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Whitechapel - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The Church:
        
        People in Anglo-Saxon society were Christian.
        
        They believed in heaven and hell, and there was a priest in every village.
        
        People were expected to attend church and live by its rules.
        
        The Church had its own courts for clergy, or churchmen.
        
        It offered a place of sanctuary for people who were accused of committing a crime.
        
        The peasants:
        
        Most people in Anglo-Saxon England were peasants, also known as serfs, who lived in villages and farmed the land.
        
        Peasants spent some of the week farming the land for the local lord and the rest of the week working on their own land.
        
        The people in the village knew one another well and were expected to look out for one another.
  - - - The most common crimes were against property. These included:
        
        petty theft
        
        ploughing someone else’s land
        
        poaching
        
        counterfeiting coins
        
        arson
        
        Poaching was considered a social crime and many villages did not punish people who did it.
        
        Crimes against authority included:
        
        betraying your lord
        
        treason
    - - Around the year 1000, law enforcement and punishment in Anglo-Saxon England were mainly the responsibility of the local community and the Church
        
        People lived in villages and knew their neighbours well.
        
        People had a sense of responsibility to one another to maintain law and order.
        
        When a crime occurred, witnesses or victims were expected to raise the alarm and the men in the tithing had to chase the criminal. This was known as the ‘hue and cry'.
        
        Tithings and the hue and cry:
        
        There was no police force in Anglo-Saxon England. The role of the tithing was to prevent crime.
        
        A tithing system was used and every male villager over the age of 12 would join the tithing.
        
        Each English shire was divided into hundreds and each hundred had ten tithings.
        
        One member from each tithing within the hundred met with the shire reeve (later called the king’s sheriff) to prevent crime, particularly cattle theft.
        
        If one person from the group broke a law, the other members would be responsible for taking them to court or paying a fine.
        
        When a crime was committed, the victim would raise the hue and cry, which means they shouted for help.
        
        The other villagers were expected to stop working when they heard this.
        
        They would help the victim and try to catch the criminal.
        
        If a villager did not join the hue and cry, they were expected to pay a fine.
        
        Collective responsibility was important in law enforcement in Anglo-Saxon England.
        
        If an individual committed a crime, they would let down their whole community.
      - Trials:
        
        There were two types of trial used in Anglo-Saxon England:
        
        Trial by ordeal
        
        Trial by local jury
        
        Trial by local jury
        
        The jury was made up of men from the village tithing who knew the accuser and the accused.
        
        The jury would listen to accounts from both, and possibly witnesses, before deciding who was telling the truth.
        
        Because the jury would know both the accuser and the accused, they could also use their knowledge of both people’s characters to make their decision.
        
        Trial by ordeal
        
        If a local jury could not decide the outcome of a crime, then the villagers would turn to God to decide.
        
        This was known as judicium dei (by the judgement of God) or trial by ordeal.
        
        Trial by ordeal often took place in a church.
        
        The accused would fast for three days and then hear Mass before their trial.
        
        A priest would always be present.
        
        Methods of trial by ordeal included:
        
        Trial by hot iron
        
        Trial by hot water
        
        Trial by blessed bread
        
        Trial by cold water
        
        Trial by hot iron
        
        The accused would hold a burning hot weight in their hand and then their hand would be bandaged.
        If after three days the wound had healed, it was believed that God had judged the person to be innocent.
        
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        Punishments in Anglo-Saxon England were intended to deter others from committing crime.
        
        Punishment in Anglo-Saxon England:
        
        Anglo-Saxon England didn’t have prisons as we know them now.
        
        Prisons that did exist were holding areas that were built to stop serious criminals from escaping before their trial.
        
        These prisons were managed by a gaoler, whom the accused person paid for themselves.
        
        Capital punishment, in particular death by hanging, was used as a punishment for treason.
        
        This lethal punishment was intended to deter other people from committing this crime.
        
        Corporal punishment included mutilation, such as cutting off someone’s hand.
        
        This was used for repeat offenders.
        
        Those who continued to carry out petty theft would have their hand cut off.
        
        This was intended to deter them from committing the crime again.
        
        The pillory and stocks were also used as punishments.
        
        These punishments were intended to humiliate the convicted criminal.
        
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