CrimeandPunishment4

===**WHAT LAWS GOVERNED ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE TIMES? WHAT CRIMES WERE COMMON IN SHAKESPEARE ENGLAND? AND, WHAT WERE THE PUNISHMENTS? WHAT IS THE CLINK? WHAT WERE THE JAILS LIKE IN SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLAND? Answer prepared by: Ian Segel **=== Crime during Shakespeare's time was not taken very lightly. Anything against the law would probably end up in torture which would cause endless amounts of pain and would (deleted) lead to death. According to Elizabethan Crime and Punishment website, they say that a lot of crimes that were caused by the commoners and the upperclass men which included, high treason, blasphemy (  he act or offense of speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things; profane talk), sedition ( conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state), spying, rebellion, murder, witchcraft, and alchemy. If you committed one of these crimes, it would result in torture. Even if you didn't do any crime, but was just accused, it would result in torture. Different tortures varied for the two classes of people. If you were a commoner, torture would be harsher and you probably wouldn't be let off the hook as easily. If you were an upperclass man though, you were able to escape torture and punishment. If women committed a crimes, they could not escape torture. (deleted) Elizabethan Crime and Punishment website also explains that no matter what you did, trials were designed in the favor of the prosecutors and defendants accused of the crimes were not allowed legal counsel. Crimes were taken very seriously back then and were something that would not be tolerated.

After being accused, various tortures were used to extract confessions. According to Middle Age Torture website, they list various instruments of torture included the boot or Spanish boot, branding irons, brank, The Collar, Drunkards Cloak, Ducking stools, Foot press, Foot screw, The Gossip's Bridle or the Brank, Heretic's fork, The Maiden, Pillory, Rack, Scavenger's daughter, Scold's bridle, Stocks, Thumbscrew, The Wheel, Torture and execution by fire, The Sword or the Axe, Mechanical force, Quartering, The Wheel, The Fork, The Gibbet, Spiking, and Dismembering. All these forms of torture and punishment would cause extreme pain. These instruments do things to the body such as ripping out teeth or nails, beating, blinding, boiling, bone breaking, branding and burning, castration, choking, cutting, disfigurement, dislocation, drowning, flagellation, whipping and beating, flaying, roasting, genital mutilation, limb or finger removal, starvation, and tongue removal. As you can see, there are many different contraptions that cause extreme amounts of pain.

After confession, you would most likely go to prison if you weren't executed. There was a notorious prison that was called the Clink. According to the Civil Law Website, Internet Shakespeare, they explain that the Clink was a notorious prison in Southwark, England which functioned from the 12th century until 1780 either deriving its name from the local manor, the Clink Liberty. The manor and prison was owned by the Bishop of Winchester and situated next to his residence at Winchester Palace. The Clink was possibly the oldest men's prison and probably the oldest women's prison in England. The Clink was supposedly a debtors prison. According to Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan's England, prisons were usually just holding areas until trial or sentence. Prisons cells were very confined and sanitation was terrible. The conditions were horrendous and many died in the prisons. According Liza Picard, author of __Elizabeth's England__, says that an estimate of executions per year was 300 usually by hanging. So England was very serious about crime and didn't tolerate it one bit. **   Picard, liza. // Elizabeths london //. london: wiedenfeld and nicoloson, 2003. 250. Print.
 * Works Cited:

"Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England." // eyewitnesstohistory //. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr 2010. .

"Middle Age Torture." // Middle ages //. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr 2010. .

"Elizabethan Crime and Punishment." // Shakespeare site map //. N.p., 2005. Web. 4 Apr 2010. .

 Civil Law." // internet Shakespeare // . N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr 2010. <http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/history/civil.h