Convict Labor in Arimath
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the_clouded_hillsYour GM is going to try to stay on-topic here to keep this brief and readable.
When a nobleman "holds court," they are doing exactly that: conducting civic business, both executive/administrative and judicial.
There are several levels of court which function without the attendance of nobles: courts for tithings, hundreds, and shires, about which all you need to know is that one baron rules at least three shires. For those local courts, which function on the delegated authority of the local lord, almost all punishments, even for criminal offenses, take the form of fines, not prison time. Imprisonment is for hostages being ransomed, dangerous criminals awaiting trial or execution, and foreigners being deported. Importantly, these smaller local courts cannot pursue fugitives outside their jurisdiction and cannot sentence someone to death. Hunting a fugitive within jurisdictional boundaries is "infang", hunting a fugitive outside judicial boundaries is "outfang".
Those courts may not be delegated. Nobles have a monopoly on death sentences. They also have the power to appoint outfang bailiffs - officers of the court who go to carry out sentence on those convicted in absentia. Importantly, such a bailiff may not carry out a death sentence within the territory of another noble, and may not arrest anyone who is oath-sworn to another noble. When a criminal in one jurisdiction is under the protection of a lord in another jurisdiction, both lords appeal to whoever their own common liegelord is (A Duke, unless one or more of the nobles is a Duke - then it's for the Queen to decide), and that noble tries the case, as they have jurisdiction over both.
If a lesser court tries a potentially capital offense - and even very minor felonies are potentially capital offenses - they must settle for a lesser sentence.
A Baron, Earl, Marquis, Duke, or King/Queen, on the other hand, can sentence someone to death. (Totally irrelevant to note, but: Counts cannot pronounce death sentences, for reasons it would take too long to explain. Pashas of Kornu can pronounce death sentences, but are operating in a completely different jurisdiction and don't follow all the same general rules laid out here). However, only a very few people so sentenced are actually executed.
This is because of the doctrine of Clerical Mercy. After a sentence of death is pronounced, for almost all offenses, a priest (usually of Grimmskoll, but it is the privilege of any priest) will request that the sentence be reduced. This is so commonplace as to be expected for the vast majority of nonviolent death penalty offenses. That is, it is completely normal for a peasant to be sentenced to death for stealing anything worth more than one silver piece, but no-one, not even the Baron pronouncing the sentence, wants or expects that sentence to be carried out. The clergy will plead for mercy, and the sentence will be reduced, generally to a fine or a term of enforced labor.
Fines and terms of enforced labor are nearly always interchangeable. If you cannot pay the fine, you work off the debt at a set rate of pay based upon the work that is done. Convict labor is one of many kinds of unfree labor - Arimath does not practice slavery, but every member of a community is expected to spend a certain amount of time helping farm land for their lord, and helping to repair roads and bridges, or serve in a militia. In most cases, richer peasants wishing to avoid this service are permitted to pay a tax to get out of it - but that tax can be refused at the lord's discretion. In a flood, for example, a Baron won't accept money when what they need is everyone building dikes and levees to keep the water out of the fields. Likewise, a Baron who has reduced a death sentence to labor may decline to accept a fine - or the property of the convict may already have been seized, if it was acquired dishonestly.
Two kinds of death penalty are almost never commuted.
High crimes - the murder of a Baron or higher noble, or a member of their immediate family; high treason; or any crime committed against a direct member of the Royal family, including theft of any possession of the monarch. These crimes are considered direct affronts to the Royal family, and thus go over the heads of the clergy. Rarely, high church officials may plead anyway, but they would expect to be refused.
Crimes of Dishonor. Nobles betraying oaths to one another; desertion; horse-theft and cattle-theft; crimes against the church or clergy themselves; sexual assault. These crimes are considered to be so staining on the honor or the soul of the convicted that it is commonly believed the gods would not wish their clergy to plead for mercy. In exceptional circumstances, clergy may so plead in any case - and would expect mercy to be granted.
Clerical mercy is not a guarantee. That is, any noble may decline to grant any request for mercy - even for a one-silver piece theft. However, doing so is considered an abuse of authority, and is guaranteed to alienate the church. Remembering that the church operates as a provider of various civic utilities, such as hospitals, graveyards, armories, homeless shelters, lighthouses, and post-office, among others, most nobles are strongly inclined to grant all such requests for mercy.
So.
Convict laborers come from one of two groups.
The first is the destitute, convicted of minor crimes but unable to pay their fines except by labor. However, these offenders would not be transported for labor, as their fines are small enough that two weeks' labor would see them set free again.
The second group is felons whose death sentences were reduced to labor. No convict laborer who can pay their fine with less than six months of labor has been sent to Wickarth, because it wouldn't be worth paying to put them on the ship. This means the lightest sentences on the island are about 70 gold pieces for even grunt labor - it's hard to equate gold pieces to modern money, but assume that's at least $1400. The heavier sentences - a murder, for example, would carry a fee starting at about 200 gold for a commoner, or 1800 gold for a landless knight. Unless someone possesses a very valuable skill (such as spellcasting, soldiery, or navigation), an 1800 gold fine might be a twenty-five year sentence.
The values set on all these crimes may be argued or negotiated due to mitigating (or damning) circumstances at sentencing, but are generally considered more or less fair by most members of society. The attitude people would have towards convict laborers is determined much more by the specific crime than by their status as a laborer. That is, a seditious poet is just a foolish person who's paying for offending a noble, but a murderer is a murderer.
My next write-up will include some fun examples of specific medieval crimes.
When a nobleman "holds court," they are doing exactly that: conducting civic business, both executive/administrative and judicial.
There are several levels of court which function without the attendance of nobles: courts for tithings, hundreds, and shires, about which all you need to know is that one baron rules at least three shires. For those local courts, which function on the delegated authority of the local lord, almost all punishments, even for criminal offenses, take the form of fines, not prison time. Imprisonment is for hostages being ransomed, dangerous criminals awaiting trial or execution, and foreigners being deported. Importantly, these smaller local courts cannot pursue fugitives outside their jurisdiction and cannot sentence someone to death. Hunting a fugitive within jurisdictional boundaries is "infang", hunting a fugitive outside judicial boundaries is "outfang".
Those courts may not be delegated. Nobles have a monopoly on death sentences. They also have the power to appoint outfang bailiffs - officers of the court who go to carry out sentence on those convicted in absentia. Importantly, such a bailiff may not carry out a death sentence within the territory of another noble, and may not arrest anyone who is oath-sworn to another noble. When a criminal in one jurisdiction is under the protection of a lord in another jurisdiction, both lords appeal to whoever their own common liegelord is (A Duke, unless one or more of the nobles is a Duke - then it's for the Queen to decide), and that noble tries the case, as they have jurisdiction over both.
If a lesser court tries a potentially capital offense - and even very minor felonies are potentially capital offenses - they must settle for a lesser sentence.
A Baron, Earl, Marquis, Duke, or King/Queen, on the other hand, can sentence someone to death. (Totally irrelevant to note, but: Counts cannot pronounce death sentences, for reasons it would take too long to explain. Pashas of Kornu can pronounce death sentences, but are operating in a completely different jurisdiction and don't follow all the same general rules laid out here). However, only a very few people so sentenced are actually executed.
This is because of the doctrine of Clerical Mercy. After a sentence of death is pronounced, for almost all offenses, a priest (usually of Grimmskoll, but it is the privilege of any priest) will request that the sentence be reduced. This is so commonplace as to be expected for the vast majority of nonviolent death penalty offenses. That is, it is completely normal for a peasant to be sentenced to death for stealing anything worth more than one silver piece, but no-one, not even the Baron pronouncing the sentence, wants or expects that sentence to be carried out. The clergy will plead for mercy, and the sentence will be reduced, generally to a fine or a term of enforced labor.
Fines and terms of enforced labor are nearly always interchangeable. If you cannot pay the fine, you work off the debt at a set rate of pay based upon the work that is done. Convict labor is one of many kinds of unfree labor - Arimath does not practice slavery, but every member of a community is expected to spend a certain amount of time helping farm land for their lord, and helping to repair roads and bridges, or serve in a militia. In most cases, richer peasants wishing to avoid this service are permitted to pay a tax to get out of it - but that tax can be refused at the lord's discretion. In a flood, for example, a Baron won't accept money when what they need is everyone building dikes and levees to keep the water out of the fields. Likewise, a Baron who has reduced a death sentence to labor may decline to accept a fine - or the property of the convict may already have been seized, if it was acquired dishonestly.
Two kinds of death penalty are almost never commuted.
High crimes - the murder of a Baron or higher noble, or a member of their immediate family; high treason; or any crime committed against a direct member of the Royal family, including theft of any possession of the monarch. These crimes are considered direct affronts to the Royal family, and thus go over the heads of the clergy. Rarely, high church officials may plead anyway, but they would expect to be refused.
Crimes of Dishonor. Nobles betraying oaths to one another; desertion; horse-theft and cattle-theft; crimes against the church or clergy themselves; sexual assault. These crimes are considered to be so staining on the honor or the soul of the convicted that it is commonly believed the gods would not wish their clergy to plead for mercy. In exceptional circumstances, clergy may so plead in any case - and would expect mercy to be granted.
Clerical mercy is not a guarantee. That is, any noble may decline to grant any request for mercy - even for a one-silver piece theft. However, doing so is considered an abuse of authority, and is guaranteed to alienate the church. Remembering that the church operates as a provider of various civic utilities, such as hospitals, graveyards, armories, homeless shelters, lighthouses, and post-office, among others, most nobles are strongly inclined to grant all such requests for mercy.
So.
Convict laborers come from one of two groups.
The first is the destitute, convicted of minor crimes but unable to pay their fines except by labor. However, these offenders would not be transported for labor, as their fines are small enough that two weeks' labor would see them set free again.
The second group is felons whose death sentences were reduced to labor. No convict laborer who can pay their fine with less than six months of labor has been sent to Wickarth, because it wouldn't be worth paying to put them on the ship. This means the lightest sentences on the island are about 70 gold pieces for even grunt labor - it's hard to equate gold pieces to modern money, but assume that's at least $1400. The heavier sentences - a murder, for example, would carry a fee starting at about 200 gold for a commoner, or 1800 gold for a landless knight. Unless someone possesses a very valuable skill (such as spellcasting, soldiery, or navigation), an 1800 gold fine might be a twenty-five year sentence.
The values set on all these crimes may be argued or negotiated due to mitigating (or damning) circumstances at sentencing, but are generally considered more or less fair by most members of society. The attitude people would have towards convict laborers is determined much more by the specific crime than by their status as a laborer. That is, a seditious poet is just a foolish person who's paying for offending a noble, but a murderer is a murderer.
My next write-up will include some fun examples of specific medieval crimes.
