To be
hanged, drawn and quartered was the
penaltyIn law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence generally involves a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
for
high treasonHigh treason is criminal disloyalty to one's country. Participating in a war against one's country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps the...
in medieval
EnglandThe Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state and island country to the northwest of continental Europe. At its zenith, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands—what is today the legal unit of...
, and remained on the
statute book but seldom used in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and IrelandThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name and the state form of the United Kingdom from 1 January 1801 until 12 April 1927...
until abolished under the
Treason Act 1814The Treason Act 1814 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which modified the penalty for high treason for male convicts....
. It was reserved only for this most serious crime, which was deemed more heinous than murder and other
capital offencesCapital punishment or the death penalty, is the execution of a person by judicial process as a punishment for an offense. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences....
. It was applied only to male criminals, except on the
Isle of ManThe Isle of Man , or Mann , is a self-governing British Crown dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Britain and Ireland. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Crown is represented by a Lieutenant Governor...
. Women found guilty of treason were sentenced to be taken to a place of execution and
burned at the stakeDeath by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft...
, a punishment changed to hanging by the
Treason Act 1790The Treason Act 1790 was an Act of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain which modified the penalty for high treason, petty treason and abetting, procuring or counselling petty treason for female convicts....
in Great Britain, and 1796 in Ireland.
Details
Until reformed under the
Treason Act 1814The Treason Act 1814 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which modified the penalty for high treason for male convicts....
, the full punishment for the crime of treason was to be
hanged, drawn and quartered in that the condemned prisoner would be:
- Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. This is one possible meaning of drawn.
- Hanged
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. It hurts a lot. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", although it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would...
by the neck for a short time or until almost dead (hanged).
- Disembowelled
Disembowelment is the removing of some or all of the vital organs, usually from the abdomen.-Disembowelment as torture:...
and emasculatedEmasculation is the removal of the genitalia of a male, notably the penis and/or the testicles.By extension, the word has also come to mean “to socially render a male less of a man”, or “to make a male feel himself to be less of a man by subjecting him to humiliation”. This metaphorical usage of...
and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes (this is another meaning of drawn—see the reference to the Oxford English DictionaryThe Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press , is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language...
below)
- The body divided into four parts, then beheaded
Decapitation is the separation of the head of an animal from its body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by means of a guillotine...
(quartered).
Typically, the resulting five parts (i.e., the four quarters of the body and the head) were
gibbetA gibbet is a gallows-type structure from which the dead bodies of executed criminals were hung on public display to deter other existing or potential criminals. To gibbet a criminal is to display the criminal on a gibbet. This practice is also called "hanging in chains".-Display:Gibbeting was...
ed (put on public display) in different parts of the city, town, or, in famous cases, in the country, to deter would-be traitors who had not seen the execution. After 1814, the convict would be hanged until dead and the mutilation would be performed post-mortem. Gibbeting was later abolished in England in 1843, while drawing and quartering was abolished in 1870.
There is debate among modern historians about whether "drawing" referred to the dragging to the place of execution or the disembowelling, but since two different words are used in the official documents detailing the trial of
William WallaceSir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered in Scotland as a patriot and national hero....
("
detrahatur" for drawing as a method of transport, and "
devaletur" for disembowelment), there is no doubt that the subjects of the punishment were disembowelled.
Judges delivering sentence at the
Old BaileyThe Central Criminal Court in the United Kingdom, commonly known as the Old Bailey, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court. The Crown Court sitting at the Central Criminal Court deals with major criminal cases from Greater London and, in...
also seemed to have had some confusion over the term "drawn", and some sentences are summarized as "Drawn, Hanged and Quartered". Nevertheless, the sentence was often recorded quite explicitly. For example, the record of the trial of Thomas Wallcot, John Rouse, William Hone and William Blake for offences against the king, on 12 July 1683 (see
Rye House PlotThe 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....
) concludes as follows:
The
Oxford English Dictionary notes both meanings of
drawn: "To draw out the viscera or the like, to the place of execution". It states that "In many cases of executions it is uncertain [which of these senses of
drawn] is meant. The presumption is that where
drawn is mentioned after
hanged, the sense is [the second meaning]."
The condemned man would usually be sentenced to the short drop method of hanging, so that the neck would not break. The man was usually dragged alive to the quartering table, although in some cases men were brought to the table dead or unconscious. A splash of water was usually employed to wake the man if unconscious, then he was laid down on the table. A large cut was made in the gut after removing the genitalia, and the intestines would be spooled out on a device that resembled a dough roller. Each piece of organ would be burned before the sufferer's eyes, and when he was completely disembowelled, his head would be cut off. The body would then be cut into four pieces, and the king would decide where they were to be displayed. Usually the head was sent to the Tower of London and, as in the case of
William WallaceSir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered in Scotland as a patriot and national hero....
, the other four pieces were sent to different parts of the country. The head was generally par-boiled in brine to preserve the appearance of the head in display, while the quarters were more often prepared in
pitchPitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
, for longer-lasting deterrent displays.
Middle Ages
H. Thomas Milhorn claims that hanging, drawing and quartering was first used against William Maurice, who was convicted of
piracyPiracy is a war-like act committed by private parties that engaged in acts of robbery and/or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the...
in 1241. This would make
Henry IIIHenry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
the first practitioner.
The punishment was more notoriously and verifiably employed by
King Edward IEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial...
("Longshanks") in his efforts to bring Wales, Scotland, and Ireland under English rule.
In 1283, it was inflicted on the Welsh prince
Dafydd ap GruffyddDafydd ap Gruffydd was Prince of Wales from 11 December 1282 until his execution on 3 October 1283.-Early life:...
in
ShrewsburyShrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is home to 70,689 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
. Dafydd had been a hostage in the English court in his youth, growing up with Edward and for several years fought alongside Edward against his brother
Llywelyn ap GruffyddLlywelyn ap Gruffydd may refer to:*Llywelyn the Last *Llywelyn ap Gruffydd Fychan...
, the
Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
. Llywelyn had won recognition of the title, "Prince of Wales", from Edward's father
King Henry IIIHenry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for fifty-six years from 1216 to his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
, and both Edward and his father had been imprisoned by Llywelyn's ally,
Simon de MontfortSimon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester , was a French-English nobleman, notable as the principal leader of the baronial opposition to King Henry III of England. After the rebellion of 1263 and 1264, de Montfort became de facto ruler of England and called the first directly elected parliament in...
, the Earl of Leicester, in 1264.
Edward's enmity towards Llywelyn ran deep. When Dafydd returned to the side of his brother and attacked the English Hawarden Castle, Edward saw this as both a personal betrayal and a military setback and hence his punishment of Dafydd was specifically designed to be harsher than any previous form of capital punishment. The punishment was part of an overarching strategy to eliminate Welsh independence. Edward built an "iron ring" of castles in Wales and had Dafydd's young sons incarcerated for life in
Bristol CastleBristol Castle was a Norman castle built for the defence of Bristol. Remains can be seen today in Castle Park near the Broadmead Shopping Centre, including the sally port....
and daughters sent to a nunnery in England, whilst having his own son,
Edward IIEdward II, called Edward of Carnarvon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. He was the seventh Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...
, assume the title Prince of Wales. Dafydd's head joined that of his brother Llywelyn (killed in a skirmish months earlier) on top of the
Tower of LondonHer Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London , is a historic fortress and scheduled monument in central London, England, on the north bank of the River Thames...
, where the skulls were still visible many years later. His quartered body parts were sent to four English towns for display.
Two decades later, on 23 August 1305,
Sir William WallaceSir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered in Scotland as a patriot and national hero....
was the next person to be hanged, drawn and quartered, which occurred as a result of Edward I's
Scottish warsThe Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries....
. This established the precedent as the ultimate penalty for treason against the English crown. Both Dafydd ap Gruffydd and William Wallace asserted at their trials that they were not traitors for having fought in defence of Wales and Scotland against foreign invaders. Wallace, unlike his Welsh counterpart, had never fought for Edward before fighting against him.
During the
Wars of Scottish IndependenceThe Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries....
, it became a much used sentence and numerous Scots were so executed including Sir Alexander Seton, three of King Robert Bruce's brothers: Alexander, Thomas and Nigel Bruce, and Sir Simon Frasier.
Tudor era
The leaders of the first
Cornish Uprising of 1497The Cornish Rebellion of 1497 was a popular uprising by the people of Cornwall in the far south west of Britain. Its primary cause was the raising of war taxes by King Henry VII on the impoverished Cornish for a campaign against Scotland, motivated by brief border skirmishes that were inspired by...
,
Michael An GofMichael Joseph and Thomas Flamank were the leaders of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497....
and
Thomas FlamankThomas Flamank was a lawyer from Cornwall who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish Rebellion against taxes in 1497....
, were hanged, drawn and quartered on 27 June 1497 at
Tyburn, LondonTyburn was a village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch. It took its name from the Tyburn or Teo Bourne 'boundary stream', a tributary of the River Thames which is now completely covered over between its source and its outfall into the Thames.The name was almost...
.
In an attempt to intimidate the Roman Catholic clergy into taking the
Oath of SupremacyThe Oath of Supremacy, imposed by the Act of Supremacy 1559, provided for any person taking public or church office in England to swear allegiance to the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Failure to do so swear was to be treated as treasonable...
,
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
ordered that
John HoughtonSaint John Houghton was an English Catholic martyr.Born sometime around 1486, he was educated at Cambridge, but cannot be identified among surviving records. Similarly, no certain records can be found of his ordination.He joined the London Charterhouse in 1515, progressed to be Sacristan in 1523,...
, the prior of the
London CharterhouseThe London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Smithfield, London dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square. The Charterhouse began as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 and dissolved in 1537...
, be hanged, drawn and quartered, along with two other Carthusians. Henry also famously condemned
Francis DerehamFrancis Dereham was most famous for his affair with Queen Catherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII of England. This affair lasted until Catherine was made Lady-in-waiting to Henry's fourth wife Anne of Cleves...
to this form of execution for being one of
Catherine HowardCatherine Howard , also spelled Katherine or Katheryn, was the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, and sometimes known by his reference to her as his "rose without a thorn"....
's lovers. Dereham and the King's good friend
Thomas CulpeperThomas Culpeper was a courtier of Henry VIII. He was distantly related to the Howard clan, who were immensely powerful at the time...
were both executed shortly before Catherine herself, but Culpeper was spared the cruel punishment and was instead beheaded. Sir
Thomas MoreSir Thomas More , also known as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, scholar, author, and statesman....
, who was found guilty of high treason under the Treason Act of 1534, was spared this punishment; Henry commuted the execution to one by beheading.
In the aftermath of the
Babington PlotThe Babington Plot was the event which most directly led to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots. This was a second major plot against Elizabeth I of England after the Ridolfi plot...
to murder
Queen Elizabeth IElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
and replace her on the throne with
Mary Queen of ScotsMary I was Queen of Scots from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567. She was the only surviving legitimate child of King James V. She was six days old when her father died and made her Queen of Scots...
, the conspirators were condemned to this method of execution in September 1586. On hearing of the appalling agony to which the first seven condemned were subjected while being butchered on the scaffold, Elizabeth ordered that the remaining conspirators, who were to be dispatched on the following day, should be left hanging until they were dead. Other Elizabethans who were executed in this way include Elizabeth's own physician, Dr.
Rodrigo LopezRodrigo Lopez , was physician to Queen Elizabeth, and may have been an inspiration for Shakespeare's Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.He was born in Crato, Portugal and raised as a New Christian...
, a Portuguese Jew who was convicted of conspiring against her in 1594, and the Jesuit Edmund Campion.
Seventeenth century
Other notable deaths from the punishment include
Guy FawkesGuy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605...
and his co-conspirators in the
Gunpowder PlotThe Gunpowder Conspiracy of 1605, as it was then known, was a failed assassination attempt by a group of provincial English Catholics against King James I of England and VI of Scotland...
to assassinate
James IJames VI & I was King of Scots as James VI from 1567 to 1625, and King of England and Ireland as James I from 1603 to 1625....
in 1605. Fawkes, though weakened by torture, cheated the executioners. When he was to be hanged until almost dead, he jumped from the gallows, so his neck broke and he died. A co-conspirator, Robert Keyes, had attempted the same trick, but the rope broke, so he was drawn fully conscious. Jesuit Father
Henry GarnetHenry Garnet or Garnett was an English Jesuit, executed because of his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of November 5, 1605. He was the son of Brian Garnett, headmaster of Nottingham High School from 1565 – c. 1575....
was executed on 3 May 1606 at St. Paul's. His crime was to be the
confessor-Confessor of the Faith:Its oldest use is to indicate a saint who has suffered persecution and torture for the faith, but not to the point of death. The term is still used in this way in the East. In Latin Christianity it has come to signify any saint, as well as those who have been declared...
of several members of the Gunpowder Plot. Many spectators thought that his sentence was too severe.
Antonia FraserLady Antonia Fraser, CBE , née Pakenham, is an English author of history and novels, best known as Antonia Fraser for writing biographies and detective fiction...
writes:
Early in the
English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
,
John LilburneJohn Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political agitator before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. A libertarian, he coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or...
, a prominent Parliamentarian who because of his radical views was known as "Free Born John", was captured by the Royalists while serving as a captain in the Parliamentary army. Moves were taken to try him and some other prisoners of war as traitors, but when on 17 December 1642 Parliament
declared lex talionisEarly in the First English Civil War the Long Parliament threatened to retaliate in kind if the Royalists tried and executed John Lilburne and two other Parliamentary offices for treason...
(to retaliate in kind) he was instead exchanged for Royalist prisoners. From then on in England during the war Royalist prisoners of war were not tried and executed as traitors, but the Parliamentary side were well aware of what could happen if they lost the war, as the
Earl of ManchesterEdward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester KG, KB, FRS was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior.-Life:...
a Parliamentarian general said "We may beat the king 99 times, and yet he will be king still. If he beats us but once, we shall be hanged".
Under the Commonwealth,
Miles SindercombeMiles Sindercombe was the leader of a group that tried to assassinate Oliver Cromwell in 1657.Sindercombe was born in Kent and was apprenticed to a surgeon. During the English Civil War he became a Roundhead and a Leveller. In 1649 he took part in the mutiny of his regiment and when it failed he...
a member of a plot to assassinate the Lord Protector
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
only avoided being hanged, drawn and quartered because he took poison before the sentence could be carried out. St John Southworth, being a priest, was prosecuted under the Elizabethan anti-priest legislation which prescribed the sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering. He was hanged but spared the drawing and quartering.
Over six days in October 1660, after the
RestorationThe English Restoration, often shortened to the Restoration, began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Commonwealth of England that followed the English Civil War...
of
Charles IICharles II was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father King Charles I was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War. The English Parliament did not proclaim Charles II king at this time. Instead they passed a statute making such a...
, nine of those convicted of the
regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
of
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
in 1649 were executed in London in the prescribed manner. Those executed were: Thomas Harrison,
John JonesColonel John Jones , was a Welsh military leader, politician and one of the regicides of King Charles I. A brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell, Jones was born at Llanbedr in North Wales and is often surnamed Jones Maesygarnedd after the location of his Merionethshire estate. Jones spoke Welsh with...
, Adrian Scroope,
John CarewJohn Carew , from Antony, Cornwall, was one of the regicides of King Charles I.He was a prominent member of the Fifth Monarchy Men who saw the overthrow of Charles I as a divine sign of the second coming of Jesus and the establishment of the millennium a thousand years of Christ's rule on earth...
,
Thomas ScotThomas Scot was an English Member of Parliament and one of the regicides of King Charles I.- Early life :The earliest fact known about Thomas Scot is that in 1626 he got married to Alice Allinson of Chesterford in Essex. He was a lawyer in Buckinghamshire who grew to prominence as the treasurer of...
,
Gregory ClementGregory Clement was an English Member of Parliament and one of the regicides of King Charles I.Clement was the son of John Clement, a merchant and one time Mayor of Plymouth. After working in India for the British East India Company, Clement returned to London and on outbreak of the Civil War...
, Daniel Axtel,
Hugh PetersHugh Peters [or Peter] was an English preacher.-Early life:He was baptized on 29 June 1598 in Fowey, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge....
, and
John CookeJohn Cooke was the first Solicitor General of the English Commonwealth and led the prosecution of Charles I...
. Three more regicides suffered the same fate within two years:
John OkeyJohn Okey was an English soldier, member of Parliament, and one of the regicides of King Charles I.-Early life and military career:...
,
John BarksteadJohn Barkstead was an English Major-General and Regicide.Barkstead was a goldsmith in London; captain of parliamentary infantry under Colonel Venn; governor of Reading, 1645: commanded regiment at siege of Colchester; one of the king's judges, 1648; governor of Yarmouth, 1649, and of the Tower,...
and
Miles CorbetMiles Corbet was an English politician and Regicide.-Life:He succeeded his father as MP for Yarmouth, England and was the very last of the signatories of Charles I's death warrant.In 1644 he was made clerk of the Court of Wards....
. Additionally, the corpses of
Oliver CromwellOliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader best known for his involvement in making England into a republican Commonwealth and for his later role as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland.He was one of the commanders of the New Model Army which defeated the royalists in...
,
John BradshawJohn Bradshaw was an English judge. He is most notable for his role as President of the High Court of Justice for the trial of King Charles I and as the first Lord President of the Council of State of the English Republic....
and
Henry IretonHenry Ireton , was an English general in the army of Parliament during the English Civil War. He was the son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell.-Early life:...
were disinterred and hanged, drawn and quartered in
posthumous executionPosthumous execution is the ritual or ceremonial mutilation of an already dead body.-Examples:* Leonidas of Sparta was beheaded and crucified following his death in the battle of Thermopylae....
s for their involvement in the regicide.
Only a few months later on 6 January 1661, about fifty Fifth Monarchists, headed by a wine-cooper named
Thomas VennerThomas Venner was a cooper who became the last leader of the Fifth Monarchy Men, who tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Oliver Cromwell in 1657, and subsequently led a coup in London against the newly-restored government of Charles II...
, made an effort to attain possession of London in the name of "King Jesus". Most of the fifty were either killed or taken prisoner, and on 19 and 21 January, Venner and ten others were hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason.
In October 1663 twenty-six men were arrested, imprisoned, and tried in York for their participation in
The Farnley Wood PlotThe Farnley Wood Plot was a conspiracy in northern England in October 1663.The major plotters were Joshua Greathead and Captain Thomas Oates, operating primarily in Farnley, West Yorkshire, but also with links to Gildersome, Morley, West Yorkshire and Leeds. The aim was to capture and overthrow the...
. Twenty three were hanged, drawn and quartered in York, but three rebels escaped from prison only to be recaptured in Leeds early the next year where they were then executed in a similar manner.
In 1676, Joshua Tefft was executed by this method at
Smith's CastleSmith's Castle, built in 1678, is a house museum on Cocumscussoc near Wickford, a village in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States. Smith's Castle is one of the oldest houses in the state. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 as Cocumscussoc Archeological Site, due to the...
in
Wickford, Rhode IslandWickford is a small village in the town of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States, which is named after Wickford in Essex, England. Wickford is located on the west side of Narragansett Bay, just about a 20 minute drive across two bridges from Newport, Rhode Island...
. He was an English colonist who fought on the side of the
NarragansettThe Narragansett tribe are a Native American tribe of the Algonquian language group. They were historically one of the leading tribes of New England, controlling the west of Narragansett Bay in present-day Rhode Island, and also portions of Connecticut and eastern Massachusetts, from the...
during the
Great Swamp FightThe Great Swamp Fight was a crucial battle fought during King Philip's War between the combined colonial militia in New England and the Narragansett tribe.-History:...
battle of
King Philip's WarKing Philip's War, sometimes called Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion, was an armed conflict between Native American inhabitants of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies from 1675–1676...
. He may be the only person ever hanged, drawn and quartered in North America.
MetacometMetacomb , also known as King Philip or Metacomet, was a war chief or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians and their leader in King Philip's War.-Biography:...
, leader of the Narragansett, was himself beheaded and quartered, but not hanged, after his death.
Oliver PlunkettSaint Oliver Plunkett was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.He maintained his duties in Ireland in the face of English persecution and was eventually arrested and tried for treason at a kangaroo court after lawful courts had failed to convict him...
, Archbishop of Armagh and the Catholic
primatePrimate is a title or rank bestowed on some bishops in certain Christian churches. Depending on the particular tradition, it can denote either jurisdictional authority or ceremonial precedence .-Roman Catholic Church:In the Western Church, a Primate is an archbishop—or rarely a suffragan...
of Ireland, was arrested in 1681 and transported to
Newgate PrisonNewgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished 1777...
, London, where he was convicted of treason. He was hanged, drawn and quartered at
TyburnTyburn was a village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch. It took its name from the Tyburn or Teo Bourne 'boundary stream', a tributary of the River Thames which is now completely covered over between its source and its outfall into the Thames.The name was almost...
, the last Catholic to be executed for his faith in England. He was beatified in 1920 and was canonized in 1975 by
Pope Paul VIPope Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 1963 to 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
. His head is preserved for viewing as a relic in St. Peter's Church in
DroghedaDrogheda is an industrial and port town in County Louth on the east coast of Ireland, 56 km north of Dublin. Drogheda is the third largest town in Ireland....
, while the rest of his body rests in
Downside AbbeyThe Basilica of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery and the Senior House of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is a school for children aged nine to eighteen...
, near
Stratton-on-the-FosseStratton-on-the-Fosse is a village and civil parish located on the edge of the Mendip Hills north-east of Shepton Mallet, and from Frome, in Somerset, England. It has a population of about 1,200 and has a rural agricultural landscape, although it was part of the once-thriving Somerset coalfield...
,
SomersetSomerset is a county in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west...
.
Following a large rebellion against the Crown, only a few of the ringleaders would be hanged, drawn and quartered; most would either be hanged, sent to
penal coloniesA penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by locating them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
, or pardoned. The
Bloody AssizesThe Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25 August 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion in England....
of Judge Jeffreys after the
Monmouth RebellionThe Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, was an attempt to overthrow James II, who had become King of England at the death of his elder brother Charles II on 6 February 1685. James II was unpopular because he was Roman Catholic and many people were opposed to a...
is a notorious post
Civil WarThe Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch. The English Civil War has become the best-known of these conflicts...
English example, but in the aftermath of rebellions in Ireland and Scotland punishment was often just as ruthless.
From the eighteenth century
Nine soldiers from the Manchester Regiment who had taken part in the Jacobite Rising were hanged, drawn and quartered at
Kennington CommonKennington Park is in Kennington, London, England, in London SE11, and lies between Kennington Park Road and St Agnes Place. It was opened in 1854. Previously the site had been Kennington Common. This is where the Chartists gathered for their biggest 'monster rally' on 10 April 1848...
, London, on 30 July 1746.
During the
American War of IndependenceThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
(1775–1783), notable captured colonists, such as signers of the American Declaration of Independence, were theoretically subject to being hanged, drawn and quartered as traitors to the King. (At the signing,
Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, soldier, and diplomat...
is quoted as having replied to a comment by
John HancockJohn Hancock was a merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts...
that they must all hang together: "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.") However, during the war, American sailors and soldiers were treated as prisoners of war, as to do otherwise invited retaliation.
The penultimate use of the sentence in England was against the French spy
François Henri de la MotteFrancis Henry de la Motte, or François Henri de la Motte, was a French citizen and ex-French army officer executed in London for High Treason on July 27, 1781. He had been arrested in January, 1781 on suspicion of being a spy, and held for six months in the Tower of London...
, who was convicted of treason on 23 July 1781. The last occasion was on 24 August 1782 against Scottish spy
David TyrieDavid Tyrie is an English soccer player who currently plays for Western Mass Pioneers in the USL Second Division.-Youth and College:...
in
PortsmouthPortsmouth is a city located in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is the United Kingdom's only island city and is located on Portsea Island. The City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Football Club are both nicknamed Pompey...
for carrying on a treasonable correspondence with the French (using information passed to him from officials high in the British government). A contemporary account in the
Hampshire Chronicle describes his being hanged for 22 minutes, following which he was beheaded and his heart cut out and burned. He was then
emasculatedEmasculation is the removal of the genitalia of a male, notably the penis and/or the testicles.By extension, the word has also come to mean “to socially render a male less of a man”, or “to make a male feel himself to be less of a man by subjecting him to humiliation”. This metaphorical usage of...
, quartered, and his body parts put into a coffin and buried in the pebbles at the seaside. The same account claims that, immediately after his burial, sailors dug the coffin up and cut the body into a thousand pieces, each taking a piece as a
souvenirA souvenir , memento or keepsake is an object a traveler brings home for the memories associated with it. Souvenirs include clothing such as T-shirts or hats, postcards, refrigerator magnets, miniature figures, household items such as mugs and bowls, ashtrays, egg timers, spoons, notepads, and many...
to their shipmates. Little else is known of his life.
British courts continued to apply the sentence in Dublin, in Ireland. The last execution was of
Robert EmmetRobert Emmet was an Irish nationalist rebel leader. He led an abortive rebellion against British rule in 1803 and was captured, tried and executed.-Emmet's early life:...
on 20 September 1803, who was hanged and then beheaded once dead. Emmet had led a failed uprising against British rule earlier that year.
Edward Marcus DespardEdward Marcus Despard , was an Irish-born British colonel turned revolutionary, executed for High Treason.He was born in Mountrath, Queens County, Ireland, in 1751....
and his six accomplices were sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering for allegedly plotting to assassinate
George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
but their sentence was commuted to simple hanging and beheading.
The
Treason Act 1814The Treason Act 1814 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which modified the penalty for high treason for male convicts....
changed the law so that quartering would happen after death by hanging.
In 1817, the three leaders of the Pentrich Rising, convicted of high treason, suffered hanging and beheading only.
In 1820,
Arthur ThistlewoodArthur Thistlewood was a British conspirator in the Cato Street Conspiracy.-Early life:He was born in Tupholme the illegitimate son of a farmer and stockbreeder. He attended Horncastle Grammar School and was trained as a land surveyor. Unsatisfied with his job, he obtained a commission in the army...
and other participants in the
Cato Street ConspiracyThe Cato Street Conspiracy was an attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820. The name comes from the meeting place near Edgware Road in London.- Origins of the conspiracy :...
were condemned to this punishment, though the court record shows that the drawing and quartering was omitted from the completion of the sentence. The sentence was passed on the Irish rebel leader
William Smith O'BrienWilliam Smith O'Brien was an Irish Nationalist and Member of Parliament and leader of the Young Ireland movement.-Early life:...
in 1848 but commuted to
transportationTransportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
.
In
Lower CanadaThe Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
(now
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
), David McLane was hanged, drawn and quartered on 21 July 1797 for treason; however, Hangman Ward let McLane hang for 28 minutes. This ensured he was not alive to suffer the disembowelling, decapitation and quartering part of the sentence. Ignace Vailliancourt was "hanged, dissected and anatomized" on 7 March 1803 for murder; however, part of the sentence was that his body "be delivered to Dr. Charles Blake for dissection", so this was likely not a true drawing and quartering. During the
War of 1812The War of 1812, between the United States of America and the British Empire , lasted from 1812 to 1815. It was fought chiefly on the Atlantic Ocean and on the land, coasts and waterways of North America.There were several immediate stated causes for the U.S...
, in May 1814 at Ancaster,
Upper CanadaThe Province of Upper Canada was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario...
(now
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
), Attorney General John Beverley Robinson orchestrated a show trial to discourage any tendencies to join with the American side in the war because many residents of Upper Canada were immigrants from the American Colonies or closely related to Americans. The judges indicted 71 traitors and sentenced 17 to be hanged, drawn and quartered. They finally pardoned nine, hanged eight and quartered none.
Drawing and quartering were abolished in 1870.
A letter to the London Review of Books, February 12, 2009, p. 4, from a Bill Gilmour refers to three people being hanged, drawn and quartered in Scotland in 1820. Gilmour notes that the punishment remained on the statute book until 1947.
Details of the crime
The crime of
treason, or
offences against the crown is often thought of in terms of attempted regicides, such as
Guy FawkesGuy Fawkes , also known as Guido Fawkes, the name he adopted while fighting for the Spanish in the Low Countries, belonged to a group of Roman Catholic restorationists from England who planned the Gunpowder Plot of 1605...
and others mentioned above. However, the crime was interpreted at different periods of English history to include a variety of acts which, at the time, were deemed to threaten the constitutional authority of the monarchy.
For example, on 12 December 1674, William Burnet was condemned to this punishment for offences against the king: namely that he "had often endeavoured to reconcile divers of his Majesties Protestant subjects to the Romish Church, and had actually perverted several to embrace the Roman Catholique Religion, and assert and maintain the Pope's supremacy." In other words, he had come to England and attempted to convert Protestants to
CatholicismThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
. In a similar vein, John Morgan was also sentenced to this punishment on 30 April 1679, for having received orders from the
See of RomeThe Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and speaks for the whole Catholic...
, and coming to England: there being "very good Evidence that proved he was a Priest, and had said Mass".
On the same day in 1679, two other people were found guilty of offences against the king, at the Old Bailey. In this case, they had been "Coyning and Counterfeiting". Again, they were sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. In a similar case on 15 October 1690, Thomas Rogers and Anne Rogers were tried for "Clipping 40 pieces of Silver" (in other words, clipping the edges off silver coins). Thomas Rogers was hanged, drawn and quartered and Anne Rogers was burned alive.
Lord HaleSir Matthew Hale SL was a Lord Chief Justice of England.-Early life and education:Matthew Hale was born at Alderley, Gloucestershire, where his father, Robert Hale, a retired barrister, had a small estate....
mentions in his
History of Pleas of the Crown that although sometimes people were sentenced to this punishment for counterfeiting coins, this sentence was in fact unlawful, as the proper sentence for this kind of treason omitted quartering.
Similar, lesser punishments for treason
Men convicted of the lesser crime of
petty treasonPetty treason or petit treason was an offence under the common law of England which involved the betrayal of a superior by a subordinate. It differed from the better-known high treason in that high treason can only be committed against the Sovereign...
were dragged to the place of execution and hanged until dead, but not subsequently dismembered. Women convicted of treason or petty treason were
burned at the stakeDeath by burning is death brought about by combustion. As a form of capital punishment, burning has a long history as a method in crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft...
.
Class distinctions in its application
In Britain, this penalty was usually reserved for commoners, including knights. Noble traitors were beheaded, a much less painful punishment, at first by sword and in later years by axe. The different treatment of lords and commoners was clear after the
Cornish Rebellion of 1497The Cornish Rebellion of 1497 was a popular uprising by the people of Cornwall in the far south west of Britain. Its primary cause was the raising of war taxes by King Henry VII on the impoverished Cornish for a campaign against Scotland, motivated by brief border skirmishes that were inspired by...
: lowly-born
Michael An GofMichael Joseph and Thomas Flamank were the leaders of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497....
and
Thomas FlamankThomas Flamank was a lawyer from Cornwall who together with Michael An Gof led the Cornish Rebellion against taxes in 1497....
were hanged, drawn, and quartered at
TyburnTyburn was a village in the county of Middlesex close to the current location of Marble Arch. It took its name from the Tyburn or Teo Bourne 'boundary stream', a tributary of the River Thames which is now completely covered over between its source and its outfall into the Thames.The name was almost...
, while their fellow rebellion leader
Lord AudleySir James Tuchet, 7th Lord Audley was born in the Heleigh Castle, Staffordshire, England to John Tuchet, 6th Baron Audley and Ann Echingham....
was beheaded at
Tower HillTower Hill is an elevated spot north-west of the Tower of London, just outside the limits of the City of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets...
.
However, this class distinction was not applied in the Second Scottish War of Independence when many noblemen suffered this form of execution including three of the brothers of King Robert the Bruce and his brother-in-law Sir Christopher Seton who were all members of the nobility.
This class distinction was brought out in a
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
debate of 1680, with regard to the Warrant of Execution of
Lord StaffordBlessed William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford was the youngest son of Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel, and his wife, the former Alethea Talbot. He is regarded as a Roman Catholic martyr....
, which had condemned him to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Sir William Jones is quoted as saying "Death is the substance of the Judgment; the manner of it is but a circumstance.... No man can show me an example of a Nobleman that has been quartered for High-Treason: They have been only beheaded". The House then resolved that "Execution be done upon Lord Stafford, by severing his Head from his Body".
Religious considerations
Dismemberment of the body after death was seen by many contemporaries as a way of punishing the traitor beyond the grave. In western European Christian countries, it was ordinarily considered contrary to the dignity of the human body to mutilate it. A Parliamentary Act from the reign of
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
stipulated that only the corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection. Being thus dismembered was viewed as an extra punishment not suitable for others. There are cases on record where murderers would try to plead guilty to another capital offence so that, although they would be hanged, their body would be buried whole and not be dissected.
Attitudes towards this issue changed very slowly in Britain and were not manifested in law until the passing of the
Anatomy ActThe Anatomy Act 1832 was a United Kingdom Act of Parliament that expanded the legal supply of cadavers for medical research and education in reaction to public fear and revulsion of the illegal trade in corpses.-Background:...
in 1832. Respect for the dead is still a sensitive issue in Britain as can be seen by the furor over the "
Alder Hey organs scandalUntil then the general public was unaware of the activities of Alder Hey and other hospitals within the National Health Service in regards to their practices of organ retention....
" when the organs of deceased children were kept without their parents' informed consent.
Eyewitness accounts
An account is provided by the diary of
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
for Saturday 13 October 1660, in which he describes his attendance at the execution of Major-General Thomas Harrison for the
regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
of
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
. The complete diary entry for the day, given below, illustrates the matter-of-fact way in which the execution is treated by Pepys:
At 26-27 Great Tower Street,
Tower HillTower Hill is an elevated spot north-west of the Tower of London, just outside the limits of the City of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets...
, London, there is a pub called "The Hung Drawn and Quartered". On the wall is the altered quotation from
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
, shown above. The pub is close to the site of several executions, but not to
Charing CrossCharing Cross denotes the junction of the Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in Westminster within Central London, England. It is named after the site of a long demolished Eleanor cross located at the former hamlet of Charing, at this point...
.
French quartering
In France, the traditional punishment for
regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
(whether attempted or completed) under the
ancien régimeAncien Régime refers primarily to the aristocratic, social, and political system established in France under the Valois and Bourbon dynasties...
(known in French as ) is often described as "quartering", though it in fact has little to do with the English punishment. The process was as follows: the regicide offender would be first tortured with red-hot pincers, then the hand with which the crime was committed would be burned, with sulphur, molten
leadLead is a main-group element with symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal, also considered to be one of the heavy metals. Lead has a bluish-white color when freshly cut, but tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed to air...
,
waxWax refers to beeswax or another substance with similar properties. The traditional meaning, beeswax, refers to a substance secreted by bees and used by them in constructing their honeycombs...
, and
boiling oilEarly thermal weapons were devices or substances used in warfare during the classical and medieval periods which used heat or burning action to destroy or damage enemy personnel, fortifications or territories.Incendiary devices were frequently used as projectiles during warfare, particularly...
poured into the wounds. The quartering would be accomplished by the attachment of the condemned's limbs to horses, who would then
tear them away from the bodyDismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a living thing. It may be practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, as a result of a traumatic accident, or in connection with murder, suicide, or cannibalism...
. Finally, the often still-living torso would be burned. Notable examples include:
- Nikolas de Salcède (quartered by horses in 1583), son of a noble Spaniard killed in the massacre of St. Bartholomew
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572 was a targeted group of assassinations, followed by a wave of Roman Catholic mob violence, both directed against the Huguenots , during the French Wars of Religion...
and a French noblewoman, who organized an attempt at killing the king's brother Hercule François, Duke of Anjou and AlençonHercule François, Duke of Anjou and Alençon, often simply referred to as "the Duke of Alençon", was the youngest son of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici.-Early years:...
- Jean Châtel
Jean Châtel attempted to assassinate King Henry IV of France on 27 December, 1594. He was the son of a cloth merchant and was aged 19 when executed on 29 December....
, who attempted to assassinate Henry IVHenry IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France. His parents were Queen Jeanne III and King Antoine of Navarre.As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the Wars of Religion before...
- François Ravaillac
François Ravaillac was a French factotum in the courts of Angoulême and a regicide. A sometime tutor and Catholic zealot, he murdered King Henry IV of France in 1610.-Youth:...
(1578 – 27 May 1610) was the murderer of King Henry IV of France and was punished by being "scalded with burning sulphur, molten lead and boiling oil and resin, his flesh then being torn by pincers ..." before he was drawn and quartered.
- Robert-François Damiens
Robert-François Damiens was a Frenchman who attained notoriety by unsuccessfully attempting the assassination of Louis XV of France in 1757...
, who attempted the assassination of Louis XVLouis XV ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death on 10 May 1774...
in 1757. (At least two prominent 20th-century intellectuals described this execution.)
- Jacques Clément
Jacques Clément was the assassin of the French king Henry III.He was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne département, in Burgundy, and became a Dominican friar....
, the murderer of Henri III. (He was killed in this act of regicide, and his corpse was subjectedPosthumous execution is the ritual or ceremonial mutilation of an already dead body.-Examples:* Leonidas of Sparta was beheaded and crucified following his death in the battle of Thermopylae....
to the same "punishment".)
These executions were carried out (along with most others under the ancien régime) in the
Place de GrèveThe public square in the 4th arrondissement of Paris that is now the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville was, before 1802, called the Place de Grève...
.
- Balthasar Gérard
Balthasar Gérard was the assassin of the Dutch independence leader, William I of Orange, also known as William the Silent....
, assassin of William the SilentWilliam I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born into the House...
, after two days of intense tortureTorture, according to the United Nations Convention Against Torture, is:In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of...
.
Gérard's execution took place on the market square in
DelftSee also: Delft, Cape Town, Delft IslandDelft is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland , the Netherlands...
, the Netherlands.
Russian quartering
In Russia, quartering or division into five parts ' onMouseout='HidePop("92561")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Mikhail_Shcherbatov">Mikhail Shcherbatov
Prince Mikhailo Mikhailovich Shcherbatov was a leading ideologue and exponent of the Russian Enlightenment, on the par with Mikhail Lomonosov and Nikolay Novikov. His view of human nature and social progress is kindred to Swift's pessimism...
, a Russian
EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
author), referred to a punishment in which the executioner severed the limbs one by one, and then decapitated the convict. It was a common punishment for mutiny or rebellion until the beginning of 18th century.
Persons who were quartered in Russia include:
- Timofey Ankudinov, an impostor
An impostor or imposter is a person who pretends to be somebody else, often to try to gain financial or social advantages through social engineering, but just as often for purposes of espionage or law enforcement....
after the Time of TroublesThe Time of Troubles was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613...
in 1653
- Stepan Razin in 1671 and his brother Frol Razin in 1671 or 1672, leaders of Cossack uprising (whether Frol Razin was actually executed is disputed)
- Okolnichy
Okolnichy was an old rank and a position at the court of Moscow rulers from the Mongol invasion of Rus' until the government reform undertaken by Peter the Great...
Alexis Sokovnin, a member of the DumaA Duma is any of various representative assemblies in modern Russia and Russian history. The State Duma in the Russian Empire and Russian Federation corresponds to the lower house of the parliament. Simply it is a form of Russian governmental institution, that was formed after the last Czar,...
, Colonel of the StreltsyStreltsy or stretelets were the units of Russian guardsmen in the 16th - early 18th centuries, armed with firearms...
Ivan Czykler and StolnikStolnik was a court office in Poland and Muscovy, responsible for serving the royal table.-Stolnik in Poland:In old-times Poland of the first Piast dukes and kings a court office....
Fedor Pushkin for high treason and conspiracy to commit regicide in 1697
- Yemelian Pugachov and Afanasy Perfilyev in 1775, leaders of a Cossack uprising. This case of capital punishment was not usual, as Empress Elizabeth of Russia
Elizaveta Petrovna , also known as Yelisavet and Elizabeth, was the Empress of Russia who took the country into the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War...
had declared a moratoriumThe UN Moratorium on the Death Penalty were two proposals by Italy and Chile supported by several countries and NGOs before the General Assembly of the United Nations. It was twice affirmed: first, on November 15 2007, and then subsequently reaffirmed on December 18.It calls for general suspension ...
on capital punishment in 1742. The only other exceptions to this rule were the decapitation of Lieutenant Wasily Mirovich in 1764 for high treason and the hanging of the activists who incited the Plague RiotPlague Riot was a riot in Moscow in 1771 between September 26 and September 28, caused by an outbreak of bubonic plague....
in 1771, which resulted in the death of the Archbishop of Moscow. According the oral order of Empress Catherine II of RussiaCatherine II , also known as Catherine the Great, born . She was Empress of Russia from until . Under her direct auspices the Russian Empire expanded, improved its administration, and continued to modernize along Western European lines...
, Pugachov and Perfilyev were quartered after decapitation.
The problem of political crime in Russia in the early
Modern ageModern Age is an American conservative academic quarterly journal, founded in 1957 by Russell Kirk in close collaboration with Henry Regnery...
and the punishment for it is discussed in a work of the Russian modern historian, Professor E. V. Anisimov "Dyba (the Rack) and
knoutA knout is a heavy scourge-like multiple whip, usually made of a bunch of rawhide thongs attached to a long handle, sometimes with metal wire or hooks incorporated....
" which was published in 1999 in Russian.
Five activists of the
Decembrist revoltThe Decembrist revolt or the Decembrist uprising took place in Imperial Russia on 14 December , 1825. Russian army officers led about 3,000 soldiers in a protest against Nicholas I's assumption of the throne after his elder brother Constantine removed himself from the line of succession...
in 1826 were sentenced by an extraordinary "Supreme" Court to be quartered but were executed by hanging after royal clemency was extended.
Polish quartering
The quartering was a quite usual qualified method of capital punishment in
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was formed by the union of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1569. The new Commonwealth was one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th-century Europe....
for revolt and high treason in early Modern Age.
- A Ukrainian
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east; Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; Romania and Moldova to the southwest; and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south. The city of Kiev is both the capital and the largest city of...
Cossacks revolt leader Severyn NalyvaikoSeveryn Nalyvaiko was a leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks who became a hero of Ukrainian folklore. The Decembrist poet Kondraty Ryleyev wrote a poem about him.- Biography :...
was quartered in WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River roughly from both the Baltic Sea coast and the Carpathian Mountains. Its population as of 2009 was estimated at 1,709,781, and the Warsaw metropolitan area at approximately 2,785,000...
in 1597.
- In 1620 a Polish Calvinist
Calvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
nobleman Michał Piekarski (the coat of arms of Topór) was quartered using horses for attempted regicideThe broad definition of regicide is the deliberate killing of a monarch, or the person responsible for the killing of a monarch. In a narrower sense, in the British tradition, it refers to the judicial execution of a king after alleged due process of law....
of Zygmunt III Waza of Poland. The king was saved by Court Crown Marshal Opaliński (the coat of arms of Łodzia).
- In 1702 the Ukrainian nobleman, writer, orthodox religious
The Orthodox Church, also officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to in English speaking countries as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the world's second largest Christian communion, estimated to number 225 million members...
spokesman Danilo Bratkowski was quartered in city of LutskLutsk is a city located by the Styr River in north-western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Volyn Oblast , as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Lutskyi Raion within the oblast...
for supporting a Cossack revolt.
- In 1768 the Koliyivschyna revolt
Koliyivschina 1768-1769 was a Ukrainian Cossack and peasant rebellion against Poland, which was responsible for the murder of noblemen , Jews, Uniates, and Catholic priests across the part of the country west of the Dnieper river...
leader Ivan GontaIvan Gonta was one of the leaders of the Koliyivschyna, an armed rebellion of Cossacks against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth....
was sentenced to be flayedFlaying is the removal of skin from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact.-Scope:An animal may be flayed in preparation for human consumption, or for its hide or fur; this is more commonly called skinning....
over a period of 14 days, then to be quartered after death. According the Artillery General of Lithuania, Count BranickiCount Franciszek Ksawery Branicki was a Polish nobleman, magnate and one of the leaders of the Targowica Confederation.Great Crown Podstoli in 1764, Ambassador in Berlin in 1765, Master of the Hunt of the Crown in 1766-1773, Artillery General of Lithuania in 1768-1773, Ambassador in Moscow in...
, Gonta was beheaded after three days of torture and then quartered.
In literature and popular culture
- Shakespeare's play Henry V
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, written in 1599. It is based on the life of King Henry V of England, and focuses on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War....
features the discovery of the Southampton PlotThe Southampton Plot of 1415 was a conspiracy against Henry V of England, aimed at replacing him with Edmund Mortimer, 5th Earl of March. The three ringleaders were Richard of Conisburgh, 3rd Earl of Cambridge, Mortimer's brother-in-law, Henry Scrope, 3rd Baron Scrope of Masham , and Sir Thomas...
to kill King Henry VHenry V was King of England from 1413 until his death. From an unassuming start his military successes in the Hundred Years' War, culminating with his famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt, saw him come close to uniting the realms of England and France under his rule.-Early life:Henry was born...
before he sailed to France. Two of the conspirators (Henry, Lord Scroop of Masham, and Richard, Earl of Cambridge) were nobles and were beheaded; Thomas GreySir Thomas Grey of Heaton , was the son of Sir Thomas Grey of Heaton and Joan Mowbray. Born at Alnwick Castle, seat of the Percy Earls of Northumberland, he came from an old military family of the North Country.What part, if any, he played in the Percy revolt of 1405 is not clear...
, Knight of Northumberland, was drawn and quartered.
- In Robin Hobb
Robin Hobb is the second pen name of novelist Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden who produces primarily fantasy fiction, although she has published some science fiction....
's "realist" fantasy novels The Farseer Trilogy and The Tawny Man Trilogy, villagers accused of being able to talk to animals are hanged, quartered, and burned.
- Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
' A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With 200 million copies sold, it is the most printed original English book, the most printed and among the most famous works of fiction.It depicts the plight of the French...
refers to the possibility of Charles DarnayCharles Darnay or St. Evremonde is a fictional character in the novel, A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens.-Overview:A French aristocrat by birth, Darnay chooses to live in England because he cannot bear to be associated with the cruel injustices of the French social system...
being drawn and quartered as a punishment if he were convicted of treason.
- The historical execution of the attempted regicide Robert-François Damiens
Robert-François Damiens was a Frenchman who attained notoriety by unsuccessfully attempting the assassination of Louis XV of France in 1757...
, including quartering using horses, drew prominent late-20th-century attention:
- In the 1963 play Marat/Sade
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade , almost invariably shortened to Marat/Sade, is a 1963 play by Peter Weiss...
, the playwright Peter WeissPeter Ulrich Weiss was a German writer, painter, and artist of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his play Marat/Sade and his novel The Aesthetics of Resistance.-Life:...
has his imagined version of the Marquis de SadeDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat, revolutionary and writer. His works include novels, short stories, plays, and political tracts; in his lifetime some were published under his own name, while others appeared anonymously and Sade denied being their author...
describe it with relish.
- A decade later, Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, sociologist and historian. He held a chair at the Collège de France with the title "History of Systems of Thought," and also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.Foucault is best known for his critical studies of...
described and discussed it in the introduction of his Surveiller et Punir (Discipline and PunishDiscipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison is a book written by the philosopher Michel Foucault. Originally published in 1975 in France under the title Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la Prison, it was translated into English in 1977...
).
- In the 1995 film Braveheart
Braveheart is a 1995 Academy-award winning historical action-drama film produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role. The film was written for screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace...
, William WallaceSir William Wallace was a Scottish knight and landowner who is known for leading a resistance during the Wars of Scottish Independence and is today remembered in Scotland as a patriot and national hero....
, portrayed by Mel GibsonMel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American Australian actor, film director and producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in the Mad...
, is depicted being hanged, drawn and quartered in 1305 for his role in the Scottish rebellion against Edward IEdward I , also known as Edward Longshanks, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English Barons. In 1259 he briefly sided with a baronial...
, although the executioner beheads him because of his bravery before he dies of quartering.
- In Diana Gabaldon's Outlander
Outlander is the first in a series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. The book focuses on two main characters, Claire Randall and Jamie Fraser, and takes place in eighteenth and twentieth-century Scotland.The novel is not easily classified by genre...
series, to draw, hang and quarter is described as a punishment for treason, threatened against James Fraser.
- In the film Ghostbusters II it is mentioned that Vigo the Carpathian was drawn and quartered amongst a wide array of other methods of being executed.
See also
- Capital punishment in the United Kingdom
Capital punishment was used in the United Kingdom and its predecessor states of England and Scotland from the earliest times until the punishment was abolished in the twentieth century. The last executions, by hanging, took place in 1964, prior to capital punishment being abolished for murder...
- :Category: People executed by hanging, drawing and quartering
External links