Law and punishment in later medieval England

In later medieval England, the king played a bigger part in law enforcement, but local communities still did most of the work.

• The community: tithings and the hue and cry continued.
• Parish constables: a local man was chosen to serve for a year, unpaid. He kept order, raised the hue and cry and arrested suspects.
• Royal officials: sheriffs, and coroners, who investigated suspicious deaths.
• Royal judges travelled the country to hear serious cases in the king's courts.
• Justices of the Peace (from the 14th century): local landowners appointed to keep order and judge less serious cases.

Medieval punishments had two main aims:

• Deterrence: making punishments harsh and public, so others would be put off committing crime.
• Retribution: making the criminal suffer in return for the harm they had done.

With no police force, few criminals were caught. So the punishments of those who were caught had to frighten everyone else.

Continuity: deterrence and retribution remained the main aims of punishment until the 19th century.

Treason, the worst crime against authority, carried the most brutal execution of all.

Prisons were mainly used to hold people until their trial, not as a punishment.

Continuity: throughout the period, the community was central: tithings, the hue and cry and local courts. Punishments stayed public and harsh.

Change:

• Crime became an offence against the king, not just against the victim, so the wergild ended.
• Royal power grew: more royal officials, judges and courts.
• Trials changed: trial by ordeal ended after 1215, and juries took its place.

Factors: the main factors were government (kings wanting more control), the Church, and attitudes in society, which accepted harsh public punishment.