Punishments for Treason, petty Treason and more.

while this information is compiled in 1723, i think much of it would
apply in the late medieval period. i have to wonder how many nobles
under went...Prine forte & dure, which could explain how some
families managed to hold on to lands, even tho a senior member was
attainted.
roslyn

MAGNA BRITANNIA NOTITIA: OR THE PRESENT STATE OF
GREAT BRITAIN; WITH DIVERS REMARKS UPON THE ANTIENT STATE THEREOF, by
John Chamberlayne, Esq., (London, 1723), pp. 191-194.

"All crimes in England that touch the Life of a Man, are either
High-Treason, Petty-Treason, Rape, Buggery, Murder, or Felony.

"Altho' some High-Treasons are much more heinous and odious than
others, yet the Punishment by Law is the same for all sorts, (except
for Clipping and coining Money) and that is, that the Traytor laid
upon a Hurdle or Sledge, be drawn to the Gallows, there hang'd by the
Neck, presently cut down alive, his Entrails to be suddenly pulled
out of his Belly, and burnt beore the face of the Criminal; then his
Head to be cut off, his Body to be divided into four Parts; and
lastly, that the Head and Body be hung up, or impaled
where the King shall command.

"Besides all this, he shall forfeit all his Lands and Goods
whatsoever; his Wife shall lose her Dowry, his Children their
Nobility, and their Right of Inheriting from him, or any other
Ancestors....

"Petit-Treason is either when a Servant killeth his Master or
Mistress, or a Wife killeth her Husband, or a Clergyman his Prelate,
to whom he oweth Obedience; and for this Crime the Punishment is to
be drawn (as before) and to be hang'd by the Neck till he be dead.
The Punishment for a Woman convicted of High-Treason, or Petty-
Treason, is all one, and that is to be drawn and burnt alive.

"For Felonies, or other Capital Crimes, there were anciently several
sorts of Punishment, till Hen. I ordained, that the Punishment for
all Felonies, should be to be hanged by the Neck till they be dead.

"But if a Peer of the Realm commit High-Treason, Petty Treason, or
Felony, altho' his Judgment be the same with that of common Persons,
yet the King doth usually extend so much Favour to such, as to cause
them only to be beheaded with an Ax, upon a Block, lying on the
Ground, and not as in all other Countries, by a Sword, kneeling or
standing.

"If a Criminal indicted of Petty-Treason, Felony, or any Capital
Crime, refuseth to answer, or to put himself upon a Legal Tryal; then
for such standing Mute, and Contumacy he is presently to undergo that
horrible Punishment called Prine forte & dure; that is, to be sent
back to the Prison from whence he came, and there laid in some low
dark Room, upon the bare round, on his Back, all naked besides his
Privy-Parts, his Arms and Legs drawn with Cords, fastened to the
several Quarters of the Romm; and then shall be laid upon his body,
Iron and Stone, so much as he may bear, or more; the next Day he
shall have three Morsels of Barley Bread, without Drink, and the
third Day shall have Drink of the Water next to the Prison
Door, except it be running Water, without Bread; and this shall be
his Diet till he die. Which grievous kind of Death some stout
Fellows have sometimes chosen, that so not being tried and convicted
of their Crimes, their Estates may not be forfeited to the King but
descend to their Children, nor their Blood stained.

"But tho' the Law continues, yet we so abhor Cruelty, that of late
they are suffered to be so over-charged with Weights laid upon them,
that they die presently. ...

"As for Breaking on the Wheel, and others like Torturing Deaths,
common in other Christian Countries, the English look upon them as
too cruel to be used by the Professors of Christianity."

end excerpt.