EDEXCEL GCSE HISTORY · PAPER 1 · CRIME & PUNISHMENT
Vagabondage
c1500-c1700 · Chapter 2: Crime and punishment in early modern England, c1500-c1700 · Lesson 3 of 5
Learning Objectives
1. Explain why the number of poor, wandering people increased in the sixteenth century.
2. Describe the laws against vagabondage and the punishments they set.
3. Explain why vagabonds were feared, and how attitudes to the poor changed by 1601.
Setting the Scene
In the 1500s, growing numbers of poor people took to the roads looking for work. The authorities called them vagabonds or vagrants, and many feared them as thieves and troublemakers. Being poor, able-bodied and without work in your own parish became a crime.
1531 - A law separates the "impotent" poor, who may beg with a licence, from able-bodied beggars, who are whipped. | 1536-41 - The dissolution of the monasteries ends much of the charity the poor relied on. | 1547 - Vagrancy Act: vagabonds can be branded and made slaves for two years. | 1566 - Thomas Harman's pamphlet describes the "tricks" of vagabonds. | 1572 - Vagabonds Act: whipping and boring through the ear. | 1601 - Poor Law: every parish must look after its own poor.
Why Were There More Vagabonds?
Several changes pushed people off the land and onto the road.
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Population growth The population grew fast, so there were more people than jobs. |
Rising prices Prices rose much faster than wages, pushing families into poverty. |
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Enclosure Landowners fenced off land for sheep, so fewer farm workers were needed. |
The monasteries Their dissolution (1536-41) ended the food and shelter they had given the poor. |
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Bad harvests Failed harvests meant hunger and higher food prices. |
Soldiers Men returning from wars often came home with no work. |
Why Vagabonds Were Feared
The authorities saw wandering poor people as a threat to order.
▸ Crime. Vagabonds were blamed for theft and begging with tricks - pretending to be sick or injured.
▸ Rebellion. Groups of poor, unemployed men could join rebellions, as in Kett's Rebellion in 1549.
▸ Burden. Towns did not want to pay to support strangers from other parishes.
▸ Idleness. People believed that able-bodied men who did not work were lazy and sinful.
Laws Against Vagabondage
The laws grew harsher, then began to separate the deserving from the undeserving poor.
|
Law |
What it did |
Punishment |
|---|---|---|
|
1531 Act |
Licensed the impotent poor to beg |
Able-bodied beggars whipped |
|
1547 Vagrancy Act |
Treated able-bodied vagrants as criminals |
Branded with a V and two years as a slave; repealed in 1550 |
|
1572 Vagabonds Act |
Vagabonds punished; parishes to collect for the deserving poor |
Whipped and a hole burned through the ear; repeat offenders could be hanged |
|
1576 Act |
Houses of correction set up |
Vagrants made to work |
|
1601 Poor Law |
Each parish must support its own poor through a poor rate |
Able-bodied poor made to work; beggars punished |
Punishing a Vagabond
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Punishments for vagabondage were public and painful. They were meant to shame the vagabond, warn others, and send them back to their own parish. Tudor punishments ▸ Whipping. Tied to a cart and whipped until bloody. ▸ Branding. A V burned into the skin under the 1547 Act. ▸ Ear boring. A hole burned through the ear under the 1572 Act. ▸ Houses of correction. Hard work for the able-bodied idle. |
A vagabond whipped through the streets, sixteenth century. |
Sixteenth-century woodcut; public domain copies on Wikimedia Commons.
Thomas Harman on Vagabonds
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“These rowsey, ragged rabblement of rakehells... lurk in every corner, deceiving the people.” — Adapted from Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors, Vulgarly Called Vagabonds, 1566 |
WHAT IT SHOWS Harman described vagabonds as cunning tricksters, such as "counterfeit cranks" who faked illness - pamphlets like his made people see the poor as criminals rather than victims.
Deserving and Undeserving Poor
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DESERVING POOR |
UNDESERVING POOR |
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▸ The old, sick, disabled and orphaned. ▸ Could not work through no fault of their own. ▸ Given relief by their parish, paid for by the poor rate. |
▸ Able-bodied people who did not work. ▸ Seen as lazy, sinful or criminal. ▸ Punished as vagabonds or made to work in houses of correction. |
Key Terms
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Vagabond A poor, able-bodied person who wandered from place to place without work. |
Vagrancy The crime of being a vagabond. |
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Enclosure Fencing off common land, often for sheep farming. |
Dissolution of the monasteries Henry VIII's closure of the monasteries, 1536-41. |
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House of correction A place where vagrants were made to work. |
Poor rate A local tax to support the deserving poor. |
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Counterfeit crank A beggar who pretended to be ill to get money. |
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Summary
✓ Economic and social change pushed more people onto the roads.
✓ Vagabonds were feared as thieves and potential rebels.
✓ Punishments included whipping, branding and ear boring.
✓ The 1601 Poor Law separated the deserving poor from the undeserving.
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EXAM FOCUS Explain why vagabondage was seen as a serious crime in the sixteenth century. (12 marks) Explain the fears behind the laws - crime, rebellion, the cost to parishes - not just the causes of poverty. |