Crime and Punishment in Tudor Britain

1. Crime and Punishment in Tudor Britain By Adam

2. Introduction • There were no police during the Tudor times. However, laws were harsh and wrongdoing was severely punished. In Tudor times the punishments were very, very cruel. People believed if a criminal’s punishment was severe and painful enough, the act would not be repeated and others would deter from crime as well. • Punishment methods: • Capital Punishment states that if someone commits murder then they shall be executed and the family and friends of the victim will watch the killer die. • Public execution was considered entertainment. You’d be killed in a public area for all to watch.

3. Methods of Public Execution: • Hanging – You’d be suffocated and suspended by a rope on a device called a gallow. • Burning – Women who commit serious crimes would be burnt to death on the stakes. • Beheading – Your head would be cut off by a special executioner with an axe. • Being crushed/pressed to death – You would be crushed to death by two wooden planks. • Boiled alive – If you commit a murder (other than capital punishment) you could be boiled to death in hot water. • Public Executions were normally used on serious criminals.

4. If you commit a small crime you may be punished with: • Being tied to a post and whipped. This is for anything as mild as stealing a loaf of bread. • Branding: 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". • The Pillory: The criminal would be put in a T shaped Stock that restrains his head and hands and be put in the marketplace to be mocked by passers-by.

5. The ducking stool:A see-saw like mechanism would be set up by a pond or lake with a seat to it (this punishment is mainly for women who steal). The criminal would be dunked in the lake multiple times a day for the rest of their sentence. 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. If you commit a small crime you may be punished with:

6. If you commit a small crime you may be punished with: • 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. Local people threw rubbish and rotten eggs at people in the stocks. • Amputation: People who stole from shops and markets would have their hands cut off. • The Drunkards Cloak: People who were caught drunk would be stripped down then have an ale barrel put on them with holes for the head and hands. This served as a heavy painful shirt.