At the request of Parliament, the King had all justices serve
during their good behavior instead of serving at the King's will,
which had been the practice for ages. This increased the
independence of the judiciary.
The rack was used for the last time in 1640 before the Long
Parliament met. It was used to torture a rioter before hanging.
Men were still pressed to death for failure to plead, pickpockets
still executed for the first offence, and husband murderers still
burned.
- - - Chapter 16 - - -
- The Times: 1642-1660 -
For four years, there was civil war between the King, backed
generally by the upper class, the established church, and most of
the gentry, against the Parliamentarians, backed generally by
middle class yeomen, town dwellers, some of the gentry, most of
the great corporations, the City of London, the ports, the seamen,
and the Navy. Oxford University was royalist, and Cambridge
University was Puritan in sympathy. Archery was not used, having
become just sport by 1633. Flint-lock pistols, which relied on
flint striking steel to ignite the powder, as well as swords were
used by horsemen in the civil war. Footmen were musketeers using a
match lock with a cord boiled in vinegar as the match and dressed
in leather doublets and an iron-pot headpiece, or pikemen with
long wooden poles with spearheads of iron or steel and short
swords, and dressed in armor.
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