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Quick Links:On The Trail of King Richard III. The book that started it all. The Virtual tour of Medieval England based on the book. The Visitor Centre - Facts and Information about Medieval life and times. King Richard III
What are these hands doing? Find out more by clicking here. Creatures of the Chase:
By the same author, a tragic love story and edge of your seat thriller. Visit our store for more information about "Creatures". |
Crime & PunishmentHanging, Drawing and Quartering - Sentence read: that you be led back to prison, laid on a hurdle and so drawn to the place of execution; there to be hanged, to be cut down alive, your privy members cut off and cast into the fire, your bowels burnt before your eyes, your head smitten off, your body quartered and divided at the King's (Queen's) will. Initially employed in 1241, during the reign of King Henry III, it rapidly became a favorite form of punishment, especially for High Treason. As a public spectacle, it was unequalled! Suicide - A short distance north of the Tower of London was a giant cesspool - the London Ditch - into which was delivered the city's refuse. The bodies of known suicides were said to be thrown in too, a practice sanctioned by the Church who considered the taking of one's own life a heinous sin. Naturally, suicides were not generally acknowledged, let alone reported. Considering the poor state of health of most individuals and the allure of the afterlife, suicide (disguised as accidental death) may have been as common as infanticide. Serial killers in the Middle Ages would never have succeeded. Everyone knew everyone you see and aberrant behaviour would be quickly noticed. In fact, you couldn't sneeze twice without the whole village knowing. Outlaws like the legendary Robin Hood were declared "ex-lege", outside or beyond the law and therefore denied all legal protection. If caught, he would most certainly have been executed, his property seized and his family made to suffer. Most outlaws fled justice after committing heinous crimes although many, presumably like Robin Hood, were men whose misdeeds were more political and it is these outlaws who were portrayed in folklore as heroes rather than villains. Chances are most outlaws were a little of both. I'll give you an example. The most notorious outlaw during King John's reign was Eustace the Monk who rejected the ecclesiastical life for high adventure as a pirate, working in the service of the French king Louis. His feats of daredevilry ended abruptly off the coast of Sandwich when he was captured and beheaded. This was not an outlaw of romantic folklore but a nasty piece of work who, it is said, dabbled in the art of necromancy. During the reign of King Henry VIII (1509-1547), a period of 38 years, something in the order of 72,000 individuals were executed. Work out the math on that! Tyburn has been a place of execution since the 12th century. A plaque marking the spot exists to this day at the corner of Edgeware Road and Bayswater Road - Marble Arch. The scaffold was redesigned in the 16th century to accommodate eight people at once, set in a triangular fashion and at a height of eighteen feet. At that height, the view for both the participants and the onlookers much have been spectacular! The journey from Newgate Prison to Tyburn - two miles. Tyburn gallows ceased operation in 1783. Public executions however, did not. Women were not normally hanged. Instead they were burned at the stake, usually at Smithfield. The last woman to be publicly burned alive was Christian Murphy on the 18th of March, 1789. After that, women joined the men. In 1849, at Horsemonger Lane Goal, a crowd of over 30,000 gathered to watch the execution of Frederick and Maria Manning, among them, Charles Dickens. Contrary to popular belief, the 'witches' of Salem, Massachusetts died on the gallows, not burned at the stake as did the ten 'witches' of Newchurch-in-Pendle in 1612. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake for heresy which just goes to show that there are exceptions to every rule. Children as young as nine were hanged, often for petty crimes. The first convict ship sailed for Australia in 1787, the last in 1867. Many convicts considered transportation to the colonies a worse punishment than the gallows itself. 'Vertically challenged' individauls, listen up. A spell on the rack can add up to four inches to one's height! Peine forte et dure - a remarkable form of 'torture', unique in its philosophy. Find out more in On the Trail of King Richard III. Among the many prisoners confined in Little Ease were members of the Knights Templar in the 13th century; Guy Fawkes, a leader of the Gunpower Plot in the 17th century; and the noted 18th century Jacobite rebel Lord Lovat, who was the last man beheaded in England.
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