History · Year 10

Active learning ideas

The Bloody Code: Expansion of Capital Crimes

Active learning helps students grasp the human impact behind the Bloody Code’s dry statistics. When students simulate jury decisions or debate pardons, they confront the contradictions in the system's severity versus its actual application. This makes the topic’s complexities memorable and relevant.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• GCSE: History - Crime and Punishment Through Time
• GCSE: History - Early Modern England

• 15–35 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Simulation Game
• 35 min · Small Groups

Simulation Game: The Pardon Game

Students are given 10 'convicts' on death row for minor crimes. They have only 3 'pardons' to give out. They must debate which criminals deserve to live based on character references and the nature of the crime.

Explain why the number of capital crimes increased as the 18th century approached.

Facilitation Tip

During The Pardon Game simulation, assign roles like judge, jury, or monarch to ensure every student participates in the pardon decisions.

What to look for

Pose the question: 'Was the Bloody Code a success or failure in its aims?' Ask students to take a stance and support it with at least two specific examples of crimes, punishments, or pardon outcomes discussed in class. Encourage them to consider different perspectives, such as those of the accused, the judges, and the general public.

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Social Awareness
• Decision-Making

Activity 02

• Inquiry Circle
• 25 min · Pairs

Inquiry Circle: The List of 200

Provide a list of capital offences. Students must categorise them (e.g., property, person, state) and identify the 'most ridiculous' one, discussing why property was valued so highly.

Evaluate if the Bloody Code was an effective deterrent.

Facilitation Tip

For The List of 200 investigation, provide printed excerpts of actual statutes so students see the breadth of crimes firsthand.

What to look for

Provide students with a short case study of a person convicted under the Bloody Code, detailing their crime and sentence. Ask them to write a paragraph explaining whether they think this individual would have been executed, transported, or pardoned, and why. This checks their understanding of the pardon system's variability.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Self-Management
• Self-Awareness

Activity 03

• Think-Pair-Share
• 15 min · Pairs

Think-Pair-Share: Does it Deter?

Students discuss whether they would be more or less likely to steal if the punishment was death. They then consider why crime rates actually went up during this period.

Analyze how the 'Pardon' system mitigated the severity of the law.

Facilitation Tip

Conduct the Think-Pair-Share on deterrence after students have concrete examples from the simulation and investigation to ground their discussion.

What to look for

On an index card, have students write one reason why the number of capital crimes increased and one way the pardon system acted as a 'safety valve' for the legal system.

• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Awareness
• Relationship Skills

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers often pair legal history with role-play to humanize the topic. Avoid reducing the Bloody Code to a simple story of cruelty or justice—emphasize its paradoxes. Research shows that when students role-play jury decisions, they better understand how ordinary people subverted harsh laws through small acts of resistance.

Successful learning looks like students explaining why execution rates fell despite more capital crimes and justifying their views on deterrence using historical evidence. They should also recognize how pardons created inconsistencies in justice, not uniformity.

---

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During The Pardon Game simulation, watch for students assuming all convicts were hanged under the Bloody Code.

  Use the simulation’s outcome data to redirect: after tallying pardon decisions, explicitly compare the number of executed versus pardoned cases and discuss why juries valued goods below the capital threshold.

• During the Think-Pair-Share on deterrence, listen for students asserting the Bloody Code worked because crime rates fell.

  Redirect by asking them to compare their simulation experiences with the historical reality—did the severity of threats match the certainty of punishment? Have them examine how rising crime contradicted the Code’s purpose.

---

Methods used in this brief

• Simulation Game
• Inquiry Circle
• Think-Pair-Share