The King's Felons: Church, State and Criminal Confinement in Early Tudor England

The King's Felons explores how criminal confinement became an alternative to capital punishment in early Tudor England, allowing the judicial establishment to punish more felons less harshly. The book highlights the role of the Church in the administration of criminal justice and reframes our understanding of the Reformation parliament.

Format: Hardback
Length: 400 pages
Publication date: 10 March 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press

The King's Felons delves into the nuanced but deliberate progression of criminal confinement as an alternative to capital punishment in early Tudor England. As the judicial establishment sought to enhance law and order without inciting political opposition, they increasingly resorted to two traditional mitigations of criminal punishment: the benefit of clergy and sanctuary. Often maligned as corrupt clerical rights that undermined secular authority and the rule of law, the benefit of clergy and sanctuary, in reality, granted the justices leeway to maneuver, enabling them to punish a greater number of felons more leniently while evading political scrutiny.

The King's Felons traces the evolution of this approach over a span of sixty years, providing a comprehensive view of both the internal development of law and process and the judicial system's responses to external pressures. The dissolution of the monasteries between 1536 and 1540, coupled with the gradual erosion of the wealth and power of the bishops, signaled the beginning of the collapse of the institutional and financial foundations upon which the justices had built this system. Over the next two decades, they struggled, albeit unsuccessfully, to secure some remnants of the system they had constructed.

The epilogue establishes a connection between the state of the system in the aftermath of this collapse and our current understanding of the system in the later part of the century. By offering the first detailed study of criminal justice in the early Tudor period, The King's Felons sheds light on the role of the Church in the administration of criminal justice and reevaluates our understanding of numerous significant acts of the Reformation parliament. This book is an essential read for students and scholars of Tudor history, legal studies, and religious history.

Weight: 724g
Dimension: 164 x 242 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780192887689