How were minor offenders punished in the Tudor period?
Punishments were generally very harsh in Tudor times. Prison was not seen as a punishment in itself, but a place to be held until punishment was carried out. It’s true that executions, etc, were public spectacles. They were brutal times with no concept of human rights as we know them today, and it would be a day out to see a beheading, hanging or hanging, drawing and quartering (the worst punishment, for treason). Probably the least severe would be the stocks, where the “criminals” would sit with their ankles locked into a piece of wood, and passersby and onlookers could throw things at them and jeer. Also the pillory, where they stood with their head and wrists locked in a piece of wood. Even children would be punished severely, and this practice carried on into Victorian times.
