Peine Forte et Dure

Peine Forte et Dure, the 'strong and sore torture,' a species of torture formerly applied by the law of England to those who, on being arraigned for felony, refused to plead, and stood mute, or who were guilty of equivalent contumacy. In the reign of Henry IV. it had become the practice to load the offender with iron weights, and thus press him to death; and till nearly the middle of the 18th century pressing to death in this horrible manner was the regular and lawful mode of punishing persons who stood mute on their arraignment for felony. Latterly a practice prevailed, which had no sanction from the law, of first trying the effect of tying the thumbs tightly together with whipcord, that the pain might induce the offender to plead. Among instances of the infliction of the peine forte et dure are the following: Juliana Quick, in 1442, charged with high-treason in speaking contemptuously of Henry VI.; Margaret Clitheron, 'the martyr of York,' in 1586, for her constancy to the Catholic faith; Walter Calverly of Calverly, in Yorkshire, arraigned at the York assizes in 1605, for murdering his two children and stabbing his wife; and Major Strangways, in Newgate in 1657, for refusing to plead when charged with the murder of his brother-in-law. In 1720 a person of the name of Phillips was pressed in Newgate for a considerable time, till he was released on his submission; and the same is recorded in the following year of one Nathaniel Hawes, who lay under a weight of 250 lb. for seven minutes. As late as 1741 a person is said to have been pressed to death at the Cambridge assizes, the tying of his thumbs having been first tried without effect. A statute of 1772 virtually abolished the peine forte et dure, by enacting that any person who shall stand mute when arraigned for felony or piracy shall be convicted, and have the same judgment and execution awarded against him as if he had been convicted by verdict or confession. A later statute (1828) made standing mute equal to a plea of 'not guilty.'