1500-1750 Flashcards
When does the early modern period start?
1500-1700
What were the big changes?
Population growth Growing towns/cities👩👩👦👦
Increased travel ✈️ Break with Rome⛪️ Printing press🗞 English Civil War 💂🏻♂️ Puritans in power
Which crimes caused a concern in the emp?
- Vagrancy
- Moral crimes
- Witchcraft
- Heresy
- Smuggling
- Highway robbery
What is a vagabond?
Vagabond: Someone who wandered from place to place with no job
A rogue The upright man Clapper Dudgeons Bawdy Baskets
What were these?
Counterfeit crank The Abraham man
The upright man
The doxy
Vagabonds!👹🤕🤮
Why did people dislike vagabonds ?
People disliked vagabonds because:
Travelled in groups and often committed crime/blamed for crime
People did not like having to pay for them to be looked after – feared the cost
Puritans believed ‘idle hands make the Devil’s work’ = laziness is sinful
How were vagabond treated
1531 – whipped
1547 – 1st offence slavery 2nd execution 1550 – 1547 too severe, 1531 revived 1572 – 1st whipping and ear cut off, Second offence – execution
1593 – 1572 Act repealed too, 1531 – revived 1598 – Vagrants whipped and sent home, if continued HOC, execution or banishment.
Who were the Puritans?
What period did they have influence over laws?
What practices did they make crimes?
Very religious people – wanted everyone to live strictly according to the bible. They wanted to improve behaviour to prevent people going to hell.
By the 1640s-1650s – they controlled Parliament
During this time they changed laws so people would live a strict Puritan lifestyle…. They
What did they decide to ban?
Christmas Adultery Sports and games on Sunday Football Drunkenness Swearing Betting and music in taverns
What year is the year of the witchfinder general
1645
Who was the Witchfinder General?
What kinds of people were accused of being witches?
How would you spot a witch? How do you put a witch on trial?
Matthew Hopkins Usually older women Devil’s marks, familiar, witch
prick Swimming test
Why did people believe in witches?
Economics
Rising prices on food and other economic changes such as enclosure made people want to blame someone for the hard times. Furthermore, if a person was convicted of witchcraft their property would be confiscated. Thus, people accused others through greed.
Civil War
The civil war set neighbour against neighbour. People had old grievances and didn’t trust each other. If they disliked someone, they could easily get rid of them by accusing them of witchcraft.
Religion
Everyone believed in the Devil and Hell. If things went wrong people would accuse witches of doing the Devil’s work. Anyone involved in any rituals would be accused of witchcraft.
Superstition
Linked to religion but slightly different. People believed in magic, were very superstitious, and were afraid of anything that was strange to them. They believed completely in the idea of witchcraft.
Lack of Scientific Understanding
It had not yet been discovered how different weather could occur, or how climate could affect crops. People had little understanding of illnesses. Because these things could not yet be explained, witches were blamed for any misfortune
Heresy and Heretics
What is a heretic?
What was the punishment for being a heretic? Why?
Which monarch is most famous for punishing heretics?
Heresy and Heretics
Beliefs which are against the church (going against the religion of the monarch)
Burning alive = to symbolise the flames and to ensure your soul is destroyed
Mary I (Bloody Mary) – Catholic monarch burned nearly 300 protestants
Who are these men?
Claude Duval
Dick Turpin
James Hind
Highwaymen
Why did highway robbery grow and then decline?
Increase
Travel by carriage No banks Open/remote roads
Flintlock pistol
Decreased
Banks Rewards for handing highwaymen in Mounted patrols Busier roads
How was law enforced in towns?
Enforcing the law
Policing methods remained very similar. E.g. hue and cry and JPs However, sheriff becomes less important.
More watchmen employed in towns
Why didn’t people want a police force ?
There was no official police force.
1. Many people didn’t want a police force
as they thought this would end their freedom to criticise the government.
2. Others thought it wold cost them too much.
3. Other people thought that a police force wasn’t needed and that making
punishments harsher would work
How did courts change
AssizesSerious offences heard Country divided into 6 circuits
Quarter sessions4 times a year – JPs – less serious
Petty sessionsJPs had too much to do so petty sessions set up. Replaced Manor courts – local/minor crimes
Manor courtsLocal/minor – lost influence in 17thC Church courtsActive in 1500/1600s – moral crimes
How were women treated?
They were treated more harshly.
Men expected women to be respectable and subservient/obedient
When a husband and wife were accused of drunkenness only the woman was punished in the stocks.
Women were more likely to be punished for adultery.
Women who argued in public were punished by the ducking stool.
Women convicted of murdering their husbands were burned to death
How were women treated socially
Women were not allowed to be:
JPs, constables, court clerks or part of the
jury
But women were allowed to:
give evidence in a court as a witness or bring cases to court as the victim of crime
Punishments
Most common punishment = fines
Other punishments aimed to shame and humiliation or to cause physical pain as a deterrent.
Punishment New to Early Modern Period or old? Pillory Prison Whipping Carting Stocks Transportation Bridewell Ducking Stool Fines
Bridewell
Transportation
What is a bridewell?
Punish and reform offenders Places for vagrants, unmarried mothers, runaways apprentices Whipped and put to hard work Authorities believed crime was a result of not working hard enough.
What is a capital crime?
Capital crime = Crime punishable by death
What is The Bloody Code?
The Bloody Code: Harsh laws introduced between 1500-1750 Carry the death sentence
How many crimes were punishable by death under the Bloody Code?
Over 200
Why was the Bloody Code introduced?
• Law makers worried about crime • Changes in Society • Land owners feared for property • Belief that harsh punishments would work
What was law makers worried about?
Invention of printing = Newspapers made people believe Britain was full of crime. People were able to read violent crimes and painful executions.
As a result many lawmakers genuinely believed that crime was on the increase.
In response to this, they introduced MORE capital offences.
During the late 1600s and early 1700 there were a number of ‘new’ crimes and criminals.
These new crimes shocked lawmakers into making punishments even harsher!
E.g. vagabonds and highwaymen
What changes were there in society?
From the sixteenth century onwards the social structure of the country was changing. The power of the church was declining. There was a lot more protest that in the earlier centuries.
Towns were growing, trade was increasing and travel was becoming more popular.
These factors made it more difficult to enforce law. In the crowded and anonymous streets of cities, it was easier for criminals to commit crime and it was harder to detect crime than in any other part of the country.
What did land owner do to protect their properties
Land owners feared for property
The politicians who introduced the laws which made up the Bloody Code were wealthy landowners or business men.
Protect their own interests.
For example, stealing sheep and destroying tools used to manufacture wool were punishable by death. It is no coincidence that these crimes are extremely damaging
to a rich landowner who makes his money in the wool trade!
Law makers stated that by creating these laws, they were protecting their jobs and by protecting their jobs,
they were benefitting the whole country.
Why did landowners believe that harshest punishments would work ?
Lawmakers hoped that tough, public executions for even the most basic of crimes would prevent people from committing them.
For centuries it was believed that the best way to stop a crime that was continually being committed was to make the punishment harsher and harsher.
By killing some of the countries criminals, they were getting rid of them once and for all! Their death prevented them from ever committing crimes again.
Bloody Code – new laws
Waltham Black Act 1723
The Waltham Black Act 1723
It added over 50 crimes to the list of capital offences.
e.g. that anyone found armed, disguised or with a blackened face in any hunting area was assumed to be poaching, and could be executed.
Who are smugglers?
Smuggling
During the 17th century governments increased taxes on imported goods to raise extra money.
These were unpopular as they raised the prices of popular goods.
Smugglers would bring these goods in to the country avoiding the proper ports so that they didn’t have to pay the import tax and could sell the goods cheaper but still make a profit.
Many smugglers were labourers. You could earn 6 or 7 times a normal daily wage in a night of smuggling.
Even helping move the goods could earn you twice as much. Smugglers would bring in popular goods such as: Brandy/tea/wine/silk
Why was it difficult to stop smuggling?
Many people didn’t see it as a crime, they wouldn’t report it.
• There were thousands of miles of unguarded coastline.
• Smugglers worked in large gangs, coastal officers worked alone with a single pistol.
• Smugglers would threaten judges and customs officers if they attempted to seize their goods.
• The rich would also buy smuggled goods. Including Robert Walpole who later became PM.
What surprising thing happened under the bloody code?
Under the Bloody Code, you would expect the number of executions increase. Strange as it may be, during this period, the number of executions actually decreased. In the 1700s, there were about 200 executions each year in England and Wales, although sometimes there would be a flurry of executions if the government felt that there was too much crime. The obvious answer for the fall of executions was the falling number of recorded crimes.
Why did the bloody code end
- Public executions were not working – people did not fear them – it was entertainment
- Juries would not convict if someone was going to be hanged
- Ideas about punishment were changing – The punishment should match the crime and not be brutal.
- Transportation was used as an alternative
