Legal punishment in medieval England, Wales, and Ireland for high treason
The execution of
Hugh Despenser the Younger
, as depicted in the
Froissart of Louis of Gruuthuse
To be
hanged, drawn and quartered
became a
statutory
penalty for men convicted of
high treason
in the
Kingdom of England
from 1352 under
King Edward III
(1327?1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of
King Henry III
(1216?1272). The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn behind a horse to the place of execution, where he was then
hanged
(almost to the point of death),
emasculated
,
disembowelled
,
beheaded
, and
quartered
. His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as
London Bridge
, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead
burned at the stake
.
The same punishment applied to traitors against the king in
Ireland
from the 15th century onward; William Overy was hanged, drawn and quartered by
Lord Lieutenant
Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York
in 1459, and from the reign of
King Henry VII
it was made part of statute law.
[1]
[2]
Matthew Lambert
was among the most notable Irishmen to suffer this punishment, in 1581 in
Wexford
.
[3]
The severity of the sentence was
measured against the seriousness of the crime
. As an attack on the
monarch
's authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment. Although some convicts had their sentences modified and suffered a less ignominious end, over a period of several hundred years many men found guilty of high treason were subjected to the law's ultimate sanction. They included many
Catholic
priests executed during the
Elizabethan era
, and several of the
regicides
involved in the 1649
execution of Charles I
.
Although the
Act of Parliament
defining high treason remains on the United Kingdom's
statute books
, during a long period of 19th-century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being abolished in England
in 1870
. The death penalty for treason was abolished
in 1998
.
History
[
edit
]
Early punishments for treason
[
edit
]
As illustrated in
Matthew Paris
's
Chronica Majora
,
William de Marisco
is drawn to his execution behind a horse.
During the
High Middle Ages
, those in the
Kingdom of England
found guilty of
treason
were punished in a variety of ways, often including drawing and hanging. Throughout the 13th century, more severe penalties were recorded, such as disembowelling, burning, beheading, and quartering.
The 13th-century English chronicler
Matthew Paris
described how in 1238 "a certain man at arms, a man of some education (
armiger literatus
)"
[4]
attempted to kill
King Henry III
. His account records in detail how the would-be assassin was executed: "dragged asunder, then beheaded, and his body divided into three parts; each part was then dragged through one of the principal cities of England, and was afterwards
hung on a gibbet
used for robbers."
[5]
[nb 1]
He was apparently sent by
William de Marisco
, an outlaw who some years earlier had killed a man under royal protection before fleeing to
Lundy Island
. De Marisco was captured in 1242 and on Henry's order dragged from
Westminster
to the
Tower of London
to be executed. There he was hanged from a
gibbet
until dead. His corpse was disembowelled, his
entrails
burned, his body quartered, and the parts distributed to cities across the country.
[7]
First recorded examples
[
edit
]
Edward I
Longshanks
, King of England (1272?1307)
The first recorded example of the punishment in its entirety was during
Edward I
's reign, for the Welsh prince
Dafydd ap Gruffydd
in 1283 after he turned against the king and proclaimed himself
Prince of Wales
and Lord of Snowdon.
[8]
[9]
[5]
[nb 2]
Following the capture of Dafydd ap Gruffydd, Edward proclaimed that the "treacherous lineage" (
House of Aberffraw
), and princes of that "turbulent nation" (
Wales
) were now his prisoners. Edward summoned a parliament at
Shrewsbury
to discuss Dafydd's fate. On 30 September, it was decided Dafydd would be executed for what from that time onward would be termed
high treason
.
[8]
On 3 October, Dafydd was attached to a horse's tail and drawn through the streets of
Shrewsbury
to his place of execution. There he was hanged until losing consciousness, then revived, disembowelled, and made to watch as his entrails burned before him for "sacrilege in committing his crimes in the week of Christ's passion" (Easter).
[10]
[11]
Finally, Dafydd's body was cut into quarters "for plotting the king's death," and the parts were sent to different regions of Edward's realm: the right arm to
York
, the left arm to
Bristol
, the right leg to
Northampton
, and the left leg to
Hereford
. The head was bound with iron and set on a spear at the
Tower of London
.
[12]
[13]
In 1305, the
Scottish
knight
Sir William Wallace
, a main leader of the
First War of Scottish Independence
, was punished in a similar manner. He was forced to wear a
crown of laurel leaves
and was drawn to
Smithfield
, where he was hanged and beheaded. His entrails were then burned and his corpse quartered, while his head was set on
London Bridge
and the quarters sent to
Newcastle
,
Berwick
,
Stirling
, and
Perth
.
[14]
Treason Act 1351
[
edit
]
Edward III
, under whose rule the
Treason Act 1351
was enacted. It defined in law what constituted
high treason
.
These and other executions, such as those of
Andrew Harclay, 1st Earl of Carlisle
,
[15]
and
Hugh Despenser the Younger
,
[16]
which each occurred during
Edward II
's reign, happened when acts of treason in England, and their punishments, were not clearly defined in
common law
.
[nb 3]
Treason was based on an allegiance to the sovereign from all subjects aged 14 or over, and it remained for the king and his judges to determine whether that allegiance had been broken.
[18]
Edward III
's justices had offered somewhat overzealous interpretations of what activities constituted treason, "calling felonies treasons and afforcing indictments by talk of accroachment of the royal power",
[19]
prompting parliamentary demands to clarify the law. Edward therefore introduced the Treason Act 1351. It was enacted at a time in English history when a monarch's
right to rule
was indisputable and was therefore written principally to protect the throne and sovereign.
[20]
The new law offered a narrower definition of treason than had existed before and split the old feudal offence into two classes.
[21]
[22]
Petty treason
referred to the killing of a master (or lord) by his servant, a husband by his wife, or a prelate by his clergyman. Men guilty of petty treason were drawn and hanged, whereas women were
burned
.
[nb 4]
[25]
High treason
was the most egregious offence an individual could commit. Attempts to undermine the king's authority were viewed with as much seriousness as if the accused had attacked him personally, which itself would be an assault on his status as sovereign and a direct threat to his right to govern. As this might undermine the state, retribution was considered an absolute necessity and the crime deserving of the ultimate punishment.
[26]
The practical difference between the two offences was therefore in the consequence of being convicted; rather than being drawn and hanged, men were to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, while for reasons of public decency (their anatomy being considered inappropriate for the sentence), women were instead drawn and burned.
[24]
[27]
The Act declared that a person had committed high treason if they were:
[19]
- compassing or imagining the death of the king, his wife or his eldest son and heir;
- violating the king's wife, his eldest daughter if she was unmarried, or the wife of his eldest son and heir;
- levying war against the king in his
realm
;
- adhering to the king's enemies in his realm, giving them aid and comfort in his realm or elsewhere;
- counterfeiting the
Great Seal
or the
Privy Seal
, or the king's coinage;
- knowingly importing counterfeit money;
- killing the
Chancellor
,
Treasurer
or one of the king's Justices while performing their offices.
The Act did not limit the king's authority in defining the scope of treason. It contained a proviso giving English judges discretion to extend that scope whenever required, a process more commonly known as
constructive treason
.
[28]
[nb 5]
It also applied to subjects overseas in
British colonies in the Americas
, but the only documented incident of an individual there being hanged, drawn, and quartered was that of Joshua Tefft, an English colonist accused of having fought on the side of the
Narragansett
during the
Great Swamp Fight
. He was executed in January 1676.
[30]
Later sentences resulted either in a pardon or a hanging.
[31]
Treason Act 1695
[
edit
]
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
, was executed on 17 May 1521 for the crime of treason. The wording of his sentence has survived and indicates the precision with which the method of execution was described; he was to be "laid on a hurdle and so drawn to the place of execution, and there to be hanged, cut down alive, your members to be cut off and cast in the fire, your bowels burnt before you, your head smitten off, and your body quartered and divided at the King's will, and God have mercy on your soul."
[32]
The original 1351 Act required only one witness to convict a person of treason, although in 1547 this was increased to two. Suspects were first questioned in private by the
Privy Council
before they were publicly tried. They were allowed no witnesses or defence
counsel
, and were generally presumed guilty from the outset. This meant that for centuries anyone accused of treason was at a severe legal disadvantage, a situation that lasted until the late 17th century, when several years of politically motivated treason charges made against
Whig
politicians prompted the introduction of the Treason Act 1695.
[33]
This allowed a defendant counsel, witnesses, a copy of the indictment, and a jury, and when not charged with an attempt on the monarch's life, to be prosecuted within three years of the alleged offence.
[34]
Execution of the sentence
[
edit
]
"John Munday" redirects here. For the English composer and organist, see
John Mundy
.
Once sentenced, malefactors were usually held in prison for a few days before being taken to the place of execution. During the
High Middle Ages
this journey may have been made tied directly to the back of a horse, but it subsequently became customary for the victim to be fastened instead to a wicker
hurdle
, or wooden panel, itself tied to the horse.
[35]
Historian
Frederic William Maitland
thought that this was probably to "[secure] for the hangman a yet living body".
[36]
The use of the word "drawn", as in "to draw", has caused a degree of confusion. One of the
Oxford English Dictionary
'
s definitions of draw is "to draw out the viscera or intestines of; to disembowel (a fowl, etc. before cooking, a traitor or other criminal after hanging)", but this is followed by "in many cases of executions it is uncertain whether this, or [to drag (a criminal) at a horse's tail, or on a hurdle or the like, to the place of execution; formerly a legal punishment of high treason], is meant. The presumption is that where
drawn
is mentioned after
hanged
, the sense is as here."
[37]
Historian
Ram Sharan Sharma
arrived at the same conclusion: "Where, as in the popular
hung, drawn and quartered
[use] (meaning facetiously, of a person, completely disposed of),
drawn
follows
hanged
or
hung
, it is to be referred to as the disembowelling of the traitor."
[38]
Sharma is not the only historian to support this viewpoint as the phrase, "hanged until dead before being drawn and quartered", occurs in a number of relevant secondary publications.
[39]
[40]
The historian and author
Ian Mortimer
disagrees. In an essay published on his website, he writes that the separate mention of evisceration is a relatively modern device, and that while it certainly took place on many occasions, the presumption that
drawing
means to disembowel is spurious. Instead, drawing (as a method of transportation) may be mentioned after hanging because it was a supplementary part of the execution.
[41]
The spiked heads of executed criminals once adorned the gatehouse of the medieval
London Bridge
.
A liuely Representation of the manner how his late Majesty was beheaded uppon the Scaffold Ian 30: 1648; A representation of the execution of the King's Judges.
In the top pane,
Charles I
is shown awaiting his execution. In the bottom pane, one regicide is hanged and another quartered, while the latter's head is shown to the crowd.
Some reports indicate that during
Queen Mary I
's reign bystanders were vocal in their support: while in transit, convicts sometimes suffered directly at the hands of the crowd.
William Wallace
was whipped, attacked and had rotten food and waste thrown at him,
[42]
and the priest
Thomas Pilchard
was reportedly barely alive by the time he reached the gallows in 1587. Others found themselves admonished by "zealous and godly men";
[35]
it became customary for a preacher to follow the condemned, asking them to repent. According to
Samuel Clarke
, the
Puritan
clergyman
William Perkins
(1558?1602) once managed to convince a young man at the gallows that he had been forgiven, enabling the youth to go to his death "with tears of joy in his eyes ... as if he actually saw himself delivered from the hell which he feared before, and heaven opened for receiving his soul."
[43]
After the king's commission had been read aloud, the crowd was normally asked to move back from the scaffold before being addressed by the convict.
[44]
While these speeches were mostly an admission of guilt (although few admitted treason),
[45]
still they were carefully monitored by the sheriff and chaplain, who were occasionally forced to act; in 1588, Catholic priest
William Dean
's address to the crowd was considered so inappropriate that he was gagged almost to the point of suffocation.
[44]
[46]
Questions on matters of allegiance and politics were sometimes put to the prisoner,
[47]
as happened to
Edmund Gennings
in 1591. He was asked by
priest hunter
Richard Topcliffe
to "confess his treason", but when Gennings responded "if to say Mass be treason, I confess to have done it and glory in it", Topcliffe ordered him to be quiet and instructed the hangman to push him off the ladder.
[48]
Sometimes the witness responsible for the condemned man's execution was also present. A government spy, John Munday, was in 1582 present for the execution of
Thomas Ford
. Munday supported the sheriff, who had reminded the priest of his confession when he protested his innocence.
[49]
The sentiments expressed in such speeches may be related to the conditions encountered during imprisonment. Many
Jesuit
priests suffered badly at the hands of their captors but were frequently the most defiant; conversely, those of a higher station were often the most apologetic. Such contrition may have arisen from the sheer terror felt by those who thought they might be disembowelled rather than simply beheaded as they would normally expect, and any apparent acceptance of their fate may have stemmed from the belief that a serious, but not treasonable act, had been committed. Good behaviour at the gallows may also have been due to a convict's desire for his heirs not to be
disinherited
.
[50]
The condemned were occasionally forced to watch as other traitors, sometimes their confederates, were executed before them. The priest
James Bell
was in 1584 made to watch as his companion,
John Finch
, was "a-quarter-inge".
Edward James
and Francis Edwardes were made to witness
Ralph Crockett
's execution in 1588, in an effort to elicit their co-operation and acceptance of
Elizabeth I
's religious supremacy before they were themselves executed.
[51]
Normally stripped to the shirt with their arms bound in front of them, prisoners were then hanged for a short period, either from a ladder or cart. On the sheriff's orders the cart would be taken away (or if a ladder, turned), leaving the man suspended in mid-air. The aim was usually to cause
strangulation
and near-death, although some victims were killed prematurely, the priest
John Payne
's death in 1582 being hastened by a group of men pulling on his legs. Conversely, some, such as the deeply unpopular
William Hacket
(d. 1591), were cut down instantly and taken to be disembowelled and normally
emasculated
?the latter, according to Sir
Edward Coke
, to "show his issue was disinherited with corruption of blood."
[nb 6]
[52]
A victim still conscious at that point might have seen his entrails burned, before the body was decapitated and quartered (chopped into four pieces). The
regicide
Major General Thomas Harrison
, after being hanged for several minutes and then cut open in October 1660, was reported to have leaned across and hit his executioner?resulting in the swift removal of his head. His entrails were thrown onto a nearby fire.
[53]
[54]
[nb 7]
John Houghton
was reported to have prayed while being disembowelled in 1535, and in his final moments to have cried "Good Jesu, what will you do with my heart?"
[57]
[58]
Executioners were often inexperienced and proceedings did not always run smoothly. In 1584,
Richard White
's executioner removed his bowels piece by piece, through a small hole in his belly, "the which device taking no good success, he mangled his breast with a butcher's axe to the very chine most pitifully."
[59]
[nb 8]
At his execution in January 1606 for his involvement in the
Gunpowder Plot
,
Guy Fawkes
managed to break his neck by jumping from the gallows.
[63]
[64]
Engraving of the execution of
Sir Thomas Armstrong
No records exist to demonstrate exactly how the corpse was quartered, although an engraving of the quartering of
Sir Thomas Armstrong
in 1684 shows the executioner making vertical cuts through the spine and removing the legs at the hip.
The distribution of
Dafydd ap Gruffydd
's remains was described by
Herbert Maxwell
: "the right arm with a ring on the finger in York; the left arm in Bristol; the right leg and hip at Northampton; the left [leg] at Hereford. But the villain's head was bound with iron, lest it should fall to pieces from putrefaction, and set conspicuously upon a long spear-shaft for the mockery of London."
[66]
After the execution in 1660 of several of the regicides involved in the death of
King Charles I
eleven years earlier, the diarist
John Evelyn
remarked: "I saw not their execution, but met their quarters, mangled, and cut, and reeking, as they were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle."
[67]
Such remains were typically
parboiled
and displayed as a gruesome reminder of the penalty for high treason, usually wherever the traitor had conspired or found support.
[54]
[68]
Salt and
cumin
seed would be added during the boiling process: the salt to prevent
putrefaction
, and the cumin seed to prevent birds pecking at the flesh.
[69]
The head was often displayed on
London Bridge
, for centuries the route by which many travellers from the south entered the city. Several eminent commentators remarked on the displays. In 1566
Joseph Justus Scaliger
wrote that "in London there were many heads on the bridge ... I have seen there, as if they were masts of ships, and at the top of them, quarters of men's corpses." In 1602 the
Duke of Pommerania-Stettin
emphasised the ominous nature of their presence when he wrote "near the end of the bridge, on the suburb side, were stuck up the heads of thirty gentlemen of high standing who had been beheaded on account of treason and secret practices against the Queen."
[70]
[nb 9]
The practice of using London Bridge in this manner ended following the hanging, drawing, and quartering in 1678 of William Staley, a victim of the fictitious
Popish Plot
. His quarters were given to his relatives, who promptly arranged a "grand" funeral; this incensed the coroner so much that he ordered the body to be dug up and set upon the city gates. Staley's was the last head to be placed on London Bridge.
[72]
[73]
Later history
[
edit
]
Another victim of the Popish Plot,
Oliver Plunkett
, the
Archbishop of Armagh
, was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn in July 1681. His executioner was bribed so that Plunkett's body parts were saved from the fire; the head is now displayed at
St Peter's Church in Drogheda
.
[74]
Francis Towneley
and several other captured
Jacobite
officers involved in the
Jacobite Rising of 1745
were executed,
[75]
but by then the executioner possessed some discretion as to how much they should suffer and thus they were killed before their bodies were eviscerated. The French spy
Francois Henri de la Motte
was hanged in 1781 for almost an hour before his heart was cut out and burned,
[76]
and the following year David Tyrie was hanged, decapitated, and then quartered at
Portsmouth
, being the last person to be executed with this method.
[77]
Pieces of his corpse were fought over by members of the 20,000-strong crowd there, some making trophies of his limbs and fingers.
[78]
In 1803
Edward Despard
and six co-conspirators in the
Despard Plot
were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Before they were hanged and beheaded at
Horsemonger Lane Gaol
, they were first placed on sledges attached to horses, and ritually pulled in circuits around the gaol yards.
[79]
Their execution was attended by an audience of about 20,000.
[80]
A contemporary report describes the scene after Despard had made his speech:
This energetic, but inflammatory appeal, was followed by such enthusiastic plaudits, that the Sheriff hinted to the Clergyman to withdraw, and forbade Colonel Despard to proceed. The cap was then drawn over their eyes, during which the Colonel was observed again to fix the knot under his left ear, and, at seven minutes before nine o'clock the signal being given, the platform dropped, and they were all launched into eternity. From the precaution taken by the Colonel, he appeared to suffer very little, neither did the others struggle much, except Broughton, who had been the most indecently profane of the whole. Wood, the soldier, died very hard. The Executioners went under, and kept pulling them by the feet. Several drops of blood fell from the fingers of Macnamara and Wood, during the time they were suspended. After hanging thirty-seven minutes, the Colonel's body was cut down, at half an hour past nine o'clock, and being stripped of his coat and waistcoat, it was laid upon saw-dust, with the head reclined upon a block. A surgeon then in attempting to sever the head from the body by a common dissecting knife, missed the particular joint aimed at, when he kept haggling it, till the executioner was obliged to take the head between his hands, and to twist it several times round, when it was with difficulty severed from the body. It was then held up by the executioner, who exclaimed?"
Behold the head of EDWARD MARCUS DESPARD, a Traitor!
" The same ceremony followed with the others respectively; and the whole concluded by ten o'clock.
[81]
The severed head of
Jeremiah Brandreth
, one of the last men in England sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered
At the burnings of Isabella Condon in 1779 and Phoebe Harris in 1786, the sheriffs present inflated their expenses; in the opinion of Simon Devereaux they were probably dismayed at being forced to attend such spectacles.
[82]
Harris's fate prompted
William Wilberforce
to sponsor a bill which if passed would have abolished the practice, but as one of its proposals would have allowed the
anatomical dissection
of criminals other than murderers, the
House of Lords
rejected it.
[83]
The burning in 1789 of
Catherine Murphy
, a counterfeiter,
[nb 10]
was impugned in Parliament by Sir Benjamin Hammett. He called it one of "the savage remains of Norman policy".
[76]
[84]
Amidst a growing tide of public disgust at the burning of women, Parliament passed the
Treason Act 1790
, which for women guilty of treason substituted hanging for burning.
[85]
It was followed by the
Treason Act 1814
, introduced by
Samuel Romilly
, a legal reformer. Influenced by his friend,
Jeremy Bentham
, Romilly had long argued that punitive laws should serve to reform criminal behaviour and that far from acting as a deterrent, the
severity of England's laws
was responsible for an increase in crime. When appointed the MP for Queensborough in 1806 he resolved to improve what he described as "Our sanguinary and barbarous penal code, written in blood".
[86]
He managed to repeal the death penalty for certain thefts and vagrancy, and
in 1814
proposed to change the sentence for men guilty of treason to being hanged until dead and the body left at the king's disposal. However, when it was pointed out that this would be a less severe punishment than that given for murder, he agreed that the corpse should also be decapitated, "as a fit punishment and appropriate stigma."
[87]
[88]
This is what happened to
Jeremiah Brandreth
, leader of a 100-strong contingent of men in the
Pentrich rising
and one of three men executed in 1817 at
Derby Gaol
. As with Edward Despard and his confederates the three were drawn to the scaffold on sledges before being hanged for about an hour, and then on the insistence of the
Prince Regent
were beheaded with an axe. The local miner appointed to the task of beheading them was inexperienced though, and having failed with the first two blows, completed his job with a knife. As he held the first head up and made the customary announcement, the crowd reacted with horror and fled. A different reaction was seen in 1820, when amidst more social unrest five men involved in the
Cato Street Conspiracy
were hanged and beheaded at Newgate Prison. Although the beheading was performed by a surgeon, following the usual proclamation the crowd was angry enough to force the executioners to find safety behind the prison walls.
[89]
The plot was the last crime for which the sentence was applied.
[90]
Reformation of England's capital punishment laws continued throughout the 19th century, as politicians such as
John Russell, 1st Earl Russell
, sought to remove from the statute books many of the capital offences that remained.
[91]
Robert Peel
's drive to ameliorate law enforcement saw petty treason abolished by the
Offences against the Person Act 1828
, which removed the distinction between crimes formerly considered as petty treason, and murder.
[92]
[93]
The
Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1864?1866
recommended that there be no change to treason law, quoting the "more merciful"
Treason Felony Act 1848
, which limited the punishment for most treasonous acts to
penal servitude
. Its report recommended that for "rebellion, assassination or other violence ...we are of opinion that the extreme penalty must remain",
[94]
although the most recent occasion (and ultimately, the last) on which anyone had been sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered was in November 1839, following the
Chartist
Newport Rising
?and those men sentenced to death were instead
transported
.
[95]
The report highlighted the changing public mood toward public executions (brought about in part by the growing prosperity created by the
Industrial Revolution
).
Home Secretary
Spencer Horatio Walpole
told the commission that executions had "become so demoralizing that, instead of its having a good effect, it has a tendency rather to brutalize the public mind than to deter the criminal class from committing crime". The commission recommended that executions should be performed privately, behind prison walls and away from the public's view, "under such regulations as may be considered necessary to prevent abuse, and to satisfy the public that the law has been complied with."
[96]
The practice of executing murderers in public was ended two years later by the
Capital Punishment Amendment Act 1868
, introduced by Home Secretary
Gathorne Hardy
, but this did not apply to traitors.
[97]
An amendment to abolish capital punishment completely, suggested before the bill's third reading, failed by 127 votes to 23.
[98]
[99]
Hanging, drawing, and quartering was abolished in England by the
Forfeiture Act 1870
, Liberal politician
Charles Forster
's second attempt since 1864
[nb 11]
to end the
forfeiture
of a felon's lands and goods (thereby not making paupers of his family).
[101]
[102]
The Act limited the penalty for treason to hanging alone,
[103]
although it did not remove the monarch's right under the 1814 Act to replace hanging with beheading.
[88]
[104]
Beheading was abolished in 1973,
[105]
although it had long been obsolete; the last person on British soil to be beheaded was
Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat
in 1747. The death penalty for treason was abolished by the
Crime and Disorder Act 1998
, enabling the UK to ratify protocol six of the
European Convention on Human Rights
in 1999.
[106]
In the United States
[
edit
]
In some of the places where the
American War of Independence
developed into a fierce civil war among American factions, there are recorded cases of both sides resorting to hanging, drawing, and quartering ? both
Loyalists
and
Patriots
finding reasons to construe their opponents as being "traitors" deserving of such a fate.
[107]
[108]
[109]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"
Rex eum, quasi regiae majestatis (occisorem), membratim laniatum equis apud Coventre, exemplum terribile et spectaculum comentabile praebere (iussit) omnibus audentibus talia machinari. Primo enim distractus, postea decollatus et corpus in tres partes divisum est.
"
[6]
- ^
On de Marisco, Paris states "postea decollatus et corpus in tres partes divisum est" (Once beheaded his body is divided into three parts).
[5]
- ^
Treason before 1351 was defined by
Alfred the Great
's
Doom book
. As Patrick Wormald wrote, "if anyone plots against the king's life ... [
or
his lord's life], he is liable for his life and all that he owns ... or to clear himself by the king's [lord's] wergeld."
[17]
- ^
Women were considered the legal property of their husbands,
[23]
and so a woman convicted of killing her husband was guilty not of murder, but petty treason. For disrupting the social order a degree of retribution was therefore required; hanging was considered insufficient for such a heinous crime.
[24]
- ^
"And because that many other like cases of treason may happen in time to come, which a man cannot think nor declare at this present time; it is accorded, that if any other case supposed treason, which is not above specified, doth happen before any justice, the justice shall tarry without going to judgement of treason, till the cause be shewed and declared before the king and his parliament, whether it ought to be judged treason or other felony."
Edward Coke
[29]
- ^
For an explanation of "corruption of blood", see
Attainder
.
- ^
Harrison's sentence was "That you be led to the place from whence you came, and from thence be drawn upon a hurdle to the place of execution, and then you shall be hanged by the neck and, being alive, shall be cut down, and your privy members to be cut off, and your entrails be taken out of your body and, you living, the same to be burnt before your eyes, and your head to be cut off, your body to be divided into four-quarters, and head and quarters to be disposed of at the pleasure of the King's majesty. And the Lord have mercy on your soul."
[55]
His head adorned the sledge that drew fellow regicide
John Cooke
to his execution, before being displayed in Westminster Hall; his quarters were fastened to the city gates.
[56]
- ^
In the case of
Hugh Despenser the Younger
, Seymour Phillips writes: "All the good people of the realm, great and small, rich and poor, regarded Despenser as a traitor and a robber; for which he was sentenced to be hanged. As a traitor he was to be drawn and quartered and the quarters distributed around the kingdom; as an outlaw he was to be beheaded; and for procuring discord between the king and the queen and other people of the kingdom he was sentenced to be disembowelled and his entrails burned; finally he was declared to be a traitor, tyrant and renegade."
[60]
In Professor Robert Kastenbaum's opinion the disfigurement of Despenser's corpse (presuming that his disembowelment was post-mortem) may have served as a reminder to the crowd that the authorities did not tolerate dissent. He speculates that the reasoning behind such bloody displays may have been to assuage the crowd's anger, to remove any human characteristics from the corpse, to rob the criminal's family of any opportunity to hold a meaningful funeral, or even to release any evil spirits contained within.
[61]
The practice of disembowelling the body may have originated in the medieval belief that treasonable thoughts were housed there, requiring that the convict's entrails be "purged by fire".
[59]
Andrew Harclay
's "treasonous thoughts had originated in his 'heart, bowels, and entrails'", and so were to be "extracted and burnt to ashes, which would then be dispersed", as had happened with William Wallace and
Gilbert de Middleton
.
[62]
- ^
In 1534, a woman's head adorned the bridge;
Elizabeth Barton
, a domestic servant and later
nun
who forecast the early death of
Henry VIII
, was drawn to
Tyburn
, and hanged and beheaded.
[71]
- ^
Although women were usually burned only after they had first been strangled to death, in 1726
Catherine Hayes
's executioner botched the job and she perished in the flames, the last woman in England to do so.
[76]
- ^
Forster's first attempt passed through both Houses of Parliament without obstruction, but was dropped following a change of government.
[100]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
"Part 1 of The Commonwealth of Ireland"
.
celt.ucc.ie
.
- ^
"Travels of Sir William Brereton in Ireland, 1635"
.
celt.ucc.ie
.
- ^
hEireann, Stair na (5 July 2016).
"1581 ? The Wexford Martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered"
.
Stair na hEireann | History of Ireland
.
- ^
Powicke 1949
, pp. 54?58
- ^
a
b
c
Giles 1852
, p. 139
- ^
Bellamy 2004
, p. 23
- ^
Lewis & Paris 1987
, p. 234
- ^
a
b
Beadle & Harrison 2008
, p. 11
- ^
Diehl & Donnelly 2009
, p. 58
- ^
Bellamy 2004
, pp. 23?29
- ^
J. Beverley Smith
(2014).
Llywelyn ap Gruffudd: Prince of Wales
(2nd ed.).
University of Wales Press
. pp. 578?579.
ISBN
978-1783160839
.
- ^
Maxwell, Herbert, ed. (2001),
The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272?1346, Volume 1
, Glasgow: Llanerch Press, p. 35,
ISBN
1861431090
- ^
Bellamy 2004
, pp. 23?26
- ^
Murison 2003
, pp. 147?149
- ^
Summerson, Henry (2008) [2004],
"Harclay, Andrew, Earl of Carlisle (c. 1270?1323)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
,
Oxford University Press
,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/12235
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Hamilton, J. S. (2008) [2004],
"Despenser, Hugh, the younger, first Lord Despenser (d. 1326)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, vol. 1, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/7554
,
archived
from the original on 24 September 2015
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Wormald 2001
, pp. 280?281
- ^
Tanner 1940
, p. 375
- ^
a
b
Bellamy 1979
, p. 9
- ^
Tanner 1940
, pp. 375?376
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, pp. 9?10
- ^
Dubber 2005
, p. 25
- ^
Caine & Sluga 2002
, pp. 12?13
- ^
a
b
Briggs 1996
, p. 84
- ^
Blackstone et al. 1832
, pp. 156?157
- ^
Foucault 1995
, pp. 47?49
- ^
Naish 1991
, p. 9
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, pp. 10?11
- ^
Coke, Littleton & Hargrave 1817
, pp. 20?21
- ^
Anthony, A. Craig (2001),
"Local Historian Examines the Execution of Joshua Tefft at Smith's Castle in 1676"
(PDF)
,
Castle Chronicle
,
10
(4): 1, 8?9, archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 21 March 2014
- ^
Ward 2009
, p. 56
- ^
Smith, Lacey B. (October 1954), "English Treason Trials and Confessions in the Sixteenth Century",
Journal of the History of Ideas
,
15
(4): 471?498 [484]
{{
citation
}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (
link
)
- ^
Tomkovicz 2002
, p. 6
- ^
Feilden 2009
, pp. 6?7
- ^
a
b
Bellamy 1979
, p. 187
- ^
Pollock & Maitland 2007
, p. 500
- ^
"draw",
Oxford English Dictionary
(2 ed.), Oxford University Press, hosted at dictionary.oed.com, 1989,
archived
from the original on 25 June 2006
, retrieved
18 August
2010
.
(subscription or
participating institution membership
required)
- ^
Sharma 2003
, p. 9
- ^
Hirsch, Richard S. M. (Spring 1986), "The Works of
Chidiock Tichborne
",
English Literary Renaissance
,
16
(2): 303?318
{{
citation
}}
: CS1 maint: date and year (
link
)
p. 305
- ^
Kronenwetter, Michael (2001),
Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook
, Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, p. 204
- ^
Mortimer, Ian (30 March 2010),
Why do we say 'hanged, drawn and quartered?'
(PDF)
, ianmortimer.com,
archived
(PDF)
from the original on 22 November 2010
- ^
Beadle & Harrison 2008
, p. 12
- ^
Clarke 1654
, p. 853
- ^
a
b
Bellamy 1979
, p. 191
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, p. 195
- ^
Pollen 1908
, p. 327
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, p. 193
- ^
Pollen 1908
, p. 207
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, p. 194
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, p. 199
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, p. 201
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, pp. 202?204
- ^
Nenner, Howard (September 2004),
"Regicides (act. 1649)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, vol. 1 (online ed.), Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/70599
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
a
b
Abbott 2005
, pp. 158?159
- ^
Abbott 2005
, p. 158
- ^
Gentles, Ian J. (2008) [2004],
"Harrison, Thomas (bap. 1616, d. 1660)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, vol. 1, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/12448
,
archived
from the original on 22 December 2015
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Abbott 2005
, p. 161
- ^
Hogg, James (2008) [2004],
"Houghton, John [St John Houghton] (1486/7?1535)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/13867
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
a
b
Bellamy 1979
, p. 204
- ^
Phillips 2010
, p. 517
- ^
Kastenbaum 2004
, pp. 193?194
- ^
Westerhof 2008
, p. 127
- ^
Northcote Parkinson 1976
, pp. 91?92
- ^
Fraser 2005
, p. 283
- ^
Maxwell 1913
, p. 35
- ^
Evelyn 1850
, p. 341
- ^
Bellamy 1979
, pp. 207?208
- ^
Kenny, C. (1936),
Outlines of Criminal Law
(15th ed.), Cambridge University Press, p. 318
- ^
Abbott 2005
, pp. 159?160
- ^
Abbott 2005
, pp. 160?161
- ^
Beadle & Harrison 2008
, p. 22
- ^
Seccombe, Thomas; Carr, Sarah (2004),
"Staley, William (d. 1678)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/26224
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Hanly, John (2006) [2004],
"Plunket, Oliver [St Oliver Plunket] (1625?1681)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, vol. 1, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/22412
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Roberts 2002
, p. 132
- ^
a
b
c
Gatrell 1996
, pp. 316?317
- ^
Adkins, Lesley; Adkins, Roy (2013).
Eavesdropping on Jane Austen's England
. London: Little, Brown Book Group. p. 288.
ISBN
978-1-4055-1364-7
.
- ^
Poole 2000
, p. 76
- ^
Gatrell 1996
, pp. 317?318
- ^
Chase, Malcolm (2009) [2004],
"Despard, Edward Marcus (1751?1803)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/7548
,
archived
from the original on 24 September 2015
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Granger & Caulfield 1804
, pp. 889?897
- ^
Devereaux 2006
, pp. 73?93
- ^
Smith 1996
, p. 30
- ^
Shelton 2009
, p. 88
- ^
Feilden 2009
, p. 5
- ^
Block & Hostettler 1997
, p. 42
- ^
Romilly 1820
, p. xlvi
- ^
a
b
Joyce 1955
, p. 105
- ^
Belchem, John (2008) [2004],
"Brandreth, Jeremiah (1786/1790?1817)"
,
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
, vol. 1, Oxford University Press,
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/3270
(subscription or
UK public library membership
required)
- ^
Abbott 2005
, pp. 161?162
- ^
Block & Hostettler 1997
, pp. 51?58
- ^
Wiener 2004
, p. 23
- ^
Dubber 2005
, p. 27
- ^
Levi 1866
, pp. 134?135
- ^
Chase 2007
, pp. 137?140
- ^
McConville 1995
, p. 409
- ^
Kenny, p. 319
- ^
Gatrell 1996
, p. 593
- ^
Block & Hostettler 1997
, pp. 59, 72
- ^
"Second Reading, HC Deb vol 200 cc931?8"
,
Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
, 30 March 1870,
archived
from the original on 20 October 2012
- ^
Anon 3 1870
, p. N/A
- ^
Anon 2 1870
, p. 547
- ^
"Forfeiture Act 1870"
,
legislation.gov.uk
, 1870,
archived
from the original on 13 November 2012
- ^
Anon 1870
, p. 221
- ^
Statute Law (Repeals) Act 1973 (c. 39), Sch. 1 Pt. V.
- ^
Windlesham 2001
, p. 81n
- ^
Allen, Thomas (2011).
Tories: Fighting for the King in America's First Civil War
. New York: Harper.
ISBN
978-0-06-124181-9
.
- ^
Albert, Peter J., ed. (1985).
An Uncivil War: The Southern Backcountry During the American Revolution
. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
ISBN
0-8139-1051-X
.
- ^
Young, Alfred, ed. (1976).
The American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism
. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
ISBN
0-87580-057-2
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Anon (1870),
"The Law Times"
,
Office of the Law Times
, vol. 49, London
- Anon 2 (1870),
The Solicitors' journal & reporter
, London: Law Newspaper
{{
citation
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- Anon 3 (1870),
Public Bills
, vol. 2, Great Britain Parliament
{{
citation
}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link
)
- Abbott, Geoffrey (2005) [1994],
Execution, a Guide to the Ultimate Penalty
, Chichester, West Sussex: Summersdale Publishers,
ISBN
978-1-84024-433-5
- Beadle, Jeremy
; Harrison, Ian (2008),
Firsts, Lasts & Onlys: Crime
, London: Anova Books,
ISBN
978-1-905798-04-9
- Bellamy, John (1979),
The Tudor Law of Treason
, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,
ISBN
978-0-7100-8729-4
- Bellamy, John (2004),
The Law of Treason in England in the Later Middle Ages
(Reprinted ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
ISBN
978-0-521-52638-8
- Blackstone, William
;
Christian, Edward
;
Chitty, Joseph
; Hovenden, John Eykyn; Ryland, Archer (1832),
Commentaries on the Laws of England
, vol. 2 (18th London ed.), New York: Collins and Hannay
- Block, Brian P.; Hostettler, John (1997),
Hanging in the balance: a history of the abolition of capital punishment in Britain
, Winchester: Waterside Press,
ISBN
978-1-872870-47-2
- Briggs, John (1996),
Crime and Punishment in England: an introductory history
, London: Palgrave Macmillan,
ISBN
978-0-312-16331-0
- Caine, Barbara
;
Sluga, Glenda
(2002),
Gendering European History: 1780?1920
, London: Continuum,
ISBN
978-0-8264-6775-1
- Chase, Malcolm (2007),
Chartism: A New History
, Manchester: Manchester University Press,
ISBN
978-0-7190-6087-8
- Clarke, Samuel
(1654),
The marrow of ecclesiastical history
, Unicorn in Pauls-Church-yard: William Roybould
- Coke, Edward
; Littleton, Thomas; Hargrave, Francis (1817),
The ... part of the institutes of the laws of England; or, a commentary upon Littleton
, London: Clarke
- Devereaux, Simon (2006),
"The Abolition of the Burning of Women"
,
Crime, Histoire et Societes, 2005/2
, vol. 9, International Association for the History of Crime and Criminal Justice,
ISBN
978-2-600-01054-2
- Diehl, Daniel; Donnelly, Mark P. (2009),
The Big Book of Pain: Torture & Punishment Through History
, Stroud: Sutton Publishing,
ISBN
978-0-7509-4583-7
- Dubber, Markus Dirk (2005),
The police power: patriarchy and the foundations of American government
, New York: Columbia University Press,
ISBN
978-0-231-13207-7
- Evelyn, John
(1850),
William Bray
(ed.),
Diary and correspondence of John Evelyn
, London: Henry Colburn
- Feilden, Henry St. Clair (2009) [1910],
A Short Constitutional History of England
, Read Books,
ISBN
978-1-4446-9107-8
- Fraser, Antonia
(2005) [1996],
The Gunpowder Plot
, Phoenix,
ISBN
978-0-7538-1401-7
- Foucault, Michel
(1995),
Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison
(Second ed.), New York: Vintage,
ISBN
978-0-679-75255-4
- Gatrell, V. A. C. (1996),
The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People 1770?1868
, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
ISBN
978-0-19-285332-5
- Giles, J. A.
(1852),
Matthew Paris's English history: From the year 1235 to 1273
, London: H. G. Bohn
- Granger, William; Caulfield, James (1804),
The new wonderful museum, and extraordinary magazine
, Paternoster-Row, London: Alex Hogg & Co
- Joyce, James Avery (1955) [1952],
Justice at Work: The Human Side of the Law
, London: Pan Books
- Kastenbaum, Robert (2004),
"On our way: the final passage through life and death"
,
Life Passages
, vol. 3, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press,
ISBN
978-0-520-21880-2
- Lewis, Mary E (2008) [2006],
"A Traitor's Death? The identity of a drawn, hanged and quartered man from Hulton Abbey, Staffordshire"
(PDF)
,
Antiquity
,
82
(315): 113?124,
doi
:
10.1017/S0003598X00096484
- Lewis, Suzanne;
Paris, Matthew
(1987),
The art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica majora
, California: University of California Press,
ISBN
978-0-520-04981-9
- Levi, Leone (1866),
Annals of British Legislation
, London: Smith, Elder & Co
- Maxwell, Sir Herbert
(1913),
The Chronicle of Lanercost, 1272?1346
, Glasgow: J Maclehose,
OL
7037018M
- McConville, Sean (1995),
English local prisons, 1860?1900: next only to death
, London: Routledge,
ISBN
978-0-415-03295-7
- Murison, Alexander Falconer
(2003),
William Wallace: Guardian of Scotland
, New York: Courier Dover Publications,
ISBN
978-0-486-43182-6
- Naish, Camille (1991),
Death comes to the maiden: sex and execution, 1431?1933
, London: Taylor & Francis,
ISBN
978-0-415-05585-7
- Northcote Parkinson, C.
(1976),
Gunpowder Treason and Plot
, Weidenfeld and Nicolson,
ISBN
978-0-297-77224-8
- Phillips, Seymour (2010),
Edward II
, New Haven and London: Yale University Press,
ISBN
978-0-300-15657-7
- Poole, Steve (2000),
The politics of regicide in England, 1760?1850: Troublesome subjects
, Manchester: Manchester University Press,
ISBN
978-0-7190-5035-0
- Pollen, John Hungerford
(1908),
Unpublished documents relating to the English martyrs
, London: J. Whitehead,
OL
23354143M
- Pollock, Frederick
;
Maitland, F. W.
(2007),
The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I
(Second ed.), New Jersey: The Lawbook Exchange,
ISBN
978-1-58477-718-2
- Powicke, F. M. (1949),
Ways of Medieval Life and Thought
, New York: Biblo & Tannen Publishers,
ISBN
978-0-8196-0137-7
- Roberts, John Leonard (2002),
The Jacobite wars: Scotland and the military campaigns of 1715 and 1745
, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
ISBN
978-1-902930-29-9
- Romilly, Samuel
(1820),
The Speeches of Sir Samuel Romilly in the House of Commons: in two volumes
, London: Ridgway
- Sharma, Ram Sharan
(2003),
Encyclopaedia of Jurisprudence
, New Delhi: Anmol Publications PVT.,
ISBN
978-81-261-1474-0
- Shelton, Don (2009),
The Real Mr Frankenstein
(e-book)
, Portmin Press
- Smith, Greg T. (1996),
"The Decline of Public Physical Punishment in London"
, in Carolyn Strange (ed.),
Qualities of mercy: Justice, Punishment, and Discretion
, Vancouver: UBC Press,
ISBN
978-0-7748-0585-8
- Tanner, Joseph Robson (1940),
Tudor constitutional documents, A.D. 1485?1603: with an historical commentary
(second ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Archive
- Tomkovicz, James J. (2002),
The right to the assistance of counsel: a reference guide to the United States Constitution
, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group,
ISBN
978-0-313-31448-3
- Ward, Harry M. (2009),
Going down hill: legacies of the American Revolutionary War
, Palo Alto, CA:
Academica Press
,
ISBN
978-1-933146-57-7
- Westerhof, Danielle (2008),
Death and the noble body in medieval England
, Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer,
ISBN
978-1-84383-416-8
- Wiener, Martin J. (2004),
Men of blood: violence, manliness and criminal justice in Victorian England
, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
ISBN
978-0-521-83198-7
[
dead link
]
- Windlesham, Baron David James George Hennessy (2001),
"Dispensing justice"
,
Responses to Crime
, vol. 4, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
ISBN
978-0-19-829844-1
- Wormald, Patrick
(2001) [1999],
The Making of English Law: King Alfred to the Twelfth Century, Legislation and Its Limits
, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell,
ISBN
978-0-631-22740-3
Further reading
[
edit
]