crime and punishment in Norman england
- Created by: vdube
- Created on: 20-05-20 14:45
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- William the conqueror's rule
- The murdrum fine
- the Normans used this law to establish control over the Anglo-saxon population
- if a norman was killed by an Anglo-saxon and the person was not murdered or captured, there would be a special fine that you had to pay (murdrum fine)
- this was a large sum of money paid by the hundred( a group of people living on one small plot of land) where the body was found
- the aim of this was to reduce the amount of revenge murders that took place after the nrman invasion
- although the normans created this law to protect their authority the fine also shows the continuance of the Anglo-saxon system of shared responsibility
- Forest laws
- William declared large stretches of forest "royal forests" which he would use for hunting
- After a visit to hampshire William took control of what he called "Nova forest" Around 40 villages were evicted to clear space for the
- the forest laws that only people who had enough money to pay for hunting right were able to graze cows there and catch rabbits, this meant that peasants who could once farm there couldn't now
- for peasants it became illegal to carry hunting weapons or even take a fallen branch hunting wild animals for food was now treated as a crime
- Outlaws
- starting in the Anglo-saxon period,any man aged 14 or over who tried to avoid trail and punishment by running away from his community, was declared an outlaw
- whereas women who ran away were called "waved outlaws and waved women lost the protection of the law. they could be killed without any legal consequences for the person responsible
- outlaws have strong links to the forest the robin hood story, Robin hood and his merry men are describe as brave and heroic.
- in reality outlaw gangs were very different to Robin hood for example the folville gang was a group of up to 50 outlaws who operated in England in the 14th century they carried out serious crimes such as kidnaps,robber, rapes, attacks and extortion
- The murdrum fine
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