Crime In Elizabethan England Essay

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Being a criminal in Elizabethan England was almost a job for some people. Many relied on committing crimes to get them through their daily lives. During this era, much of England's population was made up of poverty-stricken people who didn't have nearly enough means to provide for themselves. People would give and do anything to make ends meet. Due to this issue, a lot of crimes were committed as "desperate acts of the poor." (Alchin). An example of one of those desperate acts is vagrancy. Vagrants were people who didn't have a substantial home, nor any professional work. They survived by travelling around to different places and begging, but unfortunately for them, "a goodly proportion of beggars doubled as thieves." (Smith,272) and they would …show more content…

The cutpursers would go around to places like gatherings, plays, markets and churches, then slit open the purses of the citizens there and grab the riches that had fallen out. As for other crimes of the lower class, there were drunkenness, rowdy behavior, owing money, telling lies, petty treason, hooking and more. Crime was a major issue in Elizabethan England and the poor had a large role in that.



The Elizabethan era was especially not the time to act out against the law. For the poor, there were all sorts of "physical and rather gruesome" (Elgin, 22) punishments one could receive. They dealt with crime in a much more brutal way than we do now, but this was necessary. England had an exceptional amount of crime at the time and people needed to know that their lives were at stake. Unlike today, prison was hardly considered a punishment during the Elizabethan era. It was merely just the place where people that had been accused would stay until they had been tried, and claimed either guilty or innocent. Beside prison, the stocks and the pillories were the next least brutal way to serve for your crimes. They were big wooden planks that the convict …show more content…

The nobility was the highest of the two classes in Elizabethan England. They were typically akin to a family that was honourable and wealthy, usually some sort of ties to royalty had made it that way. Furthermore, crime wasn't just an act of needy poor folk... there was a good chunk of well-off citizens that were active in crime just as much. Considering the nobility were already born into riches, they didn't break the law because they were destitute in any way, like the commoners. As a matter of fact, they rarely even took part in any of the same crimes as the poor. Since they were the nobility and obtained more wealth, they could "become involved in crime which were not shared by other people." (Alchin). Some of these crimes included blasphemy, sedition, spying, rebellion, alchemy, murder, witchcraft and high treason. Treason was the most serious and horrible crime you could commit. It was the act of attempting to "plotting to kill or overthrow the Queen." (Robbins, 121). Since the Elizabethan citizens believed that the monarch was there to represent God, "it was like committing a sin against God" (Elgin, 12)Generally, this grave crime would be punishable by hanging, drawing and quartering, but a noble man might "be pardoned by the crown" (Singman, 21). This meant that although somebody might commit a capitol crime, they could be pardoned because of their social status. The criminal would still be punished, and potentially keep the death sentence,

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