Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Were the middle ages lawless and violent

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

Many people believed that the middle ages were lawless and violent, whereas others believe that there was law and justice in the middle ages. In this short essay I will evaluate both sides of the argument and by using an array sources, come to my own conclusion about the whether or not the middle ages were lawless and violent. The middle ages are considered to be lawless and violent for a range of different reasons. The punishments of the time were cruel and horrid. Many women were suspected of witchcraft, this was because of the significance of religion in daily life. People believed that due witchcraft, their crops failed or some other tragedy happened. ...read more.

Middle

There were also the crusades which were a series of military campaigns during the time of Medieval England against the Muslims of the Middle East. In 1076, the Muslims had captured Jerusalem - the most holy of holy place in Christianity so Pope Urban II with the aid of French and Italian Knights started a series of military campaigns to capture the Holy Land. There were nine crusades which cost Christendom several millions of lives (from 2,000,000 to 6,000,000 according to different estimates). Also the struggle for power between nations caused a lot of war because more land meant more power, and gaining land meant invasions. The middle Ages were not lawless and violent because 7/9 of crimes committed were non violent robberies. ...read more.

Conclusion

The policing was left to villagers, constables were chosen from leading villagers. Coroners and sheriffs investigated major crimes and brought them before the royal judges. The royal courts held fair trails where juries whether or not the offender was guilty. Special cases were referred to the monarchy who ultimately decided the outcome. To conclude, I think the middles ages were violent but not lawless. The violence was evident in the punishments which were designed to cruel and slow to increase the suffering. The amount of murder also implies that the middle ages were violent and half of the murders were committed because of arguments. The middle ages weren't lawless as there was policing and fair trails throughout medieval Britain, some of whom were even referred on to the monarchy. ?? ?? ?? ?? Were the Middle Ages lawless and violent? Zain Tahir ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE History Projects section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related GCSE History Projects essays

  1. Marked by a teacher

    Did Medicine Improve In the Middle Ages?

    4 star(s)

    Instead, students of medicine studied the works of Hippocrates and Galen and didn't perform experiments of their own account. The influence of Christianity greatly reduced the progression of medical understanding. Human dissection was prohibited and to disagree with Hippocrates and Galen was seen as heretical, for which the punishment was death.

  2. The Impacts of crusades on European and Middle Eastern Historical development.

    Communism upon her and her family escaped to Paris at the age of 9. She has written many books of the subject of the middle ages. Her book The Crusades looks at the crusades from the point of view of the poor, "the victimization of the poor and the relative safety of the rich" (Oldenbourg, The Crusades, p.

  1. Was Oystermouth Castle typical of the castles built in Wales during the middle Ages?

    It had good strong foundations, and had a rectangular keep. But, its strong curtain walls had towers, which were round. Oystermouth once again did not fit in with the general development of castle making, as when curtain walls were present, it was still a wooden motte and bailey, having been attacked.

  2. Barbarian Kingdoms: Medieval Europe

    because we do not have any proper primary sources written by barbarians, on their culture, available for reference, the archeological evidence that has been discovered carries little weight in the quest of historians in attempting to understand the barbarian's culture.

  1. The Royal Pavilion

    However he did not move there alone. The Prince Regent had married Mrs Maria Fitzherbert in 1785, but the marriage had to be kept a secret because of two reasons; one could not marry under the age of twenty five in a Church of England without permission from their father - in the Prince Regent's case, the

  2. quest for peace in the middle east

    By 1978 the thirty-year war that had been fought between Egypt and Israel had come to a point where there was a chance for peace. The area that had been at the centre of the turmoil was the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work