GOVERNMENT
Middle Ages (Crime and Death)
Throughout the medieval ages people needed to know that when you commit a crime you will pay the price with the punishment. The Grand Jury decided whether it was a crime or not. If they were committed to the crime they would be sent to the Trial Jury to find whether they are guilty or innocent of the crime. You were supposed to follow the laws or else your punishment would end up as drowning, burning, and a fight to the death. It was a custom if you had a very serious crime you would be heard from the kings court. The most crimes committed were disobeying the 10 commandments, witchcraft, theft, heresy, murder, and receiving stolen goods. “Lords were responsible for punishing minor crimes in their local courts. Serious crimes were dealt with by justices appointed by the king from among his officials and trained lawyers. The basic police brought all the criminals up to where they held it. Were they held the prisoners was very dirty and it caused many diseases to spread and kill most prisoners waiting for their trial.Some people who were kinder than others left money for the prisoners to buy food for themselves. One issue was was highway robbery. So to settle this they cut down trees and bushes for 30 feet.” In this way no robbers had a way to lay down and get away with their crime.
A thief could lose a finger and then a murderer could be sentenced to their death. This is what and crime and punishment was like during the middle ages. These punishments in my opinion is a little harsh for doing a robbery. I think they should've more reasonable punishments instead of losing a finger or getting murdered. Three of the harshest things of torture were they roasted peoples foot. Another was flaying torture were they skinned you alive. Lastly the rack torture were they tied you up and stretched your libs by two wheels moving away from each.
Throughout the medieval ages people needed to know that when you commit a crime you will pay the price with the punishment. The Grand Jury decided whether it was a crime or not. If they were committed to the crime they would be sent to the Trial Jury to find whether they are guilty or innocent of the crime. You were supposed to follow the laws or else your punishment would end up as drowning, burning, and a fight to the death. It was a custom if you had a very serious crime you would be heard from the kings court. The most crimes committed were disobeying the 10 commandments, witchcraft, theft, heresy, murder, and receiving stolen goods. “Lords were responsible for punishing minor crimes in their local courts. Serious crimes were dealt with by justices appointed by the king from among his officials and trained lawyers. The basic police brought all the criminals up to where they held it. Were they held the prisoners was very dirty and it caused many diseases to spread and kill most prisoners waiting for their trial.Some people who were kinder than others left money for the prisoners to buy food for themselves. One issue was was highway robbery. So to settle this they cut down trees and bushes for 30 feet.” In this way no robbers had a way to lay down and get away with their crime.
A thief could lose a finger and then a murderer could be sentenced to their death. This is what and crime and punishment was like during the middle ages. These punishments in my opinion is a little harsh for doing a robbery. I think they should've more reasonable punishments instead of losing a finger or getting murdered. Three of the harshest things of torture were they roasted peoples foot. Another was flaying torture were they skinned you alive. Lastly the rack torture were they tied you up and stretched your libs by two wheels moving away from each.
The Middle age law was dominated by the fuedal system. Another huge impact on english law in the middle ages was the Magna Carta signed by King John of England (1166-1216) Lets go more into detail of what the Magna Carta is. So John, King John was forced into signing it. It was a charter that greatly reduced the kings power. It was drafted by Archbishop Stephen Langton. There were also things called ordeals.
There was an ordeal by fire, combat, bread, and cold water. The ordeal by combat was the victim’s mother or father were forced to fight the accused or for the accused. The ordeal by fire was when the accused held a piece of metallic in his or her hands for a few seconds and in three days time if it had been held it meant got had healed him and if it hadnt healed it meant god didnt heal him so he was guilty. Ordeal by bread was where a piece of bread was blessed by a priest and then fed to the accused. If he choked on the food then he was guilty. Now the ordeal of water was the court gets a kettel of boiling water and the accused was to get a rock out. After that the accused was to be submerged into a stream of water and acquitted if he survived.
Now let’s go into depth into what the feudal system was. There was a time in Europe when peasents couldn’t travel safely. Then the nobles came in and saw an opportunity to become more powerful than the king. The nobles could offer protection that the kings couldn’t. With that in mind people weren’t going to obey the king as much due to the fact that he couldn’t provide the things the nobles could.
Were The Dark Ages Really That Dark?
John Mark Price
Logan Clark
Even though some historians believe the Middle Ages were a dark period of growth for society in Europe, this time period was actually very positive in the areas of government. The Magna Carta was created so the king did have as much power as before so people actually had a word in society. The feudal system also was very helpful in protecting the people. Usually people think crime and punishment are bad it was actually very positive. It helped people become better in life because no one wanted to get in trouble and face the consequences. This was my opinion on why I think the government was good.
Also extreme punishment helped to keep crime lower than usual.
John Mark Price
Logan Clark
Even though some historians believe the Middle Ages were a dark period of growth for society in Europe, this time period was actually very positive in the areas of government. The Magna Carta was created so the king did have as much power as before so people actually had a word in society. The feudal system also was very helpful in protecting the people. Usually people think crime and punishment are bad it was actually very positive. It helped people become better in life because no one wanted to get in trouble and face the consequences. This was my opinion on why I think the government was good.
Also extreme punishment helped to keep crime lower than usual.