Prisons:
In the Middle Ages, people were not sent to prison as a punishment, but it was to keep them safe until their trials were held in the court. Only people who owed large sums of money were locked in until their family repaid the debt. Most prisons were located in the walls of the king’s castle. If you had a prison made of dirt or stone underground, it was very mouldy and damp and they had trapdoors in their ceilings to let prisinors in or out. Goalers( jailers) slept on the trapdoors at night and put heavy boulders during the day so prisinors could not escape. The prisinors held in high towers were not as mouldy or damp as the ones underground but it was just as uncomfortable. Wind, rain and snow came through the windows making the prisinors cold and wet. Conditions in prisons depended on how rich the prisinor was. They had to buy their own food, drink, clothes, blankets, beds and firewood. Prisinors who could not afford these items slept on bare stone or dirt and often died of starvation and cold before their cases went to trial. Wealthy prisinors who could afford these things were more comfortable and had a much greater chance of surving their time in prison.
Escape from Prison:
Escape from prison was tough in medieval times, goalers placed prisinors who they thought could escape in ‘ leg irons’. These are heavy iron rings wrapped around a prisinors ankles attached to the floor or wall. It would be well restrained and the prisinors couldn’t move very far. Goalers guarded prisons closely but some still managed to escape. In April 1310, seven prisinors escaped from a prison in a southern French City of Toulouse. Prisinors held underground tunneled through the dirt behind the prison walls and prisinors held in high towers climbed down bedsheets joined together to make a rope. That concludes my section of ‘Medieval Prisons’ and now I will move on to ‘Peasant Courts’.
Peasant Courts:
Disputes between peasants and peasants and peasant and the lord were resolved in manor courts. In Manor Courts, there were also trials in which peasants refused to pay their taxes and letting their animals loose in the churchyard and commiting crimes such as theft.
Manor Courts were held twice a year and were presided over by the steward. The steward was chosen by the lord to supervise the the manor. The steward gathered the villagers together in the village square. He appointed a jury of 12 men to tell the court about the crimes that had been commited since the manor court was last held. Then the jury decided on which punishments or fines were for the villager who had broken the law. If an accused person did not agree with the jury’s verdict, he/she would appeal to the villagers assembled at the court. If the entire community agreed with the verdict, the accused would be punished, if the enitre community did not agree with the verdict, the accused was set free of all charges.
