person and property as towns grew
  • Easier to get away with crimes as people did not know each other well
  • More goods and money to steal
  • Actions that threatened the social structure of king, nobles, freemen and serfs were considered crimes against authority
  • Treason (betraying the king) was the worst crime against authority
  • Actions against religious beliefs (e.g. sex outside marriage) were considered moral crimes
• Law enforcement in Anglo Saxon England


  • King and nobility made the laws, but village communities and family ties helped enforce them
  • King Ethelred II gained more control over the kingdom
  • Belief in the 'king's peace': the duty of the King to maintain law and order
  • Formal codes of laws issued by Anglo Saxon kings
  • Local communities expected to take collective responsibility for maintaining law and order
  • Local officials called reeves carried out decisions made by local courts
  • England divided into hundreds and tithings, with representatives meeting the king's shire reeve
  • Hue and cry system where witnesses were expected to help chase suspects
  • Option of swearing oaths or trial by ordeal to prove innocence
• Punishment in Anglo Saxon England


  • Church advised maiming for some crimes
  • Murder punished by fines (wergild) paid to victim's family, with higher fines for higher social status
  • Treason and arson punished by execution (usually hanging)
  • Public punishments like stocks or pillory for physical assaults or public disorder
  • Theft punished with fines
  • Punishments increasingly decided by the King rather than local communities
  • Increased use of punishment to boost the visible power of the King
• Crime in Norman England


  • Feudal system with Normans in powerful positions, serfs bound to work for lords
  • Creation of royal forests made poaching a new crime
  • Outlaws declared for those who tried to avoid trial and punishment
  • Brutal gangs of outlaws like the Folville gang
• Law enforcement in Norman England


  • More centralised, fewer decisions taken by local communities
  • Massive castle building programme by William the Conqueror
  • Foresters hired to enforce Forest Laws
  • Trial by combat introduced as a new form of trial by ordeal
  • Tithings and hue and cry system continued
• Punishment in Norman England


  • Increased use of harsh punishments including execution and mutilation
  • Harrying of the North by William the Conqueror resulted in mass starvation
  • Murdrum fine introduced, paid by hundreds where a Norman was murdered by an Anglo Saxon
  • Wergild system ended, fines now paid to king's officials
  • Belief in 'king's mund' - all men should live peacefully under the king's protection
• Crime in the later Middle Ages


  • More crime opportunities in growing towns
  • Statute of Labourers criminalised asking for higher wages or moving to a new area
  • Laws against heresy (Lollards) introduced
• Law enforcement in the later Middle Ages

  • Increased role of government in controlling crime
  • Henry II's Assize of Clarendon reorganised courts and set up prisons
  • Royal justices (Justices in Eyre) visited counties twice a year
  • Standard written instructions issued to local sheriffs
  • Townspeople still expected to help catch offenders, with wards and parish constables
  • Coroners introduced to investigate suspicious deaths
  • Justices of the Peace (JPs) appointed to maintain the king's peace
  • JPs given power to arrest suspected heretics
• Punishment in the later Middle Ages

  • Heretics could be burned at the stake
  • High treason punished by hanging, drawing and quartering
• Benefit of the Clergy


  Members of the clergy could only be tried in Church courts, which were typically more lenient
• Sanctuary


  Accused persons could go to a church offering sanctuary and swear an oath to leave the country within 40 days instead of going to court
• In 1215, the Pope ordered priests to stop helping organise trials by ordeal, leading to the development of trial by jury in England