The Bloody Code: The worst ways to be executed in Britain in the 18th Century
The Bloody Code: The worst ways to be executed in Britain in the 18th Century Beginning in the 17th Century the Bloody Code consisted of more than 200 offences; a list of crimes that were punishable by death. If you were a criminal in the times of the Bloody Code, it’s highly likely you’d be executed, whether you committed a murder, stole a rabbit or managed to wreck a fishpond. Beginning in the late 17th Century the Bloody Code consisted of more than 200 offences; a list of all the crimes that were punishable by death. In 1688, the number of crimes carrying the death penalty was 50. By 1815 there were 215 crimes on the list. Why was the English legal system so brutal? It was mostly due to the wealthy men who created the laws; they looked down on everybody else as being lazy, sinful and greedy. Judges rarely showed any mercy and, because the rich made the laws, they were created to protect them — any crime against their property was made punishable by death. The Bloody Code was ...