![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Henry VIII’s 1531 ‘Acte for Poysoning’ (repealed 1547) made death by boiling alive the prescribed form of capital punishment for those convicted of committing fatal poisonings. (Although some were dangled above the pot on a chain and dipped in and out of the scalding water, which was far worse). ![]() Kitchen nightmares - Boiling aliveįor this barbaric punishment, the method is simple: take one unfortunate felon, throw into a cauldron of water, oil, tallow, or molten lead, while alive, and bring to the boil until dead. Read more about: Medieval History 8 Famous Botched Executions 3. Some guests of the bonfire banquet were ‘lucky’ enough to be strangled first, while others were also fortunate to die of smoke inhalation before being cooked to a crisp. Other officials were kinder, such as the humane functionary who hung a bag of gunpowder about the neck of Anne Askew (1521-1546), the mini-blast cutting short her suffering. Occasionally, cruel executioners would wet the wood to make it burn slower. Those doomed to die by fire would typically be bound to a stake on top of a pyre, heaped up so that the baying crowd could observe the human BBQ.Ĭlergyman would preach sermons as the flames licked the feet of the condemned and their coughs turned to screams. In a nutshell, Henry VIII broke with Rome and burned Catholics Edward VI was an ardent Protestant who burned a small number of Catholics Mary I, a devout Catholic, then burned many Protestants when she was queen and Elizabeth I, a Protestant, then burnt Catholics. The age when the incineration of apostates was red-hot, though, was under the reigns of Henry VIII and his kids. Fire Away! - Burning at the Stakeįor Tudor women guilty of treason, and for male and female heretics, this was the method of dispatch – to be publicly burned alive.īeing broiled for the crime of heresy was legally codified in England in 1401, and the last torching of dissenters was in 1612. With her own front door placed on top of her and the weights added, she was dead after fifteen minutes. In some cases, it was a clear death sentence as opposed to an attempt to induce a plea, as in the case of Margaret Clitherow (1556-1586), who was sentenced to be pressed to death. It was typically intended to act as coercion – the accused would be ‘pressed to plead’. The prisoner would lie on the floor of a ‘little dark room’ of the prison, a board would be placed on top of them and then weights would gradually be added. Known as ‘peine forte et dure’ (strong and harsh punishment), this sanction was reserved for those who refused to enter pleas at court. Read more about: Medieval History Execution in the Middle Ages 1. ![]()
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