Medieval Information

During the Middle Ages, crimes were very common. This was caused because of impunity among other reasons which caused burglars and thieves exert more 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 steal.

Punishment for thieves varied greatly. Medieval torture was used mostly even if the thief only stole bread to feed himself. Of course death to thieves very rarely happened and they were just publicly tortured.

Nevertheless, different kingdoms had different ways to punish criminals. As a brief example, Vlad the Impaler (AKA Dracula) was famous for impaling criminals even if the only thing they stole was bread.

For most of Western Europe, stealing was punished by torture as I mentioned above. However there were different punishments for different crimes. Unfaithful wives were considered to be criminals and they would be treated accordingly. Witches were considered to be criminals as well and heresy was one of the greatest crimes.

Imprisonment happened very frequently and sometimes inside a prison there were torture chambers to further teach people that crimes were not good.

Some kings who were especially obsessed with their kingdom's honesty, attempted to capture every criminal. If a criminal got away with a crime, a some kings went to the nearest village to kill people out of spite.

Kidnapping was very frequent during the Dark Ages. This was mostly done by foreign invaders who needed kids to work their own lands. Landlords who lacked enough workers, frequently resorted to kidnapping kids in order to populate their own villages. Punishment for these crimes were of a very high magnitude and if the kid was part of the royalty, the offender would be heavily tortured and executed in a public plaza.

Most crimes did occur to merchants. Merchants who traveled alone during the Dark Ages were very prone to such attacks. Even when merchants traveled together, they were still in danger of a large group of enemies to attack and rob them.

Most kingdoms were skeptic about this and imposed heavy penalties to captured thieves. This led to much Medieval Folklore - including the legend of Robin Hood among others.

It was during the Inquisition when criminals were heavily tortured. The most common ways to torture or execute criminals during the Inquisition was by Burning at the Stake, using The Wheel Torture, using the Head Vice Torture among others.

This, of course, helped combat criminals because during the Earlier Medieval Times, when there was much impunity, more crimes took place. Later on, when fear was inspired in the average peasant, crimes lowered considerably.

It was common for a town to express its anger against a thief by hanging him in public. When the Guillotine was introduced into medieval Europe, it was quickly used for executing criminals.

Crimes were, for the most part, done by the poor. Nevertheless, there are records of nobles and knights being hanged for robbing.

Rape was not considered a major offense because women had not as many rights as men. Nevertheless, it was a crime to marry a relative as it was strictly forbidden by the church.

For kings and high nobles, punishment was almost non-existant. They could practically get away with raping, abusing, etc. Kings even had a right to stay in whichever house they pleased and sleep with whichever woman they wanted to because they were "appointed by God." Unfortunately, punishment was mostly reserved for the poor.