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Crime and punishment in the Elizabethan age
The nature of medieval punishments
The nature of medieval punishments
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Recommended: Crime and punishment in the Elizabethan age
(1) How was crime judged and punished in the middle ages? (2) My primary source is from an unknown manuscript from Germany and my secondary source is from Barbara Tuchman’s book on the Middle Ages called a distant mirror: calamitous 14th century. (3) My primary source was made in Germany in the late 12th century for a likely purpose of being a historical record or a part of law books. This source is a manuscript and is possibly biased. This source is incomplete as it is only an extract and the words in the image are likely German thus we cannot perceive the full image. However, this source was made at the time by a likely witness of such events and it can be corroborated by other sources both secondary and primary. This source, unlike writing can give away other details that might not have been mentioned and shows us everything in images. My secondary source was made in America …show more content…
We can also see the rarity of such things and in this case very common. We can also how simply vicious these punishments could be for the offender even possibly after death. (5) I have learnt, through my sources that judgment and punishment in the middles ages is completely different to modern day versions with judgments relying heavily on god and superstition rather than common sense and reason and how far these illogical ideas spread. I have also learnt that punishing someone in the Middle Ages was rather like making a horror movie or becoming a torturer with punishments often being aimed at extreme pain, terrible mutilation and humiliation even after a painful death. I have also learnt of many devices such as the gibbet, or the rack, and the common practice of displaying impaled heads on battlements as a terror tactic. All in all I have learnt that judgment in the Middle Ages was illogical and unreasonable, and punishment simply torturous and
Bongars, Gesta Dei per Francos, 1, pp. 382 f., trans in Oliver J. Thatcher, and Edgar Holmes McNeal, eds., A Source Book for Medieval History, (New York: Scribners, 1905), 513-17
This is to regulate the people and keep them from acting out. In both Confucian and Legalist values, punishment is used to discipline bad people for their crimes. For example, they use several forms of torture to keep the people in place. In one instance, Shao will not confess to Judge Dee and yells in protest against the witness. Judge Dee "ordered two constables to take the thin rattan and to beat Shao all over his body with full force as he was lying there in the screws (136)." Legalist values believed that the people should be punished for their wrongdoings. Torturing was a way to be punished, along with public shaming. The murders convicted are publicly executed at the end of the book, for publicity of the punishments. This may be used to shame and show people what might happen if they commit a
“Crime was met with violent, cruel punishments.” For something as simple as stealing an apple a commoner would lose their hand. They did this for embarrassment. If someone saw them with one hand, they would know you had stolen. “Many executions were witnessed by hundreds of people.” An execution only happened if a threat was made on royals or murder. An execution day was many commoners favorite day. They got the whole day off of work. On these days the whole town would gather and watch as the criminal got his head chopped off. Everything in this time had more painful punishments, but not because of their lack of technology; but because the leaders wanted you to learn your lesson. If someone lost a hand for stealing, they would most likely not do it again.
wrong in today?s society. Many countries have, thankfully, relinquished this barbaric practice but, unfortunately, many continue to do so. I firmly believe that there are far better means of punishment. As I said before, do two wrongs make a right?
...ments. Through the public humiliation of hundreds of criminals, public squares became lively areas full of excitement and joy. Even if it did not effectively deter crime, the cruel and unusual punishments of the Elizabethan Era helped citizens keep occupied. When punishments were not deadly, they were still painful enough to strike fear into the citizens of England. Obviously, the Elizabethan Era was a very violent time in England.
In conclusion, although Froissart Chronicles is written based on the historical events that occurred during the Hundred Years’ War period, the reports of these events can be erroneous and inaccurate, which is a main characteristic of medieval historical writing. Hence, historians must view
The aim of this lesson will be to develop students understanding of crime and punishment in Medieval Europe. As outlined in AUSVELS, this will include investigating different kinds of crime and punishment utilised and the ways the nature of crime and punishment has either stayed the same throughout history, or changed over time.
Cohen, Mark R. (1994) ‘Under Crescent and Cross, the Jews in the middle ages’ Princeton: Princeton University Press pp 30-50
5. Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. From the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. N.p.: Longman, 1992. Print.
Howe, Helen, and Robert T. Howe. A World History: Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Volume 1. White Plains, NY: Longman, 1992. 533.
What values and world-views characterized the Middle Ages, such that they came to be rejected and termed “dark” by the world of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment? As Julius Evola (2010) writes, “with the en...
"Today's system, where imprisonment is a common penalty for most crimes, is a historical newcomer." Many crimes during 1718 and 1776 were punishable by death. This was usually done by hanging, sometimes by stoning, breaking on the rack and burning at the stake. Towards the end of the 1700's people realized that cruel punishment did little to reduce crime and their society was changing the population grew and people started to move around more frequently. There had to be a search for new punishments. "New punishments were to rely heavily on new ideas imported from Europe in the writing of such social thinkers of the Enlightenment as the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, Thomas Pain and Cesare Beccaria". These thinkers came to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated."
The Classical School of criminology was founded by "European legal authorities that thought crime was caused by supernatural forces" (DeKeseredy & Schwartz, 1996, p.155) preceding the 1700's. The catch phrase "The devil made him do it" was very popular because of the thought that people who committed crimes were sinners or people who didn't follow God. Those who didn't follow God were known as heretics and this following led to the connection of church and state where torture or execution could happen to anyone that the government thought to be evil or a part of witchcraft. Since the Middle Ages didn't have equal rights for all, women and the poor were usually the ones being prosecuted. With all of the problems of the times, the government found and made scapegoats out of these people, and blamed them of the troubles that were occurring. As DeKeseredy and Schwartz (1996, p.156) stated, "the most common way of determining guilt was through torture. It was a simple system: if you confessed, you were executed: is you did not confess, the torture continued until you died." This system of killing people was a well-respected way of running the criminal justice system. As time passed, the punishments turned away from inflicting pain on the body and turned more towards inflicting pain on the soul. This meant that imprisonment of long periods of time was going to take place of executions.
Rice, Eugene E. and Anthony Grafton. The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559. 2nd. ed. New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1994.
In the early modern era in Europe, public executions were the primary punishment given to members of society who were involved in criminal behavior. This form of punishment served to showcase the absolute power of the state, King and church to take away the life of any citizen who disrupts peace. It was a way to make the criminal justice system visible and effective in an era when the criminal justice system was in its beginning stages of demonstrating orderliness (Spierenburg). More specifically, it was a relatively straightforward and psychological way to evoke deterrence. The potential of gruesome violence, public persecution and religious betrayal were tools thought to be strong enough to make public executions a successful form of deterrence because within the community, social bonds and religion were the foundation of everyday life.... ...