Punishment During The Elizabethan Era

Punishments were horrid during the Renaissance, so beware, if you are a scaredy cat stop right here- or get ready to scream from disgust, fear, or just because you feel like it. During the Renaissance, punishments had some sort of alliance to the crime. For example, according to Torture and Punishment, “The punishment for poisoning during this period was to be boiled to death. Mutilation and branding were also common. People often had their right hand cut off if they were caught stealing, and on certain occasions eyes were plucked out with hot pinchers and fingers were torn off.” If you can’t see the relation between these punishments, poisoning may feel like you’re burning, or you are choking. Therefore, boiling would be perfect (you are both

The punishment was decided upon depending on the crime. Out of all of them, hanging was the most severe and was very common. During the 19th century, the number of criminals that were punished by hanging rose to about 200. However, hanging was not the only punishment used. Flogging, beheading, and transportation were also common. Flogging is the act of beating the human body with whips, rods, switches, etc. Beheading was the complete separation of the head and body typically by blade, sword, axe, or mechanical means. Transportation was the act of relocating inmates to different places to work and sometimes sending them to the armed forces. Due to the significant number of criminals that were being sentenced with the death penalty, people named

The delivery of punishment has changed significantly over the centuries. Up until the 19th century in England, imprisonment was not regarded as a punishment, it was merely used while the offender waited to be sentenced to their ‘real’ punishment (Bull, 2010; Hirst, 1998). Corporal punishment such as flogging, branding and mutilation, death by hanging, and transportation to other continents such as America and Australia were common punitive measures through the ages, until well into the 1800’s (Newburn, 2003). Although these extreme penalties are no longer acceptable or practised by criminal courts in England or Australia, in some ways, the past has

Having extreme, agonizing, punishments was not out of the ordinary during the 17th century. The punishments and crimes were very unsystematic, and often times very foul. There were punishments that were as minor as carting,and there were punishments as severe as the death penalty.Throughout the 17th century there were a variety of punishments for different crimes that were commited.

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

Some other punishments were leather strap used on to hit anywhere on the body, beating with fists, and until unconscious, burning and scalding the hands, starvation, public

Crime and Punishment in the Elizabethan era was very unusual and cruel when we look at it from today’s standards. Punishment was very harsh and most things they did back then was completely normal for them but by today it’s insane what they used to do to criminals. Speaking of which whom they counted as “criminals” was insane as well as their definition of a criminal. The crimes committed directly affected the type of punishment someone one would receive for committing such an act. Crimes and punishments to us now seem completely wrong and just plain strange.

People who lived in the 13 colonies had a very rough life and nothing came easy for them. Nothing for them came without hard work. If they slacked of summer with their farms they would go hungry that winter, or might not even survive. Every single day there was work to be done and some women had to cook for lots of people and work until they felt very sick. Even young infants were helping around.

One of the many things that has been highly controversial and still is to this very day is how to properly punish and treat criminals. Here in America we now have the Eighth Amendment to protect us from cruel and unusual punishment. This was based off of a Parliament Act of 1689 that created England’s Bill of Rights. Before England had come up with the idea that humans should have guaranteed basic rights, it wasn’t a matter of whether or not a criminal would die, as much as it was a matter of how they would die. Torture devices such as the guillotine, the stake, the brazen bull, and the rack were used to spread the idea of fear and punishment that was ineffectually used by leaders to try and control their people throughout the history of Europe.

When woman was in the water “the women usually drowned.” (The Renaissance: Crime and Punishment). Another tool was the amputation saw. And the body would be in terrible pain because “it was used to remove a limb slowly and painfully.” (The Renaissance: Crime and Punishment). Beheading was used for the higher-class people, “because it was considered a more honorable way to die.” (Elizabethan Crime and Punishment).

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?

Next, the punishments that a person could get will vary on what they committed and how bad the punishment the people thought they should get. The punishments in the Elizabethan Age are very brutal because back then, they believed that violence was acceptable and a natural habit for mankind. The Great Punishment is the worst punishment a person could get. The felon will be hung, but they will not die while being hanged. They will take the felon down, quarter their body while still alive, and bury them in the ground. Quartering someone’s body is to cut their body in quarters. Torturing a person would come next to the Great Punishment. The will put the felon on a rack, in a collar, or even burn them with a branding iron on the cheek, back, or leg. Other general punishments include being decapitated and putting their head on top of a post, they could be branded on the cheek or burned on the left hand, whipped out in public for everyone to see, they could be sent to the military, be sent to correction facilities, hung to die at the place where the felon had committed their crime, or they could even be beheaded. If the crimes were extremely severe the felon would have the reign of “Bloody Mary” put on them. Bloody Mary is a legend that appears in the mirror when her name is called multiple times and appears bloody. The Elizabethan Age was very serious about the punishments that they gave their felons.

In the roman times crucifixion was the punishments. Nails are driven through the wrists and ankles, you are then left to die in agony. Death takes hours and hours. Another punishment was being fed to lions in the morning, but in the afternoon it was man against man. The fighters had nothing to protect them from the animal - no helmets or shields. The crowd would shout KILL HIM, FLOG HIM AND BURN HIM.

Flogging…What is it? What purpose does it serve? For those of us who have never heard of flogging, flogging refers to “beating with a whip or strap or rope as a form of punishment” (“Flogging” 1). Throughout the 1600s, flogging was utilized by “Boston’s Puritan Forefathers” (Jacoby 1) as a method of corporal punishment for various crimes. Progressing forward, Jeff Jacoby, columnist for The Boston Globe, provides readers with his view of “Boston’s Forefathers’” system of punishment in his essay, “Bring Back Flogging.” Within the contents of his work, Jacoby describes how flogging was utilized as punishment in its day. One such example he utilizes involves a woman who pleaded guilty to committing adultery. He writes that her punishment was

Another type of murder that had a terrible punishment was Patricide (killing your On this denarius you can see a man being whipped with something that seems to have three lashes much like flagrum. father). PUNISHMENT A common punishment for murder was crucifixion. This was a very shameful way to die as the criminal was taken to his place of execution whilst carrying his cross.