Dark Ages Law and Order
A torture device used in some cases for the guilty
Medieval Law and Order
Medieval people took punishing someone who broke a law very seriously, it was dark and awful if you broke a law. They would measure to see if you were guilty by ordeals until court was made. Some ordeals were: ordeal by fire, to see if you were guilty you held the hot end of an iran and walked 3 steps, if your wound from this was healing in less than 3 days you were innocent, if it wasn't healing in three days you were guilty. Ordeal by water was when the accused person was tied up tossed into the water and then if you floated you was guilty; if you drowned you were innocent. The last ordeal I'm going to talk about is ordeal by combat, this was only for noblemen. You would fight with the person who accused you and whoever won was innocent, but if you lost you were guilty, and often times dead.
The normal penalties for crimes was death, but here’s a list of some other penalties: if you stole something you would have your hands or ears cut off, or you would be branded with a hot iron, or either whipped through the streets this was only for a little stealing if you stole something that’s value was over a shilling the penalty was death. If you committed vagrancy which is being homeless you would be whipped, branded on the face, and you would be hanged if you repeated this crime. While If you were guilty of: highway robbery, arson, forgery, and rioting all these were punishable by death. If a noble was guilty of a crime they were often beheaded. In these times being punished for crime was often thought of as “dark, harsh, and terrible” but it really did make sure crime was thought of as awful and tried to scare people away from being criminals so it did have some light.
Medieval people took punishing someone who broke a law very seriously, it was dark and awful if you broke a law. They would measure to see if you were guilty by ordeals until court was made. Some ordeals were: ordeal by fire, to see if you were guilty you held the hot end of an iran and walked 3 steps, if your wound from this was healing in less than 3 days you were innocent, if it wasn't healing in three days you were guilty. Ordeal by water was when the accused person was tied up tossed into the water and then if you floated you was guilty; if you drowned you were innocent. The last ordeal I'm going to talk about is ordeal by combat, this was only for noblemen. You would fight with the person who accused you and whoever won was innocent, but if you lost you were guilty, and often times dead.
The normal penalties for crimes was death, but here’s a list of some other penalties: if you stole something you would have your hands or ears cut off, or you would be branded with a hot iron, or either whipped through the streets this was only for a little stealing if you stole something that’s value was over a shilling the penalty was death. If you committed vagrancy which is being homeless you would be whipped, branded on the face, and you would be hanged if you repeated this crime. While If you were guilty of: highway robbery, arson, forgery, and rioting all these were punishable by death. If a noble was guilty of a crime they were often beheaded. In these times being punished for crime was often thought of as “dark, harsh, and terrible” but it really did make sure crime was thought of as awful and tried to scare people away from being criminals so it did have some light.