Crime and punishment in early modern England c1500-c1700

Question 1

What factors affected change in crime and punishment?

Answer 1

• Population growth
• Economic changes
• Printing
• Religious turmoil
• Political change
• Landowners’ attitude

Question 2

Why did population growth change crime and punishment?

Answer 2

• made it harder to find work

Question 3

Why did economic changes change crime and punishment?

Answer 3

• Vulnerable to high rises in prices of food caused by bad harvests
• Fall-off in trade could lead to unemployment and hardship

Question 4

Why did printing cause changes in crime and punishment?

Answer 4

• Easier to spread messages about crime and punishment

Question 5

Why did religious turmoil cause changes in crime and punishment?

Answer 5

• Increased public belief in evil and supernatural explanations

Question 6

Why did political change cause changes in crime and punishment?

Answer 6

-

Question 7

What was criminal activity like in the early modern period?

Answer 7

Rural:
- Enclosure of land
- Hunting and poaching
Other:
- rise in smuggling
- vagabondage
- heresy and treason
- witchcraft

Question 8

What was the Game act 1671?

Answer 8

Made it illegal to poach on enclosed land

Question 9

What was smuggling like in the early modern period?

Answer 9

• Rose as government introduced import duties on a range of goods
• Smugglers chose secluded parts of the coastline so it was hard to patrol
• Difficult to police as many people benefited from it and did not view it as serious

Question 10

What was vagabondage like in the early modern period?

Answer 10

• increased as population grew and wages fell (
  + increasing food prices)
• homeless unemployed beggars searching for work that turned to crime
• all vagabonds seen as violent, lazy and a threat

Question 11

What were the 4 Vagabond laws?

Answer 11

• Vagrancy act 1547
• Vagabonds act 1572
• Poor relief act 1576
• Poor laws 1601

Question 12

What was the vagrancy act 1547?

Answer 12

Violent and harsh
- Able bodies vagrants out of work for more than 3 days:
-branded with the letter V
-sold as a slave for 3 years

Question 13

What was the vagabonds act 1572?

Answer 13

Harsh punishments that acted as deterrents
- vagrants whipped
- holes drilled through each ear
- imprisoned on second arrest
- death penalty on third arrest

Question 14

What was the poor relief act 1576?

Answer 14

Improved attitudes
- Able bodied poor out of work sent to house of corrections (funded by poor rates)

Question 15

What was the poor laws 1601?

Answer 15

Fair treatment of vagabonds
- Compulsory nationwide poor rates
- Begging was banned
- Anyone caught begging was whipped and sent back to place of birth

Question 16

Overall, how did treatment of vagabonds change?

Answer 16

• initially unfair
• became increasingly violent
• then became more reasonable

Question 17

What was heresy and treason like in early modern england?

Answer 17

• Heresy seen as a crime against the church and offence to god
• heretics seen as a danger as they could persuade others to follow
• Heresy punished by being burnt at stake
• Treason seen as a challenge to authority

Question 18

What was recusancy ?

Answer 18

• Refusing to attend church of england services
• became a crime in 1570

Question 19

What was the popish recusants act 1605?

Answer 19

• Forced catholics to swear loyalty to king james
• heavy fines for not attending church

Question 20

What were the key changes from medieval england to early modern England?

Answer 20

• increasing wealth led to new oppurtunities for old crime
• economic changes caused huge increase in vagrants
• Game law 1671 made it illegal for poor people to hunt
• Duties on goods increased smuggling

Question 21

What was the nature of law enforcement like in the early modern period?

Answer 21

-crime increased due to increasing population
- local people expected to deal with crimes themselves
- constables and watchmen
-more courts to deal with crimes

Question 22

What were the main methods of policing in the early modern period?

Answer 22

• Local people got arrest warrents from magistrate, tracked down criminals themselves and delivered them to the constable
• All male householders as “Night watchmen” between 10pm and daylight
• Parish constable unpaid role to ensure miantenance of the law usually by local tradesmen or farmers - could also carry out punishments e.g whipping vagabonds
• Constables and watchmen not effective at hunting down criminals so victims turned to theif takers
• Justices of the peace, unpaid role to judge manor court cases
• Hue and cry
  -sergeants enforced market regulations
  -army used to put down protests

Question 23

What were the key continuity in law enforcement from medieval england to early modern england?

Answer 23

• Communities still expected to take a leading role
• law enforcement not nationally organised
• Most courts remained in use

Question 24

What were the main changes in law enforcement from medieval England to early modern England?

Answer 24

• role of constables and night watchmen expanded
• thief takers introduced
• benefit of the clergy could no longer be claimed for serious crimes
• habeaus corpus improved rights but didnt stop governments making up evidence at rials

Question 25

What were theif takers?

Answer 25

A paid reward for catching a criminal and delivering them to the law.

Question 26

What was the Habeaus Corpus Act 1679?

Answer 26

Prevented authorities from locking people up without charging them for a crime.

Question 27

What was the nature of punishment like in the early modern period?

Answer 27

- increased use of prisons - introduction of the bloody code - transportation - fines - pillory or stocks - carting - corporal punishments - hanging - ducking stool

Question 28

What were prisons like at the start of early modern england?

Answer 28

16th century - holding place for petty criminals, vagrants and drunk - not purpose built - often secure room in local castle - prisons at the time very poor - in mates had to pay prison wardens for food and other basic needs - women, men and children often housed together - younger prisoners often bullied and abused

Question 29

What were prisons like later in the early modern period?

Answer 29

- more purposeful - known as house of corrections - used to punish poor people who had broken the law e.g vagabonds and homeless children - all inmates made to do 'hard-labour' to pay keep and encourage habits of hard work

Question 30

What were the key aspects of continuity of the nature of punsihment in early modern England?

Answer 30

- considerable continuity - emphasis still on deterrence and retribution - prisons remained largerly for those waiting trial or debtors rather than own punishment

Question 31

What were the key aspects of change in nature of punishment in the early modern period?

Answer 31

- by the late 17th century some new punishments emerging e.g transportation - house of corrections built to punish vagabonds

Question 32

What was transportation?

Answer 32

- punishment that involved transporting colonies to the new english colonies in North America - not as harsh as execution, still a severe punishent - transported prisoners taken in chains to east coast of North America - had to work for a fixed period doing tough manual labour

Question 33

Why was transportation favoured by the authorities?

Answer 33

- effective deterrent - england didnt have effective prison system so prison not an alternative - England wanted to establish permenant colonies in north america - convicts could be used to populate colonies - new ideas about punishment allowed possibility or rehabilitaion - criminals should have chance to reflect on crimes and change way of life - criminals taken far from places that could draw them into crime - estimated between 50,000-80,000 people transported -

Question 34

What were attitudes to witchcraft like?

Answer 34

- people of all backgrounds attracted to supersticious ideas including witches - believed to have made a pact with the devil for their magic powers e.g flying, making people sick - often had 'familiars' - cats or dogs believed to be devil in shape of animal

Question 35

Laws on witchcraft

Answer 35

- middle ages church courts used to punish witches - 1542 - henry viii made which craft very serious crime punishable by death - 1568 - act against conjurations - tried in common courts, death penalty issued if caused harm to another person, minor witch craft punishable by stocks - 1604 - James 1 - witchcraft and conjuration act - death penalty given to anyone summoning evil spirits - George II witchcraft act - 'witches seen as confidence tricksters, punished with fines and imprisonment

Question 36

Who was Matthew Hopkins

Answer 36

- witchfinder general, employed to uncover witchery, significant financial wages

Question 37

How did the witchcraft trials take place?

Answer 37

- Interrogation methods to get confessions e.g starvation diet of bread and water, restricted sleep - stripped and publicly examined - prick skin to prove witches couldnt bleed - blunt or retracted knives

Question 38

Why did catholics want to overthrow king?

Answer 38

- Elizabeth's act of Uniformity made protestant official religion of england since 1559 - Pope called on all loyal catholics to dispose Elizabeth - Catholics in england actively prevented from practicing their faith - James I tightened anti-catholic laws

Question 39

What was the plan for gunpowder plot?

Answer 39

- set off explosion to kill king - break up powerful ruling group - replace james with daughter Elizabeth - Guy fawkes pretended to be servant and packed cellar under house of lords with estimated 36 barrels of gunpowder

Question 40

How were gunpowder plotters caught and punished?

Answer 40

- Lord recieved a letter warning not to attend - robert cecil ordered westminster to be searched - found guilty of treason - hung drawn and quatered - Guy fawkes tortured on rack into confession - confessed 12 days after arrest