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Elizabethan England

Though many of today's crimes may be similar to those in Elizabethan England, the methods of punishment have definitely changed a lot. Most of the punishments of the Elizabethan period would be deemed cruel and unusual by today's standards. The death penalty can no longer be enacted in cases of theft or highway robbery. The following paragraphs will describe the various instruments of punishment (torture) of the period.

One out of the ordinary punishment of the Elizabethan Era was the drunkard's cloak. It was a punishment for public drunkenness; the name of it is somewhat misleading. The flaw in the name comes from the fact that the cloak is less a cloak and more a barrel. The drunk was forced to don a barrel and wander through town while the villagers jeer at him. Holes were cut in the barrel for the person's hands and head, causing it to become like a heavy, awkward shirt.

Another weird punishment was the brank, also known as the bride's scold. The brank was a punishment enacted on women who gossiped or spoke too freely. It was a large iron framework placed on the head of the offender, forming a type of cage. There was a metal strip on the brank that fit into the mouth and was either sharpened to a point or covered with spikes so that any movement of the tongue was certain to cause severe injuries to the mouth. The woman was then led by a city official through the streets of town by a chain, then usually tied to a whipping post or pillory to stand in view of the cruel and verbally abusive public.

Yet another punishment for criminals was the pillory. The pillory was a wooden post with a wooden block on top with holes in it for the person's hands and head to be placed in. The heads and hands were then locked into place while the person was forced to stand in public display for the decided sentence. In some cases the pillory was combined with a whipping post and stocks to make a one stop, public punishment device.

Also among the list of Elizabethan punishment methods was the stocks. The stocks were similar to the pillory in that a part of the body was locked between two slabs of wood, but in the case of the stocks the feet were locked in the device instead of the hands and feet. The stocks were a proposed method of punishment for drunkenness in a 1605 Act. The offender would be fined to five shillings or six hours in the stocks. The Act was approved by King James I in 1623. The stocks were often used as a method of holding a criminal until a more severe sentence could be decided and carried out.

One punishment about which there is not much to say is the whipping post. It was basically what the name says, a wooden post that the person was strapped to and whipped for the prescribed number of times. This correctional method was instituted during the reign of Henry VIII and then continued through the time of Queen Elizabeth.

One more odd punishment worth mentioning was the ducking stool. Like the brank, it was a punishment for women whose speech was considered too brash and brazen or too free. The ducking stool was a wooden chair attached to a large lever system. The lever allowed the chair to be raised or lowered without the tipping of the chair, making it parallel to the ground at all times. The chair was then lowered into the water, dunking the loose tongued woman under the water. Based on the level of the offense and the cruelty of the deciding party the woman could be "ducked" any number of times, and in some cases of extreme measures, the woman could drown from the time spent under water. Some of the ducking stools were mobile and could be taken to the water's edge at the necessary time, while others were fixed into place along the coast of the water as a grim reminder to the women of the town of what free speaking could lead to.

One tool that was used as punishment was the amputation saw. Much more cruel than the axe, the saw was slower and more painful than the relative quickness of the axe blade.

Villagers of the period could be considered twisted individuals because of the crowds of people that gathered for the public punishments and executions. The people of the period relished the public hangings, and the persons to be hanged were often falsely accused of treason, which called for them to be publicly disemboweled and then cut into quartered sections to be left on display after the person's death.

In conclusion, the punishments of days past were much more cruel than would be allowed today. Private executions have replaced the public hangings and disembowelments. People are no longer executed for minor crimes like theft, and axes are no longer used to administer punishments. There are now holding cells for criminals awaiting trial instead of stocks. People of authority have gotten much nicer.

See also "Torture and Punishment in Elizabethan Times" and "Crime and Punishment"

*Andrews, William. Old-Time Punishments. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1970.

This book was a vast expanse of information on various types of punishments during the Elizabethan Age. It mainly deals with descriptions of the different methods and tools of punishment. It also has visuals of most punishment methods.

*Brown, Ivor. Shakespeare and His World. New York: Henry Z. Walck, Inc.,1965. 47.

This book was the source for the visual of the amputation saw. It also gives descriptions of execution methods and the environment surrounding them. It only has one page on the death penalty and methods of punishment.

Earle, Alice Morse. Curious Punishments of ByGone Days. New Jersey: Patterson Smith Publishing Corporation, 1969. 70.

The book is not a great source, but the chapter entitled "The Whipping Post" gives a good description of the method of punishment. This book only had one useful chapter from this source.

*Source for Visuals