GCSE History: Crime and Punishment c1500–c1700

This material covers the second period of the thematic study of crime and punishment in Britain, as taught in the GCSE History option 'Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present' (for example Pearson Edexcel, Paper 1). It looks at the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when religious upheaval, a growing population and economic change altered what counted as a crime and how the authorities responded.

You revise how the Reformation turned religious belief into a question of loyalty: Henry VIII's break with Rome, the burning of about 280 Protestants under Mary I, and the Catholic plots against Elizabeth I and James I, which made heresy and treason closely linked. The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 is used as a case study of how treason was investigated and punished in public as an example to others.

The material also covers the new or redefined crimes of the period. Vagabondage grew with population growth, enclosure and the dissolution of the monasteries, and was punished harshly – from the extreme Vagrancy Act of 1547 to houses of correction such as Bridewell and the Poor Law of 1601, which separated the 'deserving' from the 'undeserving' poor. Witchcraft became a statutory crime (Acts of 1542, 1563 and 1604) and reached a peak in the East Anglian trials led by Matthew Hopkins during the Civil War, 1645–47. Smuggling and poaching are examined as 'social crimes' that many people did not regard as wrong.

For law enforcement you compare continuity with the Middle Ages – the hue and cry, parish constables and Justices of the Peace – with the growth of town watchmen. For punishment you look at execution as a public spectacle, burning for heresy, hanging, drawing and quartering for treason, and the early use of transportation to the American colonies.

The quiz tests key facts, dates and reasons; the flashcards drill the vocabulary; the written work asks you to explain causes, describe features and judge change and continuity; and in the oral exam an examiner asks one question at a time and gives short feedback at the end.

The material is revision practice written by Zestly and is not produced or reviewed by any exam board; check the details of your own specification with your teacher.

• Explain how the religious changes of the Reformation changed the crimes of heresy and treason
• Explain why vagabondage increased and how the authorities responded, from the 1547 Act to the 1601 Poor Law
• Describe the witchcraft laws and explain the rise of witch-hunting during the Civil War, including Matthew Hopkins
• Explain why smuggling and poaching were seen as social crimes
• Compare law enforcement and punishment c1500–c1700 with the medieval period
• Use the Gunpowder Plot as a case study of the punishment of treason

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE history subject content (thematic study) and the period c1500–c1700 of the thematic option 'Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present' (for example Pearson Edexcel GCSE History 1HI0).