UoP Senior Lecturer in history Dr Fiona McCall had the following post published today on the website of the Ecclesiastical History Society, in which she discusses the extraordinary role of the military in Interregnum religious life.
Tag: seventeenth century
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Getting creative with early modern history
In a previous post, Dr Katy Gibbons looked at how second-year students studying the Debating the Past module, translated Natalie Davis’s book The Return of Martin Guerre into other media: emojis, memes and poetry. Our first-year students in the Beliefs, Communities and Conflicts: Europe 1400-1750 module are also set an assessment asking them to employ the imaginative use of media to explore a theme relating to their studies on the module. Below we look at two great responses to this.
Having initially thought about crocheting an item or artwork from the early modern period (!), Megan Conway decided to produce a comic. Visual formats often make it easier to take in complex information; historical comics and cartoons were what initially got Megan to be so interested in history as a child; she says might not have studied history now at university had it not been for them.
Megan Conway There are controversies surrounding visual media as a form of education due to “ethical implications” such as how certain cultures are displayed and the bias that evolves from such. [1] To tackle this, Megan ensured that she mainly used stick figures with the flags, or clear labels, instead of defining features. The few times she drew historical people they were “cartoonised” and based on references to other modernised cartoon drawings and comic books. [2] Additionally, she avoided biased colours for example using red backgrounds as it is often used to symbolise Catholicism and orange as it symbolises Protestantism. She thus attempted to avoid any potential bias influenced by colour theory, depictions of certain countries or people.
Elliott Thomas and Jack Baker used a different approach, a podcast, quoting statistics which show that there was an estimated 23.3 million podcast listeners in the United Kingdom.[3] Podcasts are clearly an important medium in showing information, be it life advice, comedy or history.
They decided to do a podcast about colonial empires as they were an important aspect of the development of early modern Europe. More specifically, they decided on a tier list ranking a selection of colonial empires. Those empires were: Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Spain, England/Great Britain, France and Portugal. Before setting off on research, in the group they discussed the parameters of how an empire is ranked, as naturally it can be controversial due to the sometimes-abhorrent crimes committed in their name. They decided that they should compare the empires based on: territorial extent, impact, military might and to a certain extent: legacy (mainly in the short term). They were quite strict in confining their discussions of the empires to the early modern period (c. 1450-1750)
They decided to group the empires in five tiers: The Best, good, middling, bad and the worst.
Their conclusions were surprising: instead of the stereotypical winners like the Spanish or Portuguese, France came out on top. Have a listen to their podcast and see if you agree.
[1] Annette Kuhn, ‘Memory Texts and Memory Work: Performances of Memory in and with Visual Media’, Memory Studies 3, no. 4 (27 September 2010), https://doi.org/10.1177/1750698010370034.
[2] Newcastle University and National Civil War Centre, ‘Fact File: Oliver Cromwell’, British Civil Wars (blog), accessed 4 March 2024, https://britishcivilwars.ncl.ac.uk/key-people/fact-file-oliver-cromwell/; Andy Hirsch, History Comics: The Transcontinental Railroad, 10 vols, History Comics (Macmillan Publishers, 2022), https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250794772/historycomicsthetranscontinentalrailroad.
[3] “Estimated number of podcast listeners in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2017 to 2016”. https://www.statista.com/forecasts/1147560/podcast-reach-uk#:~:text=Podcast%20reach%20in%20the%20United%20Kingdom%20(UK)%202017%2D2026&text=As%20of%202021%2C%20there%20were,28%20million%20listeners%20by%202026 , last accessed 18 March 2023
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Homosexual relationships in the time of King James I
A blog on homosexual relationships in the time of King James I was published today by our own Dr Fiona McCall in the Conversation.
Caravaggio, The Musicians (1597), The Metropolitan Museum of Art Fiona teaches the second year UoP option Underworlds: Crime, Deviance and Punishment in Britain, 1500-1900 which looks at sexual offences and attitudes in the early modern period. Her research looks at the relationship between sex and religion during the interregnum (amongst other things).
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Criminal punishments in Devon, 1598-1638
In the second-year UoP history module, Underworlds: Crime, Deviance & Punishment in Britain, 1500-1900, taught by Dr Fiona McCall and Professor Brad Beaven, students study the history of crime and punishment between 1500 and 1900. Students can take this option on a range of courses at Portsmouth, including History, Criminology and English Literature. In this blog post, based on his work for the module, second year UoP history student Edward Sainsbury discusses what can be learned from a detailed table of statistics on sentences given to criminals at the Devonshire assizes and quarter sessions courts between 1598 and 1638.
Over the course of an almost 30-year period almost 10,000 punishments were recorded in Devonshire in the early 17th century. These punishments were overseen by the Courts of Assize, which were justices appointed by the sovereign and travelled around England and Wales trying people for crimes. Also included in this source, is the Court of Quarter Sessions, which were county level courts that were typically held 4 times each year. The source meticulously catalogues each punishment from a list of 16 categories. The source, based on surviving archival records at the Devonshire Heritage Centre, was compiled by historian J.S. Cockburn as evidence for his research on court proceedings in the Western Circuit.[1] In this post, I will be analysing the source to discuss what it can tell us about executions and public punishments in the early modern period.
Detail from John Reynolds, The Triumphes of Gods Revenge Agaynst The Cryinge, & Execrable Sinne, of Willfull, & Premeditate Murther (1670) Executions were clearly a popular punishment during this time period. During this time there were a number of ways people were executed but the use of gallows was by far the most common way to execute someone.[2] The source tells us that 620 people were sentenced to execution, this makes executions the third most popular punishment in Devon behind being granted clergy and whipping.[3] Crimes which merited a criminal to be executed were those where breaking the law was seen as an attack on the sovereign and punishable by death.[4] This led to minor crimes being punishable by death. A source depicting the percentage of crimes that resulted in execution in Sussex suggests that 94% of horse theft crime resulted in the accused being executed, while a more serious crime of murder was only 65%.[5] The number of executions over the period the source covers do not seem to change too significantly. The rate of executions in Devon would not drop significantly until the start of the civil wars.[6] The source ends in 1639 but by 1637 the rate of executions looks to be in decline.
A section from Cockburn’s table of punishments. During the 17th century, punishments were often conducted in public spaces; it was seen as a spectacle.[7] On the source we are looking at, punishments such as execution, stocks/pillory and whipping would commonly be done in front of a live audience.[8] Visual punishments were useful as they acted as a reminder of authority within the lower classes. Public trials and punishments were an innovation that came about during the Tudor Period, these punishments were originally reserved for the upper-class as a way to show the power of the crown, but their effectiveness as both entertainment and societal control meant they were gradually used on the lower ends of social hierarchy by the end of the Tudor Period.[9]
Whippings as a form of punishment remained largely popular throughout the period. They were overwhelmingly popular for the Quarter Sessions, being the most common punishment inflicted. This could be because the Quarter Session would typically look over lesser cases. For the Assizes it is a fairly even split between whippings and executions. Public punishments often had religious motivation as well. The punished were encouraged to redeem themselves, for public executions this often meant the punished was expected to make a speech humbling the crowd and seeming accepting of death in order to be ‘reborn again in death’.[10] This gives us an idea of the role religion played in everyday life and more importantly in the legal framework of 17th century England and Wales.
Moving on to religion, a notable inclusion to the list of punishments presented, is ‘granted clergy’. This involved the accused proving to the courts that they are a member of the clergy. This could be proven by reciting a verse of the bible. The original idea was that if the accused successfully convinced the judge he was a clergyman, they would be required to be tried in the ecclesiastical courts, which were notoriously more forgiving with their punishments. By the early modern period you did not need to be in religious orders to make this plea. Crimes which would overwise condemn a man to the gallows like grand larceny and manslaughter were commonly saved with ‘benefit of clergy’.[11] The number of people who were granted clergy stayed healthy through the time period recorded in the source, which suggests this was a tried and tested method for criminals to get out of a worse punishment. This was clearly an exploited part of the legal system as many years more notably in early years like 1598 and 1609 being granted clergy was close to being the most common verdict in the courts.
The source shows us what punishments were used during the early 17th century. It gives us insight into what people experienced during this time and it gives us a specific idea of the standard practices of English and Welsh courts. From this period, we know that capital punishment was commonly used and that the executions were public spectacles, which could hint at one reason for their continued use. Religion played a significant role in the legal process. This source only applies for Devonshire but with the information it provides it could be cross referenced when looking at punishments of other counties.
[1] J.S. Cockburn, A History of the English Assizes 1558-1714, (Cambridge, 1972), 94-96
[2] Paul Griffiths, “Punishing Words: Insults and Injuries, 1525-1700,” in The Extraordinary and the Everyday in Early Modern England: Essays in Celebration of the Work of Bernard Capp, ed. Angela McShane and Garthine Walker, (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 79.
[3] For certain serious offences, it was possible for criminals to be spared execution by pleading ‘Benefit of Clergy’, by proving they could read.
[4] Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, (London: Penguin Press, 1991), 49.
[5] C.B. Herrup, The Common Peace: Participation and the Criminal Law in Seventeenth-Century England, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 169.
[6] J.S. Cockburn, “Criminal Proceedings,” in A History of the English Assizes 1558-1714, 93.
[7] Griffiths, “Punishing Words: Insults and Injuries, 1525-1700”, 68.
[8] Sarah Covington, “Cutting, Branding, Whipping, Burning: The Performance of Judicial Wounding in Early Modern England,” in Staging Pain, 1580-1800: Violence and Trauma in British Theater, ed. by James R. Allard and Mathew R. Martin, (Farnham: Ashgate, 2009), 95.
[9] Sharpe, “Civility, Civilizing Processes, and the End of Public Punishment in England,” 221.
[10] Katherine Royer, The English Execution Narrative, 1200-1700. (London: Taylor and Francis, 2015), 63.
[11] Sharpe, “Civility, Civilizing Processes, and the End of Public Punishment in England,” 223.
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Christmas under the puritans
Dr Fiona McCall is a Senior Lecturer in early modern history, teaching a third-year module on the British Civil Wars, the first-year Beliefs, Communities and Conflicts module and a second year option, Underworlds. Her research investigates traditionalist resistance to puritan values in English parish churches during the 1640s and 1650s, and in this post, updated with further research from an earlier one, she discusses how Christmas was banned during this period.
Between Two Fires, Francis Davis Millet (1846–1912), Tate Christmas was officially banned during the late 1640s and 1650s along with the rest of the church calendar. But the interdict was widely ignored. Trawling through various counties’ quarter sessions depositions for the period, I have found frequent references to Christmas, Easter, Whitsun, and various saints days, the witnesses (even those testifying against suspected royalists) usually oblivious to the fact that these festivals are no longer supposed to be celebrated. At Bristol the Mayoral court was even postponed from December to January ‘because the feast of Christmas comes betweene’.[1] Some were clearly mindful that Christmas was a sensitive issue: a 1651 Cheshire case refers to the ‘tyme Commonly called Christmas’, while a 1655 Northern Circuit assize deposition refers to the twelfth day after Christmas ‘so commonly Called’ [2] The term ‘Christide’ was frequently preferred instead, but not by everyone: one Devonshire witness timed the events he reported to ‘the Feast of the birth of our Lord god last past’. [3]
Josiah King, The Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas (1658) Churches were supposed to be closed on Christmas Day and shops open. That was the theory, anyway. At Norwich in 1647, the Mayor of Norwich apparently gave notice that Christmas Day was to be observed, the market kept the day before instead, and even invited the ejected Bishop of Norwich, Joseph Hall, to preach in the Cathedral. [4] The authorities in Canterbury attempted a harder line. On the 22 December 1647, the town crier there proclaimed that a market was to be kept on Christmas day. This ‘occasioned great discontent among the people’ causing them to ‘rise in a rebellious way’, throwing shopkeepers’ ware ‘up and down’ until they shut up shop, and knocking down the mayor when he attempted to quell the ‘tumult’ with a cudgel. [5] ‘That which we so much desired that day was but a Sermon’, protested Canterbury Prebendary Edward Aldey, ‘which any other day of the weeke was tollerable by the orders and practise of the two Houses and all their adherents, but that day (because it was Christ’s birth day). [6] Elsewhere in Kent, parishioners crowded round the puritan minister Richard Culmer’s reading desk in protest at the lack of a Christmas day service, and assaulted him in the churchyard. [7] Gloucestershire minister Mr Tray, unpopular on account of his opposition to the festival, became the target of malicious rumours. Stories were spread that he had sabotaged the Christmas pies of his parishioners, baking in the communal oven, by sending his own unconventional confection to be baked alongside them. Lines of verse were placed under Tray’s cushion in the pulpit:
Parson tray, on Christmas Day
To help on reformation
Instead of the word did bake a t[urd]
And poyson’d his congregation [8]
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Disorderly baptisms in mid-seventeenth century England
Engraving of a 17th century baptism, by Wenceslas Hollar, © The Trustees of the British Museum Baptism is as a rite of central importance within the Christian religion. Deriving from the Gospels, it was one of only two of the original seven Catholic sacraments retained by English Protestants. In late-sixteenth and seventeenth century England, with high birth rates, and everyone required to attend church by law, it was a very familiar ritual, commonly performed before the congregation on a Sunday. It also generated much controversy, over its precise theological meaning, as well as the way, time and place in which it should be conducted. During the English Civil Wars of the 1640s, many of the existing practices of the English Church was challenged and reformed, including baptism. Godparents were banned, as was making of the sign of the cross in baptism, a change which puritans had long sought after. Fonts, where baptisms had always been carried out, and which were often the oldest surviving parts of their churches, were ripped out, or their use discontinued. Some clergy and religious groups wanted to take things further, refusing to baptise illegitimate children or the infants of people who had not signed-up to an agreement binding members of the congregation, or even to baptise children at all, considering that only adult believers should be baptised. As you can imagine, in a world in which many believed that unbaptised infants would be consigned to a special circle of hell called limbo, this caused consternation. In her recent chapter entitled ‘“The Child’s Blood should lye at his door”: local divisions over baptismal rites during the English Civil War and the Interregnum’ published in a volume of Studies in Church History devoted to religious rites of passage, Dr Fiona McCall shows how this led to violent conflicts in churches between those who those who advocated reforms to the rite, and those who wanted to retain the existing rituals. Discord over a rite that was meant to draw members of parish communities together, served instead to emphasise the extent to which these communities had become fractured and divided.
