Overview of the Period 1500 to 1700

Punishments

• Types of Punishments
  • Fines for minor crimes
  • Corporal punishment: Stocks, whipping
  • Capital punishment: Beheading, hanging
• Changes in Corporal Punishment
  • Stocks used for those unable to pay fines
  • Pillory used for cheats and sellers of substandard goods
• Purpose: To embarrass and deter offenders in local communities

Law Enforcement

• Justices of the Peace (JPs)
  • Local magistrates handling minor crimes
  • Meet four times a year for quarter sessions to judge more serious cases
• Royal Judges
  • Visit twice a year
  • Deal with severe crimes: murders, treason

Superstition and Witchcraft

• England is a highly superstitious country
• Increased belief in witches and supernatural beings
• Witchcraft becomes a significant area of concern

Treason

• Overthrowing the king/government is a serious crime
• Punishments: Being hanged, drawn, and quartered, display of body parts
• Example: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

Jails and Vagabonds

• Jails used for prostitutes and vagabonds
• Increase in wandering unemployed and beggars
• Future video focus on vagabonds

Law Enforcement Challenges

• Hue and Cry
  • Still used for policing
  • Declining effectiveness due to town growth
• Constables
  • Lead the hue and cry

Social and Economic Factors

• Religious Turmoil
  • Religious changes (Henry VIII's split from Rome)
  • Protestant and Catholic tensions
  • Related events: Guy Fawkes and the Catholic plot
• Landowner's Attitudes
  • Power and land disparity
• Printing Revolution
  • Spread of ideas through pamphlets and broadsheets
• Population Growth
  • Leads to unemployment, famine, vagabonds
• Economic Changes
  • Approaching the industrial period and revolution

Conclusion

• Introduction to the next topic on the effectiveness of law enforcement in this period.