Real Historical Punishments 19-21

Real Punishments - 1671 Jane Farrett

19. The records of the Wakefield Sessions (England) dated October 5, 1671 contain the following judgement:

'Forasmuch as Jane, the wife of William Farrett of Selby, a shoemaker, stands indicted at this sessions for a common scold, to the great annoyance and disturbance of her neighbours, and breach of His Majesty’s peace. It is therefore ordered that the said Jane Farrett, for the said offence, be openly ducked, and ducked three times over the head and ears by the constables of Selby aforesaid, for which this shall be their warrant.'

The townsfolk: "When we say SHUT UP we mean SHUT UP!"

Real Punishments - 1681 Sophia Lindsay

20. Lady Sophia Lindsay helped her father, the Earl of Argyll, escape from his house arrest for alleged treason. In May 1681, she was sentenced to be whipped through the streets at the cart's tail. Her family appealed to the Duke of York for clemency - it would be unfitting for an aristocratic woman to be punished in a way usually reserved for whores.

His Grace reduced her sentence to a lesser but still painful punishment in private - the birch. Lady Sophia's birching, which was always given on the bare bottom, took half an hour and wore out two bunches of birch twigs.

Here, as the noble Lady is about to start screaming and crying, she has an extra humiliation - her maid gets to watch (no doubt remembering all the times SHE's been disciplined).




Real Punishments - 1692 Tituba

21. Everyone knows about the witch trials in Salem ("The Crucible" was based on real trials). This pricking on the rack with hot needles, to find a 'witches mark', was part of the usual process. It involved careful examination of the accused woman's naked body.

Not that this was in any way a motivation for these puritanical Christian men. Surely not!



[This was going to be Lizzie Proctor, but I realised that white women are over-represented in this series. These puritans were affirmative-action torturers.]

Real Historical Punishments 4-6

Real Punishments - 1227 Elizabeth of Hungary

4. Princess Elizabeth was the daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary. When widowed young, she became virtually enslaved to inquisitor Konrad von Marburg. Paintings by Calderon and Rev. Charles Kingley show her kneeling naked at the altar, making vows of poverty, chastity and obedience (to Konrad). He set standards the Princess couldn't possibly meet as an excuse to whip her as often as possible.
Elizabeth was made a saint for Franciscan devotion and charitable work. Konrad was sent by the Pope to hunt down and torture witches in Germany. The right man for the right job!




Real Punishments - 1306 Countess of Buchan

5. The Countess of Buchan organized the crowning of Robert the Bruce as King of Scotland, using her husband's resources without his knowledge. When Edward Longshanks of England overthrew Robert, the Countess was imprisoned in a cage and shown off to all dignitaries visiting Berwick-on-Tweed.
Where was Mel Gibson when she needed him? (This was the time of William "Braveheart" Wallace)



Real Punishments - 1546 Anne Askew

6. Anne Askew was put on the rack in the Tower of London, for Protestant agitation at a time when the elderly King Henry the Eighth was leaning back toward Catholicism. Bishop Fisher hoped she would implicate Henry's last queen, Catherine Parr.
Anne was later burnt at the stake, wearing bags of gunpowder to make her death mercifully quicker.




Series blurb:
A history of the bondage and corporal punishment of females, using only incidents where a name and approximate date are known. I'm doing them in chronological order, covering from the first century to the nineteenth.

[Notes: (1) Some licence is taken with the positioning and state of dress of the victim, as this is usually unknown. (2) Most quotes in this series are from "Encyclopedia of Cruelty", Felicity Press, Islington Australia, 1995.]