Lady Macbeth examining her hand, believing it to be bloodstained, after the killing of King Duncan. A painting of a woman in a darkened room looking at her hand. An oil lamp burns on a table next to her.
23 September 2021
To be caught redhanded is to be caught in the act of some crime or mischief. The underlying metaphor is rather obvious upon a bit of reflection; it’s the imagery of a murderer’s bloody hand. The term arises in late medieval Scottish law to distinguish the procedures that should be followed when a person is caught in the act versus being caught at a later time. If a murderer was caught redhanded, many of the evidentiary hurdles could be dispensed with and sentence brought summarily.
The term is first recorded in a statute passed c.1430. The law is written in Latin, but uses a few English words, fang (plunder, stolen property) and redhand:
De recenti crimine quod dicitur redhand
Si latro comprehensus fuerit cum fang hoc est hande habande aut homicida redhand si hoc fuerit in burgo surgant hii qui tenent in baronia infra burgam per sectam calumniatoris et statim de ipso malefactore siue de die siue de nocte faciant justicie complementum pro baronibus enim in tali casu reputabuntur.
(Regarding an immediate indictment that is described as redhand
If a thief should be caught with the fang [i.e., plunder] in his hand or a murderer redhand, if this is in the jurisdiction of a city let those arise who live in the district within the city, dispose of false accusations and immediately, whether it be day or night, perform complete justice for the barons, that is to say, in such a case to decide the case.)
And a 1432 Scottish statute reads as follows:
Quhare ony man beis slane within the realme, als wele within regalite as within rialte, in borowis as to lande, that in continent, without delay, als fast as the sheref beis certifiit thareof, outhir be party or be ony uthiris, he sal pass and persew the slaaris, ane or maa, ande raiss the kingis horne on hym and raise the cuntre in his suppowell quhil he be ourtane. Ande gif he may be ouretakyn he salbe put in sikkir festinens quhil the law be done on hym. Ande that salbe within fourty dais at the ferrest. Ande be it red hand it salbe done within that sone.
(Where any man is slain within the realm, both within and outside regality, as in a royal estate, in boroughs as to land, that immediately, without delay, as fast as the sheriff is certified thereof, either by party or by others, he shall pass and pursue the slayers, one or more, and raise the king's horn on him and raise the country in his support while he [the slayer] is overtaken. And if he may be overtaken, he shall be put in a secure fastness until the law is done on him. And that shall be within forty days at the latest. And if it is red-handed, it shall be done within that sun.)
By the second half of the next century, redhanded becomes metaphorical—but still limited to legal usage—and applied to crimes other than murder. This 1578 Scottish statute refers to being caught carrying firearms to be a riedhand crime:
It sall not be lefull to beir, weir, or use in schuting or utherwayis the saidis culveringis, daggis, pistolettis, or ony sic uther ingyne of fyre werk upoun thair personis, or in cumpany with thame oppinlie, with thame outwith houssis in tyme cuming, under the pane of impresonment of thair personis for yeir and day, and forder induring the Kingis Majesteis will,—togidder with the pane of escheting of the culveringis, daggis, or sic uther ingynes of fyre werk to the use and behuif of the juge executor of the jugement heireftir ordanit. And for executioun heirof, that the offendouris sall not eschape unpuneist, gevis and grantis full power and commissioun, be vertew of this present Act, to all Shereffis, Stewartis, Baillies and thair deputtis, Lordis of Regaliteis and thair Baillies, Provestis, Aldermen, and Baillies of Burrowis, makand thame our Soverane Lordis justices in that part, to tak and apprehend the contravenaris heirof, beand found reidhand berand or werand the saidis culveringis, daggis, pistolettis, or utheris ingynis of fyre werk, and keip thame in ward quhill justice be execute upoun thame, providing the same be done within sic space as be the law and custum is appointit for personis takin reidhand in thift.
It isn’t until the eighteenth century that the word moved south into England. It’s found in a 1759 edition of Spenser’s Fairie Queene, where the editor, Ralph Church, uses it to gloss ruddymaine. In the passage, the Knight Guyon finds the woman Amavia dying. Her husband had been seduced by the evil enchantress Acrasia, and Amavia had poisoned him and then killed herself. Guyon takes her infant boy and swears to bring it up avenge his parents’ deaths:
Then taking Congè of that Virgin pure,
The bloody-handed Babe unto her truth
Did earnestly committ, and her conjure
In vertuous lore to traine his tender youth,
And all that gentle nouriture ensu’th:
And that, so soone as riper yeares he raught,
He might, for memory of that daye’s truth,
Be called Ruddymaine; and thereby taught
T’avenge his Parents death on them that had it wrought.
Church’s note reads:
8 ——Ruddymane;] i.e. Red-handed
From this point on, redhanded becomes widely used, and not just in legal or homicidal contexts.
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Sources:
The Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vol. 1. 1844. Appendix V (c.1430). 375. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Burton, John Hill, ed. The Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, first series, vol. 2. (12 April 1578). Edinburgh: H.M. General Register House, 682. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2009, modified September 2019, s.v. red-handed, adj., red-hand, adj. and n.
“Perth, Parliamentary Commission, Parliamentary Records, 10 March 1432.” Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707. University of St. Andrews, 2021.
Spenser, Edmund. The Fairie Queene, vol. 2 of 4. Ralph Church, ed. London: William Faden, 1759, 3.2, 46–47. Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO).
Image credit: Alfred Stevens, before 1906, oil on canvas. Musées Communaux de Verviers. Public domain image as a mechanical reproduction of an original work that is in the public domain.