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To understand how people approached crime and punishment in medieval Britain, it is important to have an overview of what life was like in this period. This means understanding how society was organised, what people believed in and where they lived.

People

Kings

The king was believed to be God’s representative on earth. He promised to rule the land so that everyone could live in security, without fear of disorder. But kings needed the help and support of the people in each area of the country in order to do so.

Lords

The king gave land to lords, who ruled huge areas of the king’s lands with the help of their knights. They were obliged to join the king in battle and supply him with an army.

Labourers

The labourers made up the bulk of the population and are usually referred to as peasants, although that term was not used at the time. They did all the hard work on the land to ensure a good harvest. Some were yeomen, who owned land of their own. Others were villeins, who worked their lord’s land for three days a week. In return, they were given a small amount of land for their own use, but they were legally their lord’s property.

Organisation of the land

England was divided into counties or shires. Each one was under the authority of a sheriff, usually a local noble. Each county was divided into hundreds. Each hundred was divided into parishes, or manors. Manors were the lands owned by the local lord.

Communities in the countryside were very small. People had strong local ties and strangers were soon recognised.

Rural life

The importance of the harvest

Around 90 per cent of the population lived in the countryside. Everything depended on the harvest - if the harvest failed, there would be hunger or even famine. Around 10 per cent of the population died in the Great Famine of 1315-1317 after a series of bad harvests.

When the Black Death spread in England in 1348-1350, somewhere between 35 and 60 per cent of the population died. This led to large areas of land going unfarmed, causing more hunger.

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In the countryside, houses ranged from simple mud-and-stick huts to large, timber-framed houses, although all homes had just one or two rooms. People shared their living spaces with animals, which might be a family’s most valuable possessions. Most other valuables, such as coins, would be locked away in a chest. Farming tools were kept in an outhouse.

The pattern of life followed the Church calendar, which contained many feast days each year. Some months had three or four feast days. Villages held special plays, fairs and other events throughout the year. People drank lots of ale as part of their everyday life (partly because it was safer to drink than water) but far more on feast days. Although this ale was much weaker than modern beer, excess drinking would nevertheless lead to misbehaviour.

Religion

God

In medieval Britain, almost everybody was Christian and attended church regularly. The Church taught that:

• God was all powerful
• He worked in ways too mysterious for people to understand
• He responded to prayer and would forgive those who tried to live good lives and confessed their sins
• true sinners would be punished in Hell

The Church

The Church was rich and powerful. Bishops sat in Parliament. The country was divided into small areas known as parishes, looked after by priests. There were also monks and nuns, who lived in abbeys and monasteries.

War and rebellion

The rigid hierarchy of society was usually maintained. However, there were times when it came under strain:

• lords rebelled against the king in the 13th century
• the Peasants’ Revolt was a rebellion against the king in 1381
• the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century were a civil war between rival families for the throne

There were also wars with France and Scotland in this period. People were used to violence.