PEINE FORTE ET DUKE, the "strong and hard pain ;" a species of torture fcr• merly applied by the law of England to those who, on being arraigned for felony, refused to plead, and stood mute, or who peremptorily challenged more than 20 jurors, which was considered a contumacy equivalent to standing mute. In the beginning of the 13th c. this penalty seems to haVe consisted merely in a severe imprisonment with low diet, persisted in till the contumacy was overcome. But by the reign of Henry IV. it had become the practice to load the offender with weights, and thins press him to death; and till nearly the middle of the 18th c. pressing to death was the regular and lawful mode of punishing persons who stood mute on their arraignment for felony. The motive which induced an accused party, in any case, to submit to this penalty rather than to plead, was probably to escape the attainder which would have resulted from a convic tion for felony. During the 15th, 16th, 17th, and even the 18th centuries, various cases are recorded of the infliction of the punishment in question. Latterly, it practice pre vailed 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; Juli ana Quick, in 1412, charged with high treason in speaking contemptuously of Henry VI., was pressed to death. Anthony Arrowsmith, in 1598, was pressed to death (Sur
tecs's History Durham, vol. iii. p. 271). "Walter Calverly, of Calverly, in Yorkshire, arraigned at the York assizes in 1605, for murdering his two children and stabbing his wife, was pressed to death in the castle by a large iron weight placed on his breast (Stow's Chronicle). Maj. Strangways suffered death in a similar way in Newgate in 1657, for refusing to plead when charged with the murder of his brother-in-law, Mr. Fussell. 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 year of one Nathaniel Hawes, who lay under a weight of 250 lbs. for 7 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.
The statute 12 Geo. III. c. 20 virtually abolished the peine forte et duce, by enacting that any person NvIto shall stand mute when arraigned for felony or piracy shall be con victed, and have the same judgment and execution awarded against him as if he had been convicted by verdict or confession.