Crime and Punishment: Medieval and Early Modern

1. Who passed the Statute of Winchester (1285) which tightened up law and order?

2. What do we call a group of men organised by the sheriff to go and catch a criminal that has escaped the hue and cry?

3. Whose job was it to make sure that men practised archery on a Sunday

4. Which official was in charge of law and order in a county?

5. Which medieval courts heard the most serious cases?

6. Men between which ages were expected to be armed and ready to serve in the king’s army if necessary?

7. Who gradually took over the role of the Sheriff after they were created in 1361?

8. In medieval times which courts dealt with petty crimes that affected the community?

9. What was the name given to serious crimes?

10. What was the punishment for a capital offence?

11. Give an example of a new crime from the medieval period.

12. What is the name of the civil war fought between 1455 and 1485 that caused a rise in violent crime caused by nobles fighting each other?

13. What happened in 1315-16 that caused a rise in thefts particularly from poor peasants?

14. How did the definition of the crime of treason change after 1351?

15. What were prisons used for in medieval times?

16. How did gaolers get their money?

17. How would claiming the ‘benefit of the clergy’ help if you were arrested for a crime?

18. What does to ‘abjure the realm mean?

19. Name two crimes that were a particular concern in the Early Modern period.

20. What courts dealt with serious crimes in the early modern period?

21. By the early modern period how much did you have to steal before you would before the punishment became death?

22. What was the name for the courts that met four times a year and were run by JPs?

23. Give an example of further powers that JPs were given in the time of Elizabeth I.

24. Vagabonds over the age of 14 should have a hole the size of a penny burned through their ear with a red hot bar. What is this punishment called?

25. What type of punishments are the stocks, the pillory and cucking stools?

26. What were the huge buildings that vagrants were forced to work in called?

27. What happened to noblemen who committed treason in the early modern period?

28. What legal system introduced in 1688 massively increased the number of crimes that were punishable by death?

29. How many crimes became punishable by death as a result of this system?

30. What happened to the number of people actually put to death for their crimes after this system was introduced.