Law And Order In The 1500's: Elizabethan Means Of Punishment
George Khalil
Writing And Research
February 27, 2014
Mrs. Carlson And Ms. Schwarzberg
During Elizabethan Times, people took law and order very seriously. People who did not abide by these laws were forced to suffer severe consequences. Law and order in Elizabethan times was harsher than we have today because it included punishments such as execution, torture, and much Grief.
For example, people in Elizabethan times who committed crimes were usually put to execution. "A few hardened criminals during Elizabeth's reign were boiled to death, a practice that began during the early 1500's by Elizabeth's Father, Henry VIII. But by far, the most common death penalty was the three step method which was being hanged, drawn, and finally quartered" (Stewart 80). Being boiled to death was only offered to a few criminals because it wasn't a common punishment and people back then did not use it that much.
English: Dorchester High Street Thatched cottage f...
Exeter Cathedral, the statue is of Richard Hooker,...
English: Andover - Market Andover has held a weekl..."Occasionally, a prisoner on the rack died from the agony of being pulled apart. However, one of the guards got the information that they were looking for, so they would release the criminal into his cell. There, he would await whatever death sentence the court had decided on. Some traitors were beheaded, not by a sharp guillotine but by two or three whacks of the executioner's axe" (Stewart 80). Criminals who were in their cells for a long period of time died from being pulled apart too much. Otherwise, criminals would wait for their death penalty by the guillotine. "In England, about one thousand criminals each year were executed in a number of ways, most of them in public. The problem was not the lack of law but rather the difficulty of its enforcement" (Stewart 80). About one thousand criminals a year...