The Reality of Fantasy: Crime and Punishment

Yesterday I talked about how hard life was for the common poor. I’m going to expand upon that today with an article that talks especially to those players who love the Rogue classes.

During the olden days, crimes were very common. This was often because of impunity among other reasons, which caused burglars and thieves to operate most frequently their activities. Of course, education also played a primary role in this as most burglars had no education at all and thus; instead of working they would simply resort to stealing.

This was an era of cruel and inconsiderate exploitation. In fact, much of the rebellion that this time period witnessed came from such aggravation. The commoners were either punished for going against the commands of the lores and knights or for thieving, to provide amidst scarcity. Rebellion against the unjust system and subsequently, treason, was a common crime way back then. When kings took over as ‘head of the church’, hearsay was an offense. It was considered a sin to “go against god”.

The other crimes in the Middle Ages, which were strongly reprimanded, included witchcraft and vagrancy. While the former was largely a part of hearsay, the latter involved wandering aimlessly. Then, there was smuggling of prized articles like silk and tobacco and highway robberies and those by outlaws. There were quite a few instances of people getting hung for counterfeiting coins!

Law and customs did not prescribe any fixed rules for the treatment of hapless prisoners who faced torture. Different types of torture were used depending on the victim’s crime and social status. Torture was seen as a totally legitimate means for justice to extract confessions, or obtain the names of accomplices or other information about the crime. Torture was a legitimate way to obtain testimonies and confessions from suspects for use in legal inquiries and trials during the Middle Ages.

There were many methods of torture which were practiced during this time throughout the world:

• Ripping out teeth / nails
• Beating
• Blinding
• Boiling
• Bone breaking
• Branding and Burning
• Castration
• Choking
• Cutting
• Disfigurement
• Dislocation
• Drowning
• Flagellation, whipping and beating
• Flaying
• Roasting
• Genital mutilation
• Limb/finger removal
• Starvation
• Tongue removal

And these things, my friends, were just to get you to admit you committed the crime in question. Once you confessed – and you did – you were subject to the following punishments:

• Thieves had their hands cut off.
• Women who committed murder were strangled and then burnt.
• People who illegally hunted in royal parks had their ears cut off and high treason was punishable by being hung, drawn and quartered.

There were very few prisons as they cost money and local communities were not prepared to pay for their upkeep. It was cheaper to execute someone for bad crimes or mutilate them and then let them go!

And in more “civilized” places, each accused person had to go through an ordeal. There were typically three types:

Ordeal by fire. An accused person held a red hot iron bar and walked three paces. His hand was then bandaged and left for three days. If the wound was getting better after three days, you were innocent. If the wound had clearly not got any better, you were guilty.
Ordeal by water. An accused person was tied up and thrown into water. If you floated you were guilty of the crime you were accused of.
Ordeal by combat. This was used by noblemen who had been accused of something. They would fight in combat with their accuser. Whoever won was right. Whoever lost was usually dead at the end of the fight.

Consider the above the next time your party is tasked with robbing a nobleman!