Elizabethan Era punishment for crimes were extremely bloody and brutal compared to the humane standards we have today. The most popular crimes ranged from petty theft to high treason committed by the most popular leader in the government to the lowest and poorest beggar on the streets. Their sanction could be being hung, drawn, and quartered or be walked through town wearing a barrel.
There were two classes in England during the Elizabethan Era; the Upper Class, which was mainly nobility, and everyone else. The Upper Class was often times well educated and associated with royalty and other well known people in the government. They could be involved in crimes not shared by other people. The most common crimes committed by upper class people were high treason, sedition, murder, and
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However, if nobility was convicted of the same crime, they would be beheaded. Petty thieves would often be stocked and whipped, while felons were pressed on top of a sharp stone with heavy rocks. When large or expensive objects were stolen, the juries would either give one of the hundred pardons given every year or decide to undervalue the goods that they took, and let the person live, instead of them being sentenced to death.
Capital offenses carried a mandatory death sentence and included murder, arson, and witchcraft. Cut pursing was often times considered a capital offense in which a person would wade into a crowed public area, like the town square, and literally cut the strings off peoples purses so the purses would fall. Glass panes were not common in Elizabethan Era windows and doors so people used a pole to reach into buildings to take valuable goods in a way of stealing called