xplain the problems faced by the government at the time in dealing with the challenges to authority. (Guy Fawkes and the attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605) 9 marks
The government had many problems at the time in dealing with the challenges to authority, for different reasons. One of these reasons is that they didn't have a police force. This is a problem because a police force are able to properly investigate and track people down. Nowadays, if someone had seen a crime or had any information they would go to the police, but back then, there was no police force to go to. Also, nowadays, the police can use science to help figure out who the suspect is etc. Back then, there was no science to find evidence against people. There was no finding out if that person actually did it, they were just tortured until they confessed.
As they didn't have a police force it meant more people would commit crimes because it was easy to get away with along as they were careful. The only thing that they have as a deterrence is the punishment. For most crimes, including the most simplest crimes, the punishment was hanging. Which is why they had to make the worse crimes with an even worse punishment. For example, to deter people from committing treason, the punishment is to be hung and quartered. But they can't control everyone, even now they can't control people, no matter the punishment. People back then, might have still committed treason because they knew as long as they were careful, they would never be found out.
The gunpowder plot is an example of this, they used false names and they met in secret which made it hard for the government to track them down, they left no evidence behind either. The fact they had no police force didn’t help either, it meant they couldn't track down the plotters properly. Even though, the government kept all gunpowder, Guy Fawkes and the plotters could of easily had access to gunpowder from the black market. Another...