The Elizabethan era, also referred to as the ‘golden age’, was the place in history of Queen Elizabeth I’s reign (1558-1603). It is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest times in history because renaissance was at a new height with music, poetry, and literature starting. The sights of the first theatres showing up as William Shakespeare introduced the Globe Theatre. It was also the time of great exploration and European expansion across seas, while back in England, reformation was becoming more acceptable to people. But what was their crime like compared to the present day? What were the punishments to crimes such as stealing?
In the Elizabethan era, crime and punishment had a terribly brutal and very unjust place. The period was filled with torture, fear, execution, but very little justice for the people. At the time, the justice system was in favour of persecution and the majority of the time execution took place. Queen Elizabeth I took justice and punishment back in history, when she had all the power in this time period. Those accused of a capital offense were not even allowed to have a defendant council while going through trial and were usually tortured mercilessly for a guilty plea before they were even proven guilty in any way. This way of punishment to enforce the law showed no mercy to anyone that was accused of a crime, not even a women could escape any amount of torture. Minor crimes such as stealing were known to be punished gruesomely. Types of capital punishment were extremely common as the idea of incarceration was not yet seen as a permanent punishment. Prison time was used mainly just to have the convicted wait and suffer before execution.