WEBVTT 00:01.500 --> 00:05.050 Well, we've looked at a number of ways in which the late 00:05.045 --> 00:08.455 Elizabethan and early seventeenth-century period was a 00:08.462 --> 00:12.032 rather anxious age, and one of the things that the 00:12.029 --> 00:15.599 authorities in Elizabethan England and under the early 00:15.596 --> 00:19.496 Stuarts were very generally concerned about was the problem 00:19.500 --> 00:21.900 of order, which naturally raises the 00:21.900 --> 00:25.160 question of just how disorderly society was at the turn of the 00:25.163 --> 00:27.253 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 00:27.250 --> 00:31.840 And today I want to approach that in one way by looking at 00:31.838 --> 00:36.588 two of the kinds of crime which provided much of the serious 00:36.587 --> 00:41.337 criminal activity dealt with by Elizabethan and early Stuart 00:41.336 --> 00:46.886 courts and which will help us to approach this general problem. 00:46.890 --> 00:50.560 One aspect of crimes of violence and the other crimes 00:50.561 --> 00:53.951 against property and how they were dealt with. 00:53.950 --> 00:57.210 Okay. We'll start with violence. 00:57.210 --> 01:01.790 So how violent a society was Elizabethan and early Stuart 01:01.790 --> 01:02.610 England? 01:02.609 --> 01:07.239 It's a question which has quite seriously divided historians. 01:07.239 --> 01:11.529 Prior to the 1970s I suppose there was a general consensus 01:11.534 --> 01:15.384 that it was indeed an exceedingly violent society by 01:15.376 --> 01:16.956 modern standards. 01:16.959 --> 01:20.409 Lawrence Stone, the great Princeton early 01:20.412 --> 01:25.502 modernist, provides one of the most forthright statements on 01:25.504 --> 01:26.804 this point. 01:26.799 --> 01:29.379 He was a historian who was good at really forthright statements, 01:29.379 --> 01:33.329 and in his book The Crisis of the Aristocracy he writes 01:33.331 --> 01:37.221 that "the behavior of the propertied classes and that of 01:37.218 --> 01:40.328 the poor was characterized by the ferocity, 01:40.330 --> 01:43.650 childishness, and lack of self-control of the 01:43.646 --> 01:46.686 Homeric age"-- imagine Brad Pitt in 01:46.691 --> 01:49.541 Troy--< ;> 01:49.540 --> 01:52.830 and unless we can "grasp these basic psychological 01:52.828 --> 01:54.718 premises" we cannot hope to 01:54.717 --> 01:57.517 understand" the scale of the problem which 01:57.519 --> 01:58.919 the Tudors faced. 01:58.920 --> 02:00.260 Well, that's Lawrence Stone. 02:00.260 --> 02:02.700 He continues, "their nerves seemed to 02:02.703 --> 02:06.043 have been perpetually on edge," breeding language in 02:06.042 --> 02:09.622 quarrels "so intemperate as to be almost deranged," 02:09.617 --> 02:13.247 and "a readiness to resort to direct action with no holds 02:13.253 --> 02:17.073 barred and a general contempt for legal restraint." 02:17.068 --> 02:19.948 Well, a couple of decades later Alan Macfarlane in a book on 02:19.949 --> 02:22.549 crime in the north of England, The Justice and the 02:22.546 --> 02:24.036 Mare's Ale, took an almost 02:24.042 --> 02:25.682 diametrically opposed view. 02:25.680 --> 02:29.580 He quotes contemporary travelers and diarists of the 02:29.580 --> 02:32.410 seventeenth century and concludes, 02:32.408 --> 02:34.808 "the very strong impression these works 02:34.811 --> 02:38.111 give" me is of "a society in which people were not 02:38.105 --> 02:40.335 moved by irrational anger and fury, 02:40.340 --> 02:42.990 where they did not live or travel in fear, 02:42.990 --> 02:46.660 where despite physical hardship there was a great deal of 02:46.663 --> 02:48.833 tenderness and affection." 02:48.830 --> 02:53.170 Well, what I want to suggest in looking at some of the evidence 02:53.169 --> 02:57.159 today is that both of these positions have some merit, 02:57.160 --> 03:01.760 but they're also partial because both are in different 03:01.763 --> 03:03.243 ways one sided. 03:03.240 --> 03:06.410 And if we're to approach this problem adequately we really 03:06.414 --> 03:08.704 need to make a number of distinctions, 03:08.699 --> 03:11.479 distinctions geographically between different parts of the 03:11.482 --> 03:13.922 kingdom, distinctions socially between 03:13.918 --> 03:16.208 the behavior of different groups, 03:16.210 --> 03:19.730 and we need also to look at these matters chronologically 03:19.727 --> 03:23.367 with a sense of the changes which took place over time, 03:23.370 --> 03:26.070 and I'll try to do these things. 03:26.068 --> 03:30.058 But let's begin by looking at some of the special cases 03:30.057 --> 03:34.047 geographically and socially which will give us a little 03:34.047 --> 03:35.817 drama to start with. 03:35.818 --> 03:39.638 There's no doubt for example that in the late sixteenth 03:39.637 --> 03:43.307 century and into the early decades of the seventeenth 03:43.312 --> 03:47.562 century there were some areas of England and Wales which were 03:47.555 --> 03:51.295 indeed quite seriously disorderly and in which violent 03:51.301 --> 03:54.061 crime was more or less endemic. 03:54.060 --> 03:58.280 The most notable area of all was the Scottish border area 03:58.276 --> 04:02.646 running between Carlisle and Berwick and consisting of high 04:02.645 --> 04:06.105 bare hills dividing England from Scotland. 04:06.110 --> 04:10.230 This whole area and the counties to the south of it were 04:10.226 --> 04:14.266 periodically disturbed by the threat of what was called 04:14.266 --> 04:17.416 'reiving', raiding, conducted by members 04:17.415 --> 04:21.455 of the so-called 'surnames', members of certain border clans 04:21.461 --> 04:24.801 who might be situated on either side of the border, 04:24.800 --> 04:27.990 also known as 'moss-troopers'. 04:27.990 --> 04:31.830 Men who belonged to families like the Armstrongs, 04:31.829 --> 04:33.749 the Grahams, the Ridleys, 04:33.750 --> 04:36.550 the Robsons, the Halls, the Fosters, 04:36.550 --> 04:39.110 the Elliots, the Dicksons. 04:39.110 --> 04:41.830 I noticed looking through the roster we have a Dickson in this 04:41.834 --> 04:43.314 class, which is quite worrying. 04:43.310 --> 04:44.980 > 04:44.980 --> 04:48.940 These were people who would set out when the opportunity 04:48.937 --> 04:52.607 provided itself on their little Galloway ponies-- 04:52.610 --> 04:57.730 generally armed with a leather jerkin and a steel cap, 04:57.730 --> 05:00.610 dagger at the back, crossbow on the saddle, 05:00.610 --> 05:04.670 lance and sword--to raid, and they raided on both the 05:04.670 --> 05:09.200 other side of the border and in their own kingdoms also. 05:09.199 --> 05:12.969 It was said of the Armstrongs and the Grahams, 05:12.970 --> 05:15.770 there was a contemporary proverb, "Armstrongs and 05:15.774 --> 05:17.524 Grahams ride thieves all." 05:17.519 --> 05:19.269 Well, these were the moss-troopers, 05:19.269 --> 05:20.349 the border reivers. 05:20.350 --> 05:23.740 I've actually looked at the indictments for the courts for 05:23.735 --> 05:27.115 the county of Northumberland between Newcastle and Berwick 05:27.120 --> 05:31.100 and they reveal a great deal of the activities of these people. 05:31.100 --> 05:34.510 They're quite distinctive compared to other criminal 05:34.511 --> 05:35.181 records. 05:35.180 --> 05:38.050 Instead of finding someone accused for example of stealing 05:38.045 --> 05:39.365 of a hen, or a piglet, 05:39.365 --> 05:43.065 or something like that, kind of commonplace thefts, 05:43.074 --> 05:47.514 in this area you find people accused of stealing twenty 05:47.505 --> 05:51.015 cattle or forty sheep, of attacking houses, 05:51.023 --> 05:53.033 of taking people for ransom. 05:53.029 --> 05:56.559 So many of those involved belonged to these particular 05:56.560 --> 05:58.660 surnames, particular families who were 05:58.661 --> 06:01.441 notorious, that they were frequently given 06:01.437 --> 06:05.297 nicknames because so many of them had the same name, 06:05.300 --> 06:07.350 and these survive also in the records. 06:07.350 --> 06:10.310 So, for example, amongst the men who were 06:10.314 --> 06:14.914 accused in Northumberland in the 1580s and '90s of reiving, 06:14.910 --> 06:18.540 or of slaying, used with--using swords, 06:18.540 --> 06:21.720 daggers or lances, we find, for example, 06:21.720 --> 06:24.230 Thomas Armstrong, known as "Geordy's 06:24.226 --> 06:24.976 Tom." 06:24.980 --> 06:27.510 His father was called George, so he's "Geordy's 06:27.512 --> 06:28.112 Tom." 06:28.110 --> 06:31.910 We have William Ridley, known as 'Slack Will.' 06:31.910 --> 06:34.770 We've got William Hall, known as "Saucy 06:34.774 --> 06:35.644 Will." 06:35.639 --> 06:39.509 We have John Dobbs, alias "Crooked Jock"; 06:39.509 --> 06:42.379 John Foster, alias "Red John", 06:42.379 --> 06:44.219 and so one could go on. 06:44.220 --> 06:45.850 I think you get the general idea. 06:45.850 --> 06:49.070 My favorite border reiver was in fact a Scotsman, 06:49.069 --> 06:52.409 Clement Crosier, who was known by the wonderful 06:52.410 --> 06:56.040 nickname of "Nebless Clem," "Nebless 06:56.040 --> 06:57.130 Clem." 06:57.129 --> 06:59.269 A "neb" in the dialect of the area was 06:59.271 --> 07:01.771 the tip of your nose; that's your neb. 07:01.769 --> 07:05.579 And Nebless Clem had lost the tip of his nose in a sword 07:05.576 --> 07:06.126 fight. 07:06.129 --> 07:08.619 A broadsword stroke had taken off the end of his nose, 07:08.620 --> 07:12.120 so he was known ever after as "Nebless Clem," 07:12.115 --> 07:13.795 > 07:13.800 --> 07:15.580 and so one could go on. 07:15.579 --> 07:20.619 So, in 1603 when Elizabeth I died, 07:20.620 --> 07:24.790 the Graham family on the border decided that until King James VI 07:24.788 --> 07:29.018 of Scotland reached the south of England and was crowned as James 07:29.024 --> 07:32.734 I of England the laws were temporarily suspended and they 07:32.730 --> 07:35.710 set off to take advantage of that fact. 07:35.709 --> 07:41.729 In a week they raided south--as far south as Penrith in Cumbria 07:41.733 --> 07:45.333 and it became known as 'Busy Week'. 07:45.329 --> 07:50.409 They took 5,000 cattle, they did almost 7,000 pounds' 07:50.410 --> 07:55.980 worth of damage to property, they captured fourteen men whom 07:55.983 --> 08:00.353 they held for ransom, and in the course of attempts 08:00.353 --> 08:03.783 to resist them they killed another six. 08:03.778 --> 08:06.178 So this is the kind of thing which could happen, 08:06.177 --> 08:07.857 though it's an extreme example. 08:07.860 --> 08:10.770 Now, none of this of course is typical, but it existed. 08:10.769 --> 08:12.589 It was going on, in the border, 08:12.586 --> 08:15.976 in the border counties and it needs to be considered, 08:15.980 --> 08:19.520 and in fact the Welsh border though less bad was also an area 08:19.517 --> 08:22.937 which was known for its relative lawlessness because of the 08:22.939 --> 08:26.119 possibility of criminals slipping between jurisdictions 08:26.124 --> 08:27.544 across the border. 08:27.540 --> 08:29.020 Right. 08:29.019 --> 08:32.039 So if the geographical periphery of the kingdom had 08:32.043 --> 08:35.763 some rather special problems, then so too did the social 08:35.755 --> 08:38.825 periphery of the aristocracy and the gentry. 08:38.830 --> 08:43.270 Lawrence Stone in The Crisis of the Aristocracy cites far 08:43.267 --> 08:47.347 too many specific cases of aristocratic and gentry violence 08:47.351 --> 08:48.621 to be ignored. 08:48.620 --> 08:52.190 These were people who could be exceedingly touchy about 08:52.186 --> 08:55.876 personal honor and willing sometimes to resort to extreme 08:55.884 --> 08:59.324 measures to revenge slights against their honor. 08:59.320 --> 09:03.320 Some of them indeed were virtually above the law in their 09:03.322 --> 09:05.542 capacity to get away with it. 09:05.538 --> 09:09.078 So, for example, it's a fact that in 1589 Sir 09:09.076 --> 09:14.216 Thomas Langton and eighty of his men besieged Sir Thomas Houghton 09:14.220 --> 09:18.480 and thirty of his men in Lea Hall in Lancashire, 09:18.480 --> 09:22.700 up in the northwest, and when they broke in they 09:22.700 --> 09:26.920 killed Houghton and several of his defenders. 09:26.918 --> 09:30.248 When the government established a special commission to look 09:30.254 --> 09:33.424 into this particularly bad example of feuding amongst the 09:33.421 --> 09:35.921 gentry, only three of the jurors who 09:35.922 --> 09:38.072 were appointed dared to turn up. 09:38.070 --> 09:42.060 The rest were too intimidated by the local power of those 09:42.057 --> 09:45.827 responsible, and in fact no formal presentment of this 09:45.830 --> 09:48.180 offense was ever made at law. 09:48.178 --> 09:51.558 The privy council had to deal with it in other ways. 09:51.558 --> 09:55.218 Or to take another example, in 1580 the Earl of Oxford, 09:55.220 --> 09:58.940 the man whom some people think wrote Shakespeare's plays, 09:58.940 --> 10:02.500 begat an illegitimate child on a gentlewoman who was under the 10:02.504 --> 10:04.614 protection of Sir Thomas Knyvett, 10:04.610 --> 10:08.590 and that resulted in a feud between the two which included 10:08.586 --> 10:12.486 an assassination attempt on Knyvett in London and several 10:12.493 --> 10:16.403 armed affrays between their retainers and servants in the 10:16.399 --> 10:20.659 streets of London in which four men were killed and three were 10:20.655 --> 10:22.465 seriously wounded. 10:22.470 --> 10:26.340 And yet the courtiers responsible were too powerful to 10:26.344 --> 10:29.054 be actually indicted in the courts. 10:29.048 --> 10:32.818 Again the privy council pacified it in other ways. 10:32.820 --> 10:36.330 Well, that kind of aristocratic and gentry violence could be 10:36.328 --> 10:38.528 added to from all over the kingdom. 10:38.529 --> 10:43.749 It was the result of a code of behavior which laid a stress on 10:43.749 --> 10:48.459 competitive assertiveness in defense of a man's face and 10:48.455 --> 10:52.985 pride and reputation and one which could assume, 10:52.990 --> 10:57.010 in some cases at any rate, that resort to violence was 10:57.009 --> 10:59.359 both natural and justifiable. 10:59.360 --> 11:02.880 Well, the special problems that were posed by both the 11:02.876 --> 11:06.126 geographical and the social peripheries were fully 11:06.129 --> 11:09.049 recognized by contemporary authorities, 11:09.048 --> 11:12.348 and the Tudor and early Stuart state did its best to try to 11:12.351 --> 11:13.321 deal with them. 11:13.320 --> 11:16.400 The northern and Welsh borders were under the special 11:16.403 --> 11:19.793 jurisdiction of particular councils established after 1560 11:19.785 --> 11:22.985 to deal with their special problems: the Council of the 11:22.989 --> 11:26.599 North sitting in York, the Council in the Marches of 11:26.600 --> 11:28.230 Wales sitting in Ludlow. 11:28.230 --> 11:31.720 And they labored to bring offenders to heel. 11:31.720 --> 11:35.570 Wardens of the Marches were appointed who also had the duty 11:35.566 --> 11:39.146 of cooperating with their opposite numbers on the other 11:39.147 --> 11:43.057 side of the border in order to bring offenders to heel. 11:43.058 --> 11:44.568 Some of them did so successfully, 11:44.572 --> 11:45.852 some not so successfully. 11:45.850 --> 11:48.960 In Northumberland, Sir John Foster, 11:48.960 --> 11:50.880 who was the warden of this part of the border, 11:50.879 --> 11:54.279 was notoriously in league with most of the border reiving 11:54.275 --> 11:57.015 families himself, but he was succeeded by others 11:57.023 --> 11:58.253 who did the job better. 11:58.250 --> 12:00.940 One of them, Robert Carey, 12:00.937 --> 12:02.117 loved it. 12:02.120 --> 12:05.490 He wrote with enthusiasm to one of his friends in the south how 12:05.494 --> 12:08.654 he spent every day in the saddle pursuing people across the 12:08.650 --> 12:09.250 border. 12:09.250 --> 12:13.960 When Elizabeth died he was selected to be the man to carry 12:13.955 --> 12:18.655 her ring to Scotland to give to James VI as a token of his 12:18.660 --> 12:19.900 succession. 12:19.899 --> 12:22.069 They chose him because A, he was a good rider, 12:22.065 --> 12:23.215 > 12:23.220 --> 12:27.470 and B, they thought he could get through the border safely. 12:27.470 --> 12:31.660 Border commissioners were appointed by James VI and I, 12:31.658 --> 12:34.338 when he became King of England, in order to cooperate even more 12:34.342 --> 12:36.012 closely, and indeed the level of 12:36.005 --> 12:39.095 violence in the border counties steadily diminishes from that 12:39.101 --> 12:39.981 point onwards. 12:39.980 --> 12:42.690 By the 1620s, it was largely over. 12:42.690 --> 12:46.010 By the 1640s, in some local histories it was 12:46.011 --> 12:49.101 being recalled as a rather romantic past, 12:49.101 --> 12:53.121 rather than a rather terrifying present reality. 12:53.120 --> 12:58.720 Again in dealing with feuds and quarrels amongst the aristocracy 12:58.724 --> 13:04.154 and gentry the privy council did its best to try to pacify and 13:04.149 --> 13:05.929 restrain people. 13:05.928 --> 13:09.188 It heard complaints, alternative channels through 13:09.192 --> 13:11.302 which feuds could be settled. 13:11.299 --> 13:12.259 It made inquiries. 13:12.259 --> 13:14.479 It summoned offenders before it to answer. 13:14.480 --> 13:18.920 It forced arbitration upon people whose feuds might lead to 13:18.918 --> 13:19.758 violence. 13:19.759 --> 13:23.809 It put them under bond to keep the peace. 13:23.808 --> 13:27.048 The Court of Star Chamber sitting in Westminster was 13:27.047 --> 13:30.467 particularly active in dealing with riotous and violent 13:30.474 --> 13:32.954 behavior amongst lesser offenders, 13:32.950 --> 13:35.750 doling out fines and imprisonments and so forth, 13:35.750 --> 13:40.250 and the use of crown patronage could also help to keep people 13:40.251 --> 13:43.781 in line if they wanted to retain royal favor. 13:43.779 --> 13:48.519 Gradual success in measures of this kind can be traced. 13:48.519 --> 13:51.879 That kind of behavior became less common as the seventeenth 13:51.875 --> 13:54.765 century advanced and it was probably accompanied by 13:54.769 --> 13:57.199 something of a shift in social values. 13:57.200 --> 14:01.480 Humanist educators of the period were beginning to teach 14:01.480 --> 14:06.230 an alternative notion of honor and nobility which laid greater 14:06.230 --> 14:10.280 stress upon civility and restraint and service to the 14:10.278 --> 14:13.938 state, rather than on a prickly form 14:13.940 --> 14:15.860 of individual honor. 14:15.860 --> 14:19.450 There was the influence of Protestant preachers too who 14:19.448 --> 14:22.838 preached a sober and restrained model of manhood. 14:22.840 --> 14:27.110 All this was slow to affect behavior but perhaps significant 14:27.106 --> 14:31.076 in the long run in changing the expectations of what was 14:31.083 --> 14:34.053 tolerable behavior amongst the elite. 14:34.048 --> 14:37.468 Indeed, it could be said in some ways that they were 14:37.467 --> 14:41.487 providing a model of a sort of a 'new man' for the period. 14:41.490 --> 14:44.440 There were limits to the success of all that. 14:44.440 --> 14:47.200 Competitive assertion was still commonplace. 14:47.200 --> 14:50.610 Even in such a peaceful environment as the University of 14:50.610 --> 14:54.330 Cambridge in the late sixteenth century outbreaks of violence 14:54.333 --> 14:57.563 amongst the students were actually quite common. 14:57.558 --> 15:00.328 There are many records of students disciplined for such 15:00.330 --> 15:02.690 activities as pulling one another's beards, 15:02.690 --> 15:04.940 which was a way to insult someone if you were in a quarrel 15:04.936 --> 15:06.456 with him, pull their beard--it was 15:06.456 --> 15:08.066 thought to be terribly humiliating-- 15:08.070 --> 15:13.910 or activities such as in 1601, I think it was, 15:13.909 --> 15:16.339 when the students of St. 15:16.340 --> 15:21.800 John's College attacked Trinity College en masse armed 15:21.797 --> 15:22.977 with clubs. 15:22.980 --> 15:26.300 They were repelled by the students of Trinity College who 15:26.303 --> 15:30.043 climbed to the top of the tower and threw pieces of masonry down 15:30.044 --> 15:31.534 on the attacking mob. 15:31.528 --> 15:35.608 This had to be quelled by the university watch and many of the 15:35.610 --> 15:39.830 students concerned were whipped in their college halls or put in 15:39.827 --> 15:44.107 the stocks in their college halls as a means of discipline, 15:44.110 --> 15:45.470 and so one could go on. 15:45.470 --> 15:47.720 The records of the University of Cambridge are extremely 15:47.721 --> 15:48.951 interesting in this respect. 15:48.950 --> 15:52.980 On one occasion in the 1590s, a group of students pretended 15:52.981 --> 15:57.221 to be the city watch and went around forcing taverns which had 15:57.221 --> 16:00.561 closed for the night to open and serve them. 16:00.558 --> 16:03.278 They trashed the Cross Keys Tavern and again there was a 16:03.277 --> 16:05.647 major disciplinary action as a result of this. 16:05.649 --> 16:09.169 One of those who trashed the Cross Keys Tavern was a future 16:09.167 --> 16:10.317 Bishop of Durham. 16:10.320 --> 16:11.700 > 16:11.700 --> 16:14.720 He was there training for the clergy. 16:14.720 --> 16:17.200 One could go on. 16:17.200 --> 16:19.600 The duel also remained, of course, a feature of 16:19.596 --> 16:21.626 aristocratic culture for a long time. 16:21.629 --> 16:23.779 There are examples of dueling right through to the nineteenth 16:23.780 --> 16:24.140 century. 16:24.139 --> 16:27.359 Most prime ministers of Britain fought a duel at one time or 16:27.360 --> 16:30.310 another right up to the Duke of Wellington in the early 16:30.308 --> 16:32.998 nineteenth century, but that was a kind of 16:33.000 --> 16:36.580 individual one-on-one violence, not as common as is sometimes 16:36.578 --> 16:39.428 thought, and very different from open 16:39.433 --> 16:42.773 feuding with gangs of armed retainers, 16:42.769 --> 16:46.999 which had been the kind of thing which had existed earlier. 16:47.000 --> 16:51.120 But to move on, what about the heart of the 16:51.120 --> 16:54.850 kingdom and less elevated offenders? 16:54.850 --> 16:58.380 And that can be approached by looking at the records for 16:58.375 --> 16:59.075 homicide. 16:59.080 --> 17:02.410 The records of the Assize Courts or the King's Bench, 17:02.405 --> 17:05.275 which met in London, contain many inquests and 17:05.284 --> 17:07.144 indictments for homicide. 17:07.140 --> 17:08.690 They're pretty full. 17:08.690 --> 17:11.820 And these provide a fair opportunity to examine the 17:11.815 --> 17:14.435 actual incidence of crimes of this kind. 17:14.440 --> 17:17.830 It was a hard crime to conceal when someone was killed and 17:17.834 --> 17:20.994 investigation by coroners was virtually automatic, 17:20.990 --> 17:23.840 which could lead to criminal prosecution. 17:23.838 --> 17:26.258 J.A. Sharpe in his book, Crime in Early Modern 17:26.262 --> 17:28.142 England, has attempted, 17:28.136 --> 17:30.976 for part of the mid-seventeenth century, 17:30.980 --> 17:35.120 to produce an actual rate of homicide, 17:35.118 --> 17:37.488 crimes per hundred thousand population, 17:37.490 --> 17:42.290 and he calculates that the homicide rate in mid-seventeenth 17:42.291 --> 17:47.511 century England was about three times that of modern Britain. 17:47.509 --> 17:50.729 It may indeed have been somewhat higher since sometimes 17:50.729 --> 17:54.479 coroners' inquests would fail to bring a charge in circumstances 17:54.484 --> 17:57.534 where today it would almost certainly be listed as a 17:57.525 --> 17:58.415 homicide. 17:58.420 --> 18:02.810 Others have also attempted calculations of this kind, 18:02.808 --> 18:05.138 and what they tend to bring out, they all agree-- 18:05.140 --> 18:07.480 the figures vary but they all agree-- 18:07.480 --> 18:11.160 that the levels of indictment for homicide were actually 18:11.161 --> 18:15.311 gradually falling from the late sixteenth century right through 18:15.310 --> 18:18.190 to the late eighteenth century in fact. 18:18.190 --> 18:20.970 And some of the figures that have been produced are there on 18:20.965 --> 18:22.655 one of the tables on your handout. 18:22.660 --> 18:26.600 If you look at table two, it's worth looking at in detail 18:26.597 --> 18:31.307 but if you just look at the last two columns there you have the-- 18:31.308 --> 18:34.948 a--rate calculated per hundred thousand population for the 18:34.946 --> 18:36.986 counties of Surrey and Sussex. 18:36.990 --> 18:40.960 Urban Surrey is London, south London. 18:40.960 --> 18:44.040 Then you have rural Surrey, then a total for the whole 18:44.041 --> 18:46.951 county, and we also have the figures for Sussex. 18:46.950 --> 18:50.780 Surrey is here to the south of London, Sussex is on the south 18:50.779 --> 18:51.289 coast. 18:51.288 --> 18:57.708 And what you'll see there is a steady decline in the rate of 18:57.711 --> 18:58.911 homicide. 18:58.910 --> 19:03.650 A gradual process of pacification one could say. 19:03.650 --> 19:09.030 So this suggests, perhaps, that it was indeed a 19:09.026 --> 19:14.866 period with more serious violence than our own, 19:14.868 --> 19:19.348 but not one which was inured to simply casual slaughter. 19:19.348 --> 19:23.708 We seem to be somewhere in between Lawrence Stone's violent 19:23.708 --> 19:27.838 and unrestrained emotional infants and Alan Macfarlane's 19:27.839 --> 19:30.019 nice, orderly Englishmen. 19:30.019 --> 19:35.579 The circumstances of the cases that were heard bring that out 19:35.577 --> 19:36.687 even more. 19:36.690 --> 19:39.860 In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, 19:39.863 --> 19:44.173 people killed their families less and their neighbors more 19:44.170 --> 19:46.210 than is the case today. 19:46.210 --> 19:48.850 In seventeenth-century Essex, and indeed in late 19:48.854 --> 19:52.064 sixteenth-century Essex too, violent slaying was much less 19:52.059 --> 19:53.579 confined to the family. 19:53.578 --> 19:58.488 In modern Britain about 50% of homicides take place within the 19:58.486 --> 19:59.206 family. 19:59.210 --> 20:03.290 In Essex in the early modern period, it was only 21%, 20:03.289 --> 20:06.899 even if you include the killing of servants. 20:06.900 --> 20:10.880 So violence is more broadly spread in society. 20:10.880 --> 20:13.670 But the killing was rarely premeditated. 20:13.670 --> 20:18.120 It usually arose from quite spontaneous resort to violence 20:18.123 --> 20:20.393 in the course of a quarrel. 20:20.390 --> 20:24.630 In many ways the homicide cases that survive in the records were 20:24.633 --> 20:27.263 actually cases of aggravated assault. 20:27.259 --> 20:31.049 J.A. Sharpe has analyzed the weapons that were used. 20:31.048 --> 20:34.208 He finds that poisoning, a very calculated act of 20:34.208 --> 20:35.918 homicide, was very rare. 20:35.920 --> 20:39.860 Guns and swords and knives were rarely used, which is perhaps 20:39.855 --> 20:43.985 surprising since nearly everyone carried a knife to cut up their 20:43.989 --> 20:44.579 food. 20:44.578 --> 20:47.748 Even housewives generally carried two knives. 20:47.750 --> 20:49.430 It was a badge of their position in the family. 20:49.430 --> 20:52.440 They had double sheaths with two knives to use about their 20:52.443 --> 20:52.923 duties. 20:52.920 --> 20:56.890 The commonest weapons used for homicide in this period were 20:56.888 --> 21:01.268 simply tools which people had picked up in a moment of anger, 21:01.269 --> 21:05.229 or sticks, or cudgels, or fists and feet. 21:05.230 --> 21:08.380 In more than two thirds of the cases examined by Sharpe, 21:08.383 --> 21:11.483 people killed others with their fists or their feet. 21:11.480 --> 21:15.980 These were brawls then which resulted in a death. 21:15.980 --> 21:20.940 So homicide emerges as largely a question of violence arising 21:20.938 --> 21:25.648 amongst neighbors in the course of day-to-day quarrels. 21:25.650 --> 21:29.250 It does indeed suggest that there was a degree of 21:29.248 --> 21:33.668 willingness to strike out with relatively small provocation, 21:33.670 --> 21:35.470 which is unfamiliar. 21:35.470 --> 21:36.740 At least among men. 21:36.740 --> 21:38.320 Women are very rarely involved. 21:38.318 --> 21:44.048 They turn up in homicide cases usually only in the very special 21:44.053 --> 21:49.883 circumstances of accusations of witchcraft or of infanticide. 21:49.880 --> 21:53.310 So before coming to the conclusion that this was a 21:53.307 --> 21:57.217 significantly more violent society than our own we should 21:57.224 --> 22:01.284 also take into account the fact that in the seventeenth and 22:01.281 --> 22:05.901 twentieth centuries the figures are not strictly comparable. 22:05.900 --> 22:09.420 Many of those who died as a result of such casual violence 22:09.421 --> 22:13.251 in the seventeenth century would actually have been saved today 22:13.250 --> 22:15.290 by modern medical techniques. 22:15.288 --> 22:18.998 The crimes concerned would be down as serious assault rather 22:19.003 --> 22:22.093 than as homicide and one has to allow for that. 22:22.088 --> 22:26.268 But nevertheless something was going on in the period, 22:26.269 --> 22:30.659 a gradual decline in the rates of homicide even though modern 22:30.660 --> 22:35.270 medical techniques had not come in during the period of the-- 22:35.269 --> 22:38.319 covered by the tables that you have there. 22:38.319 --> 22:41.939 So something is going on. 22:41.940 --> 22:44.560 Overall then, one can say some areas of the 22:44.564 --> 22:47.884 kingdom which had provided special problems were being 22:47.875 --> 22:49.925 pacified, some social groups who 22:49.929 --> 22:52.609 presented a special problem were being pacified, 22:52.608 --> 22:56.648 and it seems likely that the higher degree of spontaneous 22:56.653 --> 23:00.843 violence amongst otherwise respectable people was gradually 23:00.839 --> 23:02.139 being reduced. 23:02.140 --> 23:04.910 There were limits to the violence of the period, 23:04.910 --> 23:07.110 limits to what was regarded as tolerable, 23:07.108 --> 23:09.478 serious efforts to try to contain it, 23:09.480 --> 23:17.150 and the figures suggest that they were meeting some success. 23:17.150 --> 23:20.320 Well, let's turn now to crimes against property. 23:20.318 --> 23:24.698 If violence might seem to us the principal indicator of the 23:24.695 --> 23:29.275 orderliness of a society, contemporaries were actually 23:29.277 --> 23:34.297 much more concerned with the problem of trends in theft. 23:34.298 --> 23:37.808 Many of them believed that they were witnessing in the-- 23:37.808 --> 23:41.328 at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 23:41.332 --> 23:44.592 something of a wave of crimes against property. 23:44.588 --> 23:48.238 And when you look at the court records it's always property 23:48.236 --> 23:51.816 crimes which predominate in the evidence that survives. 23:51.818 --> 23:54.068 If you look at your handout, table one, 23:54.068 --> 23:59.888 that breaks down the crimes dealt with by various court 23:59.891 --> 24:06.361 jurisdictions in the counties I've marked on the map here and 24:06.357 --> 24:13.147 overwhelmingly property offenses dominate those statistics. 24:13.150 --> 24:15.270 Property crimes of all sorts, in fact, 24:15.269 --> 24:19.639 seem to have been rising in most of the areas of England for 24:19.643 --> 24:23.723 which we have evidence from roughly the 1580s through to 24:23.721 --> 24:27.651 roughly the 1620s and then gradually diminishing. 24:27.650 --> 24:31.810 And there's an example of that in table three on your handout 24:31.814 --> 24:35.844 where we have the figures for Chester in the northwest, 24:35.838 --> 24:39.818 which has very good records, and you get that upward trend 24:39.815 --> 24:43.925 followed by a significantly lower level of property offenses 24:43.929 --> 24:46.509 later in the seventeenth century. 24:46.509 --> 24:51.749 Well, certain trends can be discerned then; 24:51.750 --> 24:54.920 a real problem at the turn of the century getting somewhat 24:54.919 --> 24:55.919 better later on. 24:55.920 --> 24:59.140 But when we talk about property crime of course it's a rather 24:59.141 --> 25:02.471 blanket term and it covers a multitude of specific offenses. 25:02.470 --> 25:06.560 There are two principal distinctions in property crime 25:06.564 --> 25:08.964 that we need to take note of. 25:08.960 --> 25:13.160 First of all, they made a distinction between 25:13.160 --> 25:16.980 capital and noncapital forms of theft. 25:16.980 --> 25:21.050 Capital forms of theft were those which were punished by 25:21.054 --> 25:24.244 death and they included highway robbery, 25:24.240 --> 25:29.280 burglary, and housebreaking and also thefts of goods worth more 25:29.282 --> 25:33.062 than one shilling; that's about a day's wage for a 25:33.055 --> 25:34.985 London laborer, twelve pence, 25:34.991 --> 25:36.101 one shilling. 25:36.098 --> 25:39.468 If you stole goods worth more than twelve pence or one 25:39.468 --> 25:43.278 shilling, you were guilty of 'grand larceny' and that carried 25:43.280 --> 25:44.680 the death penalty. 25:44.680 --> 25:47.970 Then there were noncapital thefts, 'petty larceny', 25:47.969 --> 25:51.719 goods of lesser value valued at less than one shilling; 25:51.720 --> 25:53.670 that was punishable by whipping. 25:53.670 --> 25:56.170 So they distinguished capital and noncapital. 25:56.170 --> 26:00.170 Secondly, they distinguished forms of property offense which 26:00.165 --> 26:03.955 were 'clergyable' and those which were non clergyable. 26:03.960 --> 26:05.520 What did that mean? 26:05.519 --> 26:10.349 A clergyable offense was one which was subject to 'benefit of 26:10.353 --> 26:12.693 clergy', benefit of clergy. 26:12.690 --> 26:16.760 That meant that a person found guilty, 26:16.759 --> 26:20.979 even of a capital crime, could escape hanging by 26:20.982 --> 26:25.562 claiming benefit of clergy, by claiming to be a member of 26:25.560 --> 26:26.340 the clergy. 26:26.338 --> 26:29.488 It was a hangover from the medieval laws which had exempted 26:29.487 --> 26:32.577 the clergy from the jurisdiction of the state's courts. 26:32.578 --> 26:35.638 By this period it was a complete fiction but they 26:35.643 --> 26:39.093 continued to use it in the procedures of the courts. 26:39.088 --> 26:43.158 You proved that you deserved benefit of clergy by proving 26:43.164 --> 26:46.494 that you could read, and you proved that you could 26:46.491 --> 26:49.851 read by reading what was known as the "neck verse" 26:49.853 --> 26:52.533 because it saved your neck, the neck verse. 26:52.529 --> 26:54.079 Psalm 51, verse 1. 26:54.078 --> 26:56.498 It's very appropriate: "Have mercy upon me, 26:56.500 --> 26:59.310 O Lord, according to thy loving kindness, 26:59.308 --> 27:02.178 according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, 27:02.180 --> 27:04.910 blot out my transgression." 27:04.910 --> 27:07.250 If you could read that successfully, 27:07.249 --> 27:08.719 you would be spared. 27:08.720 --> 27:12.140 Grand larceny was clergyable though some offenses were 27:12.138 --> 27:15.428 considered so serious that clergy was not permitted: 27:15.429 --> 27:18.859 house breaking, burglary, highway robbery and 27:18.859 --> 27:20.409 some other offenses. 27:20.410 --> 27:23.210 Clergy applied only to men because only men could be 27:23.208 --> 27:26.378 members of the clergy, but a woman found guilty of a 27:26.381 --> 27:29.921 capital offense was allowed to "plead her belly" 27:29.921 --> 27:32.541 as they put it; that's to say she could claim 27:32.538 --> 27:34.708 that she believed herself to be pregnant. 27:34.710 --> 27:38.480 If so, she would be spared since it was clearly unjust to 27:38.477 --> 27:42.587 hang a pregnant woman, and if so spared she might 27:42.589 --> 27:47.639 ultimately be reprieved after the birth of the child. 27:47.640 --> 27:49.890 So much for definitions then. 27:49.890 --> 27:52.950 The problem in discussing property crime is that, 27:52.950 --> 27:56.060 though one can understand the system of how they dealt with it 27:56.064 --> 27:58.734 well enough, it's impossible to establish 27:58.730 --> 28:01.380 the actual incidence of these crimes, 28:01.380 --> 28:03.940 because what we have in the court records are not the 28:03.943 --> 28:07.983 records of all crimes committed, but simply the records of those 28:07.982 --> 28:09.552 that got prosecuted. 28:09.548 --> 28:12.748 And that leaves us with what people refer to as the 28:12.749 --> 28:16.139 "dark number" of offenses that we just don't 28:16.140 --> 28:17.100 know about. 28:17.098 --> 28:20.478 In 1596 for example, one justice of the peace for 28:20.483 --> 28:24.293 Somerset said that in his opinion only about a fifth of 28:24.290 --> 28:28.660 the property offenses which were committed ever came before the 28:28.663 --> 28:31.523 courts; the rest went unprosecuted, 28:31.516 --> 28:35.746 largely because people didn't consider it worth the time and 28:35.748 --> 28:40.118 trouble and charge of bringing a case over goods which were of 28:40.124 --> 28:41.204 low value. 28:41.200 --> 28:44.810 Nevertheless, as the figures show, 28:44.808 --> 28:48.518 there was a considerable rise in the numbers of people who 28:48.515 --> 28:52.345 were prosecuted at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth 28:52.348 --> 28:53.258 centuries. 28:53.259 --> 28:56.849 That might possibly be accounted for partly by 28:56.845 --> 29:00.295 population rise, but also there appears to have 29:00.303 --> 29:04.193 been a real increase over and above what can be accounted for 29:04.191 --> 29:06.331 by simply a rising population. 29:06.328 --> 29:09.338 So then are we dealing with a real increase in property crime, 29:09.338 --> 29:11.748 a crime wave, under Elizabeth and the early 29:11.749 --> 29:13.869 Stuarts, or, on the other hand, 29:13.865 --> 29:16.565 is it just a tightening up of the law, 29:16.568 --> 29:20.228 not an increase in crime but an increase in prosecution? 29:20.230 --> 29:26.150 Well, I'd suggest that it was a bit of both. 29:26.150 --> 29:29.870 In considering the problem, it's helpful to ask the simple 29:29.873 --> 29:33.673 questions: who were the thieves, what were the circumstances of 29:33.665 --> 29:36.395 their offenses, and so forth?. 29:36.400 --> 29:40.320 There's very little evidence in the court records of the 29:40.324 --> 29:44.324 existence of a professional criminal class in England. 29:44.319 --> 29:46.969 It certainly existed in London. 29:46.970 --> 29:50.820 London is another special case and London certainly had a corps 29:50.818 --> 29:54.838 of professional criminals, but elsewhere it's rare to find 29:54.844 --> 29:58.794 people repeatedly prosecuted in the courts from whom-- 29:58.788 --> 30:02.068 for whom one can reconstruct a criminal career. 30:02.068 --> 30:05.498 They exist and their careers were not necessarily cut off by 30:05.501 --> 30:07.831 being hanged for their first offense, 30:07.828 --> 30:10.948 as we'll see, but there seem to have been few 30:10.950 --> 30:11.660 of them. 30:11.660 --> 30:14.480 The nearest thing you get to a criminal class in the 30:14.478 --> 30:17.738 countryside were vagrants who might steal as part of the way 30:17.739 --> 30:20.939 in which they managed to get by and occasionally delinquent 30:20.944 --> 30:23.454 families, in particular villagers who 30:23.454 --> 30:26.594 seem to have been held responsible for a lot of petty 30:26.586 --> 30:27.306 offenses. 30:27.308 --> 30:31.668 In one village I worked on in Lancashire for example, 30:31.670 --> 30:35.280 there was a man who was known locally by the nickname 30:35.284 --> 30:39.244 'Desperate Tom' because of the frequency with which he was 30:39.244 --> 30:42.794 involved in petty crime of one kind or another. 30:42.788 --> 30:45.618 There were such people, but not a professional criminal 30:45.619 --> 30:47.979 class in the sense that we might expect it. 30:47.980 --> 30:52.210 Most offenders turn out to have been drawn from the lowest ranks 30:52.212 --> 30:55.512 of the rural population: laborers, poor craftsmen, 30:55.506 --> 30:56.376 servants. 30:56.380 --> 30:59.250 These are the people who are disproportionately represented. 30:59.250 --> 31:03.390 You very rarely find yeoman farmers, or husbandmen, 31:03.393 --> 31:07.043 or craftsmen of substance being presented. 31:07.039 --> 31:08.799 They're overwhelmingly men. 31:08.798 --> 31:11.188 You very rarely find women being prosecuted. 31:11.190 --> 31:15.570 Only about 15% of those accused of property crimes in the county 31:15.566 --> 31:18.976 of Hertfordshire for example, to the north of London, 31:18.978 --> 31:22.018 were women, and other counties have similar 31:22.020 --> 31:22.710 figures. 31:22.710 --> 31:27.580 Most of the offenses they committed also turn out to have 31:27.579 --> 31:30.449 been rather opportunistic acts. 31:30.450 --> 31:34.420 What you get is someone stealing perhaps a small animal 31:34.420 --> 31:38.680 which had strayed or taking small goods which they happened 31:38.684 --> 31:41.484 to have the opportunity to pilfer. 31:41.480 --> 31:44.660 And most students of the problem suggest that for many of 31:44.656 --> 31:48.176 the rural poor occasional petty pilfering of that kind may have 31:48.175 --> 31:50.895 been part and parcel of the way they got by. 31:50.900 --> 31:55.480 That's certainly brought out vividly in years of bad harvest 31:55.480 --> 31:57.190 or trade depression. 31:57.190 --> 32:00.130 In the town of Manchester for example, 32:00.130 --> 32:04.870 in the fairly normal years 1615 to 1621, 32:04.868 --> 32:08.258 there were about thirteen people tried for property 32:08.263 --> 32:09.693 offenses each year. 32:09.690 --> 32:14.140 In the bad harvest year of 1622 to 1623, 32:14.140 --> 32:16.650 the figure shot up to thirty-eight, 32:16.650 --> 32:21.480 and that kind of fluctuation in particular crisis years is 32:21.476 --> 32:26.296 something that has been found in every county that's being 32:26.303 --> 32:27.323 studied. 32:27.318 --> 32:31.528 Sometimes you have the detailed circumstances of cases in the 32:31.528 --> 32:35.668 examinations or the confessions of those who were brought to 32:35.667 --> 32:37.937 trial, and that provides supporting 32:37.942 --> 32:38.482 evidence. 32:38.480 --> 32:41.230 For example, in 1626 in the county of 32:41.230 --> 32:45.740 Worcestershire a man called William Bride was prosecuted for 32:45.740 --> 32:49.850 stealing a sheep and he said-- he confessed and said in his 32:49.847 --> 32:52.917 own defense "that the same sheep was rotten"-- 32:52.920 --> 32:56.350 that's to say it was sick--and that he took it "for want 32:56.351 --> 32:58.411 of food to relieve his wife." 32:58.410 --> 33:01.890 Or again in 1623 Robert Whitehead, a laborer from the 33:01.893 --> 33:06.523 village of Terling in Essex, stole and with his family ate a 33:06.519 --> 33:11.449 sheep and he confessed and said that he did it "having a 33:11.453 --> 33:16.063 wife and seven small children and being hungry." 33:16.058 --> 33:19.178 They actually identified him as the thief because they found the 33:19.183 --> 33:20.923 skin of the sheep in his cottage; 33:20.920 --> 33:23.190 it had been eaten. 33:23.190 --> 33:26.090 These things considered, it may very well appear that 33:26.085 --> 33:29.085 the general rise in the incidents of theft in the court 33:29.093 --> 33:31.933 records at the turn of the sixteenth and seventeenth 33:31.932 --> 33:35.082 centuries, especially these petty thefts, 33:35.082 --> 33:39.192 may relate to the general process of pauperization of the 33:39.192 --> 33:43.602 rural poor which we've already observed being at its worst in 33:43.597 --> 33:46.627 this period, and there's an excellent study 33:46.628 --> 33:49.878 of this which you find on the reading list by Peter Lawson 33:49.875 --> 33:53.005 called "Property Crime and Hard Times." 33:53.009 --> 33:55.169 However, of course, that's only part of 33:55.173 --> 33:56.103 the explanation. 33:56.098 --> 34:00.018 One can't simply equate poverty and theft. 34:00.019 --> 34:05.389 Clearly, most of the poor didn't steal and of those who 34:05.386 --> 34:08.366 did not all were prosecuted. 34:08.369 --> 34:10.899 And various other considerations are at work in 34:10.902 --> 34:14.152 the kinds of figures that we have from the court records. 34:14.150 --> 34:19.950 Often cases weren't brought because victims of crime simply 34:19.949 --> 34:26.149 couldn't be bothered with the expense and trouble involved, 34:26.150 --> 34:29.950 having to bring a case themselves, especially if the 34:29.945 --> 34:33.975 goods had been recovered, which they sometimes were. 34:33.980 --> 34:36.480 When goods were found missing there was often a search by the 34:36.480 --> 34:36.980 constable. 34:36.980 --> 34:40.590 If they were recovered, the victim quite frequently 34:40.588 --> 34:42.318 declined to prosecute. 34:42.320 --> 34:45.860 That was sometimes partly out of pity for the thief, 34:45.860 --> 34:49.300 not least because the person responsible might very often be 34:49.302 --> 34:52.362 a neighbor, someone well known to them. 34:52.360 --> 34:55.520 There was definitely a preference for mediation in 34:55.518 --> 34:58.868 settling disputes of all kinds at the local level. 34:58.869 --> 35:00.659 The early seventeenth-century clergyman, 35:00.659 --> 35:04.029 George Herbert, clergyman and poet, 35:04.030 --> 35:08.130 wrote and advised that in such cases "gentle and 35:08.132 --> 35:12.712 neighborly admonition" was the best course to take. 35:12.710 --> 35:17.340 One should prosecute in the courts only if a delinquent 35:17.344 --> 35:20.354 persisted in delinquent activity. 35:20.349 --> 35:24.469 So what's at issue in understanding how these cases 35:24.467 --> 35:29.327 came up to be recorded in the court records is of course the 35:29.327 --> 35:33.607 whole tenor of social relationships within particular 35:33.610 --> 35:37.130 neighborhoods, and it's not surprising that 35:37.130 --> 35:41.100 people have found when they look very closely at cases heard in 35:41.097 --> 35:45.057 the courts that those who were prosecuted as thieves very often 35:45.063 --> 35:47.433 have particular characteristics. 35:47.429 --> 35:51.179 They were often outsiders, not members of the village 35:51.177 --> 35:55.427 community, not sheltered by being known, perhaps even liked, 35:55.431 --> 35:57.091 within the village. 35:57.090 --> 35:59.720 They were often, if they weren't outsiders, 35:59.715 --> 36:02.715 very marginal people, the kind of people who were 36:02.715 --> 36:05.085 accused of witchcraft for example. 36:05.090 --> 36:09.260 They were sometimes known delinquents who had finally 36:09.264 --> 36:14.164 exhausted the patience of the local community by persisting in 36:14.163 --> 36:15.853 their activities. 36:15.849 --> 36:19.619 But even when they were actually brought before the 36:19.617 --> 36:24.137 courts there were various ways in which the full rigor of the 36:24.141 --> 36:25.951 law could be spared. 36:25.949 --> 36:30.079 Sometimes having brought a prosecution in order to scare 36:30.083 --> 36:34.823 someone, the victim would allow it to lapse by not turning up to 36:34.820 --> 36:36.700 see the case through. 36:36.699 --> 36:40.359 The grand juries which had to look at the cases in the courts 36:40.360 --> 36:43.840 vetted the indictments which were brought before them very 36:43.838 --> 36:47.498 carefully and they could be very conscientious in weeding out 36:47.501 --> 36:51.591 cases in which they considered the evidence to be deficient, 36:51.590 --> 36:54.480 or they suspected that there might be an element of malice in 36:54.476 --> 36:57.056 the prosecution, or where they simply decided 36:57.057 --> 37:00.507 that in the circumstances of the case they were going to be 37:00.514 --> 37:01.234 merciful. 37:01.230 --> 37:03.070 They vetted each case. 37:03.070 --> 37:05.860 If they wanted it to go to trial they endorsed the 37:05.858 --> 37:08.188 indictment billa vera, a true bill, 37:08.193 --> 37:09.563 and it went forward. 37:09.559 --> 37:12.189 If they thought it could be--it should lapse, 37:12.193 --> 37:14.713 they endorsed the bill ignoramus; 37:14.710 --> 37:17.980 they wrote the word ignoramus on the bill, 37:17.976 --> 37:21.716 literally "we do not know," and the case would 37:21.719 --> 37:22.739 be dropped. 37:22.739 --> 37:26.659 In the county of Sussex in the early seventeenth century, 37:26.663 --> 37:30.033 as many as a quarter of indictments were actually 37:30.027 --> 37:32.967 dropped in this way by the grand jury. 37:32.969 --> 37:39.019 Or again, if the case came to trial, trial juries of neighbors 37:39.016 --> 37:42.086 frequently failed to convict. 37:42.090 --> 37:46.130 Some of them were moved probably by a degree of 37:46.128 --> 37:49.638 compassion for the person before them. 37:49.639 --> 37:53.139 They frequently indulged in the practice of reducing the 37:53.141 --> 37:56.201 valuation of the goods which had been stolen, 37:56.199 --> 37:58.939 so that a person would get a lesser conviction. 37:58.940 --> 38:03.210 So for example they might have someone before them for stealing 38:03.213 --> 38:07.353 a sheep valued at two shillings, which would have carried the 38:07.349 --> 38:10.089 death penalty; they decide that the person 38:10.088 --> 38:12.308 needs punishing but not that severely, 38:12.309 --> 38:15.499 and so they would find them guilty but reduce the value of 38:15.498 --> 38:17.848 the sheep to ten pence or eleven pence, 38:17.849 --> 38:21.139 which would mean petty larceny and the person concerned would 38:21.141 --> 38:24.131 be whipped, rather than hanged. 38:24.130 --> 38:26.810 All of that was extremely common. 38:26.809 --> 38:30.279 For example, in Elizabethan Essex a fifth of 38:30.280 --> 38:34.640 all property offenses had the valuation reduced in that 38:34.641 --> 38:35.531 manner. 38:35.530 --> 38:38.570 And finally there was the use of benefit of clergy. 38:38.570 --> 38:41.470 This was very important indeed. 38:41.469 --> 38:45.799 In Elizabethan Essex, only a tiny proportion of those 38:45.800 --> 38:50.630 who were convicted of stealing sheep, which was clergyable, 38:50.630 --> 38:53.630 were actually sentenced to hang; 38:53.630 --> 38:56.980 could be as low as six percent in particular years. 38:56.980 --> 39:00.610 The rest were permitted clergy and, 39:00.610 --> 39:04.980 since the levels of literacy were so low in this period that 39:04.980 --> 39:09.500 it seems highly unlikely that such a high proportion of felons 39:09.498 --> 39:13.218 could actually read, it's perfectly clear that the 39:13.215 --> 39:17.265 magistrates and the judges were permitting any kind of stumbling 39:17.271 --> 39:21.211 through the neck verse, often from memory probably, 39:21.210 --> 39:26.260 in order to allow them to have this means of escaping the death 39:26.262 --> 39:27.162 penalty. 39:27.159 --> 39:29.079 Of the--to give you the precise figures-- 39:29.079 --> 39:34.909 of 790 people who were allowed to attempt to read in the courts 39:34.911 --> 39:43.631 of Elizabethan Essex, only nine failed to do so. 39:43.630 --> 39:46.320 And finally, convicted and condemned felons 39:46.322 --> 39:50.302 were not infrequently reprieved if the judge thought that there 39:50.297 --> 39:51.897 was a case for mercy. 39:51.900 --> 39:55.370 The judge ended every assize court by recommending those who 39:55.367 --> 39:58.357 would be reprieved, especially if there were 39:58.364 --> 40:02.274 respectable members of the community who were willing to 40:02.271 --> 40:03.551 speak for them. 40:03.550 --> 40:07.550 All of this goes to show quite clearly that the apparent 40:07.547 --> 40:11.907 savagery of the law did not in practice vent itself on people 40:11.911 --> 40:15.111 quite as severely as one might suspect, 40:15.110 --> 40:17.980 or certainly not in an unrestrained manner. 40:17.980 --> 40:21.180 It was used with a great deal of discretion, 40:21.179 --> 40:24.449 and discretion in the way the law was used is something of a 40:24.449 --> 40:27.829 key word for historians of criminal justice in this period. 40:27.829 --> 40:31.329 That issue, discretion, and how it was used is 40:31.331 --> 40:36.081 absolutely central to the two classic articles which you'll be 40:36.077 --> 40:38.877 reading for next week's section. 40:38.880 --> 40:41.840 In one of them, Douglas Hay has argued that 40:41.840 --> 40:45.930 this use of discretion was a quite calculated policy by the 40:45.929 --> 40:49.599 magistrates to balance the terror of the law with the 40:49.597 --> 40:54.087 practice of mercy, and by doing so to retain the 40:54.090 --> 40:57.950 gratitude and the deference of the poor. 40:57.949 --> 41:00.729 Make examples of a few; pardon the rest. 41:00.730 --> 41:02.700 It's conducive to order. 41:02.699 --> 41:03.799 That's his argument. 41:03.800 --> 41:06.680 Cynthia Herrup takes a rather different line. 41:06.679 --> 41:10.249 She argues that the operation of the law involved many 41:10.246 --> 41:13.946 elements of participation by rulers and ruled alike, 41:13.949 --> 41:16.559 not only the judges and the magistrates but the members of 41:16.561 --> 41:17.571 juries and so forth. 41:17.570 --> 41:21.920 As many as three dozen people could be involved in a case from 41:21.916 --> 41:25.976 its earliest investigation through to the actual trial. 41:25.980 --> 41:29.740 And she suggests that among such people there were certain 41:29.735 --> 41:34.065 shared ideals of justice, which meant that they tended to 41:34.068 --> 41:39.208 practice the gradual sifting out at various stages of the case of 41:39.206 --> 41:43.056 those whom they deemed to be truly culpable, 41:43.059 --> 41:45.639 truly criminal. 41:45.639 --> 41:48.679 Those hanged were those who stole for profit, 41:48.684 --> 41:52.084 who stole in a planned manner, who were strangers, 41:52.076 --> 41:55.256 who failed to confess and express remorse. 41:55.260 --> 41:58.970 And she argues that this expressed what was fundamentally 41:58.974 --> 42:03.334 a religious attitude; that all people are potentially 42:03.331 --> 42:08.721 sinful, that only some are so hardened in evil that they are 42:08.722 --> 42:11.282 incapable of reformation. 42:11.280 --> 42:15.390 Well, these are cases you can read for yourself and debate 42:15.393 --> 42:16.263 next week. 42:16.260 --> 42:19.760 So then discretion was widely used, 42:19.760 --> 42:25.540 but nevertheless it should also be emphasized that none of this 42:25.543 --> 42:31.053 leniency and clemency and discretion could be guaranteed. 42:31.050 --> 42:36.080 The terror of the law was often mitigated by justice and by 42:36.079 --> 42:39.069 mercy, but that was at the discretion 42:39.068 --> 42:41.008 of prosecutors, of neighbors, 42:41.014 --> 42:44.474 of jury men and judges, and it wasn't always 42:44.465 --> 42:45.835 forthcoming. 42:45.840 --> 42:50.380 There was no ultimate guarantee that only the most guilty would 42:50.378 --> 42:54.258 be sentenced to a flogging or the hangman's noose, 42:54.260 --> 42:58.240 and there's also evidence that in those difficult generations 42:58.240 --> 43:01.960 in the last years of Elizabeth and the early years of the 43:01.956 --> 43:05.316 Stuarts, something of a greater punitive 43:05.320 --> 43:08.550 harshness was being used in the courts. 43:08.550 --> 43:13.530 A harshness greater than that that was later to be the case. 43:13.530 --> 43:17.760 I mean more prosecutions, less use of benefit of clergy, 43:17.759 --> 43:19.989 and indeed more executions. 43:19.989 --> 43:22.879 In the final six years of Elizabeth's reign at the county 43:22.884 --> 43:26.094 town of Chelmsford in Essex they were hanging twenty-eight-- 43:26.090 --> 43:31.070 twenty-six--people a year in public. 43:31.070 --> 43:34.060 In the 1620s, seventeen a year were being 43:34.063 --> 43:35.563 hanged at Chester. 43:35.559 --> 43:40.189 Between 1600 and 1610, twenty-five a year were being 43:40.188 --> 43:43.908 hanged at Exeter down in the southwest. 43:43.909 --> 43:48.909 It's been estimated that perhaps 600 plus people were 43:48.905 --> 43:54.665 publicly hanged every year in the last years of Elizabeth and 43:54.670 --> 43:58.130 the early years of King James I. 43:58.130 --> 44:01.820 And those are pretty high figures by the standards of what 44:01.822 --> 44:05.992 we know about later periods, especially the eighteenth and 44:05.989 --> 44:10.459 nineteenth centuries when most counties saw only a handful of 44:10.458 --> 44:12.468 executions in each year. 44:12.469 --> 44:16.789 To give you a comparison which might be more meaningful, 44:16.789 --> 44:22.139 I read yesterday in the Times that in Texas there 44:22.143 --> 44:25.943 have been 334 executions since 1997, 44:25.940 --> 44:31.160 which works out at an average of almost twenty-six a year, 44:31.159 --> 44:34.379 the same figure as were being hanged in Chelmsford, 44:34.380 --> 44:38.510 Essex in 1597. 44:38.510 --> 44:41.470 But Essex had a population of approximately 100,000; 44:41.469 --> 44:45.919 Texas has a population of 26 million. 44:45.920 --> 44:50.760 So in other words, the rate per million in Texas 44:50.757 --> 44:56.827 of executions annually is just over one, one per million. 44:56.829 --> 45:05.849 The rate in late Elizabethan England was 150 per million. 45:05.849 --> 45:09.779 The point I'm making, obviously, is that despite the 45:09.777 --> 45:14.247 many mitigating circumstances which were used England still 45:14.246 --> 45:18.556 had a pretty bloody criminal code and it was still pretty 45:18.561 --> 45:21.601 bloodily enforced; on hardened evildoers 45:21.601 --> 45:24.781 certainly, but also perhaps sometimes on those who simply 45:24.777 --> 45:27.497 didn't have the position or the connections, 45:27.500 --> 45:31.120 who were outsiders, who were vagrants and could not 45:31.121 --> 45:35.471 escape the rigor of the law through the use of discretion. 45:35.469 --> 45:38.739 We mustn't exaggerate the ferocity of the law, 45:38.742 --> 45:43.182 but equally we mustn't forget its very harsh realities in this 45:43.179 --> 45:43.979 period. 45:43.980 --> 45:48.490 At its very heart were not only certain social ideals of justice 45:48.487 --> 45:51.847 regarding who most deserved such punishment, 45:51.849 --> 45:55.959 but also what's been described as "the logic of exemplary 45:55.958 --> 45:57.238 punishment." 45:57.239 --> 46:01.309 They believed that since they could not deal with all crime 46:01.306 --> 46:03.686 they must make examples of some. 46:03.690 --> 46:11.070 And they did on a scale which by modern standards is shocking. 46:11.070 --> 46:19.380 There we can leave it. 46:19.380 --> 46:22.090 Next time I'll go on to look at another aspect of order, 46:22.090 --> 46:27.110 the small-scale forms of popular protest, 46:27.110 --> 46:31.050 demonstrations and riots which one finds in this period. 46:31.050 --> 46:37.000