Prologue
For my personal project, I decided to do a research on the criminals of the Elizabethan Era. But why criminals in the Elizabethan Era? Well that is because is because I love watching crime movies and reading detective novels. I have always wanted to do some research on the bizarre punishments people receive and hoped that this project could help me to have a better understand of Shakespeare’s works in addition to having better view of the environment Shakespeare's lived in.
Criminals of the Elizabethan Era
During the Elizabethan era, crimes were met with violent, cruel punishments. Many punishments can brutal and bloody while others can be humiliations that can completely destroy one’s self esteem. Executions were witnessed by many
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If one did not agree or submit to the beliefs of the Church of England, they may be sentenced with severe punishments. Many people were very religious back then and the fact that England had broken away from the Catholic Church bother many religious believers. However, going against this reformation was punishable by death. To admit that you disagreed with any of the Church's policies or doctrines meant death.
Murder is also illegal. The sentence may vary and it is usually involved with terrible torture followed by a painful death.
Punishments
During the era, treason was considered to be the worst kind of crime a person could ever commit and torture was strictly and heavily employed. People who practice fornication or incest were punished by carting which is basically wearing a placard describing the offence and getting carried through the city in a cart, or riding backwards on a horse. There were also other crimes that involved the pillory, where the criminal will have to stand with his head and his hands through holes in a wooden plank. Soon, the crowd will start gathering around and start to throw things at criminal. Cases such as buggery, stealing hawks, highway robbery and letting out of ponds and treason can result in death sentences. Those who denied that Elizabeth was the head of the Church in England were punished by torture and then
According to Hammurabi, the punishment was death. One last felony that has different punishments
...ments. Through the public humiliation of hundreds of criminals, public squares became lively areas full of excitement and joy. Even if it did not effectively deter crime, the cruel and unusual punishments of the Elizabethan Era helped citizens keep occupied. When punishments were not deadly, they were still painful enough to strike fear into the citizens of England. Obviously, the Elizabethan Era was a very violent time in England.
Criminals were not dealt with in private. They were displayed in towns and the middle of the marketplace for all the people to see. Many were witnessed by hundreds of people. Commoners treated punishment days as “exciting” days out("Elizabethan Crime and Punishment" 1). The crowds of people who gathered for the public punishments and executions could be considered twisted individuals. They relished these days. For example, theft resulted in public hanging for all of the people to watch. Often times crimes were falsely accused and the crowds knew it, but nothing could be done. Small crimes, such as stealing bird eggs would result in a death sentence. It was the terrible price starving people had to pay because the government made begging illegal("Elizabethan Crime and Punishment" 1). Many crimes resulted in brutal beatings. Beatings and executions were definitely not an issue, the only question was the type of beating a person would get or how they a would be executed("Elizabethan Crime and Punishment" 1). A lot of times the Upper class was exempt from punishment unless it was a serious crime. Unfortunately, the Commoners did not get that valuable treatment because they were almost always in trouble. With any evidence of relationships with evil spirits condemned a person to death by hanging, burning, or drowning. More punishments included: beheading, pressing, and the drunkard's cloak. The drunkard’s cloak was basically a big barrel
Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered execution of a prisoner as a punishment for a serious crime, often called a capital offence or a capital crime. In those jurisdictions that practice capital punishment, its use is usually restricted to a small number of criminal offences, principally, treason and murder, that is, the deliberate premeditated killing of another person. In the early 18th and 19th century the death penalty was inflicted in many ways. Some ways were, crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheading, burning alive, crushing, tearing asunder, stoning and drowning. In the late 19th century the types of punishments were limited and only a few of them remained permissible by law.
...nt. An individual guilty of a misdemeanor could be put in jail, forced labor, pay fines or even death by beheading. For some reason if a case could not be resolved, higher officials and even the emperor were involved.
However there are some countries around the globe that still take part in these medieval, horrific punishments. In Iran, if you commit murder, kidnap or rape you will be hanged publicly to show what happens when you do the wrong thing. . Thankfully due to the effect of the medieval period on our lives this is a rare practice and that mankind has developed in their treatment of crime and punishment. As in Australia the death penalty is abolished and the penalty of freedom has taken its place as if you commit murder, kidnap or rape you will be confined to a small space for a long period of time therefore keeping the modern society
"Today's system, where imprisonment is a common penalty for most crimes, is a historical newcomer." Many crimes during 1718 and 1776 were punishable by death. This was usually done by hanging, sometimes by stoning, breaking on the rack and burning at the stake. Towards the end of the 1700's people realized that cruel punishment did little to reduce crime and their society was changing the population grew and people started to move around more frequently. There had to be a search for new punishments. "New punishments were to rely heavily on new ideas imported from Europe in the writing of such social thinkers of the Enlightenment as the baron de Montesquieu, Voltaire, Thomas Pain and Cesare Beccaria". These thinkers came to believe that criminals could be rehabilitated."
The aim of this lesson will be to develop students understanding of crime and punishment in Medieval Europe. As outlined in AUSVELS, this will include investigating different kinds of crime and punishment utilised and the ways the nature of crime and punishment has either stayed the same throughout history, or changed over time.
Meron, Theodor. “Crimes and Accountability in Shakespeare.” The American Journal of International Law. 92.1 (Jan.,1998): 1-40. JSTOR. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
•In 1800 there were over 200 offences punishable by death including sheep stealing and doing damage to the Westminster Bridge
In modern terms, capital punishment is a rare crime reserved for the most heinous crimes. In the early modern period, capital and corporal punishment
When Shakespeare was born in 1564, Queen Elizabeth had taken power a mere 6 years prior, and her justice system was very different from ours. In this paper, I hope to explore some of the ways punishments were different, such as how many crimes had individual punishments, often times depending on how severe the crime was. I will also go in-depth to one of the most infamous cases of the medieval period.
7 May 2010. Studygodorg.blogspot.com -. 14 March 2014. Downing, Elizabeth. A. The “Top 10 Greatest Shakespeare Villians.”
The Classical School of Criminology generally refers to the work of social contract and utilitarian philosophers Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the enlightenment in the 18th century. The contributions of these philosophers regarding punishment still influence modern corrections today. The Classical School of Criminology advocated for better methods of punishment and the reform of criminal behaviour. The belief was that for a criminal justice system to be effective, punishment must be certain, swift and in proportion to the crime committed. The focus was on the crime itself and not the individual criminal (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010). This essay will look at the key principles of the Classical School of Criminology, in particular
person knew that a particularly painful punishment was in-store for them, they would not commit the crime. This led to the creation of such punishments as beatings, torture, banishment, death, fines, and public humiliation.