The Outlaw

Were medieval outlaws really like Robin Hood and were the sheriffs evil and corrupt. The answer is no. Terry Jones discovers that Sheriffs were pen pushing bureaucrats and the biggest threat to law were the gangs of upper crust outlaws terrorising the country for the sole purpose of getting rich quick.

Category:

• Documentary

Starring:

• Terry Jones

Directed by:

• Lucy Cooke

Produced by:

• Lucy Cooke

Written by:

• Terry Jones

[Brammimonde]

I'll take this over "LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!" any day.

[BGCommando]

Terry Jones is a genius

[MartianSanta]

this is strange how the episode here on BBCWorldwide is completely different then the same episode i saw else were,

[XCritonX]

@Crisavec4 Wait a second. Your jumping the gun a bit. The Americans inherited the traditions of slavery from the British, who learned of the slave trade from the Portuguese who got the idea from their African trading partners. Slavery was NEVER popular amongst the common man in any of these countries. Most people saw slavery as an abomination, and a threat to their livelihood. If it was not for government protection of slavery the trade would never have lasted as long as it did.

[peterebel]

Love these.

[AlternityGM]

Another interesting episode in this fascinating & illuminating series.

[lauracida]

@Crisavec4 well ok but in britain we still have a fucking monarchy. so um yeah whatever, we all have our national dirty linen.

[666TheBloodLust666]

@Brammimonde Yes this actually has real meaning and talent its win win!

[Crisavec4]

@GTXMAN If that is a pop at my countrymen - at least we didn't have cotton plantations and did away with slavery over a hundred years before you did 

[GTXMAN]

So the British Invented prisons? Thx...

[SuperGreatSphinx]

In the common law of England, a "Writ of Outlawry" made the pronouncement Caput gerat lupinum ("Let his be a wolf's head," literally "May he bear a wolfish head") with respect to its subject, using "head" to refer to the entire person (cf. "per capita") and equating that person with a wolf in the eyes of the law: Not only was the subject deprived of all legal rights of the law being outside of the "law", but others could kill him on sight as if he were a wolf or other wild animal.

[SuperGreatSphinx]

The concept is known from Roman law, as the status of homo sacer, and persisted throughout the Middle Ages. It was only in the modern period that the principle of habeas corpus was established, requiring that criminals must be judged in person by a court of law before they can legally be punished.