The Tudor Period is remembered for the reigns of Kings and Queens such as Henry VIII and
Elizabeth I, and it’s considered the most bloody period of English history.
Henry VIII for example executed 70,000 people during his almost 4 decade long reign as the
King of England, and that figure included some of his closest friends and two of his
wives.
Things did not improve after with religious turmoil plaguing the country, and Bloody Mary
later burning many Protestants at the stake.
But during the Tudor times, there were a number of punishments used to bring justice against
those criminals who had committed offences and crimes.
The most serious offences such as treason were dealt with using the axe, with execution
being ordered, but there were a huge number of other punishments used inside Tudor towns.
Join us today as we look at 10 Horrific Tudor Punihsments, to support our channel, please
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One way of punishing thieves and pickpockets which was used during the Tudor and medieval
period was to cut the limbs of hands off an individual.
This is still done with some cultures around the world, and the idea of losing fingers
or hands for thieves was to ensure that they could not steal objects again.
Cutting and inflicting wounds was also used during torture whilst prisoners were placed
onto the rack at the Tower of London, and other brutal practices such as fingernails
being pulled out were common during the Tudor Period.
But losing a hand for constant thievery was a brutal way of administering justice inside
of towns.
The Dunking stool was a form of punishment used for those mostly who were accused of
being witches, or of witchcraft.
The victim would be tied to a chair which was held over a pond, river, lake or barrel
of water.
Then the victim would be lowered into the water until they were completely underwater.
The chair was raised if the victim was about to lose consciousness, and then they were
given the chance to confess to their crimes.
Sometimes even fruit and gags were placed in the victims mouth and nose so they could
not get a good breath, meaning they could easily drown.
Ordeal by water began with witch hunts in the 15 and 1600s in England and Britain, and
it was a rather brutal thing to have watched.
It was also used as a punishment for common scolds and gossips during the Tudor Period
also.
A classic punishment for drunk people and vagrants who were found inebriated in towns
and cities, the Drunkard’s Cloak was a form of public humiliation to help drunks improve
their public behaviour.
They were forced to wear a barrel and then parade around the town until their punishment
was deemed over.
The barrel had holes cut out for the arms and the head and was very heavy, and when
someone saw this being worn, the public would often throw things and verbally abuse the
drunk in the cloak.
This was one way in which Tudor towns tried to clean up those who they deemed to have
been causing problems within a town with regards to ale and alcohol.
Whipping was a common way of treating criminals and was witnessed by the public in huge scenes.
Criminals would find themselves tied or chained to a whipping post which could be found in
public places, such as market squares or village squares.
They were here to ensure that people could see what was happening.
The victim would then be stripped to the waste and secured to the post, before they were
whipped in front of the hundreds of people.
Some schools to inflict punishment onto pupils also employed a whipping boy who would be
in charge of whipping students who were being naughty or misbehaving.
Must of the punishment in the Tudor Period was meant for deference, and to put people
off committing similar crimes.
Similar to whipping, another public form of punishment was branding.
Brnding was where a criminal would be burned with a red hot iron in front of crowds.
A blacksmith would place a brand inside a hot fire before it was then burned onto the
skin of someone.
Someone could be branded on the arm, hand, cheek, back or on any part of their body,
and different letters were used to indicate the crime that they were guilty of committing.
It was likely too that this would scar, and the perpetrator would be left with a permanent
reminder of their crimes.
Branding was dangerous also as the shock could cause someone to become ill, and even die
such was the pain.
But also the wound could often become infected, and because healthcare was not great during
the Tudor Period, this could also result in death.
One of the most common and famous forms of punishment used during the Tudor Period was
the stocks or the pillory.
These were both devices which were used to secure part of a criminals body into position
so they could not escape, and then they were at the mercy of the public who could throw
things and subject them to a terrible ordeal.
The head and hands were secured through the holes of the pillory, and this usually stood
in a market place.
But the stocks locked the feet of the criminal.
Depending on how liked the person in the device was, that would say how brutal their ordeal
was.
If they were particularly unpopular, people would throw heavier objects at them, and even
excrement at them.
There were accounts of people being killed by being stoned whilst inside of the stocks
or pillory.
Someone could be locked in the pillory or stocks all day, and the aches would cause
problems for the criminal, but as mentioned it could be very dangerous.
Another common way of punishing criminals and offenders was by issuing monetary fines
and punitive punishment for those guilty of offences.
One example of this was during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, who issued the religious
settlement to attempt to unite religion under her rules.
She issued rules that said those who refused to attend church services, known as Recusants
would be punished financially.
The fine depended on the amount of offences that the person had committed, or the amount
of church services that were missed.
Being a recusant or non church attender was very dangerous at the time, and if someone
was very rebellious with regards to religion they could also be killed.
But to hit someone in the wallet was deemed an effective way of making sure someone did
not reoffend.
The most severe punishment inflicted for those guilty of very severe crimes such as treason,
or heresy was execution.
This showed the true brutality of the Tudor Period, and there were many different methods
of execution used.
Some were much more sadistic than others, such as burning at the stake a common sentence
for religious criminals in which someone would be burned in front of huge crowds.
Also beheading was used at sites such as Tower Hill, and some incredibly famous figures were
executed by axemen or swordsmen.
Hanged, Drawn and Quartered was a very bloody method of execution, and there were many more
used such as boiling alive and pressing.
Henry VIII’s reign would signal a time where it’s estimated that 3% of the population
were executed during his almost 4 decades on the throne.
Gibbeting was a form of public execution, but it was done in a number of ways to punish
a criminal.
A criminal would be left dying, dead, or alive inside a metal structure that was held above
crowds and suspended in the air.
This was used as a method of execution, as people would die from exposure and starvation,
but the point of it if someone was alive was to show the crowds and people who passed by
the gibbet not to commit the same offence as the criminal.
Over time, the public would witness the criminal wasting away, until they died and then eventually
they were a skeleton.
It was also known as being hanged in chains, and despite being a method of execution, it
was also a form of public punishment which would have been incredibly brutal.
Also known as the Scold’s Bridle, the Brank was an instrument which was used as a form
of public humiliation.
It was an iron muzzle which was fastened to a woman’s head if they were gossiping or
spreading untruth’s around towns.
It was an incredibly humiliating device for someone to be forced to wear, and there were
many horrendous side effects for wearing it.
The wearer could sometimes be led around towns on a lead, and bells would be rang to attract
people to come and see the scold’s bridle in action.
It was first used in the Tudor Period at the time in Britain, and was used also for women
who were deemed riotous or troublesome and it was also often a very painful experience.
The device would prevent someone from speaking, and would prevent any movement of the mouth,
and often it could even pierce the tongue, such was the brutality of it.
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