Medieval Law And Medieval Laws During The Medieval Ages

In Medieval times determination of guilt and innocence was unfair and people relied on God to be the determinant of guilt or innocence. Trial by ordeal was a practice that was used to decide whether you were guilty or innocent (thefinnertimes.com).Trial by ordeal was made up of 3 trials – trial by water, trial by fire and trial by combat. These trials all have different negative features; trial by water was when the accused and accuser get tied up and thrown into the water, if someone floated they were guilty and if they sunk they were innocent. Trial by fire was when you either had to walk barefoot on fire or you had to hold a red-hot bar for a certain amount of time, if when the accused came back after 3 days and their hand hadn’t started to heal, they were declared guilty (yesnet.yk.ca). Trial by combat was undoubtedly the most unfair trial out of them all.

The image below is a primary source of people being hung in the Middle Ages for murdering. The authors perspective is shown how he has drawn people hanging down while there are people watching them to show them not to do this. The viewpoint of the author is to say not to do this otherwise it will happen to you. The crowd around the punished people are there to show the seriousness of the punishments providing a warning and awareness of the consequences. It could lead to death and torture for the rest of their lives, this reflects to the authors point of view. Overall, Crimes and Punishments in the Middle Ages were very hard for people to escape. Authors presented a lot detail to show how life was strict back in the Middle Ages. Images that

The water trials were that the convicted were thrown into a running body of water, since it was believed that their evil deeds would reject the water, so they would float. They had a rope tied around their waste for those who sank, so they were able to be pulled out. In the case they floated, they were occasionally executed. Even if they did sink and were seen as innocent, it was not uncommon for accidental drowning’s to occur.

When a person was accused, they had a "term of grace" for thirty to forty days where they could voluntarily confess their sin and atone for that sin. After that grace period was used up, they had a trial and if the judges found the accused guilty of the offense, the person was imprisoned. The accused's trial occurred only in the presence of two disinterested priests and the defense was in the hands of a lawyer. Witnesses were sworn in and if one lied they would be seriously punished- death being a possibility. (Blotzer, 1910) If a person was found guilty at the trial they could be burned at the stake. (Madden, 2003) These trials were called auto-da-fé, or Act of Faith, and would happen in a public place such as the main square in a town. After

Trial by hot Iron was one way to determine innocence in the Middle Ages, you had to undergo this trial to prove your innocence. In this trial the defendant would have to carry an iron that weighed one pound, after it was heated over fire and pulled out during a ritual prayer. He or she would carry the hot iron metal for 9 feet, measured by the own defendants foot size. Their hands are strapped at the end of the 9 feet. Then they would be examined after 3 days by a Priest.They were considered guilty if there hands weren't showing any progress of healing. If there hands were showing progress of healing he or she is innocent .If the crime of the accused was particularly bad such as betrayal of a Lord or murder the iron would be 3 pounds. In the

The immense sickness wasn’t the only thing dark about Europe’s Middle Ages. The monarchs were cruel and unruly to their subjects while enforcing brutality upon their land and citizens. The laws enforced by these kings and queens were nothing short of diabolical, for there was no set list of limitations and rules meaning that the monarchs could punish anyone for anything, even if that meant simply disturbing the king. The executions of the ‘accused’ were public to the citizens, and were “a pitiless affair” (McGlynn). The kings ruled with an iron fist as their methods of justice were murderous as executions “sent out a message of warning and deterrence” and “offered the ultimate guarantee against repeat offenders”. The message monarchs tried to send while carelessly shedding blood was that they desired to make a statement, and scare citizens into not committing crimes, for they would know the gruesome consequences. If not death, the “standard, mandatory sentence” of all accused peoples was mutilation of “eyes, noses, ears, hands, feet and testicles”. To sum it all up, punishment in the Middle Ages was much more unforgiving than in this modern day of age; being burned at the stake or beheaded by the guillotine are still some of the most spine-tingling punishments to this day. In all of the depressing fog of the Middle Ages, could there truly have been a beneficial factor?

The idea of trial by ordeal and its methods are that if an accused can endure the decided ordeal without any injury or with surviving it with minimal injury, it will be concluded that it was a will of God and that the accused is innocent. However, trial by ordeal is said to be the end point of a relatively formal judicial procedure. This formal judicial procedure has several local variations but historical research suggests that it is commonly comprised of four main

The punishments in the Middle Ages were severely brutal.For stealing you would get your right hand cut off and for rape you would be quartered. One of the most severe punishments in the middle ages was Impalement. It worked by forcing your victims to sit on a sharp and thick pole. The pole was then raised upright and the victim was left to slide further down the pole by his or her own weight. This was among the most brutal of punishments ever imagined and practiced by humans. Theft was considered a petty crime. But even though it was considered petty your right hand was still chopped off.If you were drunk in public you would get a fine. Victims were sawed in half, they did this because it was a cheap way to torture and kill a victim accused

On the other hand in the accused is actually innocent, they are able to gain a proper chance to gain enough oath helpers. In the absence of oath helpers, the accused was able to prove their innocence by trial by ordeal. ‘Trials by Ordeal’ worked by subjecting the accused to perform an unpleasant and highly dangerous test. The ordeal would usually be life or death. Examples of a ‘trial by ordeal’ are ‘Trial by Fire’, ‘Trial by Hot iron’ and ‘Trial by Water’. The trial by is when the defendant is in a fetal position and thrown into water. If the accused sank and drowned they were innocent but if they floated they were presumed guilty.In many of the ordeals the only way to prove your innocence was also by dying. In figure 1 a woman is undergoing the ‘trial by water’ with her hands and legs securely tied up. This shows how the middle ages used the term guilty until proven

The Medieval Period was a time where citizens were controlled and dominated by three basic things- their feudal obligations, their religion and the crime and punishment system forced upon them. Feudal obligations helped build their social hierarchy and what was proper for them (depending on their rank) to do, Religion controlled their beliefs and ultimately what provided entertainment and the law system sparked fear so that no one will misbehave. They all play an important roll, but the most controlling factor was Religion.

Medieval Times was a very dark and evil place. They tortured people for saying a little white lie. Depending on how bad what they did, the more and worse the punishment is. During this time period, many people faced gruesome and violent punishments used with crazy, out of the mind torture weapons.

The Middle Ages is associated with the Dark Ages due to the period including social disorder, political turmoil and widespread disease. The Middle Ages was a period between 500 A.D. to 1500 A.D. during which Europe experienced many drastic changes following the fall of Rome. Some of these changes were beneficial, but the changes also caused negative effects too. Overall, the Middle Ages was a dark time for Europe.

A form of punishment during the middle ages was often a trial by ordeal. Trial by ordeal was a method where the accused was given a rather brutal, and often deadly test to determine if they were found innocent or guilty. Trial by ordeal, in my opinion was an unjustified way of deciding guilt. For example, if someone was accused of doing witchcraft, they would be burned at the stake. If the person miraculously survived, he or she would be found guilty and was to be executed. But, if he or she burnt to death, the person would then be proven as innocent and subjected to a proper burial. This is where the illogic of trial by ordeal comes in. Either way, this is

The Christian religions rise to supremacy in the middle ages was the result of several factors. Christians had long been persecuted by the Roman Empire because the Romans felt that Christianity challenged and offended the Greco-Roman Gods and the Christians were prone to revolt against Roman rule. Christianity survived because it had many teachings that appealed to the downtrodden in Roman society, these teachings being that even though they were suffering they would gain equality and possibly superiority in the next life, Christianity gave them hope.

In Medieval Europe Kingdoms there were many changes. Most of the changes were good for the world. The changes in medieval times can be drawn comparison to todays world. The changes focused on will be political, social, and economic. These changes will help people understand a small part of the worlds history.