The Bloody Code

“The Waltham Black Act allowed anyone found in a forest with a blackened face to be sentenced to death”

WHAT WAS THE BLOODY CODE?

‘Bloody Code’ is the term sometimes used to describe the British legal system between the late 17th and early 19th centuries, when more than 200 offences came to carry the death penalty – many of which appear trivial today. The Bloody Code isn’t an official name: it was coined some time afterwards in acknowledgment of the justice system’s increasingly gruesome nature, though precisely when isn’t clear.

WHAT MADE THE BLOODY CODE SO BLOODY?

In 1688, 50 crimes were punishable by death in England and Wales, but over the course of the next century, the list grew considerably – by 1815, there were more than 200 capital offences on the statute books. Many of the new offences related to property, including damage to gardens and cattle, and it was hoped that the severity of the