Death Penalty In The Middle Ages

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The Punishment of most crimes, petty or severe, was incredibly severe and often resulted in the death penalty. Peasants were usually punished for their crimes they committed out of a need for food or money they needed in order to survive (Alchin). The nobles on the other hand were usually convicted of more serious crimes against their country and their morals (Alchin). The peasants and their crimes were far different from the nobles but the punishment in that era was severe and unmerciful no matter what class you fell into. The crimes of the peasants were often purely out of a need to survive but often ended in their brutal death in front of many other peasants. Many crimes included thievery, poaching, adultery and even begging would end …show more content…
Occasionally if a pickpocket was caught, they might only beat them until they left the city. Executions include hanging, beheading, burned at the stake, and drawn and quartered. Hanging was most common and as stated before, was a public spectacle. Burning was usually reserved for religious crimes. Most often one might see a so-called witch being burned or a heretic (Picard). Being burned alive was extremely painful but if the executioner was feeling a little more merciful, he might put some gun powder underneath the fire in order to hasten the process. If a convict was lucky, they would die from lack of oxygen and suffocation from the smoke. Another painful way of death was beheading. A beheading could take two of three swings to completely remove the head and after severing the head from the body, the head would still remain conscience for about eight seconds (Picard). Last but not least on the horrible ways to die list is being quartered. First the thief would be hung, but not to the point of death, then he would be taken down and cut into four pieces and the head (Picard). After that, they would disembowel him, burn his intestines, and hang his body parts around the city (Picard). And after hanging the body parts, they would hang the head near the entrance to the city. All of these severe penalties were often because of insignificant crimes and minor offenses to the
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