1250-1500 Flashcards
What are some factors of crime?
1) Religion
2) Famine
3) Disease
4) Agricultural lifestyle
5) War and Rebellion
How did Religion cause crime?
It causes anything against the catholic teachings to be a crime.
Moral crimes or Heresy
How did Famine cause crime?
During famines, people were drove to desperation due to hunger leading to increasing arguments , theft, crimes + people in debts.
How did Disease cause crime?
Many peasants would die leaving large amounts of land unfarmed = hunger = crime of need
How did the Agricultural lifestyle cause crime?
Strip farming meant everyone was close to each other with tools = if argument broke it could lead to severe injuries that can’t be treated due to lack of medical advancement
How did War and Rebellion cause crime?
Men become very violent due to war/ interrupts farming putting pressure on the lower classes
Why was church against moral crimes?
It leads to idleness
Example of moral crime
1411/William Silver in Winchester (Gambling)
Example of Heresy
1413/Leicester/John Belgrave against Pope
Example of Famine
1315-1321/A great famine/Due to a series of bad harvests
Example of disease
1348/The Black Disease/Killed 3.5 million
Example of War and Rebellion
-Peasants Revolt (1381)
-War of Roses/Civil war (2nd half of 15th century)
-Kings waged war against France + Scotland
What % of larceny happened between 1300-1348?
40%
What % of Bulgary happened between 1300-1348?
28%
What % of Homicide happened between 1300-1348?
18.2%
What is petty crime?
Theft below 12d, selling rotten food, fighting, drunkness
What law did King Edward I pass?
1275/Anyone stealing more the 12d can be hanged
Before it was up to the Judge
Why did the Peasants Revolt happen?
- Unhappy due to the rise of taxes = 100 year war/Not being able to buy food
- Treason against King Richard II
How many homicides were caused by arguements?
51%
Case of homicide due to anger
1311/William of Wellington killed John Cobbler = not receiving candles
Case of theft due to hunger
1316/Ellen accused of stealing two bushels of oats worth 12d
What was the most stolen item in 1348?
Livestock due to high rates of poverty
What became a new crime for women?
Scolding steadily appeared as a crime from 1350
Example of Scolding
1359/Yorkshire/Women being accused of notorious scolds
What became a new crime after The Black Death?
Vagrancy
-1351/Parliament made a new law=able bodied men were not allowed to leave their home village to look for work
What are outlaw gangs?
Gang of the most feared criminals/gang of robbers
Example of an outlaw gang
1402/Tottenham/Robert Berkworth and other felons ambushed and robbed two men
After the law in 1351what was considered treason
Petty Treason = wife killing husband
Treason = plotting against the King, counterfeiting coins (King’s face)
What were the crimes that abused authority?
Powerful nobles would amass large private armies called retainers and fight rival lords for land ruling the new land through fear and favoritism
- Became worse with the war of roses
What were types of courts?
1) Royal Courts
2) Assizes courts
3) Quarter sessions
4) Manor Courts
5) Borough court
6) Church courts
What were Royal courts?
- Most important
- Most serious crimes
- Found in Westminster
- Jurors = Criminal area + took oath to God
What crimes would be seen in Royal courts?
Homicide/Treason
What were Assize courts?
- 1293/Edward I/Royal Judges from London visit each county 2 or 3 times a year
- Until 1971
What crimes would be seen in Assize courts?
Robbery/Larceny
What were Quarter sessions?
-1363/too many
- Local gentry acted as judges (JPs)
- Held courts 4 times a year
- Took some work away from Royal judges
- Dealt with all types of cases
What crimes would be seen in Quarter sessions?
- Counterfeiting/Larceny
- From murder to local landowners paying workers to high
What were manor courts?
- Held by local landowners in village
- Serious criminals imprisoned until royal or quarter
- No death penalty
-1250/replaced work of hundred courts - Losing influence by 1500
What crimes would be seen in Manor courts?
- Dealt with lazy workers or people who broke the rules
What were Borough/Hundred courts?
Village courts
What were Church courts?
- Tried both clergy + laity
- Grant marriage licenses, proving dead wills
-Dealt with disputes + disciplinary matters - Main role to reform = reconcile with God
What crimes were dealt with in Church courts?
Scandalous behaviour/Larceny/swearing
How was the King an enforcer?
-In charge of keeping King’s peace
- Edward I passed ‘Statute of Winchester’ = tidied up the law
How was the sheriff an enforcer?
- One in each county
-King’s agent/not paid=great status
-Powerful Lord
-Fines/confiscated property would take a piece - Worked with coroners+chief constables
- Armed posse to track criminals
How was the chief constable an enforcer?
- 2 each year
- Supervise law and order in their are
- Usually wealthy farmers
- Gained local status
- Main duty = every free man (15-60) equipped ready to serve king if needed (army or posse)
How was the parish constable an enforcer?
- Every year
- Responsible man per parish
- Role + Job
- Could fully supply armed men when needed
- [CHANGE]/1363= make them practice archery on Sunday
- Arrest suspicious people + make sure village respond properly to any crime
How did the people act as enforcers?
- Men in tithings = [Group of 10] = took the criminal to court
- Hue and cry = in earshot mean they had stop and join the search
- if they dont join the village gain a huge fine
When and how did watchmen get introduced?
- Statute of Winchester
- 1285
- Patrol the gates and walls at night
- Arrest sus strangers + take them to constable
- Unpopular job + Called hue and cry if disc crime
Where did the jurors from medieval courts come from?
- Selected from the same parish or hundred (except for strangers)
What information did they use to reach their verdict?
- Used knowledge of their background, character + past offences for verdict
- Some ideas came from rumours and guesswork
What did the jurors have to do?
- Jurors swore an oath to God to not lie
- If Jury said guilty or not guilty then Judge agreed
- Knew best and the verdict stood
What were the 4 main types of punishment?
- Fines
- Public humiliation
- Imprisonment
- Death
Where did fines from manor courts go?
All fines went to the lord // effective way of making money of the land
Where did fines from borough courts go?
Offences imposed for traders, thieves or even gamblers = Mayors and town leaders
Where did fines from church courts go?
Fines imposed for sins (eg gambling) = Chruch kept
Where did fines from hundred court and later quarter sessions go?
King receives fines
Where did fines from failed hue and cry go?
King receives it from the village
Where else did King get fines from?
If Nobles disobeyed the King they can get a pardon but have to pay
What forms of public humiliation existed?
- Manor courts sometimes made scolds (woman) sit in public cucking stool
- Borough courts made traders sit in stock or stand at a pillory for cheating customers (selling faulty products)
When and where did people complain about fining too much?
1331/Lincoln = people complained to the mayor that he was finning too many traders and use the pillory more
Example of the church court using public humiliation
Shamed a Durham priest for sleeping with a man’s wife and made him publicly confess his sin
What was imprisonment used for?
Not used as a punishment but keeps the prisoner awaiting trial spending months gaol
Who was imprisonment used to punish?
Used to punish debtors, forgers, offenders who could not pay their fines and people who had falsely accused someone at trial
What were the conditions of gaols?
Rough, unhealthy places and prisoners had to supply their own bedding, food, and drink or buy from their gaoler
How did the gaoler earn money and what did poor prisoners do?
Earned his living from the prisoners as they were unpaid
How did richer prisoners keep themselves?
Might be kept in comfortable rooms in castles since they could afford this
What are the different ways of executing someone?
- Hanging
- Hanging, drawing and quartering
- Being burned alive
How did Hanging work?
Hanging until the criminal was slowly strangled with the neck rarely being broken
What crimes were punished with hanging?
- Murder (deliberate homicide)
- Rape (before 1275 they were castrated)
- theft of goods more than 12d (from 1275)
- burglary & robbery (even if nothing was stolen)
What crimes were punished with hanging, drawing and quartering?
- High treason (plotting against the king)
- Counterfeiting gold or silver coins
What crimes were punished by burning someone alive?
- Petty treason (wife kill husband or servant kill master)
- Heresy such as Lollards (Church didn’t want to execute so King ordered to be sent to Sheriff who burnt them)
What happened to local variations to hanging and what did show?
Disappeared by about 1350 but show how locality affected punishment like laws
What were some local variations to hanging?
- being thrown from the cliffs at Dover
- being buried alive at Sandwich
What happened to the property of any guilty?
All property whether executed or not was passed to the king and innocents or family never regained their valuables
How to avoid trial?
- Run
- Seek Sanctuary
- Have powerful friends
- Refuse to plead
How to avoid being condemened to death?
- Hope for a friendly jury
How to avoid being executed even when found guilty?
- Buy a pardon from the King
- Join the King’s army
- Be pregnant
- Claim benefit clergy
- Become a king’s approver
