Crime and Punishment (Medieval Period 1250-1500)

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C

Causes

  • 1)The Introduction of the Feudal System effectively categorised people based upon wealth and position in Society.
  • 2)It was split into a triangle, where the King was on top, his Lord/Nobles were beneath him, with Knights below them and finally at the bottom was the peasants and Serfs.
  • 3)The King effectivley owned all the Land , however he distributed between his Nobles into County's, they sections to the Knights to controll, where the Land was farmed by the Peasants.
  • 4)Religion was used to scaremonger people into obeying the Church in fear that God would punish them for Sinning, this was controlled by the Catholic Church, but it was also influenced by the Kings influence.
  • 5)The Black Death made people question the concepts of religion as Religious figures were dying, this was an unusual concept as the populous thought they were protected by God.
  • 6)The King faced revolt all the time, as peasants were angry with their way of life, so they started to speak out against the King, which consequently undermined his authority to rule effectively.

Effects

  • 1)The King, Lords and Knights made up 3% of Society however they took up 99% of the Countries wealth, which angered the Serfs.
  • 2)The peasants felt undermined as they were forced to work the land, and were paid very little, and two days a week they had to work for free to remain on the land. This led to Vagrancy becoming a crime.
  • 3)Peasants ended up revolting in the 'Peasants Revolt' where they argued that they should be treated fairly and they should be given equal wealth. This led to a huge surge of peasants being killed.
  • 4)The Church was ultimately benefiting from this scheme as they were selling indulgences, which was effectively a way of paying to be forgiven for Sins. This would mean the Church would take money of Sinners, benefiting them, therefore accusing more people of Sins.
  • 5)The Black Death enabled people to move away from home towns and County's as better paid work was being offered. To stop this from happening the King introduce Vagrancy to stop losing money.
  • 6)The King came up with the Kings Peace, which would make crimes acts of treason because the King wanted to control the level of crime in England. Treason was punishable by death to detour.

Overall summary

The Medieval period was a hostile time to be alive because new crimes were sanctioning the freedom people had and made it near impossible to move up the Feudal System. This ultimately contributed to the higher in society being able to control the peasants by pushing strict new laws on them which basically allowed them no movement around the country. The fear of Sinning allowed the Church to profit, as they would sell indulgence to people who wanted to go to heaven, whilst keeping all the money for themselves. The Feudal System effectively ended peoples way of life and shoved the wealthy with land & Money, and ultimately made the poor, poorer.

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