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Crime & Punishment in medieval times
Max number of students: 30 Number of displays per school day: 4 (so 120 students in a day) Minimum number of teachers required: One Display area: School hall, gym or large classroom. What better way to learn about how people were tried and punished in medieval times than by undergoing the trials and punishments yourself!
Once introduced our characters will be put on trial; as our jury members can never seem to decide whether the characters are guilty of their crimes, they will undergo various trials by ordeal. One will undergo trial by hot iron, another trial by hot water, another trial by sacrament, another trial by combat. We then move on to the trial of Lord Oldcastle who has been convicted of heresy.
This display is based on the books they study and is designed to act either as an aid to revision or as an introduction to the subject and we can vary the content based on their age and ability level.
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Display time: 1 hour
We choose students to become different medieval characters and talk about the crimes that they are about to stand trial for (e.g. stealing deer from the kings land, heresy etc). We talk about the kinds of crimes that were committed then, some of which are no longer crimes and the similarities and dissimilarities with modern crimes.
Next we move on to their punishments. We talk about what their punishments were and even put some of them in the stocks! We have lots of replica punishment items to show them, including scolds bridal, thumbscrews, stocks, pillories, brands and manacles.
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