Mindset
The people of the Renaissance did not have our aversion to public executions, but treated them as huge events, in which several hundred citizens, including royalty, would attend to watch a criminal be either hanged or beheaded. A public execution suited both the commoners and the nobility. The commoners saw it as a type of entertainment and a way to get back at those who disturbed the community, while the nobility took it as an opportunity to make an example of those who betrayed the crown.
Crimes of the lower class
The punishment for an individual depended upon their social standing. Most of the crimes committed by the lower class were out of a necessity to survive.
During this time, the effects of the Black Death were starting to die down and the population was slowly recovering. Later on, there was an overpopulation of people in certain cities, which left a number of people without work. Because of this their were people left starving and desperate enough to steal. Theft during this time was an every day occurrence. Any citizen who stole anything worth more than 5 pence would be hanged.
Those who did not steal would resort to poaching. Hunting was a right reserved for the upper class and anyone caught poaching were liable to be hanged, castrated, or blinded. In the more severe cases the peasant would be sewn into a deer skin and then hunted down by dogs.
Those who relied on other people's charity were not safe either. Begging was taken as a serious crime and dealt with harshly. Whoever was caught begging would be relentlessly beaten until they reached the town parish border. For those people who were continuously caught for begging, they would be either sentenced to prison or hanged.
Other common crimes included:
Those who relied on other people's charity were not safe either. Begging was taken as a serious crime and dealt with harshly. Whoever was caught begging would be relentlessly beaten until they reached the town parish border. For those people who were continuously caught for begging, they would be either sentenced to prison or hanged.
Other common crimes included:
- Debtors
- Cut purses
- Forgery
- Adultery
Crimes of the upper class
The punishment for the nobility was a slightly different matter. Those who caught were mostly condemned to the the guillotine. Instead of a public execution, they were done in private where the rich exclusively saw the execution.
These crimes include:
These crimes include:
- Blasphemy
- High Treason
- Spying
- Rebellion
Other punishments
For those who were found guilty of petty treason, killing ones husband or superior by poisoning, would be lowered by a chain into boiling oil water or lead until they died.
For the women who were caught either gossiping or speaking too freely, they were sentenced to wear the bride's scold. This device was an iron cage placed on the accuser's head. Connected to it was a metal strip with either a pointed or spiked end that is put into the mouth and any movement with the tongue would cause serious damage to the mouth. The woman would then be lead by a chain to a whipping post where the woman would be in view of the verbally abusive public.
The wheel was a device in which a person would be tied to a wheel and then spun around to the bottom, where there is either fire or spikes at the base. This type of torture was meant to extract a confession and could take the victim up to three days to die.
Small crimes
During England's Renaissance it was considered a crime to travel around the city without a license. This was a way to prevent disease from spreading and a way to inhibit the poor from traveling to different villages in order to lower the crime. Actors would need to travel to earn their living and were treated with suspicion. They were considered slightly better than beggars and thief's. If they were even suspected of a crime, they would be branded with red hot irons.
Then and now
Though the death penalty is still an option today in 36 states, it is not used as often. The reason punishments were so cruel was because people of that period were going threw brutal times. Death involving children were common, the Plague frequently rampaged through the populace, and street violence was an everyday affair. In order to make a point during these hard times, the state made punishments so severe in order to show who displeased them.
Works Cite
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