Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England

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Crime and Punishment in Elizabethan England

Excerpt from The Description of England

By William Harrison

Originally published in 1587

Reprinted in The Renaissance in England, 1954

As all societies do, Elizabethan England faced issues relating to crime, punishment, and law and order. The beginnings of English common law, which protected the individual's life, liberty, and property, had been in effect since 1189, and Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) respected this longstanding tradition. The law was seen as an institution that not only protected individual rights, but also validated the authority of the monarch.

"To use torment also or question by pain and torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred, sith [since] we are found always to be such as despise death and yet abhor to be tormented."

Elizabethans attached great importance to the social order. In their view, every person and thing in the universe had a designated place and purpose. God was the ultimate authority; under him ruled the monarch, followed by a hierarchy of other church and government officials. Nobles, aristocrats, and ordinary people also had their places in this order; society functioned properly, it was thought, when all persons fulfilled the duties of their established positions. Crimes that threatened the social order were considered extremely dangerous offenses. These included heresy, or religious opinions that conflict with the church's doctrines, which threatened religious laws; treason, which challenged the legitimate government; and murder. Those convicted of these crimes received the harshest punishment: death. Execution methods for the most serious crimes were designed to be as gruesome as possible.

Heretics were burned to death at the stake. Traitors were hanged for a short period and cut down while they were still alive. They were then disemboweled and their intestines were thrown into a fire or a pot of boiling water. Next, their arms and legs were cut off. Finally, they were beheaded. Their heads were mounted on big poles outside the city gates as a warning of the penalty for treason. Convicted traitors who were of noble birth were usually executed in less undignified ways; they were either hanged until completely dead before being drawn and quartered, or they were beheaded. Executions took place in public and drew huge crowds. Indeed, public executions were considered an important way of demonstrating the authority of the state, for witnesses could watch justice carried out according to the letter of the law.

These harsh sentences show how seriously Elizabethan society took the threat of heresy and treason. Since the 1530s there had been serious religious tensions in England. Henry VIII (1491–1547) had severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church, declaring himself the supreme religious authority in England. Though Henry's objective had been to free himself from the restraints of the pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, who had refused to permit Henry to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon (1485–1536), the action gave unintended support to those in England who wanted religious reform. A new Protestant church emerged as the official religion in England. Though a great number of people accepted the new church, many remained loyal to Catholicism. Catholics who refused to acknowledge Henry as head of the English church risked being executed for treason.

The situation changed abruptly when Mary I (1516–1558) took the throne in 1553 after the death of Henry's heir, Edward VI (1537–1553). Mary, a Catholic, wished to restore her religion to official status in England. To do so, she began enforcing heresy laws against Protestants. She ordered hundreds of Protestants burned at the stake, but this did not eliminate support for the Protestant church. When Elizabeth I succeeded Mary in 1558, she immediately restored Protestantism to official status and outlawed Catholicism.

Many English Catholics resented Elizabeth's rule, and there were several attempts to overthrow her and place her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart (Queen of Scots; 1542–1587) on the throne. Some of these plots involved England's primary political rivals, France and Spain. If one of these bigger and more powerful countries were to launch an invasion, England's independence would almost certainly be destroyed. Under these conditions Elizabeth's government became extremely wary of dissent, and developed an extensive intelligence system to gather information about potential conspiracies against the queen. A vast network of spies followed suspects and, according to some historians, may sometimes have enticed individuals to develop treasonous plots. When conspirators were arrested, they were often tortured to reveal details about the plot and the names of their accomplices. This practice, though, was regulated by law. Torture was not allowed without the queen's authorization, and was permitted only in the presence of officials who were in charge of questioning the prisoner and recording his or her confession. Despite its legality, torture was brutal. Prisoners were often "racked," which involved having their arms and legs fastened to a frame that was then stretched to dislocate their joints. They could also be suspended by their wrists for long periods or placed in an iron device that bent their bodies into a circle.

While Elizabethan society greatly feared crimes against the state, many lesser crimes were also considered serious enough to warrant the death penalty. Murder that did not involve a political assassination, for example, was usually punished by hanging. Women who murdered their husbands, though, were burned at the stake. Robbery, larceny (theft), rape, and arson were also capital offenses. Those accused of crimes had the right to a trial, though their legal protections were minimal. They had no automatic right to appeal, for example. And in some cases, particularly for crimes against the state, the courts ignored evidence. Walter Raleigh (1552–1618), for example, was convicted of treason in 1603. Though many believed that the charge against him had been fabricated, and though Raleigh presented a convincing defense, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Crime in England, and the number of prosecutions, reached unusually high levels in the 1590s. This development was probably related to a downturn in the economy, which increased the number of people living in poverty. Most property crime during Elizabethan times, according to The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain, was committed by the young, the poor, or the homeless. To address the problem of escalating property crime, Parliament, England's legislative body, enacted poor laws which attempted to control the behavior of the poor. Begging, for example, was prohibited by these laws. A 1572 law classified several categories of self-employed people as vagrants, including unlicensed healers, palm readers, and tinkers (traveling menders of cooking pots). As such, they risked whipping or other physical punishment unless they found a master, or employer.

The poor laws failed to deter crime, however, and the government began exploring other measures to control social groups it considered dangerous or undesirable. Between 1546 and 1553, five "hospitals" or "houses of correction" opened in London. These institutions, which the Elizabethans called "bridewells" were places where orphans, street children, the physically and mentally ill, vagrants, prostitutes, and others who engaged in disreputable lifestyles could be confined. Inmates of the bridewells had not necessarily committed a crime, but they were confined because of their marginal social status. As the name suggested, houses of correction aimed to reform their inmates, who were expected to work long hours under harsh conditions. In addition, they were often abused by the hospital wardens. Houses of correction, which increased significantly in number throughout England during the sixteenth century, reflected a growing interest in the idea that the state should aim to change criminals' behavior instead of merely imposing a punishment for offenses.

Though Elizabethan prisons had not yet developed into a full-scale penal system, prisons and jails did exist. But they lacked the capacity to handle large numbers of prisoners who would remain behind bars for long periods. Jails in the sixteenth century were primarily places where suspects were kept while awaiting trial, or where convicts waited for their day of execution. Those who could not pay their debts could also be confined in jail. Unlike today, convicted criminals did not usually receive sentences to serve time in prison. Instead, punishments most often consisted of fines for small offenses, or physical punishments for more serious crimes.

Though Elizabethan criminal penalties were undeniably cruel by modern standards, they were not unusual for their time. Throughout Europe and many other parts of the world, similar or even more brutal punishments were carried out. The Spanish agent who assassinated the Dutch Protestant rebel leader William of Orange (1553–1584), for example, was sentenced to be tortured to death for treason; it took thirteen days for this ordeal to be completed. Capital punishment was common in other parts of the world as well. In Japan at this time, methods of execution for serious crimes included boiling, crucifixion, and beheading. In some parts of south Asia criminals were sentenced to be trampled to death by elephants.

Historians have also pointed out that, although the gruesome punishments of Elizabethan England have received a great deal of attention, they were relatively infrequent and were reserved for the most shocking crimes. As noted in The Oxford History of the Prison, execution by prolonged torture was "practically unknown" in early modern England (the period from c. 1490s to the 1790s) but was more common in other European countries. Moreover, while criminal penalties were indeed strict in England, many prisoners received lesser punishments than the law allowed. According to The Oxford Illustrated History of Tudor & Stuart Britain, "many fewer people were indicted than were accused, many fewer were convicted than indicted, and no more than half of those who could have faced the gallows actually did so. Charges were frequently downgraded so that the criminal, though punished, did not have to be executed…. Thus, although the criminal law was terrifying, and genuinely dangerous, its full vigor was usually directed primarily at those who were identified either as malicious or repeat offenders." Though it may seem contradictory that writer William Harrison (1534–1593) should state that the English disapproved of extreme cruelty in their response to crime, he was reflecting England's perception of itself as a country that lived by the rule of law and administered punishments accordingly.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from The Description of England:

During Elizabethan times physical punishment for crimes was common throughout Europe and other parts of the world.
England did not have a well-developed prison system during this period. The practice of handing down prison sentences for crimes had not yet become routine.
The purpose of punishment was to deter people from committing crimes. It also demonstrated the authority of the government to uphold the social order.

The Description of England

The Second Book
Chapter XI. Of Sundry Kinds of Punishments Appointed for Malefactors In cases of felony, manslaughter, robbery, murther, rape, piracy, and such capital crimes as are not reputed for treason or hurt of the estate, our sentence pronounced upon the offender is to hang till he be dead. For of other punishments used in other countries we have no knowledge or use, and yet so few grievous [serious] crimes committed with us as elsewhere in the world. To use torment also or question by pain and torture in these common cases with us is greatly abhorred sith [since] we are found always to be such as despise death and yet abhor to be tormented, choosing rather frankly to open our minds than to yield our bodies unto such servile halings [draggings] and tearings as are used in other countries. And this is one cause wherefore our condemned persons do go so cheerfully to their deaths, for our nation is free, stout, hauty, prodigal of life and blood, as Sir Thomas Smith saith lib. II, cap 25 De republica, therefore cannot in any wise digest to be used as villans and slaves in suffering continually beating, servitude, and servile torments. No, our jailers are guilty of felony by an old law of the land if they torment any prisoner committed to their custody for the revealing of his complices [accomplices].
The greatest and most grievious punishment used in England for such an offend against the state is drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hardle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half dead and then taken down and quartered alive, after that their members [limbs] and bowels are cut from their bodies and thrown into a fire provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same purpose. Sometimes, if the trespass be not the more heinous, they are suffered to hang till they be quite dead. And whensoever any of the nobility are convicted of high treason by their peers, that is to say equals (for an inquest of yeomen passeth not upon them, but only of the lords of the Parlement) this manner of their death is converted into the loss of their heads only, notwithstanding that the sentence do run after the former order. In trial of cases concerning treason, felony, or any other grievous crime not confessed the party accused doth yield, if he be a nobleman, to be tried by an inquest (as I have said) of his peers; if a gentlemen; and an inferior by God and by the country, to with the yeomanry (for combat or battle is not greatly in use); and, being condemned of felony, manslaughter, etc., he is eftsoons [soon afterwards] hanged by the neck till he be dead, and then cut down and buried. But if he be convicted of willful murther done either hanged alive in chains near the place where the fact was committed, or else, upon compassion taken, first strangled with a rope, and so continueth till his bones consume in nothing. We have use neither of the wheel [a large wheel to which a condemned prisoner was tied so that his arms and legs could be broken] nor of the bar [the tool used to break the bones of prisoners on the wheel], as in other countries, but when wilful manslaughter is perpetrated, beside hanging, the offender hath his right hand commonly striken off before or near unto the place where the act was done, after which he is led forth to the place of execution and there put to death according to the law….
If a woman poison her husband she is burned alive; if the servant kill his master he is to be executed for petty treason; he that poisoneth a man is to be boiled to death in water or lead, although the party die not of the practice; in cases of murther all the accessories are to suffer pains of death accordingly. Perjury is punished by the pillory, burning in the forehead with the letter P, the rewalting [destruction] of the trees growing upon the grounds of the offenders, and loss of all his movables [possessions]. Many trespasses also are punished by the cutting off one or both ears from the head of the offender, as the utterance of seditious words against the magistrates, fray-makers, petty robbers, etc. Rogues are burned through the ears, carriers of sheep out of the land by the loss of their heads, such as kill by poison are either boiled or scalded to death in lead or seething water. Heretics are burned quick, harlots [prostitutes] and their mates by carting, ducking [dunking in the river], and doing of open penance in sheets in churches and marketsteads are often put to rebuke. Howbeit, as this is counted with some either as no punishment at all to speak of, or but smally regarded of the offenders, so I would wish adultery and fornication to have some sharper law. For what great smart [hurt] is it to be turned out of an hot sheet into a cold, or after a little washing in the water to be let loose again unto their former trades? Howbeit, the dragging of some of them over the Thames between Lambeth and Westminister at the tail of a boat is a punishment that most terrifieth them which are condemned thereto, but this is inflicted upon them by none other than the knight marshal, and that within the compass of his jurisdiction and limits only….
Witches are hanged or sometimes burned, but thieves are hanged (as I said before) generally on the gibbet or gallows….
Rogues and vagabonds are often stocked and whipped; scolds are ducked upon cucking-stools in the water. Such felons as stand mute and speak not at the arraignment are pressed to death by huge weights laid upon a boord that lieth over their breast and a sharp stone under their backs, and these commonly hold their peace, thereby to save their goods [money and possessions] unto their wives and children, which if they were condemned should be confiscated [seized] to the prince….

What happened next …

By the end of the sixteenth century some were arguing for a new solution to criminal sentencing: transporting convicts to the North American colonies. In 1615 James I decreed transportation to be a lawful penalty for crime. But it was not often used until 1718, when new legislation confirmed it as a valid sentence and required the state to pay for it. Until about 1790 transportation remained the preferred sentence for noncapital offenses; it could also be imposed instead of the death penalty. The vast majority of transported convicts were men, most of them in their twenties, who were sent to the colonies of Maryland and Virginia. By 1772, three-fifths of English male convicts were transported. During the late 1780s, when England was at war with France, it became common practice to force convicts into service on naval ships. After 1815 transportation resumed—this time to Australia, which became, in effect, a penal colony. About 187,000 convicts were sent there from 1815 to 1840, when transportation was abolished.

Imprisonment did not become a regularly imposed sentence in England until the late 1700s. Even then, only about ten percent of English convicts were sent to prison. In 1853 the Penal Servitude Act formally instituted the modern prison system in Britain.

From around the late 1700s the government sought more humane ways to conduct executions. Rather than inflict physical suffering on the condemned person, as was the custom in earlier times, the government became more concerned about the rights of the prisoner. In Scotland, for example, an early type of guillotine was invented to replace beheadings by axe; since it could often take two or more axe blows to sever a head, this guillotine was considered a relatively merciful method of execution. Better ways to conduct hangings were also developed, so that condemned prisoners died quickly instead of being slowly strangled on the gallows.

The Capital Punishment within Prisons Bill of 1868 abolished public hangings in Britain, and required that executions take place within the prison. The death penalty was abolished in England in 1965, except for treason, piracy with violence, and a type of arson. In 1998 the Criminal Justice Bill ended the death penalty for those crimes as well.

Did you know …

Murder rates may have been slightly higher in sixteenth-century England than they were in the late twentieth century.
Most murders in Elizabethan England took place within family settings, as is still the case today.
Henry VIII authorized a law in 1540 giving surgeons the bodies of four hanged criminals a year. The surgeons dissected these bodies to learn more about human anatomy. This use of criminals' bodies became more widespread in the 1700s.
When James I ascended the English throne in 1603, there were about as many lawyers per capita in England as there were in the early 1900s.

Consider the following …

Why did Elizabethan society consider it necessary to lock up those without permanent homes or employment? Discuss what this policy reveals about Elizabethan attitudes toward property, status, and order. How does your own community deal with problems associated with vagrancy, homelessness, and unemployment?
If you had been an advisor to King James, what action would you have recommended he take regarding the use of transportation as a sentence for serious crimes? Draw up a list of the pros and cons, and construct a thorough argument to support your recommendation.