Medieval British Tortures at the Hands of the State - Victims and Their Stories
- Thread starter Humberto
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Humberto
dreamin man
I remember that being referenced in Wolf Hall. Had thought it might have been a fiction from Hilary Mantel.
Humberto
dreamin man
Ancient and feudal societies really loved their fucking gruesome punishments.Even if their complexity and extent was later embellished, they nevertheless existed. Beheading a person for stealing £10 worth of goods? What the fuck?! I get that they didn't have extensive prison systems for housing inmates, but it's still puzzling how they didn't work out that torture and capital punishment weren't really effective deterrents, especially in an age without much if anything in the way of forensic investigation methods. Witness testimony ain't exactly reliable. People will confess to anything if they think it will make the pain stop.
We're not perfect today of course, some people still haven't caught up with the lessons learned (or they don't care and simply want to inflict misery and terror). But if even a fraction of old-schooI "justice" was carried out as described, I will roll my eyes in complete contempt at any moral relativist numpty who says we're not any better today.
Again, it was a long period of time, but even past the medieval period there were hundreds of crimes punishable by death. Depended on how much of a reactionary any particular judge was at the assizes.
Assizes - Wikipedia
Retribution and deterrence in the 18th century - Attitudes to punishment – WJEC - GCSE History Revision - WJEC - BBC Bitesize
Learn and revise the changing attitudes to punishment for WJEC GCSE History.
www.bbc.co.uk
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