12/16/2023 0 Comments Feudalism in the middle ages essayCriminals were punished by the kings, knights, lords, sheriffs and even the church. In this era, punishments were severe mainly arising from the threat that the crimes posed to an exploitative reign. There were no human rights protections at all and so what had to be done was done and it did not matter if that meant treating a person in an unjust manner or inflicting great pain on them (Nash, The Finer Times). People lived in a state of fear thinking they would be the next victim.Įven the Catholic Church used torture and imprisonment to obtain confessions from people regardless of whether they were guilty or not (McCall, 1979). People were beheaded and limbs cut off, vagabonds were often whipped and chained in stocks. The Middle Ages was a time of severe punishment and harsh torture for crimes that today would seem trivial. Although there were gaols, which are a type of prison, they were generally used to hold a prisoner awaiting trial rather than as a means of punishment.įines, shaming, mutilation or death were the most common forms of punishment depending on the crime with the most interesting part of it being that there was no police in the medieval period so law-enforcement was in the hands of the community (Rousseaux, 2009). All these areas of medieval punishment had their own means of justice, however the most interesting and most controversial would have to be the use of torture. For this reason all crimes from stealing all the way to murder had harsh punishments. Even the “smallest” offences had serious punishment. It was believed that people would only learn how to behave properly if they feared what would happen to them if they broke the law. Law and order was very harsh during the medieval times. These are just some of the few examples of the behavior of the people to demonstrate how desperate they were (McCall, 1979). There were quite a few instances of people getting hung for counterfeiting coins and rape. Then, there was smuggling of prized goods like silk and tobacco and highway robberies and those by outlaws. While the former was largely a part of hearsay, the latter involved wandering aimlessly. The other crimes in the Middle Ages, which were strongly reprimanded, included witchcraft and vagrancy. It was considered a sin as well to be going against God. When King Henry VIII took over as “head of the church”, hearsay was an offense. Rebellion against the unjust system and subsequently, treachery, was a common crime way back then. The people were either punished for going against the commands of the lords and knights or for thieving, to provide amidst scarcity. Therefore, the way to control the people was to gain their respect by scaring them and punishing them for even the slightest misbehavior. The nobles however, being the most influential and powerful people of that time, needed to control the people so that things would not completely fall out of order. The living conditions in general were very poor, there was little to no systematic organization of how things worked in society and a lot of the times it was hard to control the masses since there were no set rules, no equality and no one to turn to. The Middle Ages was an era when times were particularly hard, especially for lower class citizens. Society was really taking its turn but some things needed to be fixed before law and order could be restored. The Middle Ages is the period of history encompassing one of the most exciting and turbulent times in English history. This paper describes the situation that people found themselves in and the general environment of the era in regards to crime and punishment, as well as the different types of punishment that served as consequences for one or the other crime.
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