Trial By Ordeal Decisions In Medieval England

In medieval England the king ran the courts and made all the decision throughout the kingdom. The king got advise from his wise men, these wise men would include a relative/s, barons, lords and members of the church. The king's court is a term that describes the king's council and household, The name "court" comes from the fact that most kings held court and made judgments. Kings would hear certain issues and mostly issues with major people like barons or lords and then on he will make a decision with the help of the council and determine what would happen next. The king often walked around the city to see for himself what was going on. When the King showed up, the local subjects were expected to provided food, entertainment and accommodations.This

One technique used was Trial by Ordeal, It was a system based on the medieval superstition ‘Iudicium Dei’ meaning ‘The Judgment of God’. Trial by Ordeal was an ancient practiced used to determine the guilty or innocent by trialling them with unpleasant or dangerous experiences, The test was for survival or death, if you survive you are proven innocent, in other cases if you escape being injured you are also proven innocent, The trial rely’s on God to help the innocent from injury and to Punish the Guilty. One example of this trial is the trial by fire, they are required to walk a certain distance on hot ploughshares or holding a hot iron bar, The victim of this trial was proven innocent by a lack of injury, It was more common for the wound to be re-examined three days later to prove innocence or guilty. The Trial was not very fair but people back in the day believed that it did work because the innocent would be saved and the guilty would be punished. Sometimes The Ordeal made people confess so the did not have to go through with the

Witches were thought to host ceremony called ’ Sabbaths, which parodied the Christian mass. Majority of people thought that witches were woman, who were regarded by witch-hunters as especially susceptible to the Devil’s persuasion. A common method used for witch hunting was the “swimming” or “ducking” (based on “Ordeal by Water”) where the accused of witchcraft was tied feet and hand and placed into deep water, If they float they where guilty, if they sank and drowned they where proven innocent. Execution by burning commonly called “Burning at the Stake” was another method used to punish witchcraft during this period, they were tied up to a large stake with burning bits of wood and burned to death, his method of execution fell into disfavor among most governments in the late 18th century. The witch hunt was at its peak in Europe in the late 16th century and early 17th century and then it went down in the 1640’s. Through research we have proven that witchcraft was taken very seriously and the punishment for it was