[DesertRhino]

You are nuts if you think George III couldnt have your life if he wanted it.
The Bloody law meant England had over 200 death offenses into the 1800s. They could even execute you for spending a month with a gypsey. Minor poaching (pretty neat when the king or his buds owns all the land),

Yes, Mopnarchs could kill you. And when they couldnt, they could lock you up in conditions that would kill you just as handily. Europe is good at supressing dissent and murder.

They only nominally behave now because of the USA and WWII. Enforced peace,,,,

[sinsofsolarempirefan]

You could be hung for pickpocketing a silk hankerchief in 18th Century Britain, such was the brutally simple approach to lowering the rate of receidivsm in convicted criminals in those days. But this had nothing to do with the monarch, and everything to do with Parliamentary legislation. Surprising as it may be, George III wasn't ruling by decree. It took several acts of Parliament into the 1830s to reduce the number the number of crimes eligable for the death penalty to essentially, murder and treason. But even before this, the death penalty was not imposed arbitrarily. Defendents had the right to trial by jury, and plenty of juries acquitted defendents who the government would rather have seen convicted, like John Wilkes, for example.

However, regarding the death penalty, George III did use his influence to prevent a madwoman who had tried to assassinate him from suffering the death penalty, and she was confined to an asylum instead. Rather enlightened for the time considering that, as you have also pointed out, far less serious crimes were eligable to a sentence of death by hanging...