1500-1700 Early Modern England - ‘new’ Crimes In Early Modern England

Question 1

What’s a vagabond/vagrant

Answer 1

An unemployed homeless person

Question 2

When was there a large increase in vagrants + why

Answer 2

The late 15th/16th centuries - increase in population, falling wages, rising food prices and no system to help the needy

Question 3

When were monasteries closed

Answer 3

1536

Question 4

Features of vagrants

Answer 4

• hated/feared by settled population
• resorted to thieving and/or begging and charity to survive - resented by the settled population
• viewed as lazy + responsible for their own problems

Question 5

Timeline of vagabondage laws 1494-1601

Answer 5

• 1494 - vagabond and beggars act - vagabonds put in stocks for 3 days and nights, then sent back to where they were born/most well-known
• 1547 - vagrancy act - the able-bodied without work for more than 3 days were branded with the letter ‘v’ + sold as a slave for 2 years (repealed as it was impossible to enforce)
• 1597 - act for the relief of the poor -split vagrants into 2 categories: ‘deserving’ (elderly/disabled) and ‘undeserving’ (those fit to work)
• 1601 - poor laws - the ‘deserving’ poor were given poor relief by the localparish but the ‘undeserving’could be branded, whipped or sent to a correction house

Question 6

What were passed to mae vagrancy a crime + what’s this an example of

Answer 6

Laws were passed - an example of how the general population can put pressure on the government to make laws on what they feel should be classed as a crime

Question 7

When was import tax on certain goods (eg = brandy + tea) introduced

Answer 7

17th century

Question 8

Why did the crim of smuggling increase dramatically

Answer 8

Import tax was introduced

Question 9

What’s smuggling

Answer 9

Where people bring goods into the country secretly to avoid paying import tax and then sell it.

Question 10

What is smuggling an example of

Answer 10

Social crime but many people didn’t veiw it as serious or a threat making it dicht to enforce

Question 11

What kind of crime was witchcraft in medieval times and who was it dealt with by

Answer 11

A minor crime
Dealt with by church courts

Question 12

What happened in the early modern period to make witchcraft a serious offence

Answer 12

New laws against it were passed

Question 13

What did most people see witchcraft as

Answer 13

As harmful and most were very afraid of it

Question 14

What did Henry VIII pu ish witchcraft with

Answer 14

Made it punishable by death