CrimeandPunishment2

Jack Wells English-8-2 4-4-10  **  WHAT LAWS GOVERNED ENGLAND IN SHAKESPEARE’S TIMES? WHAT CRIMES WERE COMMON IN SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLAND? AND, WHAT WERE THE PUNISHMENTS? WHAT IS THE CLINK? WHAT WERE JAILS LIKE IN SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLAND? ** ** Answer prepared by: Jack Wells ** People in Elizabethan England were governed by laws made by the queen, Elizabeth I. If these laws and rules were broken, there was no forgiveness. People were brutally punished so as not to break the law again. Today’s punishments are nothing compared to what went on in the cities of Elizabethan England. There were many crimes in Elizabethan England and each crime had its own unique punishment. Some common crimes were public drunkenness and gossiping. If someone was publicly drunk, the punishment was something called the Drunkard’s Cloak. The Drunkard’s Cloak is when the person committing the crime is forced to walk through the streets with a barrel on them. There are holes in the barrel for the person’s head and arms. Another unusual punishment was for women who gossiped. This punishment is called the brank. The women that committed the crime must place their head inside a cage like contraption. The brank had a metal strip that was placed inside the offender’s mouth that was either sharpened or was covered in spikes. Again, the victim would have to walk through the streets with this and be whipped publicly. Another common punishment was the stocks. The stocks are wooden and the head, feet, and arms are placed in holes that act as handcuffs for those body parts. The stocks are used for holding prisoners that are awaiting worse punishments or public drunkenness. Also a common punishment was the whipping. The name is the punishment and this was a common punishment for mild crimes. These are some of the better punishments of the time. There were some punishments that were much worse than the ones done in public. The amputation saw was used to cut off body parts very slow, to ensure maximum pain and suffering. Another gruesome punishment was being disemboweled. This cutting out of the entrails was usually done publicly. One of the more ridiculous punishments was execution doled out for anything from theft to high treason. This was usually done by hanging or being burned at the stake. These two punishments were very popular to watch if you were a commoner. If the authorities wanted information out of anyone, they would resort to torture. Torture was also used to intimidate and punish. Tortures were usually very painful and aimed to dehumanize the victim. For example, the torture for poisoning was being boiled to death. If people were caught stealing, their right hands cut off, their eyes were plucked out, and some fingers were torn off. If a women had been found committing adultery, they would be put in the dunking stool. The women would sit on a stool and be dunked in water until they were dead. Another commonly used torture was called the pillory. It was a T-shaped frame with holes for the head and arms. The victim would stay in the pillory for weeks on end. A person accused of rape would be put in a cage that was high off the ground in a public place. They wouldn’t be fed and they would die slowly. Right before death, the victim would be taken down and quartered until they died. As you can see, the punishments of Elizabethan times were much harsher and crueler than they are today. Some of the people that were tortured were actually innocent and died a gruesome death for doing nothing and there was nothing they could do about it. If those punishments were here today, we would be an inhumane and twisted society. We should all be thankful that those punishments and tortures have died out. ** Works Cited ** Book Sources Murray, John. //Elizabethan England: A Study In Depth//. London, England: Andy Harmsworth, 1999. 70-72. Print. Picard, Liza. //Elizbeth's England: Everyday Life in Elizabethan England//. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. 246-256. Print. Smith, Lacey Baldwin. //The Horizon Book of the Elizabethan World//. New York, New York: American Heritage Publishing Co. Inc., 1967. 73. Print. Internet Sources Peter, Brice. "Bloody Painful: Crime and Punishment." //Elizabethan England//. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr 2010. . Some pictures and videos that illustrate crime and punishment during the Elizabethan era.

A video of a hanging at the gallows at Tyburn:[] This is a video describing treason in Elizabethan and Tudor England: []