The divers kinds of punishment and the laws are set forth by Harrison (Holinshed, vol. i.):—

“The greatest and most greevous punishment used in England, for such as offend against the state, is drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be halfe dead, and then taken downe and quartered alive, after that their members and bowels are cut from their bodies and throwne into a fire provided neere hand and within their one sight even for the same purpose. Sometimes if the trespasse be not the more hainous, they are suffered to hang till they be quite dead. And whensoever any of the nobilitie are convicted of high treason by their peeres, that is to saie, equals (for an inquest of yeomen passeth not upon them, but onlie of the lords of the parliament) this maner of their death is converted into the losse of their heads onlie, notwithstanding that the sentence doo run after the former order. In triall of cases concerning treason, fellonie, or anie other greevous crime not confessed, the partie accused doth yeeld, if he be a nobleman, to be tried by an inquest (as I have said) and his peeres; if a gentleman, by gentlemen; and an inferiour by God and by the countrie, to wit the yeomanrie (so combat or battle is not greatlie in use) and being condemned of fellonie, manslaughter, etc., he is eftsoons hanged by the necke till he be dead, and then cut downe and buried. But if he is convicted of wilful murder, doone either upon pretended malice, or in anie notable robberie, he is either hanged alive in chains neere the place where the fact was committed (or else upon compassion taken first strangled with a rope) and so continueth till his bonds consume to nothing. We have use neither of the wheele nor of the barre, as in other countries, but when wilful manslaughter is perpetrated, beside hanging, the offender hath his right hand commonlie striken off before or neere unto the place where the act was doone, after which he is led forth to the place of execution, and there put to death according to the law.” (See Appendix X.)

Felony was involved in various kinds of crime: such as breach of prison; disfiguring the person; robbery in disguise; rape; conspiracy against the prince; embezzlement of the master’s money; carrying horses into Scotland; stealing hawks’ eggs; unnatural offences; witchcraft, conjuring, sorcery, and digging up of crosses; prophesying upon arms, cognizances, names and badges; casting of slanderous bills; poisoning; desertion; clipping of coin; taking goods from dead men; highway robbery; stealing of deer; forging documents, etc., these were all, with some others, felony.

“If a woman poison her husband she is burned alive, if the servant kill his master he is to be executed for petie treason, he that poisoneth a man is to be boiled to death either in water or lead, although the partie die not of the practise; in cases of murther all the accessories are to suffer paines of death accordingly. Perjury is punished by the pillorie burning in the forehead with the letter P, the rewalting[15] of the trees growing upon the grounds of the offendors and losse of all his moveables. Manie trespasses also are punished by the cutting of one or both eares from the head of the offendor, as the utterance of seditious words against the magistrates, grain makers, petie robbers, etc. Roges are burned through the eares, carriers of sheep out of the land by the loss of their hands, such as kill by poison are either boiled or skalded to death in lead or seething water. Heretikes are burned quicke, harlots and their mates by carting, ducking, and dooing of open penance in sheets, in churches and market steeds are often put to rebuke.... Roges and vagabonds are often stocked and whipped, scolds are ducked upon cucking stooles in the water. Such fellons as stand mute and speak not at their arraignement are pressed to death by huge weights laid upon a boord, that lieth over their brest, and a sharpe stone under their backs, and these commonlie hold their peace, thereby to save their goods unto their wives and children, which if they were condemned should be confiscated to the prince. Theeves that are saved by their bookes and cleargie, for the first offense, if they have stolen nothing else but oxen, sheepe, monie, or such like, which be no open robberies, as by the high waie side or assailing of any man’s house in the night, without putting him in fear of his life, or breaking up of his wals or doores, are burned in the left hand, upon the brawne of the thumb with an hot iron, so that if they be apprehended againe, that marke bewraieth them to have been arraigned of fellonie before, whereby they are sure at that time to have no mercie. I doo not read that this custom of saving by the book is used anywhere else than in England, neither doo I find (after much diligent enquirie) what Saxon prince ordained that law.... Our third annoiers of the common-wealth are roges, which doo verie great mischief in all places where they doo become. For whereas the rich onlie suffer injurie by the first two, these spare neither riche nor poore; but whether it be great game or small, all is fish that commeth to net with them, and yet I saie that both they and the rest are trussed up apace. For there is not one yeare commonlie, wherein three hundred or four hundred of them are not devoured and eaten up by the gallowes in one place and other. It appearth by Cardane (who writeth it upon the report of the bishop of Lexouia) in the geniture of King Edward the sixt, how Henrie the eight, executing his laws verie severelie against such idle persons, I meane great theeves, pettie theeves and roges, did hang up threescore and twelve thousand of them in his time. He seemed for a while greatlie to have terrified the rest; but since his death the number of them is so increased, yea although we have had no warres, which are a great occasion of their breed (for it is the custom of the more idel sort, having but once served or seen the other side of the sea under colour of service to shake hand with labour, for ever, thinking it a disgrace for himself to return unto his former trade) that except some better order be taken, or the lawes be better made to be executed, such as dwell in uplandish towns and little villages shall live but in small safety and rest. For the better apprehension also of theeves and mankillers, there is an old law in England very well provided, whereby it is ordered, that if he that is robbed, or any man complaine and give warning of slaughter or murder committed, the constable of the village whereunto he cometh and crieth for succour, is to raise the parish about him, and to search woods, groves, and all suspected houses and places, where the trespasser may be, or is supposed to lurke; and not finding him there, he is to give warning unto the next constable, and so one constable after serch made to advertise another from parish to parish, till they come to the same where the offender is harbored and found. It is also provided, that if anie parish in this business doo not his dutie, but suffereth the theefe (for the avoiding of trouble sake) in carrieng him to the gaile, if he should be apprehended, or other letting of their worke, to escape the same parish, is not onlie to make fine to the king, but also the same with the whole hundred wherein it standeth, to repaie the partie robbed his damages, and leave his estate harmlesse. Certes this is a good law, howbeit I have knowne by mine owne experience, fellons being taken to have escaped out of the stocks, being rescued by other for want of watch and ward, that theeves have been let passe, bicause the covetous and greedie parishoners would neither take the paines, nor be at the charge to carrie them to prison, if it were far off, that when hue and crie have beene made even to the faces of some constables, they have said: ‘God restore your losse, I have other business at this time!’ And by such meanes the meaning of manie a good law is left unexecuted, malefactors imboldened, and manie a poore man turned out of that which he hath swet and taken great paines for, toward the maintenance of himself and his poore children and familie.” (Holinshed, vol. i.)

Among the punishments mentioned above was that of boiling alive. One unfortunate, named Rose, a cook in the house of the Bishop of Rochester, poisoned eighteen persons, of whom two died. He seems to have done this wilfully. He was boiled to death. This fearful punishment was inflicted by lowering the criminal slowly, inch by inch, affixed to a post into a deep caldron full of boiling water. How long the torture lasted before the heart stopped is not recorded.

The penalty for bloodshed in the King’s Court was the loss of the right hand. The ceremony observed for such a punishment made a ritual of a remarkable and imposing ceremony.

The offender, to quote Pike (History of Crime, vol. ii. p. 83), “was brought in by the Marshal, and every stage of the proceedings was under the direction of some member of the royal household. The first whose services were required was the Serjeant of the Woodyard, who brought in a block and cords, and bound the condemned hand in a convenient position. The Master Cook was there with a dressing knife, which he handed to the Serjeant of the Larder, who adjusted it, and held it ‘till the execution was done.’ The Serjeant of the Poultry was close by with a cock, which was to have its head cut off on the block by the knife used for the amputation of the hand, and the body of which was afterwards to be used to ‘wrap about the stump.’ The Yeoman of the Scullery stood near, watching a fire of coals, and the Serjeant Farrier at his elbow to deliver the searing-irons to the surgeon. The chief Surgeon seared the stump, and the Groom of the Salcery held vinegar and cold water, to be used, perhaps, if the patient should faint. The Serjeant of the Ewry and the Yeoman of the Chandry attended with basin, cloths, and towels for the surgeon’s use. After the hand had been struck off and the stump seared, the Serjeant of the Pantry offered bread, and the Serjeant of the Cellar offered a pot of red wine, of which the sufferer was to partake with what appetite he might.”

Pickpockets, still called cutpurses, abounded. They formed a distinct profession; there was even a school for them. This educational establishment was carried on by a certain man named Wotton, at a house near Billingsgate, in the year 1585. Purses were worn at the girdle, attached by a chain or by a leathern string, and the pickpocket could be known by the horn thimble worn on the right thumb to protect it from the knife with which he cut the purse. Maitland says (p. 269):—

“Amongest our travells this one matter tumbled owt by the waye, that one Wotton, a gentilman borne, kepte an Alehowse att Smarts Keye neere Byllingsgate, and reared upp a newe trade of lyffe, and in the same howse he procured all the Cuttpurses abowt this Cittie to repair to his said howse. There was a Schole Howse sett upp to learne younge boyes to cutt purses. There were hunge up two devices, the one was a pockett, the other was a purse. The pocket had in yt certen cownters, and was hunge abowte with hawkes bells, and over the toppe did hannge a little sacringe bell; the purse had silver in it; and he that could take owt a cownter without any noyse was allowed to be a publique ffoyster, and he that could take a peece of sylver owt of the purse without the noyse of any of the bells, he was adjudged a judiciall Nypper. Note that a ffoyster is a Pickpocte and a Nypper is termed a Pickepurse or a Cutpurse.”

Among the many additions to Literature made during the Elizabethan age we have as detailed a description of the rogues, vagabonds, and the criminal class in London as we can desire. Their tricks and cheats; their way of living; their language or slang, can all be read in books of the time. Harrison, already quoted, furnishes a great deal; more may be read in Awdeley, Harman and Rowlands, Dekker, etc. To spare the curious reader a great deal of trouble, he is referred to Furnivall’s Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakspere’s Youth.

Harman’s account of these cheats and rogues is full of entertaining anecdotes. For instance, there is the story of the robbery of his cauldron by the “Upryght men,” and how he recovered it:—

“I lately had standinge in my well house, which standeth on the backeside of my house, a great cawdron of copper, beinge then full of water, havinge in the same halfe a doson of pewter dishes, well marked, and stamped with the connizance of my armes, whiche being well noted when they were taken out, were set aside, the water powred out, and my caudren taken awaye, being of such bygnes that one man, unlesse he were of great strength, was not able far to cary the same. Notwithstandynge, the same was one night within this two yeares convayed more than half a myle from my house into a commen or heth, and ther bestowed in a great firbushe. I then immediatly the next day sent one of my men to London, and there gave warning in Sothwarke, kent strete, and Barmesey streete, to all the Tynckars there dwelling. That if any such Caudron came thether to be sold, the bringar therof should be stayed, and promised twenty shyllings for a reward. I gave also intelligence to the water men that kept the ferres, that no such vessel should be ether convayed to London or into essex, promysing the like reward, to have understanding therof. This my doing was well understand in many places about, and that the feare of espyinge so troubled the conscience of the stealer, that my caudoren laye untouched in the thicke firbushe more than halfe a yeare after, which, by a great chaunce, was found by hunters for conneys; for one chaunced to runne into the same bushe where my caudren was, and being perceaved, one thrust his staffe into the same bushe, and hyt my caudren a great blowe, the sound whereof dyd cause the man to thinke and hope that there was some great treasure hidden, wherby he thought to be the better whyle he lyved. And in farther searching he found my caudren; so had I the same agayne unloked for.”

The Hooker or Angler was one who by day walked about the streets, observing the windows and what was kept in them. At night he carried a stick fitted with a hook. He opened the window from the outside, and by means of his hook got out what he wanted. Once, says Harman, the Hookers dragged from a bed, in which lay asleep a man and two boys, the blankets and upper sheets, leaving them in their shirts.

The Rogue professed a part and dressed up to it. Harman tells a story of two rogues who wanted to break into a house but could not, because it was of stone, with the mullions of the windows too close for them to creep in. They had, however, a “horse-lock.” They woke up the tenant, who had with him only an old woman, and begged for alms. He opened the window and held out his hand with a penny in it. They seized his hand: he naturally thrust out the other to succour the first; they seized that as well, and clasped the two into the horse-lock, so that he was a prisoner until he gave up all the money in the house.

The “wild” Rogue is a variety distinguished by greater courage. Harman quotes one as a beggar by inheritance. “His grandfather was a beggar; his father was one; and he must needs be one by good reason.”

The “Prygger of Prauncers” was a horse-stealer; the Pallyard of Clapperdogen was one of the counterfeit sick men; he knew how to raise blisters, and to create a sore place by means of spearwort or ratsbane. The former raises a blister which passes away in a night; the latter a sore place that is incurable.

The Frater—in the name we seem to catch a memory of the extinct Friar—carried at his girdle a black box, in which there was a licence (forged) to beg.

The Abram man was one who feigned to have been mad, and to have been kept in Bedlam for a term of years.

The Freshwater Mariner or Whipjack was a beggar who pretended to be a sailor on his way to get a ship; or who had recently been shipwrecked; or who had been robbed by pirates; and who showed a forged writing signed, as it seemed, by men of substance and position confirming his story.

The Counterfeit Crank was a pretended epileptic. He carried a piece of white soap, which he put into his mouth to represent the epileptic foam. Harman draws a lively picture of such a man. He begged about the Temple, his face covered with blood and his rags with mud and dirt. At noon he repaired to the back of Clement’s Inn, where in a lane leading to the fields he renewed the blood on his face from a bladder which he had with him, and daubed his jerkin and hose again with mud. A certain printer watched him: in the evening he took a boat across the river; the printer followed him and caused him to be taken up in St. George’s Fields as a common beggar. They took him to the Constable’s house, where they stripped off his rags, showing him to be a healthy and comely man with no sign of any disease; in his pockets they found the sum of thirteen shillings, three pence, and a halfpenny; they gave him an old cloak of the Constable’s, in which he sat by the fire and drank three quarts of beer; after which he threw off the cloak and ran away naked. But they found out where he lived, viz. in a “pretty house, well stuffed, with a fair joined table, and a fair cupboard garnished with pewter.” So they took him to Bridewell, where they painted him, first in his disguise, and next in his proper attire. Then they whipped him through London and brought him back to Bridewell, where he stayed till they thought fit to let him go.

The Dommerar pretended to be dumb: he carried a forged licence, and generally pretended to have lost his tongue. One of them was, unluckily for himself, caught by a surgeon, who proved that he had a tongue though he had neatly folded it away somewhere; and as the fellow still would not speak, the surgeon tortured him till he did. This done, they haled him before the magistrate, who administered the usual medicine.

The Drunken Tinker’s career may be dismissed; so may that of the Pedlar; the Jackman made false writings and forgeries.

The “Demander for Glymmar” was a woman who pretended to have been burned out, and carried a begging licence.

The Basket women carried laces, pins, needles and girdles for sale. They bought coney skins and they stole linen from the hedges.

The “Autem Morte” and the “Walking Morte” were also pedlars, and of evil repute.

The Doxy was the companion and the confederate of the Upright Man.

The Dell, the Kynchen Morte, and the Kynchen Cove were boys and girls in training for the life of the vagabond.

Queen Elizabeth was fond of driving into the country as well as going upon the river. One summer evening she rode out from Aldersgate, along the road now called Goswell Road, towards the village of Iseldon or Islington. Just outside the town she was surrounded and beset by a number of beggars, to her great annoyance. Wherefore she sent her running footman, Stone, to the Mayor and to the Recorder complaining of this nuisance. The Recorder sent out warrants that same night to the quarters complained of, and into Westminster, with the result that seventy-four beggars were apprehended and sent to Bridewell, where they were “punished” (i.e. soundly flogged). Some of them were found to be very rich and usurers.

The mob under Elizabeth did not venture in assemblies on acts of violence. One or two exceptions must be made. Once an armed company, headed by gentlemen, attacked Bridewell. Seeing that their object was the release of certain unrepentant women whose profession concerned the gentlemen only, it is probable that the whole of the rioters were gentlemen. On another occasion the ’prentices rose against foreigners. Instances of hatred between Spanish residents and citizens of London are common in the pages of Machyn. Thus on October 15, 1554, a Spaniard killed a servant of Sir George Gifford without Temple Bar. The cause of the quarrel is not stated. Ten days afterwards the unfortunate foreigner was hanged at Charing Cross. On the 4th of November following there was a great fray at Charing Cross between Spaniards and English. Not many were hurt, and those who began it were arrested, especially a blackamoor. In January another Englishman was murdered by three Spaniards, two of whom held him while the other ran him through. In April was hanged a certain person, servant to a poulterer. He robbed a Spaniard in Westminster Abbey, and for the offence was condemned to be hanged for three days, and then to be buried under the gallows. He was hanged in a gown of tawny frieze, and a doublet of tawny taffeta, with hose lined with sarcenet. Before being turned off he railed at the Pope and the Mass.

Of street violence there was still a great deal, but not so much as formerly. The following letter speaks for itself.

“On Thursday laste (Feb. 13th 1587) as my Lorde Rytche was rydynge in the streates, there was one Wyndam that stode in a dore, and shotte a dagge at him, thynkynge to have slayne him; but God provyded so for my L. Rytche that this Wyndam apoyntynge his servant that mornynge to charge his dagge with 11 bulletts, the fellow, doubtinge he mente to doe sum myschefe with it, charged it only with powder and paper, and no bullett; and so this L.’s lyfe was thereby saved, for otherwyse he had beene slayne. Wyndam was presently taken by my Lord Rytche’s men, and, beynge broughte before the Counsell, confessed his intende, but the cause of his quarrell I knowne not; but he is commyted to the Towre. The same daye also, as Sir John Conway was goynge in the streetes, Mr. Lodovyke Grevell came sodenly uppon him, and stroke him on the hedd with a sworde, and but for one of Sir John Conwaye’s men, who warded the blow, he had cutt off his legges; yet did he hurte him sumwhat on bothe his shynns; the Councelor sente for Lodovyke Grevell and have commytted him to the Marchallcye.” (Drake, Shakespeare and his Times, vol. ii.)

The cucking-stool, trebucket, or tumbril, for the ducking of a scold, was commonly found in every village. There were several kinds of it. One was a chair set at the end of a braser which acted on a see-saw principle; one a stump put into the ground at the edge of the water. Another was a “standard” fixed at the entrance of a pond. To this was attached a long pole, at the extremity of which was fastened the chair. Such an one stood almost within the memory of man at the great reservoir in the Green Park. Another kind was a sort of cart on four wheels, with a braser, at the end of which was the chair. All over Oxford these things are found, also at Wootton Bassett, Broad Water Worthing, Leominster, Marlborough, Newbury, Scarborough, Warwick, Ipswich. In 1777 a woman was ducked at Whitchurch.

The trial of Ben Jonson, an account of which has been recovered by Mr. John Cordy Jeafferson for the Middlesex County Record Society, began with the inquest on the body of one James Feake, held in Holywell Street, St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, in the thirty-ninth year of Queen Elizabeth, and on the 10th day of December. The said James Feake was killed in a brawl by one Gabriel Spencer, who struck him with his sword in its scabbard in the right eye, so that he fell down, and after languishing for three days, died of the wound. What was done to Gabriel Spencer does not appear. Perhaps the case was treated as one of self-defence. However, Gabriel Spencer presently met with his reward. For in the month of September following, viz. in 1598, the said Gabriel fell to quarrelling with a young man named Ben Jonson, in Shoreditch, or Hoxton Fields; from words they quickly came to blows, and Gabriel was pierced by Ben Jonson’s sword through the right side, so that he died immediately. Jonson was thrown into prison and was tried for manslaughter, not for murder. He pleaded guilty; he also pleaded his clergy, read his “neck-verse,” and was released in accordance with the statute 18 Eliz. c. 7, after being branded in the hand with what the London people called the Tyburn T.

I have found one instance, the earliest, of a kind of transportation. Among Frobisher’s Company were six men condemned to death. Their sentence was commuted into banishment. They were sent on board Frobisher’s ship, to be landed on the shores of “Freezeland,” that is Greenland or Labrador, with weapons and provisions. They were instructed to win the good-will and friendship of the natives and to inquire into their “estate.” In other words, to find out all that could be learned concerning them. It is unfortunate that history makes no further mention of these pioneers.

The story of Thomas Appletree: his terrible accident; his deadly peril; his repentance; and his pardon, is pathetic. I suffer Stow to tell it in his own words:—

“The seventeenth day of July, the Queenes moste excellent Maiestie, being in ye river of Thamis, betwixt hir Highnesse Mannour of Greenewiche and Detteforde, in hur privie Barge, accompanyed with Monsier Schemere the French Embassadour, the Earle of Lincolne, and Maister Vizchamberlaine, etc., with whim she entred discourse about waightie affaires; it chanced that one Thomas Appletree, a yong man and servant to Maister Henrie Carie, with two or three children of hir Maiesties Chappell, and one other named Barnard Acton, being in a Boate on the Thamis, rowing up and downe betwixte the places above named, the foresaide Thomas Appletree hadde a Caliver or Harquebuze, whych he hadde three or foure times discharged with Bullet, shooting at randone very rashly, who by greate misfortune shot one of the Watermen, being the seconde man nexte unto the Bales of the saide Barge, labouring with hys Oare (whyche sate wythin five feete of hir Highnesse), cleane through bothe hys armes; the blowe was so greate and greevous, that it moved him out of his place, and forced hym to crye and scritche oute piteouslye, supposing hymselfe to be slain, and saying, he was shot through the body. The man bleeding abundantly, as though he had had 100 Daggers thrust into hym, the Queenes Maiestie showed such noble courage as is moste wonderfull to be heard and spoken of, for beholding hym so maimed, and bleding in such force, she never bashed thereat, but shewed effectually a prudent and magnanimous heart, and moste courteously comforting the pore man, she bad hym be of good cheere, and saide hee should want nothing that might bee for his ease, commaunding hym to be covered till such time as hee came to the shoare, till which time hee lay bathing in his owne bloud, which might have been an occasion to have terrified the eyes of the beholders. But such and so great was the courage and magnanimitie of our dread and soveraigne Ladie, that it never quailed. To be short, Thomas Appletree and the rest were apprehended and brought before her honorable Counsell, who with great gravitie and wisedome employed their times verie carefully, and with greate diligence examined the saide Appletree and his companions, and finding the case moste hainous and wicked, justly pronounced againste him the sentence of death, and commit him to the Marshalsea in Southwarke, from whence ye Tuisday following hee was brought through the Citie with the Knight Marshalles men, ledde up to the Tower Hill, and so to Radcliffe upp to Blackwall, and so downe to the waterside, where was a Gibet sett upp, directly placed betwixte Detforde and Greenewiche, for the execution of this malefactour, who in deed verie pitifully bewayled the offence hee had committed, and as well in prison as by the waie prepared himselfe verie penitently and willingly to offer his body to the death.

Thus verie godly hee purposed to finish his miserable and wretched life, and so prepared himselfe to ascend and goe upp the Ladder, and being on the same, he turned himselfe, and spake to the people as followeth: Good people, I am come hither to die, but God is my Judge, I never in my life intended hurt to the Queenes Most excellent Maiestie, nor meant the harme of any creature, but I pray to God with all my heart long to prosper and keepe her Highnes in health, who blesse and defende her from all perilles and daungers, who prosper her in all her affaires, and blesse her moste Honorable Counsell, giving them grace to doe all things to the glorie of God, and the benefit of this realme; but of all things I am moste sorie for my offence, and wofully bewaile the same; and more, I am penitent and sorie for my good Maister, Maister Henrie Carie, who hath been so grieved for my fault, suffering rebuke for the same: I would to God I had never been borne that have so grievously offended him. And with that the teares gusht oute of his eyes verie faste. This saide, hee persuaded all men to serve God, and to take an example by him, and every night and morning moved them devoutly to say the Lord’s Prayer. And as the executioner had put the rope about his necke, the people cried stay, stay, stay, and with that came the right Honorable sir Christopher Hatton, Vizchamberlaine to her highnes, who enquired what hee had confessed, and being certified, as is before expressed, hee bailed his bonet, and declared, that the Queenes Maiestie had sent him thither both to make the cause open to them how hainous and greevous the offence of ye said Thomas Appletree was, and further to signify to him her gracious pleasure; and so continued his message, as ye may reade it printed by itself, and annexed to this discourse. Which, when he had declared, the hangman was commanded to take the roape from his necke. Appletree being come downe from the Ladder, received his pardon, and gave God and the Prince praise for so great a benefite as he had by her moste gracious bountie received. This done, Maister Vizchamberlaine saide: Good people pray for the Queenes Maiestie, and then was this prayer saide, which is usually reade (for the preservation of her Maiestie) in the Church: O Almighty and everlasting God, the Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, which dost fro’ thy throne behold all the dwellers of the earth, most heartily we beseech thee with thy favour to behold our moste gracious soveraigne lady Queen Elizabeth, etc. Whereunto all the people joyfully accorded to saye Amen, crying, God save the Queen: casting up their Cappes.” (Stow’s Chronicles of England.)

One of the last cases of ordeal by battle belongs to the year 1571.

“The eighteenth of June, in Trinitie terme, there was a combat appointed to have been fought for a certeine manour and demaine lands belonging thereunto in the Ile of Hartie, adjoining to the Ile of Shepie in Kent. Simon Low and John Kime were plaintifs, and had brought a writ of right against Thomas Paramore, who offered to defend his right by battell. Whereupon the plaintiffs aforesaid accepted to answer his challenge, offering likewise to defend their right to the same manour and lands, and to prove by battell, that Paramore had no right nor good title to have the same manour and lands. Hereupon the said Thomas Paramore brought before the judges of the common plees of Westminster, one George Thorne, a big, broad, strong set fellow; and the plaintifs Henrie Nailer, maister of defense, and servant to the right honourable the earle of Leicester, a proper slender man, and not so tall as the other. Thorne cast downe a gantlet, which Nailer tooke up, upon the sundaie before the battell should be tried. On the next morow, the matter was staied, and the parties agreed, that Paramore being in possession should have the land, and was bound in five hundred pounds to consider the plaintifs, as upon hearing the matter the judges should award. The queens majestie abhorring bloodshed, and (as the poet very well saith)

was the taker up of the matter, in this wise. It was thought good, that for Paramore’s assurance, the order should be kept touching the combat, and that the plaintifs Low and Kime should make default of appearance; but that yet such as were sureties for Nailer their champions appearance, should bring him in; and likewise those that were sureties for Thorne, should bring in the same Thorne, in discharge of their band; and that the court should sit in Tuthill Fields where was prepared one plot of ground of one and twentie yards square, double railed for the combat. Without the west square a stage being set up for the judges, representing the court of the common plees.

All the compasse without the lists was set with scaffolds one above another, for people to stand and behold. There were behind the square where the judges sat, two tents, the one for Nailer, the other for Thorne. Thorne was there in the morning timelie, Nailer about seven of the clock came through London, apparelled in a doublet, and gallie gascoine breeches all of crimsin satin, cut and rased, a hat of blacke velvet, with a red feather and band, before him drums and fifes plaieng. The gantlet cast downe by George Thorne was borne before the said Nailer upon a sword’s point, and his baston (a staffe of an ell long, made taper wise, tipt with horne) with his shield of hard leather was borne after him, as Askam a yeoman of the queenes gard. He came into the place at Westminster and staieng not long before the hall door, came back into the king’s street, and so along thorough the Sanctuarie and Tuthill street into the field, where he staied till past nine of the clocke, and then Sir Jerome Bowes brought him to his tent: Thorne being in the tent with Sir Henrie Cheinie long before.

About ten of the clocke, the court of common plees remooved, and came to the place prepared. When the Lord chief Justice, with two other his associates were set, then Low was called solemnlie to come in, or else to lose his writ of right. Then after a certeine time, the suerties of Henrie Nailer were called to bring in the said Nailer, champion for Simon Low. And shortlie thereupon, Sir Jerome Bowes, leading Nailer by the hand, entred with him the lists, bringing him downe that square by which he entred, being on the left hand of the judges, and so about till he came to the next square, just against the judges, and there making courtesie, first with one leg and then with the other, passed foorth till he came to the middle of the place, and then made the like obeisance and so passing till they came to the barre, there he made the like courtesie, and his shield was held up aloft over his head. Nailer put off his netherstocks, and so barefoot and barelegged, save his silke scauilones to the ankles, and his dublet sleeves tied up above the elbow, and bareheaded, came in, as is aforesaid. Then were the suerties of George Thorne called to bring in the same Thorne; and immediately Sir Henry Cheinie entering at the upper end on the right hand of the judges, used the like order in comming about by his side, as Nailer had before on that other side; and so comming to the barre with like obeisance, held up his shield. Proclamation was made that none should touch the barres, nor presume to come within the same, except such as were appointed.

After all this solemne order was finished, the lord chiefe justice rehearsing the maner of bringing the writ of right by Simon Low, of the answer made thereunto by Paramore, of the proceeding therein, and how Paramore had challenged to defend his right to the land by battell, by his champion Thomas Thorne, and of the accepting the triall that was by Low with his champion Henrie Nailer; and then for default of appearance in Low he adjudged the land to Paramore, and dismissed the champion, acquiting the suerties of their bands. He also willed Henrie Nailer to render againe to George Thorne his gantlet. Whereto the said Nailer answered, that his lordship might command him anie thing, but willingly he would not render the said gantlet to Thorne except he could win it. And further he challenged the said Thorne to play with him half a score blowes, to shew some pastime to the lord chiefe justice and to the other there assembled. But Thorne answered, that he came to fight, and would not plaie. Then the lord chiefe justice commending Nailer for his valiant courage, commanded them both quietlie to depart the field, etc.” (Stow’s Chronicles of England.)