Elizabeth Gaunt
Encyclopedia
Elizabeth Gaunt was an English woman sentenced to death for treason after having been convicted for involvement in the Rye House Plot
. She was the last woman to have been executed for a political crime in England.
Gaunt was an Anabaptist
shop-keeper in London. She was well known to give shelter to persecuted people, such as victims of religious and political oppression. In 1685, one of the participants of the failed Rye House Plot, Burnton, was given refuge by her. After his arrest, Burnton implicated her as an accomplice in hope of saving his life. She was in fact not involved in the conspiracy, and the trial against her was seen as a show trial. She was sentenced to death for treason in the Old Bailey
19 October 1685.
Elizabeth Gaunt considered the trial to be a martyrdom and reportedly behaved with such good humor that the audience was moved to tears. She was executed by burning, and as she was denied strangulation, she was literally burned alive.
Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized....
. She was the last woman to have been executed for a political crime in England.
Gaunt was an Anabaptist
Anabaptist
Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....
shop-keeper in London. She was well known to give shelter to persecuted people, such as victims of religious and political oppression. In 1685, one of the participants of the failed Rye House Plot, Burnton, was given refuge by her. After his arrest, Burnton implicated her as an accomplice in hope of saving his life. She was in fact not involved in the conspiracy, and the trial against her was seen as a show trial. She was sentenced to death for treason in the Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
19 October 1685.
Elizabeth Gaunt considered the trial to be a martyrdom and reportedly behaved with such good humor that the audience was moved to tears. She was executed by burning, and as she was denied strangulation, she was literally burned alive.