| Question | Answer |
| Trial by ordeal:Careful religious rituals followed: person had to fast for three days prior to the ordeal and hear mass in the church. They took place inside the church where possible. God was the judge. | answer
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Trial by consecrated bread: Taken by priests. Had to pray asking that he be choked if he lied. Ate a piece of consecrated bread (turned into body of Jesus). If he choked he was a sinner and guilty. People believed God would punish a priest who lied. | answer
| Trial by cold water: Belief water was pure so would reveal the truth. The priest would have blessed the water.Accused lowered into the water (a river or a pond as close to the church as possible) on the end of a rope with thumbs and toes tied. | answer
| It is said ‘Let the water be to thee now a trial’. | answer
| Trial by cold water: Rope knotted above the waist, if the person sank and the knot went below the water they were innocent as the water was prepared to let it below its surface. If the knot floated it was rejecting him and he was guilty. | answer
| Trial by hot iron: Took place inside the church. At the beginning of this ritual the priest said ‘If you are innocent of this charge you may confidently receive this iron in your hand and the Lord, the just judge, will free you’ Usually taken by women. | answer
| An infected wound showed guilt. | answer
| Trial by jury: No lawyers. Accuser was the person who claimed to be the victim. Jury consisted of men from the local area who probably knew both men. Both accuser and accused explained their version of events. The accused could produce several oath-helpers. | answer
| A priest was worth three people | answer
| Trial by jury:Their target was usually 12, they could then go free. If the accuser was felt to be more honest than the accuse then the jury swore an oath that the accused was guilty called COMPURGATION | answer
| Trial by combat: Introduced by William the Conqueror, the first person to surrender had been decided by God that they were guilty and then he is hanged. Over time the lord could hire someone to do the fighting for him. The man was called a champion. | answer
| Public humiliation: Hand cut off,stocks (feet locked in) or pillory (head and arms locked in and often a stone tied around their necks and ears nailed – made to stand for a few days) Children – finger pillory, trapped by their finger tips. Whipping | answer
| Fines and oaths on the bible: The majority of crimes in Saxon England were petty theft and damage to property. Families and even villages tended to depend on each other to grow crops to survive. An execution or imprisonment would hurt the family or community. | answer
| Hue and Cry: A loud cry calling for the pursuit and capture of a criminal. In former English law, the cry had to be raised by the inhabitants of a hundred in which a robbery had been committed, if they were not to become liable for the damages suffered by the victim. | answer
| Murdrum fine: If any Norman was murdered then all the people of the region had to join together and pay a hefty fine called the Murdrum fine. | answer
| Women: The Normans reduced women’s authority. In Saxon law they had been almost equal. Could not marry without her father's consent, could not divorce her husband, get custody of her children if divorced, inherit land or property. | answer
| Women: Could be forced to wear a scolds bridal (metal cage on her head holding down her tongue) if her husband said she was nagging. | answer
| Death penalty: Men were hanged and women burned. Corpses left rotting in the fields as an example. | answer
| Tithings: A group of ten adult men, if one of them broke the law the others had to bring him to court. All males over the age of twelve had to belong to a tithing. This meant shared responsibility for behaviour. | answer
| Church courts: William allowed the church to prosecute religious or moral crimes such as adultery, sex before marriage, not following rites and practises of the church. They ended trial by ordeal in 1215 as the church believed it was wrong to ask God to intervene in earthly affairs. | answer |
