All Medieval Crime and Punishment

Question 1

Who chose the King in medieval times?

Answer 1

Medieval people believed their kings were chosen by God.

Question 2

Why was the king the most important person in the country?

Answer 2

Because he controlled the land and how to share it out.

Question 3

What were the two main tasks facing medieval kings?

Answer 3

1. Defending the country from attack

2. Ensuring their subjects were protected by the law.

Question 4

Who were the king’s main supporters and advisers?

Answer 4

The nobles.

Question 5

How did the king gain the loyalty of the nobles?

Answer 5

By giving them land.

Question 6

What did the nobles give the king in return for land?

Answer 6

In return for land, the nobles gave the king knights and military service in times of war. They were also expected to keep law and order in their own lands.

Question 7

Why was the church so important to medieval people?

Answer 7

Because people saw this life as preparation for the eternal afterlife after death. They believed firmly in Heaven and Hell. Therefore the Church was important because it offered ways to help a person’s soul get to Heaven.

Question 8

What did the Church expect of people?

Answer 8

Everyone was expected to attend church and live by its rules - there was a priest in every village.

Question 9

How did the Church sometimes come into conflict with the kings?

Answer 9

Because they ran their own courts for churchmen (priests etc) and also offered sanctuary to criminals who took refuge in a church building.

Question 10

Why did the practice of sanctuary and ecclesiastical court cause conflict with kings?

Answer 10

Because kings wanted to enforce royal justice on everyone without interference.

Question 11

What is the definition of peasant?

Answer 11

Farmers who worked the land and lived in villages.

Question 12

How were peasants treated?

Answer 12

Feudalism required peasants to swear an oath of loyalty and obedience to their lord. This oath bound the peasants to their lord for life. It restricted them from marrying or even leaving the village without the permission of the lord.

Question 13

Could a peasant ever be free from their lord?

Answer 13

A peasant could only be free from his lord if he managed to escape the manor and live independently for one year and one day: ‘Refer animation’

Question 14

How were peasant’s lives controlled?

Answer 14

In exchange for their loyalty, peasants were leased land to farm and given protection by the local lord. Peasants usually spent three days working for the lord. They worked repairing roads and bridges, and farming the lord’s land.

Question 15

Why was this control over peasant’s lives harsh?

Answer 15

Peasants also had to work the land which they rented. Despite barely having enough time to farm their own land, they were also forced to work church land, known as the glebe.

Question 16

How did tithings work?

Answer 16

It was a kind of self-help system - if one person in the tithing broke the law, the other members had to bring him to court - or pay a fine.

Question 17

When were these started?

Answer 17

By the 10th century, Anglo-Saxon kings had established tithings.

Question 18

Who was in a tithing?

Answer 18

A group of about ten men, responsible for each others’ behaviour, all over the age of 12.

Question 19

What was the Hue and cry?

Answer 19

A loud cry calling for the pursuit and capture of a criminal.

Question 20

Why did people raise the hue and cry?

Answer 20

In former English law, the cry had to be raised by the inhabitants of a hundred in which a robbery had been committed, if they were not to become liable for the damages suffered by the victim.

Question 21

What did people do?

Answer 21

They would even down all tools and join together to hunt for the criminal - otherwise the whole village may have to pay a hefty fine.

Question 22

What two types of trial were there in the Anglo-Saxon part of the medieval period?

Answer 22

Trial by local jury and trial by ordeal.

Question 23

How did trial by local jury work?

Answer 23

It relied on the local community and used a form of trial by jury.

Question 24

What was the jury?

Answer 24

The jury was made up of men from the village who knew both the accuser and the accused.

Question 25

How did the jury decide?

Answer 25

The accuser and the accused would each give their version of events and it was up to the jury to decide who was telling the truth.

Question 26

But, what if there was no clear evidence such as eye witnesses?

Answer 26

Then the jury decided guilt or innocence based on their knowledge of the people involved. If the jury felt that the accuser was more honest than the accused, they would swear an oath that the accused was guilty.

Question 27

What was the name for the oath sworn by the jury?

Answer 27

Compurgation.

Question 28

What was trial by ordeal?

Answer 28

If a local jury could not decide guilt or innocence, the Saxons turned to trial by ordeal in the hope that God would help them.

Question 29

What were the 4 types of trial by ordeal?

Answer 29

1. Hot iron
2. Hot water
3. Blessed Bread
4. Cold water

Question 30

Summarise how trial by hot iron worked.

Answer 30

Usually taken by women
Accused picked up red hot weight and walked three paces with it
Hand then bandaged and unwrapped three days later
Accused innocent if wound was healing cleanly or guilty if it was festering

Question 31

Summarise how trial by hot water worked.

Answer 31

Usually taken by men
Accused put hand into boiling water to pick up an object
Hand then bandaged and unwrapped three days later
Accused innocent if wound was healing cleanly or guilty if it was festering

Question 32

Summarise how trial by Blessed Bread worked.

Answer 32

Taken by priests
Priest prayed that the accused would choke on bread if they lied
Accused ate bread and found guilty if he choked

Question 33

Summarise how trial by cold water worked.

Answer 33

Usually taken by men
Accused tied with a knot above waist and lowered into water on the end of a rope
If accused sank below God’s ‘pure water’ then INNOCENT!
If accused floats, then GUILTY! ‘Rejected’ by the pure water.

Question 34

What was Wergild?

Answer 34

also known as man price, was a value placed on every being and piece of property. If property was stolen, or someone was injured or killed, the guilty person would have to pay wergild as restitution to the victim’s family or to the owner of the property.

Question 35

Did people know how much the wergild fine would be?

Answer 35

Generally, yes. The levels of fines was carefully worked out and set through the king’s laws.

Question 36

What advantage did wergild have over blood feuds?

Answer 36

Wergild fines were not about retribution, so they were less likely to result in further violence.

Question 37

Was wergild equal for all classes of people within the feudal system?

Answer 37

No! For killing a nobleman, you’d pay 300 shillings but the wergild for killing a freeman was 100 shillings. A peasant was worth 30-50 shillings.

Question 38

Was wergild used for injuries as well?

Answer 38

Yes, e.g. losing an eye was 50 shillings.

Question 39

How much would 50 shillings be in today’s money?

Answer 39

About £2,000

Question 40

What types of crime could carry the death penalty or capital punishment?

Answer 40

In Anglo-Saxon England, some serious crimes such as treason against the king or betraying your lord.

Question 41

Why was this punishment so harsh in medieval, Anglo-Saxon England?

Answer 41

It was so harsh because it was intended to deter others and show people the importance of loyalty to the king (who was supposed to have been chosen by God).

Question 42

What was corporal punishment?

Answer 42

damaging the body - without killing the accused.

Question 43

To whom was corporal punishment given?

Answer 43

Re-offenders. They were punished harshly if they were caught, including mutilation (cutting off a hand, ear or nose) or ‘putting out’ the eyes.

Question 44

Why was corporal punishment so harsh in medieval, Anglo-Saxon England?

Answer 44

They mutilated some criminals bodies in order to deter them from committing further offences.

Question 45

Why were prisons rarely used in medieval Anglo-Saxon England?

Answer 45

Because they were expensive and expensive to run; Gaolers would have to be paid and prisoners fed. This was impossible in a society where taxes were only raised for war. Prisons were therefore only used for serious criminals before trial.

Question 46

What happened in 1066?

Answer 46

To make a long story short - William of Normandy defeated Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings and the Normans replaced the Saxons - still inside the medieval period!

Question 47

Did the Normans change Anglo-Saxon justice?

Answer 47

Yes and no. Or, no and yes. Generally, Normans were more protected and there was an increase in some new crimes and types of punishments.

Question 48

Did the Normans do anything else that may have influenced justice in the medieval period?

Answer 48

Yes, they built many castles and churches. Both of these were ways of controlling the English (Saxon) population. They also introduced the French language and new taxes based one the Domesday book - all of these were methods of controlling a population of 2 million with only 7,000 Norman conquerors.

Question 49

How did William of Normandy try and protect Normans from violence?

Answer 49

If a Norman was murdered, all the people of that region had to pay an expensive ‘Murdrum fine’.

Question 50

How else did the Normans change Anglo-Saxon justice?

Answer 50

The much-hated Forest Laws were introduced.

Question 51

Why were the Forest Laws so unpopular?

Answer 51

Because they made previously legal activities illegal, such as cutting down trees for fuel or building or hunting in forests. People in forests were even banned from carrying bows and arrows or owning dogs!

Question 52

How were deer hunters punished?

Answer 52

They had their first two fingers chopped off. Repeat offenders were blinded using corporal punishment (they had their eyes ‘put out’).

Question 53

What forms of ‘justice’ did the Normans introduce?

Answer 53

One example was trial by combat.

Question 54

How did trial by combat work?

Answer 54

The accuser fought with the accused until one was killed or unable to continue fighting. The loser was then hanged, because God had judged him to be guilty.

Question 55

Did William change wergild?

Answer 55

Well, he used fines for lesser crimes - but yes, he got rid of wergild being paid to the victim or their family and instead the money went into the king’s coffers!

Question 56

How did the Normans ‘split’ justice in a way after the Normans (but still within the medieval period)?

Answer 56

The Normans introduced Church courts. These were separate courts used for churchmen and they tended to be more lenient.

Question 57

How did the legal situation of women change when the Normans took over from the Saxons within the medieval period?

Answer 57

The Anglo Saxons had given women almost equal rights in law with men. Norman law was much harsher on women.

Question 58

In what ways did the Normans keep definitions of justice the same?

Answer 58

William of Normandy decided to keep the majority of Anglo-Saxon laws as they were. The traditional laws of previous Saxon kings were retained.

Question 59

Was the Norman use of capital punishment the same as in Anglo-Saxon medieval England?

Answer 59

Roughly the same. Death was used for serious crimes and serious re-offenders.

Question 60

Did the Normans change the ways communities had been policing themselves?

Answer 60

Not really. The Normans kept the tithings and the hue and cry because these were effective.

Question 61

What were the main changes to take place in Crime and Punishment in the later medieval period (into the 1300s)?

Answer 61

The power of the Church increased.

Question 62

How did the power of the church increase at the expense of royal power?

Answer 62

The power of the church increased because church courts were used more (including ‘benefit of the clergy’), as was sanctuary.

Question 63

How were church courts different from Norman courts?

Answer 63

They were much more lenient and also dealt with a range of moral/spiritual crimes such as not attending church on a Sunday or adultery.

Question 64

Who could be tried in a church court in EARLY medieval times?

Answer 64

Only priests.

Question 65

Did this change in later medieval times from the late 1200s into the 1300s?

Answer 65

Yes. Eventually, anyone eve closely associated with the church could use it to escape harsher punishments, such as grave diggers or church doorkeepers.

Question 66

What was ‘Benefit of the clergy’?

Answer 66

Benefit of the clergy was when an accused person claimed the right to be tried in the most lenient church courts.

Question 67

How did the church try and fix the way that ‘benefit of the clergy’ was being abused in later medieval times?

Answer 67

The church introduced a test - the accused was forced to read a verse from the Bible. However, even illiterate people learnt it by heart and it therefore became known as the ‘neck verse’ because it could literally save your neck from the hangman’s noose.

Question 68

What was ‘Sanctuary’?

Answer 68

If someone on the run from the law could reach a church, he or she could claim sanctuary. They were under the protection of the church and even the county sheriff could not remove the accused by force.

Question 69

How did sanctuary end?

Answer 69

The criminal had 40 days to decide whether to face trial or leave the country. If you chose to leave you had to walk, naked and carrying a wooden cross, to the nearest port and get on the next ship heading abroad.