Explain How Was Crime Judged And Punished In The Middle Ages

550 Words2 Pages

(1) How was crime judged and punished in the middle ages? (2) My primary source is from an unknown manuscript from Germany and my secondary source is from Barbara Tuchman’s book on the Middle Ages called a distant mirror: calamitous 14th century. (3) My primary source was made in Germany in the late 12th century for a likely purpose of being a historical record or a part of law books. This source is a manuscript and is possibly biased. This source is incomplete as it is only an extract and the words in the image are likely German thus we cannot perceive the full image. However, this source was made at the time by a likely witness of such events and it can be corroborated by other sources both secondary and primary. This source, unlike writing can give away other details that might not have been mentioned and shows us everything in images. My secondary source was made in America …show more content…

We can also see the rarity of such things and in this case very common. We can also how simply vicious these punishments could be for the offender even possibly after death. (5) I have learnt, through my sources that judgment and punishment in the middles ages is completely different to modern day versions with judgments relying heavily on god and superstition rather than common sense and reason and how far these illogical ideas spread. I have also learnt that punishing someone in the Middle Ages was rather like making a horror movie or becoming a torturer with punishments often being aimed at extreme pain, terrible mutilation and humiliation even after a painful death. I have also learnt of many devices such as the gibbet, or the rack, and the common practice of displaying impaled heads on battlements as a terror tactic. All in all I have learnt that judgment in the Middle Ages was illogical and unreasonable, and punishment simply torturous and

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