How did they punish criminals in Shakespeare's time?

Answer 1

Depending on how bad the crime was, the government punished criminals by using the very famous method: Hung, drawn and quartered. Unless the crime was High Treason, however, they didn't bother with the drawing and quartering and settled for the hanging. Sometimes they basically let people go with a promise that they wouldn't do it again; that's what happened to Mary Frith after she was caught performing on stage.

Answer 2

Punishments in schools of Shakespeare's time consisted of severe corporal punishment by flogging with the birch upon the naked buttocks. Boys would kneel and bend over a 'flogging block' to receive the punishment. The birchings would leave the whole bottom (often including the upper thighs and anoperineal region) sore, wealed and bloodied.

Answer 3

As shown in Shakespeare's plays Henry VI Part I and Henry VI Part II the traditional punishment for witches was to be burned at the stake. But new laws were made during the sixteenth century. The Witchcraft Act of 1562 provided that claims of witchcraft were to be tried as felonies, and punished by imprisonment except in cases where the witchcraft was proven to have caused harm, in which case the punishment was death by hanging. King James's Witchcraft Act of 1604 allowed the death penalty for all cases of witchcraft. Again, the death penalty was by hanging.

Answer 4

Whipping, imprisonment, hanging, beheading, burning at the stake or the triple threat of hanging, drawing and quartering are certainly most memorable. But the courts could be much more creative than this. Some punishments seemed more like penances than punishments. Mary Frith, the notorious transvestite, was sentenced to stand at St Paul's Cross in a white sheet during the Sunday Sermon. She was also sentenced to being branded on the hand for stealing. Another less serious sentence was to be put in the stocks.

Because there was a deal of freedom in sentencing, it is probably impossible to give an exhaustive list and thus a certain number of punishments.

Answer 5

There were various ways of being put to death: hanging, beheading, being burned at the stake and the ever popular hanging, drawing and quartering. Plus people could be whipped, or branded, or disfigured, or put in the stocks, or jailed. At the other end of the spectrum were such penalties as being forced to stand on Sunday at St. Paul's cross for the duration of the sermon wearing a white sheet and carrying a candle.

Answer 6

Punishment was harsh and if you committed crimes it would be tough for you to get out of a situation since this was LONDON dude. hell yeah.

Answer 7

A traitor was drawn and quartered, hanged, and disemboweled, except royal traitors who were just beheaded.