From the crowning of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the kings and queens of the House of Tudor ruled England (and beyond) with ambition, religious passion – and brutality. The age of Shakespeare and Francis Bacon was also a time of blood-stained politics and religious persecution. Heads rolled, bodies were barbequed, and guts were yanked out.
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Heretics, royal spouses, and unlucky courtiers were not the only victims of the wicked whims of the Tudor monarchs, however. Many 'ordinary' folks were also offended in the name of justice. It has been estimated that as many as 72,000 people in total were executed under Henry VIII alone. Here we look at seven cruel methods of judicial killing from this gory era.
A Pressing Matter – Death by Crushing
Known as 'peine forte et dure' (strong and harsh punishment), this sanction was reserved for those who refused to enter pleas at court. The prisoner would lie on the floor of a 'little dark room' of the prison, a board would be placed on top of them and then weights would gradually be added. It was typically intended to act as coercion – the accused would be ‘pressed to plead’.
In some cases, it was a clear death sentence as opposed to an attempt to induce a plea, as in the case of Margaret Clitherow (1556-1586), who was sentenced to be pressed to death. With her own front door placed on top of her and the weights added, she was dead after fifteen minutes.
Fire Away! - Burning at the Stake
For Tudor women guilty of treason, and for male and female heretics, this was the method of dispatch – to be publicly burned alive.
Being broiled for the crime of heresy was legally codified in England in 1401, and the last torching of dissenters was in 1612.
The age when the incineration of apostates was red-hot, though, was under the reigns of Henry VIII and his children. In a nutshell, Henry VIII broke with Rome and burned Catholics; Edward VI was an ardent Protestant who burned a small number of Catholics; Mary I, a devout Catholic, then burned many Protestants when she was queen; and Elizabeth I, a Protestant, then burnt Catholic.
Those doomed to die by fire would typically be bound to a stake on top of a pyre, heaped up so that the baying crowd could observe the human BBQ.
Clergyman would preach sermons as the flames licked the feet of the condemned and their coughs turned to screams. Occasionally, cruel executioners would wet the wood to make it burn slower.
Other officials were kinder, such as the humane functionary who hung a bag of gunpowder about the neck of Anne Askew (1521-1546), the mini-blast cutting short her suffering. Some guests of the bonfire banquet were 'lucky' enough to be strangled first, while others were also fortunate to die of smoke inhalation before being cooked to a crisp.