9/20/2023 0 Comments Puritan scaffold drawingAlthough 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. As an attack on the English monarchy's authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment. The severity of the sentence was measured against the seriousness of the crime. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake. 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. The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped into four pieces). To be hanged, drawn and quartered became a statutory penalty for men convicted of high treason in the Kingdom of England from 1352, although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger, as depicted in the Froissart of Louis of Gruuthuse
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