Bygone Punishments

A unflinching tour through the blood-soaked machinery of English justice, From the author of 'Old Punishments' comes this darker still examination of how our ancestors dealt with their criminals. Andrews documents hanging in exhaustive detail, from the public spectacles of medieval England to the grim reign of Henry VIII, where stealing a loaf could cost you your hand and speaking against the Church could burn you alive. The book reveals a society that viewed execution as theater, where crowds gathered to watch men die for stealing sheep or counterfeiting coins. Andrews compiles legal precedents and first-hand accounts that document the evolution of cruelty in the name of law and order, showing readers just how recently the gallows stood in town squares and the branding iron was a merchant's tool. For readers who thrill at true crime podcasts and dark historical trivia, this is a time machine to an England that considered death the appropriate answer to many questions we now settle with imprisonment.