Death penalties for nobility in the data of the 18th century Vilnius district castle court cases

Straipsnyje tiriama mirties bausmės problematika bajorų luomo atstovams, remiantis Vilniaus pavieto pilies teismo duomenimis. Trečiasis Lietuvos Statutas, pagal kurį gyveno XVIII a. Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės visuomenė, numatė daugelį veikų, už kurias galėjo būti skiriama mirties bausmė. Nors teismų knygose išliko nemažai skundų dėl daugelio sunkių nusikaltimų, netgi nužudymų, antpuolių, plėšimų, tačiau informacijos apie mirties bausmės nuosprendžius rasta nedaug. Darbe sprendžiama ši problema, taip pat aiškinamasi, už kuriuos nusikaltimus dažniausiai būdavo skiriama mirties bausmė, kokios socialinės padėties bajorai jos sulaukdavo, kokios buvo jos formos ir atleidimo nuo jos galimybėsThe article researches the topic of death penalty for representatives of nobility estate looking through the data of Vilnius district (Polish: powiat) castle court. The Third Statute of Lithuania governed the life of society in the 18th century Grand Duchy of Lithuania providing for a number of crimes that could be punishable by death. Despite the fact that court books report a number of complaints about serious crimes such as murders, raids, and robberies, information about death penalties is scarce. The article analyses this problem, also looking at which crimes were punished by death, nobility of which social status would be the recipients of such punishment, what were the forms of it and what were the options to avoid it. The conclusions are that the nobles would usually be punished by death after violent crimes: murders, robberies (often involving killings) and raids. There were also punishments for polygamy, larceny, refusal of Christian faith. The most common form of punishment was beheading although there was some information about punishments by burning at the stake, hanging by the neck and quartering. Some of the condemned nobles lived fairly common life of their estate, had property, and held offices, however majority among these were in fact the de-classed nobles, moving around the country, often with no stable sources of incomeVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij