Over the centuries, there have been many different methods of executions used for those offenders
found guilty of committing many different crimes.
The most serious offences such as murder, still in many countries around the world warrant
the death penalty, but in Britain this was abolished.
Over the medieval and Tudor Period, there were many different methods of execution used,
from burning to even boiling alive.
But many of these execution methods carried the same strand of purpose, they were public
and were performed to ensure that the public were deterred from committing serious offences.
Judges today in society despite not giving out capital punishments, will give more serious
and harsher sentences to defendants who have committed particularly appalling crimes, and
deterrence in the form of longer prison sentences is supposed to put other possible criminals
off.
Today in Britain, there is a tariff that carries a whole life sentence meaning someone will
never leave their incarceration and this is used for the most shocking and disturbing
offences.
But to many who have this, I’m sure they would prefer to be executed to be put of their
misery.
But in the 17th century, the amount of crimes that someone could be executed for rose to
a staggering amount, meaning that for what we would consider trivial today could result
inn someone being executed.
This legislation that saw a huge increase in the crimes that people could be executed
for was called The Bloody Code.
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The Bloody Code was driven by the need to deter the public from committing offences
and crimes, and an alarming number of these were made by the upper class to ensure that
the lower classes would not target them or their property.
It’s the system that allowed thousands of people to be killed in huge spectacles and
executions, and today we would believe some of the offences to not even warranting serious
punishment.
However centuries before they could result in someone losing their life.
At the end of the 17th century, in 1688 the number of crimes that carried the ultimate
punishment of death was 50, but this rose over the next century to a staggering number
of over 200 criminal offences.
Judges began to become known for being rather ruthless and towards many people and especially
lower classes they would not show much relief.
The laws were created by the rich to protect the population and they looked down upon the
lower classes.
Many lawmakers believed that by carrying out executions of the lower class criminals, this
would help keep the rest of the lower classes in check.
They thought this would be the best deterrent, and that people would avoid a life of crime
even if the crimes were less serious that they were being killed for.
This led to the amount of offences carrying capital punishment to rise heavily and changes
in the law allowed this.
Thousands of people would flock to witness executions and because of this it was seen
as the perfect deterrent.
Amongst the less serious offences carrying the death penalty were the more serious offences
such as murder and arson, but some of the smaller crimes are rather laughable.
One of the capital offences was wrecking a fishpond, or stealing rabbits from a rabbit
warren on a farm.
Also someone could lose their life for cutting down a tree or cutting branches from it.
Writing threatening letters could also cost you your life, which today would probably
just get you a slap on the wrist.
But being out at night in the town with a blackened face would get you sent to the gallows,
but it’s unsure what this means.
Stealing items from a shipwreck and forging letters was also serious, as was impersonating
a Chelsea pensioner.
To really target the poor, the judges would sentence beggars to death who did not have
a license if they had been a sailor or a soldier.
Horse thieves and sheep rustlers were also killed, as were destroying turnpike roads.
Now with regards to theft, it was referred to as Grand Larceny in the Bloody Code.
This meant that if an offender stole items which were worth more than 12 pence they could
be killed.
This was at the time around 5% of a skilled worker’s weekly wage meaning someone could
be killed for stealing a minimal amount of money or goods worth this.
The hope with this is that the lower classes would be kept away from stealing from the
upper classes, and would help defend their property against theft.
Executions would attract thousands of people to come and witness.
In Lincoln, on the Castle’s walls on the top of a tower named Cobb Hall the gallows
was high up for people to see, and people would be hanged with the crowds below jeering.
Some people in towns would even hire out their houses and parts of inns and pubs for the
public to get a better view of the proceedings.
At this time, around 20 crimes in the Bloody Code would usually carry execution.
In around 70% of the criminal cases, the death sentence would be commuted with transportation
then given out where criminals were sent to Australia to work, or also they were often
conscripted into the Army or the navy.
But further reform continued with more capital offences being made, and the authorities saw
this as necessary to keep people in line.
If the threat of death was there they thought, then surely this would be enough for them
to think twice about their actions.
Between 1735 and 1800, the Bloody Code led to almost 1600 women in Britain being sentenced
and condemned to death, but over 1200 of them were saved by the jury.
356 of them would not be so lucky, and 32 of them were burned at the stake with the
majority being hanged in public executions.
169 of these women killed were executed for crimes against property as in arson of theft,
and the rest were considered murderers.
Most were killed based on evidence that implicated them, or on their own confessions or the testimony
of men who witnessed proceedings.
The hearings and trials would be today considered a shame and inadequate as they were often
quick and over rather soon with defendants being given little or no chance to fight their
case as they could not formulate a defence.
Also they could not afford a lawyer, and the only one who could help was often the judge
who took little pity on them.
The Bloody Code led to thousands of executions of men and women, and over 1000 a year were
being sentenced to death.
There were murmurings across Britain at the time to try and reduce the number of capital
offences, and in 1823 the Judgement of Death Act made the death penalty discretionary for
all crimes except for treason and murder.
This meant that there was a reduction in executions, and that judges could issue the execution
if the crime was so serious that it needed it, rather than just issuing it because he
could.
By 1861, the amount of capital crimes stood at five following the reduction, and these
were Arson in a naval dockyard presumably destroying naval ships and equipment, murder,
piracy, espionage and high treason that had resulted in executions for centuries.
But despite being an attempt to reduce crime, the Bloody Code inflicted such misery to people
inside of towns.
The lawmakers wanted to deter in particular the lower classes from crime and to protect
their assets.
The Bloody Code was a shocking piece of legislation in which someone would be executed for what
today would be around £50 if they stole goods worth this value.
But what cannot be argued is that the Bloody Code resulted in the deaths of thousands,
and inside of towns almost every week there would be an execution which would attract
huge crowds.
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