Early Modern (1500-1700)

What religion was each of the following monarchs?
Henry VIII 1509 - 1547
Edward VI 1547-1553
Mary I 1553-1558
Elizabeth 1558 -1603
James I 1603-1625

Henry VIII 1509 - 1547 Catholic- executed protestants for heresy and catholics if they didn’t accept him as head of the church after 1534 for treason

Edward VI 1547-1553 Protestant- executed leaders of rebellions for treason and 2 catholics for heresy

Mary I 1553-1558 Catholic- executed rebels (who led plots to replace her) for treason and many protestants for heresy

Elizabeth 1558 -1603 Protestant- executed many rebel for plots to replace her (e.g. with Mary Queen of Scotts) for treason but far less for heresy

James I 1603-1625 Protestant- executed many catholics for treason (e.g Gunpowder Plot 1605)

What was the punishment for Heresy? How many did each monarch kill for Heresy?
Henry VIII 1509 - 1547
Edward VI 1547-1553
Mary I 1553-1558
Elizabeth 1558 -1603

Burning at the stake

Henry VIII 1509 - 1547 Catholic 81

Edward VI 1547-1553 Protestant 2

Mary I 1553-1558 Catholic 283

Elizabeth 1558 -1603 Protestant 5

How did changes in society lead to increase in crimes

• Increase in population and decline of feudalism led to higher unemployment, which meant more people moved to urban areas in search of work, so towns and cities grew- increase in crimes against he person, with the increase of street criminals and petty thieves

• The end of feudalism and new farming methods led to enclosure of land (fencing it off for the exclusive use of the landowner)- increase in crimes against property, for example poaching, as more landowners restricted those who could hunt on their land

• Changes in people’s religious beliefs and the religion of the monarch authority, as more people committed heresy and treason.

List new crimes 1500-1700

Vagabondage - Being homeless

Smuggling - bringing good into the country but avoiding import tax

Witchcraft 1542 Henry VIII Witchcraft Act - Witches now punishable by death.

What is a Vagabond? How were they punished 1500-1700

• Homeless, unemployed person- increased around 1500 because of unemployment in urban towns

• 1494 Vagabonds and Beggars Act- vagrants were put in stocks for 3 days and nights then sent back to where they were born or most well known

• 1547 Vagrancy Act harsh punishments (those who were able-bodied would be branded with a v, could be sold as a slave for 2 years) (withdrawn after 3 years as it was hard to enforced)

• 1597 Act for Relief of the Poor - harsh deterrents like branding continued; poor separated into deserving and undeserving

• 1601 Poor Laws gave deserving poor relief from local parish, undeserving could be whipped, branded or sent to correct houses

Why did smuggling increase 1500-1700?

17th Century government introduced import duties on goods like alcohol and tea. Made smuggling profitable.

It was a social crime so people would ‘watch the wall’ and would gain something out of it

How did the landlords continue to control the land 1500-1700?

• Enclosures - Large areas of land that the poor had previously used now enclosed by landowners. 

• Games Act 1671 - poaching rabbits, hares etc, fishing in rivers and streams - illegal. 

• Forced poor people to move to towns in search of work.

What new moral laws were introduced by the Puritans in the 1650s?

Led by Oliver Cromwell - a Puritan

Sunday = holy day could only go to Church

People should not drink and should control appetites

Christmas was a holy day and should be a quiet day reading the Bible.

What is a social crime? Give an example from 1000-1700

Technically illegal but not thought of as very serious. Everyone did it! Smuggling saved people money, poaching helped poor people eat better.

What were the new methods of law enforcement 1500-1700

Town Constables, the Night Watch and thief takers

Regionally organised

Town constables - employed by town authorities, powers of arrest, expected to stop crime.

Night Watch - overseen by town constable, carried a lamp, patrolled the dark, rang a bell, all householders to take a turn.

Thief taker - paid a reward to catch criminals, open to corruption

What were night watchmen

• Not new, but expanded

• Carried a lamp to light their way

• Rang a bell to alert people

• All male householders were expected to volunteer

• Unpaid

• Patrolled the streets between 10pm-dawn

• Overseen by town constable

• Didn't work as lack of effort- still had to work their regular job as well

What were town constables

• Role was not new, but was expanded

• Employed by authorities in towns

• Respected members of the community

• Had the power to arrest suspects and take them to the Justice of the Peace

• In charge of the watchmen in their area

• Helped with town administration

• Again lack of effort and often drunk

What were Thief Takers

• New in this period

• Like bounty hunters, hired to track down stolen items

• However, began to steal things from people so they could be paid to retrieve them

• Jonathan Wild was one of the most respected thief takers, and noble citizen, but also a crime lord

How did the church’s role in law enforcement change

• More involvement because of the rise in witchcraft accusations, now has witch finders and witch finder general

• Henry VII limited benefit of the clergy for non-clergy to one time only- once they had used it they were branded to show they had used it

• Edward VI made serious crimes like murder exempt from benefit of the clergy

• From 1576 church courts could no longer try criminal cases (only moral ones), so all people even clergy, were tried in secular courts, but clergy could still claim benefit of the clergy

• Henry VIII stopped exile abroad for sanctuary

• 1623 James I ended sanctuary all together

List Early Modern Punishments (1500-1700)

Fines
Pillory and Stocks
Corporal Punishment (whipping, maiming)
Hanging
Burning at the stake
Transportation (started 1610 to America)
Prison - but used as a holding area
Bridewell = exception built 1556 House of Correction. Inmates did hard labour to think about crimes.

How was Bridewell (1556) prison different from other prisons 1500-1700?

• Prisons not purpose built, poor conditions, all prisoners housed together

• Bridewell = new build prison -

• House of Correction for vagrants, unmarried mothers and poor children

• Inmates did hard labour to think about crimes, and sometimes physical harm like whipping

Explain two ways that the growth of towns led to new opportunities for crime.

• Crime like theft and fraud were more common as people didn't know each other.- hue and cry didn’t work, more anonymity

• More valuable goods to steal, as more wealth

• More homeless desperate people turning to crime.

What was the Bloody Code?

• A group of laws that gave the death penalty for minor crimes. E.g. poaching a rabbit.

• 1688- 50 capital crimes

• 1810 - 222 capital crimes

• Lasted from 1688-1825

• Aim was to deter from committing crimes

Why did the Bloody Code not work?

Pious Perjury - lying in court about the amount stolen to avoid the death penalty

Pleading for the Belly - claiming to be pregnant to avoid the death penalty

Judges thought it too harsh so avoided giving the death penalty.

Did not act as a deterrent to desperate people.

What was Transportation?

• Punishment used 1615- 1868

• Alternative to the death penalty- reflected new ideas about rehabilitation while also working as a deterrent

• Began under James I

• Between 50-80 thousand were transported to America in this period

• Sent to America until 1778 then Australia.

• Worked on chain gangs.

• Rarely came back

• Effective as it helped to establish colonies, and secure them as part of the British empire

Why was Transportation used by the authorities 1615-1700?

• It was seen as a deterrent

• England didn't have enough prisons for all the criminals

• England wanted people to live in their colonies.

• Some people thought criminals should be given a second chance.

• Some people thought it offered a change for rehabilitation

What is the difference between rehabilitation and retribution?

Rehabilitation- Help someone return to

Retribution - Designed to get revenge on the criminal or make the criminal pay for their crimes.

Who were the Gunpowder Plotters 1605 and what did they want?

Guy Fawkes, Thomas Percy, Robert Catesby and others
Catholics who were disappointed with James I.
They had hoped that James I would give them more freedom than Elizabeth I.
They wanted to kill the King.

Why were the Gunpowder plotters hung drawn and quartered?

To make the punishment a deterrent to others who might plan an attack. The punishment was public so people could see what happened to them

What were the long term effects of the Gunpowder Plot?

• The 'King's Book' - encouraged anti Catholic attitudes

• Thanksgiving Act 1605 celebrated the foiling of the plot every year on 5th Nov and made catholics banned from being lawyers or officers in army

• 1606 Popish Recusants Act- Catholics made to take an oath of allegiance and go to Church.

Explain why there was a rise in witchcraft accusations

• In the medieval period, witchcraft was just a minor crime tried in church courts

• Monarchy- religious rollercoaster led to lots of distrust from changes in religion; passed lots of different acts against witchcraft like the Witchcraft Act (1542) and the Act against Conjurations Enchantments and Witchcraft (1563); James I wrote book about it called Daemonology

• Religion- Break from Rome created lots of divide between relgious groups and lots of distrust- turned on eachother

• Socioeconomic- civil war divided families and meant many local law enforcements collapsed, falling wages, lots of unemployment,

How did attitudes to witches change 1500-1700?

1500 - Increasing fear of witches being in league with the devil

1542 (Henry VIII) - Witchcraft Act - witchcraft punishable by death.

1563 Act Against `Conjurations Enchantments and Witchcraft- death with in common courts (more severe punishments)

1604 (James I) - Writes a book Demonologie encouraging people to hunt for witches, and makes

English Civil War 1642 - fear and suspicion increases. Matthew Hopkins hunts witches.

1700+ Begin to be seen as tricksters and fraudsters.

Who was Matthew Hopkins?

• 1645 Essex lawyer

• Hired by a JP to hunt down witches in Essex and East Anglia, paid for every witch he caught

• Self proclaimed Witchfinder General.

• Tortured women into admitting they were witches.

• Responsible for the investigation of about 300 women, 112 of them hanged

• Helped stir up worry about witches during the witch hunts (1645-47)

Why did accusation of witchcraft decline 1700+

• Enlightenment ideas - looking for rational not magical explanations

• The Royal Society was set up in 1660 ( society for science)

• Witches seen as tricksters

• 1735 Witchcraft Act - witches punished with fines/prison.