Matthew Shardlake from the C.J. Sampson novels, he solves crime in a world with no police, no detectives,

and no forensic science, which sounds implausible until you look at how Tudor England actually

investigated murder. Because in real life, the system relied on gossip, bodies, paperwork, and pressure.

And it actually worked more often than you might expect. Today,

we are going to talk about how our friends in Tudor England would have solved crimes. Let's get

started. Hey friends, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History

podcast. I am your host, Heather. And I love

Matthew Shard Lake. I love the Matthew Shard Lake novels. So we're going to talk today about

how our tutor friends would have solved crimes. When we read Matthew Shard Lake novels,

it can feel a little bit implausible because there aren't any police officers, there's no detectives, no forensic labs.

But crimes are still uncovered, suspects are identified, and people are convicted.

That's not just the trick of the novelist.

Tudor England really did have ways of solving crimes, but they relied on very different tools than we have today.

The first thing to clear up is the idea that Tudor England was, in fact, lawless.

There was no professional police force in the modern sense,

but there was a system of law enforcement, and it was deeply embedded in everyday life.

Justice worked locally, personally, and often uncomfortably close to home.

At the most basic level were parish constables. These men were not trained professionals. They were

unpaid, appointed for short terms, often a little bit reluctant. but they had real responsibilities, keeping order,

arresting suspects, escorting prisoners and presenting offenders before a justice of the peace.

Alongside them were churchwardens who were expected to monitor moral behavior in the parish

and report problems upward. Drunken, domestic violence, suspicious behavior all fell

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