Penal Bondage & the Rise of the Work Ethic
1500-1607

With the decline of feudalism, many people now have nowhere to live or work. Serfs and laborers, stripped of their land, drift jobless and homeless to urban areas, where they are met with fear and hostility. The state is forced to deal with this rising underclass. Although executions and corporal punishment remain popular, this era gives rise to a new type of punishment, restricting or controlling the movement of the guilty. Offenders can be locked up in workhouses or forced to labor in a variety of settings. There is a rehabilitative notion behind this approach, which offers the skills and discipline considered necessary for an offender to change his situation.

The accession of the Tudors to the English throne in 1485 begins a long period during which ideas about equity develop. It is a time of struggle between the monarch and Parliament, and the judiciary is called upon to play a more important role in government than ever before. In 1533, Henry VIII breaks from the Catholic Church and forms the Church of England.