L4 punishment

Starter: complete the crossword on reasons why crimes were treated more seriously in the Early Modern Period.

Answers: Across: 3. beggars 5. printing 7. travel 8. property 9. Divine

Down: 1. taxes 2. Treason 4. unemployed 5. poverty 6. Heretic

ďƒ‘ Key words: Bloody Code / transportation / The Bridewell

How did Punishments change in the Early Modern Period?

LOs: To identify and describe continuities and

changes of punishment in the Early Modern Period.

How did Punishments change in the Early Modern Period?

• There were some continuities and some changes in punishments during the Early Modern Period.

• As you already know, one of the biggest changes was the increased seriousness with which crimes were treated under the ‘Bloody Code’. Let’s find out how ‘bloody’ those punishments really were.  Your task: split your page in half and write the headings ‘Serious crimes’ and ‘Minor crimes’ on either side.  Select and record key information from around the room about the different types of punishment.  Not everyone experienced the same treatment by the justice system. Which group in particular received unfair/unequal treatment? Can you suggest why?

Pit stop: quick quiz! Turn to the back of your books 1.

Name one new punishment for minor crimes in the Early Modern Period.

2. Name one new punishment for serious crimes in the Early Modern Period.

3. What sort of person was beheaded?

4. How was stealing punished?

5. How were drunks punished?

6. How were gossips punished?

7. Who was punished by the ducking stool?

8. How were you pressed?

9. Is the pillory standing or sitting?

10. Where were criminals transported to after American Independence?

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The Bridewell / House of Correction 2. Transportation 3. Nobleman 4. Mutilation / branded with a T / hanged under the Black Act 5. The Drunkard’s cloak 6. The Brank / Scold’s Bridle 7. Women 8. Crushed slowly by stones 9. Standing 10. Australia

What were the effects of the 'Bloody Code' of the 18th century?

Death sentences and executions, London 1701-1825

It is no coincidence that during the period 1776-1800 the English ruling class were fearing a revolution like in France‌.

Source A: From a book by an Italian philosopher, published in 30 December 1750 England in 1767

The London Courier

Threat to law and order in England!

More laws needed!

Current punishments not stop crime.

The population of this do country is growing Instead making terrifying quickly –oflook at the asize of someexample of our towns and cities. is no standing army by hanging a fewThere criminals, we should and we don’t have a police force. We need punish all criminals and punish them more laws like the Black Act of 1723 to fairly.

Wepeople need in punishments fit hope the keep the their places.that Let us crimes. relying toonthe thepeople. death that theyInstead act as aofdeterrent

penalty, criminals should be imprisoned Let us keep hangings as public events – and do need hardtolabour thatwill is visible people see what happentotothe them if they commit a capital offence. public.

Plenary:

What were the effects of the 'Bloody Code' of the 18th century?

Discuss: do you agree with the view presented here? Explain your reasoning.

Homework Write a clear and organised summary of how law and order was enforced in the period 1500-1750. Support your summary with detailed examples. [9] • Use this and your book to revise for your CA on crime, punishment & policing 1250-1750.

Serious Crimes: Beheading ("Death by the Axe") • This was a punishment that resulted in your head being chopped off! The heads were sometimes placed on spikes along London Bridge or other places. • Beheading was considered less degrading than hanging, and it usually killed more quickly. Noblemen (rich) who committed crimes were more likely to be beheaded than hung.

Serious & Minor Crimes: Hanging • Hanging from the gallows.

A piece of rope was put around the neck making it hard for the person to breathe. The person would be hung from the rope until he/she had stopped breathing and was dead.

• People were hung for crimes such as stealing, treason, rebellion, riot or murder.

• The Black Act in 1723 made some minor crimes punishable by hanging.

Robert Aske led the Pilgrimage of Grace, (1536) an uprising against Henry’s changes to the church.

Crimes against the King carried the ultimate penalty. Hanging in chains meant slow suffocation, a painstaking death which took days.

Serious Crimes: Burned at the stake

Women found guilty of either treason or petty treason (murder of husband) were sentenced to be burned alive at the stake. This was UNEQUAL TREATMENT as men were only hanged and being burned alive was a far worse punishment.

Being 'pressed' (crushed) With those in power feeling increasingly under threat from rebellions and assassination attempts, torture was used more frequently for evidence or to gain a confession.

"... on 19 September 1692, Corey was stripped naked, a board placed on his chest, and then heavy stones piled on top. The pressing lasted for two days, until Corey finally died of suffocation. The magistrate stopped the torture occasionally in order to hear anything Corey might wish to confess. "More weight," was all Giles Corey would say."

Minor crimes: • Whipping (flogging) Many towns had a whipping post. The victim was chained to the post, stripped to the waist and whipped.

You could be whipped for stealing a loaf of bread!

Minor crimes: Branding with hot irons Hot irons were used to burn letters onto the skin of offenders hand, arm or cheek. A murderer would be branded with the letter 'M', vagrants with the letter 'V', and thieves with the letter "T".

Minor crimes: the pillory (standing) The pillory was a T shaped block of wood with holes for the hands in the crossbar of the T. The person being punished would have to stand in the device in the middle of the market to be ridiculed by passersby.

Minor crimes: the stocks (sitting) Stocks were used in the same way as the pillory, except that with stocks, the feet were bound. The stocks were a block of wood with two holes for your feet to go in. You were put in the stocks for selling bad meat or bread. Local people threw rubbish and rotten eggs at people in the stocks.

You could be put in the stocks for not wearing a hat on Sunday! • The stocks and pillory, although seemingly harmless, often proved fatal due to the throwing of vegetables, stones and dead cats!

Minor crimes: the ducking stool (women) •

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Most of the crimes committed by women were petty theft or pick pocketing but nagging wives (scolds) were also punished with the ducking stool (they sometimes drowned).

This is evidence of unequal treatment as men did not have a similar punishment - women were regarded as less reliable witnesses than men and found it hard to get justice.

Also, 90% of those accused of witchcraft were women. The ducking stool was used to judge if they were innocent.

If they floated, they were considered guilty and burnt at the stake. If they sank, they were innocent but died anyway, by drowning. Either way, they perished.

Minor crimes: The Brank (the gossip's bridle) The brank was a punishment enacted on women who gossiped or spoke too freely. It was a large iron framework placed on the head of the offender, forming a type of cage. There was a metal strip on the brank that fit into the mouth and was either sharpened to a point or covered with spikes so that any movement of the tongue was certain to cause severe injuries to the mouth.

Minor crimes: Mutilation - Limbs cut off

Some people who stole things from shops had their hands cut off.

Minor crimes: The Drunkard's Cloak This was a punishment for public drunkenness.

The drunk was forced to don a barrel and wander through town while the villagers jeer at him. Holes were cut in the barrel for the person's hands and head, causing it to become like a heavy, awkward shirt.

Serious crime: Transportation Most of the punishments we have seen so far such as, Stocks, pillory, whipping, fines, mutilation, execution, are examples of continuity in punishment. One new punishment was Transportation.

Transportation was given as a punishment for serious crime such as theft. From the 17th century, until American Independence in 1776, convicts were also transported to the Caribbean and to North America to be used as labourers on plantations. They could also be transported for political crimes such as those who took part in the Monmouth Rebellion against James II in 1685.

By the late 1700s Britain transported its criminals to Australia.

Minor crime: the Bridewell • •

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In the Medieval period, prison was a place where people were held before their trial.

The most important innovation of this period was the building of the prototype house of correction, the London Bridewell.

Houses of correction were originally part of the machinery of the Poor Law, intended to instil habits of industry through prison labour. Most of those held in them were petty offenders, vagrants and the disorderly local poor.

By the end of the 17th century they were absorbed into the prison system under the control of the local Justices of the Peace.

The prisons of this period were badly maintained e.g. 25% died of gaol fever.