Vagrancy, heresy and treason in the 16th century
Vagrancy
Vagrancy is the crime of having no fixed home or job. Vagrants wander the streets and beg. was a big concern for the monarchy and Government in the 16th century. 91ȱless and unemployed people would roam around the country and were often called vagabonds.
Vagabonds were a mix of ex-soldiers, unemployed farm workers, women, children, old and sick people. Some of the vagrants were fit and able to work, but who decided that a life of crime was easier. These people were often known as sturdy beggars.
Some sturdy beggars engaged in many cons or tricks to steal from people, or to get people to feel sorry for them.
| Sturdy beggar | Con/Trick |
| Tom O’Bedlam | Pretended to be insane and followed people around until they gave money. |
| The Counterfeit Crank | Pretended to have violent fits and sucked on soap to froth at the mouth. |
| The Baretop Trickster | Female beggars would flash men in the street and trick them into going with her into a house. There would be a gang of men waiting in the house to rob him. |
| The Clapperdudgeon | Cut skin to make it bleed and then cover it with dirty rags. Some children were deliberately mutilated by their parents to get more money from passers-by. |
| Angler/Hooker | Carried a long wooden stick and would knock on people’s doors during the day to see what he could steal. He would then return after dark, with a hook attached to the end of the stick. He’d use the stick to steal items through windows which could then be sold. |
| Sturdy beggar | Tom O’Bedlam |
|---|---|
| Con/Trick | Pretended to be insane and followed people around until they gave money. |
| Sturdy beggar | The Counterfeit Crank |
|---|---|
| Con/Trick | Pretended to have violent fits and sucked on soap to froth at the mouth. |
| Sturdy beggar | The Baretop Trickster |
|---|---|
| Con/Trick | Female beggars would flash men in the street and trick them into going with her into a house. There would be a gang of men waiting in the house to rob him. |
| Sturdy beggar | The Clapperdudgeon |
|---|---|
| Con/Trick | Cut skin to make it bleed and then cover it with dirty rags. Some children were deliberately mutilated by their parents to get more money from passers-by. |
| Sturdy beggar | Angler/Hooker |
|---|---|
| Con/Trick | Carried a long wooden stick and would knock on people’s doors during the day to see what he could steal. He would then return after dark, with a hook attached to the end of the stick. He’d use the stick to steal items through windows which could then be sold. |
Just being a vagrant was a crime in Tudor times. The authorities believed that people who did not work should be punished for their idleness.
1547 Vagrancy Act
The Vagrancy Act stated that any able-bodied person who had not worked should be Marking a person’s skin with a hot iron. Vagrants were branded with a letter V for example. with a V, and sold into slavery for two years.
Child vagabonds were forced into service. Other laws said that vagrants should be whipped and sent back to their place of birth.
Over time the authorities began to distinguish between the able-bodied vagrants, who continued to be treated as criminals, and the ‘impotent’ or ‘deserving’ poor, who were given work or sent to a House of correction – a type of prison..
Heresy and treason
To disagree with, or refuse to follow the religious views of the monarch or the state. is no longer a crime in Britain, but it was a serious crime in Tudor times. Often heresy was linked with To betray or plot against the government or monarchy., as refusing to follow the state religion was an offence against the state, as well as a religious offence.
What constituted the crime of heresy was different in each reign, depending on the laws passed concerning religion. Mary I, a Catholic, burned 280 people for heresy during her reign. Under Elizabeth I, a Protestant, continuing Catholic traditions became heresy, however she preferred to convict people of treason rather than heresy.
The punishment for heresy was being burned at the stake for men, or beheading for women and nobility. The punishment for treason was being hanged, drawn and quartered. This was also known as a To die through being hanged (until near death), drawn (have their intestines pulled out) and quartered (body chopped into four pieces)..
Archbishop Cranmer agreed to To give something up or to change one’s views. his Protestant beliefs, but Mary still decided to have him executed. When he was burned at the stake he held out the hand with which he had signed the recantation.
Latimer and Ridley were both Protestant Bishops who helped Edward VI make the country Protestant. Both were executed by Mary I for heresy on 6 October 1555.
Rawlins White
Rawlins White was a poor Protestant fisherman from Cardiff. He refused to recant his Protestant faith after Mary I became queen. White was imprisoned in Chepstow, then Cardiff and was burned at the stake on 30 March 1555 in Cardiff. He was one of only two people in Wales burned by Mary for heresy.
Richard Gwyn
Richard Gwyn was a Catholic teacher who declined to convert to Anglicanism during Elizabeth I's reign. He also refused to attend Anglican Church services. Over a period of several years he was imprisoned, fined and put in the stocks. Along with two other Catholics, John Hughes and Robert Morris, Gwyn was found guilty of high treason in 1583 and was hanged, drawn and quartered.
John Penry
A Puritan preacher, John Penry, used a secret printing press to publish material that was denounced by the Anglican Bishops. He was executed for treason in 1593.
Various Catholic plots against Elizabeth I focused on the claims of Elizabeth’s cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, to the throne. How much Mary herself knew of some of the plots is unclear. However, she was executed by Elizabeth I in 1587 after several years of imprisonment.