5 Worst Tudor Execution Methods JJ

It was a period of English history which was known for its brutality. Kings such as Henry VIII ruled and put his people to the sword using horrific execution methods. In this video, we look at the five worst execution methods used inside of Tudor England. Governments and rulers believed fear helped maintain order and the more shocking a punishment appeared, the more powerful it seemed.

Few execution methods demonstrated this better than boiling alive. It was one of the cruelest punishments ever officially used combining unbearable pain, public humiliation, and psychological terror into a single horrifying spectacle. Boiling alive involved placing a condemned person into a large cauldron or metal pot filled with boiling liquids.

Usually this was water, but oil, tar, or even molten substances were sometimes used instead. In certain executions, the liquid was already boiling before the victim was lowered in. In others, the condemned person was placed inside while the liquid slowly heated over a fire. The second method was considered especially brutal because it prolonged suffering for a much longer time.

The human body is extremely vulnerable to heat. Even brief contact with boiling water causes severe burns. During a boiling execution, the skin would first turn red and blister badly. As the temperature increased, the outer layers of the flesh would begin peeling away while nerves underneath remained active.

This meant the victim often remained conscious while suffering terrible agony. Steam rising from the cauldron could also burn the lungs and throat when inhaled, making breathing painful and difficult. Unlike a quick beheading, boiling alive was usually a slow death. Some victims died from shock only after a few minutes, but others suffered far longer.

Historical witnesses described condemned people screaming uncontrollably, struggling violently, or attempting to climb out of the cauldron before being forced back in by the executioners. The smell of burning flesh and the sounds of screams often horrify spectators as much as the execution did itself. Part of what made boiling alive so terrible was the psychological fear surrounding it.

The condemned person could often see the cauldron prepared in front of them long before the execution began. They knew exactly what was going to await them. This anticipation created enormous mental torment before the physical suffering even started. Public executions were commonly staged in busy marketplaces or open squares where huge crowds gathered to watch.

The authorities wanted the punishment to leave a lasting impression on everyone who was present. Boiling alive though was relatively rare in Europe, which actually increased its reputation for horror. Governments reserved it for crimes considered especially evil or dangerous. Poisoning was one such crime. During the medieval and Tudor periods, poisoning caused widespread fear because it was secretive and difficult to detect.

A person could poison food or drink without warning, killing victims silently and unexpectedly. Rulers believed such crimes deserved exceptionally harsh punishments. In England, boiling alive became infamous during the reign of King Henry VIII. In 1531, Parliament passed a law stating that people convicted of poisoning could be executed by boiling.

This law reflected Tudor fears about hidden murder and also Henry VIII’s reputation for severe justice. The first person executed under this law was a cook named Richard Roose. Roose worked for the household of John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester. He was accused of placing poison into food served to the members of his household, causing several people to become violently ill, and two people died.

Whether Roos was truly guilty remains uncertain, but the government used the case to make a dramatic example. Roos was taken to Smithfield in London, where giant cauldron had been prepared. Contemporary accounts claim he was chained and repeatedly lowered into the boiling water. Crowds gathered to witness the horrifying spectacle.

Even in an age used to brutal punishments, many people were shocked by the cruelty of the execution. Reports of the event spread widely across England, reinforcing the terrifying reputation of boiling alive. Executions like this served several purposes for governments. First, they punished the condemned person.

Secondly, they acted as public warnings. Authorities believed people who saw such suffering would fear committing similar crimes themselves. Thirdly, these punishments demonstrated the power of the state. By controlling life and death in such dramatic ways, rulers reminded subjects of their authority. Boiling alive was not unique to England.

Similar punishments existed in parts of Europe and Asia for centuries. In some places, counterfeiters, poisoners, or traitors faced death in boiling oil or water. However, even many people living during those periods considered the punishment excessively cruel. Some chroniclers wrote about the horror of witnessing these executions, while others criticized rulers for using such savage methods.

Over time, attitudes towards punishment did gradually change. By the 18th century, many philosophers and reformers argued executions should be quicker and less painful. Public torture increasingly came to be seen as barbaric rather than just. Governments slowly abandoned the most brutal methods of execution, including boiling alive.

In England, the law allowing boiling alive executions was actually only repealed a few years after it was introduced by Henry VIII’s son, King Edward VI. Modern historians often view boiling alive as one of history’s most horrifying punishments because it was deliberately designed to maximize suffering. It attacked both the body and the mind.

Victims faced unbearable pain, public humiliation, and the terror of knowing exactly how they would die. The method also revealed how earlier societies often viewed punishment not simply as justice, but as theater. Executions were meant to frighten entire communities into obedience. Today, boiling alive remains infamous because it represents the extreme brutality that legal punishments could once reach.

It stands as a reminder of a time when rulers believed fear and suffering were essential tools of justice, and when public executions were intended to shock, terrify, and dominate the populations who were watching them. Beheading has been used as a method of execution for millennia, and it was used to punish serious offenders.

In ancient Rome and Greece, they considered it an honorable and noble death. And throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, it was still considered a method of execution for the royalty and the high classes. It was during the French Revolution that it was standardized as a method of execution for any criminal, regardless of their class or their wealth.

But it was also used by the Japanese during the Second World War. But one of the most common weapons used to enact the punishment was the axe. Later, we will look at swords and other execution machines used to take off a head. But in terms of the axe, if the weapon was sharp and the aim was precise, with the executioner being skilled, then it was considered a quick and painless method of execution.

The skilled executioner was considered skilled if they could take a head off in one quick and swift blow from the axe. But if the axe was blunt and the executioner clumsy, then it could take a number of swings to take a head off. And this was considered a much more painful and distressing experience for the condemned and also the thousands of people that would come to visit.

Inside the walls of the Tower of London, Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, during the reign of the Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, needed three swings of the axe. And also Mary Queen of Scots had her head struck off, but it took two full swings and then one to sever the final sinews. Another key part of executions using the axe was the block, usually a wooden piece of oak that would allow someone to rest their head on it before the axe was swung.

For the best success, it required someone to lay rather still and calm, which is surprising considering their death was impending. One example of an execution using axe that did not go well was said she refused to lay her head on the block or submit to a sentence where she received no trial. She told the executioner if he would have her head, he must win it in the best way he could.

And then shaking her venerable gray locks, she ran about the scaffold and the executioner followed her with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck before he was able to give the fatal stroke. Many beheading axes were two-handled axes which had big blades attached to them. Some of our executioners used smaller weapons that would be quicker when they were swung and they were also lighter.

In Britain, the axe was used famously during the Tudor period to take the heads off even queens, but it was also used for hangings, drawings, and quarterings. During the quartering part of the horrific execution, the condemned’s head was usually cut off and then displayed in public on places such as London Bridge to serve as a warning.

But it was used by the Celts in a head hunting ritual in Britain. It was said they cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants. They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies and preserve them carefully in a chest and display them with pride to strangers.

” During the Tudor period, and particularly during the reign of Henry VIII, the axe was used to brutally put down the king’s enemies and even some of his closest friends. It’s estimated that Henry executed 70,000 people during his time on the throne, and many of these were performed by axe. There were many crimes that people could be executed for.

The most famous that attracted execution by axe was treason. The standard sentence for men who were condemned to die for treason was hanging, drawing, and quartering. But the most famous people to face the axe were those who were close to the king, and their sentence was commuted to beheading by axe, which was considered quicker and less painful.

But during Henry VIII’s reign, two of his wives were executed by beheading, but only one faced the axe. Anne Boleyn was executed by sword, as Henry saw this as more reliable than the axe, and he brought over a swordsman from France to perform the job. But Catherine Howard, Henry’s fifth wife, would face the commoner’s axe, and she was spared no such kindness.

Inside the Tower of London, which became associated with the axe, on the 13th of February, 1542, the young teenage Catherine came onto the scaffold. Her scaffold was covered in hay to soak up her blood. And she lay her head on the block before quickly her head was struck off. The young girl being condemned for allegedly cheating on the king.

Also, her close friend Jane Boleyn was executed by axe shortly after, and it was noted that the execution on that day performed his job well, with no known botches. Jane Boleyn was forced to kneel in the blood of her former mistress. Before this, though, there were more high-profile executions carried out by axe.

Another which inside the Tower of London was Margaret Pole, the Countess of Salisbury. Her execution has been described as one of the worst and most disturbing of the Tudor period. Margaret Pole was one of the remaining members of the House of Plantagenet, and with her execution, Henry VIII eliminated a woman who did have a claim to the throne.

At the age of 67, she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and on the 27th of May, 1541, she was summoned from her cell as she’d been told she was going to die in the next hour. She claimed she’d been sentenced of no such crime, but there was no scaffold at the Tower of London this time. Instead, inside the Tower, on a courtyard, there was just a low wooden block which was found on the cobbled stone floor.

Margaret was expected to rest her head on it, but she did not go to her death submitting. The elderly lady in front of 150 witnesses refused to go down, and her execution was performed by a wretched and blundering youth who literally hacked her head and shoulders to pieces in the most pitiful manner. As the executioner was not the most skilled, he plunged his axe into her, and she kept turning her head, and this caused a number of issues.

It’s claimed that it took at least seven swings of the axe to take her head clean off, and some claim more. Another queen to lose her head using axe inside the Tower of London was Lady Jane Grey, who’s referred to as the nine-day queen. Following her short time on the throne, she was imprisoned by Mary I or Bloody Mary, and following the threat of rebellion, her execution was ordered.

But only those who were considered of royalty or immense nobility were allowed an execution by axe within the Tower of London’s walls. Jane was granted this, and she knelt sadly at the executioner’s feet on Tower Green, then her head was taken clean off. In terms of how executions by axe went, it followed a similar and traditional procedure.

First, the condemned would be brought to their site of execution, which was usually a public scaffold in a town or somewhere where people could see. Their crimes and their death sentence was read out for everyone to hear before they were handed over to the executioner. The condemned would be allowed to repent for their sins and their crimes, and there were accounts throughout history where people remained indignant against their crimes until the very end.

In high-profile executions, the condemned would hand over a significant amount of money to the executioner. This was done almost as a bribe to the headsman to perform his job well. Over executioners would perform a variety of execution methods, too. Then they also asked the condemned for their forgiveness before they struck the head off.

Following the swing or the swings of the axe, the executioner then held the head aloft to the crowd so that everyone could see. And if it was a high-profile execution, some members of the crowd would dip their handkerchiefs in the blood of the executed. But there was an executioner who became known for his botching skills with the axe.

Jack Ketch is often referred to as history’s worst executioner. And during two executions by axe, he made a horrendous mess of the proceedings. On the 21st of July, 1683, Ketch was in charge of executing William Russell, Lord Russell, a leading member of the country party and a rebel in Parliament following the succession of James II as the King of England.

Russell had been held inside the Tower of London inside a cell for a few weeks before he was sentenced to death for treason. His execution took place at Lincoln’s Inn and was one of the largest sites in London, and thousands flocked to watch his high-profile execution in the huge public space. But as the public looked on towards the scaffold, Ketch made a terrible mess of the execution of Russell.

He was later forced to make an apology for his accounts and wrote a pamphlet, The Apology of John Ketch, Esquire. And he claimed he did not depose himself as most suitable, and that he was interrupted and disrupted whilst taking aim. Russell was beheaded, but his execution was not clean. It was said by onlookers, on that occasion, Ketch wielded the instrument of death either with such sadistically nuanced skill or with such lack of simple dexterity.

Nobody could tell that the victim suffered horrifically, blow after blow, each excruciating, but not itself lethal. Even amongst the bloodthirsty people of society that attended English beheadings, the gory and bloody display that created such anger that Ketch felt forced to write an apology. But his worst work came when executing James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth.

It was said as the Duke approached Ketch on the scaffold, he said, “Here is six guineas for you. Do not hack me as you did my Lord Russell. I’ve heard you struck him three or four times. My servant will give you some more gold if you do the work well.” It’s not known if Ketch took this as an insult, bringing up his poor work, but he may have lost focus and his temper.

The Duke of Monmouth was then disrobed, and he touched the edge of the axe that was in Ketch’s hand, and he claimed it was not sharp enough to take his head clean off with one strike. He was reassured that it would, then he placed his head on the executioner’s block. Ketch struck the first blow, and it only gave Scott a small wound.

He then struggled on the block as the instinct to escape kicked in. Ketch struck again, and the job still hadn’t been done. And two further blows continued to James Scott, the Duke of Monmouth’s head, and it had not come clean off. The crowds at this were disgusted and outraged. They were all for witnessing public executions, but demanded it was performed with professionalism and decorum, but this wasn’t.

Ketch then saw Scott’s cut neck, and it’s claimed he even tried to give up, saying, “I cannot do it. My heart has failed me.” But then he was forced by the Sheriff of London to do so. He told him to take up the axe man and finish, and it took two more swings of the axe to kill the Duke. But then his head was still not severed, so Ketch grabbed the butcher’s knife to cut through the last sinews.

As he held the head up of James Scott, he noticed that the crowd were very angry, and the guard were forced to usher him to safety as it looked like a riot would break out, and the crowd would have killed Jack Ketch. Most beheadings using axes were performed on Tower Hill, and it was this scaffold that became known as a public beheading spot, where executioners chopped heads off of criminals using the weapon.

Some of those to meet their end on Tower Hill by axe were Sir Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, Guilford Dudley, husband to Lady Jane Grey, George Boleyn, the brother of Anne Boleyn, and the final one was Simon Fraser, the 11th Lord Lovat. Tower Hill was then abandoned as a site of execution. But there were dozens of countries that carried out executions by axe throughout the years.

It was even carried out a couple of times when Hitler was coming into power in Germany in the 1930s, but it was a brutal execution method that’s become one of the most infamous in history. It was not always the most reliable. It was not always performed by the most skilled axemen, and when this happened, it was rather distressing for crowds to see.

Execution by axe, without doubt, has to be one of history’s most brutal execution methods. To be hanged, drawn, and quartered was a very serious punishment, and possibly one of the most brutal administered in history. The punishment was seen as adequate justice for the attack on the authority of the English monarchy, and for this, the most extreme form of punishment was used.

Treason as a crime had a rather wide meaning for the kings and queens who felt threatened during the medieval Tudor and following eras. Henry VIII, for example, believed that simply predicting the death of a monarch was enough for someone to be condemned for this, and he had Elizabeth Barton, a woman who did this, executed for treason.

But there There accounts during the Elizabethan period of a number of treasonous plots against the Tudor Queen. And because of this, scores of men were executed being hanged, drawn, and quartered following the plans to put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne in schemes such as the Babington Plot. Hanging, drawing, and quartering in its simplest form was an execution method that used a number of different stages aimed to inflict great pain and suffering, but also aimed to shock the public.

The point of this was to get the public to fall into line, and if they saw a brutal execution, they would be less likely to commit crimes such as treason because of it. The first part was the drawing in which a prisoner would be collected from their place of incarceration and then attached using a hurdle or a wooden frame.

They would be tied to this and then would be attached to the back of a horse who would draw them through the streets. Sometimes a prisoner would not be tied to the wooden frame, and their head would bash against the cobbled streets. They could also slip from the frame, and this would cause pain. They were paraded throughout the streets where the public would often throw things and shout obscenities their way before they were taken to a place of execution.

They would be then handed over to an executioner, would be hanged from a gallows or a wooden frame until they were almost dead. If someone passed out, they would be revived, and some executioners to inflict more suffering would then hang them again. After this, the person was then disemboweled and emasculated with their entrails pulled out and then burned in front of them on a fire.

Obviously, this could easily kill, but often condemned individuals were forced to watch their parts being burned in front of them. They were then beheaded using an axe, and their body was cut into four pieces with these being sent to different places in the country to be displayed to act as a gory reminder to the people to behave themselves.

Heads were also displayed in prominent places such as London Bridge after the execution. During the 13th and 14th century in England, those who were found guilty of treason were punished in many different ways, including drawing and hanging, but also more brutal ways such as beheading, disemboweling, and even burning were used.

It was said in the 13th century that a man who plotted and attempted to kill King Henry III was 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 afterwards hung on a gibbet used for robbers. The first recorded examples of hanging, drawing, and quartering were used during the reign of Edward I.

Dafydd ap Gruffydd turned against Edward I and declared himself the Prince of Wales, and for this he was captured and then sentenced to what we would regard as high treason. Because of this, Dafydd was drawn through the streets of Shrewsbury, near to the Welsh Marches, where he was then executed. He was dragged attached to a horse’s tail and then hanged alive before being revived and then disemboweled, eviscerated, and he was forced to watch his entrails being burned in front of him for sacrilege in committing his

crimes in the week of Easter. After this, his body was cut into quarters for plotting to kill the king, and his remains were sent to different parts of England to be displayed as a gory reminder to the people to fall into line. His right arm was sent to York, left arm sent to Bristol, right leg to Northampton, and left leg to Hereford, with his head placed on a spear at the Tower of London.

William Wallace in 1305, the Scottish knight and military leader classed as Braveheart, was also executed in London following his capture in a similar way, and he was forced to wear a crown of laurel leaves as he was drawn through London to Smithfield, where he encountered the brutal punishment. Further executions in this manner occurred during the medieval period, but treason had not officially been outlined in law until the Treason Act 1351, which was passed by Edward the III.

This claimed that a monarch’s right to rule was absolute and that any questioning of this was seen as treason. It was also the monarch’s duty to protect their throne and lands and petty treason was also introduced, which outlined offenses such as killing a lord or a master. And men found guilty of petty treason were drawn and hanged, and women were also burned at the stake.

But it was high treason which was deemed the most serious offense. The Treason Act said that anyone was committing high treason if they committed a number of different offenses. These were compassing or imagining the death of a king, his wife, or eldest son and heir. Violating the king’s wife, his eldest daughter if she were unmarried, or the wife of his eldest son or heir.

Levying war against the king and 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 Privy Seal or the king’s coinage. Knowingly importing counterfeit money and killing the chancellor, treasurer, or one of the king’s justices whilst performing their offices.

With this, hanging, drawing, and quartering was seen as a standard sentence for these offenses. The execution of the third Duke of Buckingham outlined his sentence in brutal fashion. He was executed in May 1521 and it was said he would 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 a fire, your bowels burned before you.

Your head smited off and your body quartered and divided at the king’s will, and God may have mercy on your soul. During certain executions which featured a very angry crowd, they would often get involved in the killing process and shaming process. William Wallace was whipped and attacked by the crowd with rotten food and rubbish was thrown at him.

And a priest, Thomas Pilchard, who was executed for being a Catholic priest, it was said at the time, was barely alive when he reached his execution before he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. After the king’s commission and the sentence of death had been read out, the crowd were then asked to move back from the scaffold where the brutal practice was performed.

Sometimes executioners or officials would ask questions to get the condemned person, following their drawing, to confess to their treason. They were sometimes allowed to speak to the crowd. Often of a condemned people would be forced to watch others being executed in the same way beforehand.

For example, in 1584, priest James Bell was forced to watch his friend being quartered. It is debated at what point someone would be dead along the process. Drawing, as mentioned, was very dangerous itself, often resulting in a prisoner’s head being smashed against the ground. A victim may be conscious at the part of the ordeal where his entrails were burned shortly before the head was removed and the body cut into four bits.

It was said that during the execution of Major General Thomas Harrison, a man who signed the death warrant of King Charles the First, that he was alive for several minutes after being hanged. And then when he was cut open and disemboweled, he then allegedly tried to hit the executioner.

And because of this, his head was cut off quicker. During disembowelment, John Houghton, it was said, began to pray before the final part of his ordeal occurred. One of the most famous people to be hanged, drawn, and quartered was Guy Fawkes, one of the leading men involved in the Gunpowder Plot. Fawkes had been caught guarding the gunpowder in the undercrofts of the Houses of Parliament.

And after his torture, which involved the rack, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. However, Fawkes jumped off the scaffold before in one final act of defiance, and it’s claimed broke his neck before the sentence was carried out. The practice of hanging, drawing, and quartering continued for centuries, and the accounts of them were very brutal.

It was abolished in England by the Forfeiture Act of 1870, just over 150 years ago, which is shocking considering how terrifying the practice was. Hanging and posthumous beheading replaced the old disemboweling and quartering in 1814, but it was still very brutal. The last hanging, drawing, and quartering was of David Tyrie in 1782.

He was a Scotsman who’d been caught corresponding with the enemy French. It was said of his execution, “From the time he was put on the sledge till he came to the gibbet, he continued in an unconcerned conversation with the jailer, in which he expressed that he thought there were not three better sounder or honest hearts in the kingdom than his own, which was going to be burned.

That there was only one thing which gave him concern, which was that his father was living, and he feared this misfortune would bring gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. He never hung his head the whole time. When arrived at the place of execution, no halter was provided, upon which he smiled and expressed astonishment at the inattention and neglect of his executioners.

And indeed, the business would have been slowed for some time had not a rope and pulley been procured out of a lugger that lay upon the shore. During which time he read several passages in a Bible he carried in his hand. After hanging exactly 22 minutes, he was lowered upon the sledge and his sentence literally put in execution. His head was severed from his body, his heart taken out and burned, his privates cut off, and his body quartered.

He was then put into a coffin and buried amongst the pebbles by the seaside, but no sooner had the officers retired but the sailors dug up the coffin, took out the body, and cut it into a thousand pieces, each one carrying away a piece of his body to show their messmates on board. A more dreadful, affecting execution was perhaps never seen.

Hanging, drawing, and quartering was certainly one of the the sadistic execution methods used throughout history. An executioner’s sword is an instrument throughout the years is rather different to a sword which would be used in hand-to-hand combat. These swords were usually intended for two-handed use to allow an executioner with both hands to get a quick and sharp swing of it.

They had a hilt like a normal sword, but the blade lacked a point and was flat, meaning that the side of the blade would need to be sharp to take the head clean off. In the medieval period, executioners did use normal swords to do this. And it was roughly around the 16th century when swords in this manner emerged on the scaffolds across Europe.

They were used in 17th century Europe quite prominently, but they fell out of use rather suddenly as other devices in the 18th century such as the guillotine were favored in lands such as France and Germany. The final execution using sword in Europe took place in Switzerland when a man was executed for murder.

But still today in Saudi Arabia, it is used to carry out executions. The executioner’s sword would be a weapon which was special to them, and they would need to get familiar with its weight and size to be able to perform executions in a swift manner. The blades were often decorated with different symbolic designs, and after their use on the scaffold was done, they were often used as swords of justice and as items stored inside of country houses and castles.

They’re often very intimidating when you see them up close. What is interesting is that the sword was considered the more reliable method of execution of beheading as opposed to the axe. The commoner’s axe which was used more prominently in England to take the head of a criminal or a victim was considered sharp justice.

But it did have a propensity to go wrong at times. The crowds who would flock to executions may have been bloodthirsty and rather uncivilized at times, but they expected a certain level of class from an executioner. For example, the London axeman Jack Ketch, during the execution of the Duke of Monmouth, took so many swings of his axe that at one point he gave up, and the crowd was so angry, many wanted Ketch’s head on the block next, as he performed the job poorly.

But a lot could go wrong with the axe, from the swing not generating enough velocity to come down onto the victim, to the hair being caught in the swing. Even Mary Queen of Scots’ execution went tragically wrong during the reign of Elizabeth the First. But for many years before, executions by axe had been going wrong, and this is probably what prompted Henry the VIII to summon a swordsman from France to execute his second wife, Queen Anne Boleyn.

Anne had been found guilty of trumped-up charges and false charges of adultery, incest, and treason, and for this she faced the death penalty. But Henry the VIII would order a specific number of items for his wife’s execution. He did not want a queen to die in the same way as a commoner, so he ordered very expensive black velvet fabric to cover the scaffold, which was erected inside the Tower of London.

But he also paid a man from Calais, in France, to do the job, known as the Swordsman of Calais. This man, it’s believed, was very skilled, and Anne Boleyn herself had heard the reputation of the man who would take her head from her shoulders. But the executioner had never taken the head of someone so prominent, and he usually dealt with thieves and murderers, but here he was executing an English queen.

The Swordsman of Calais arrived from France and lodged inside the Tower of London, and so the day came to take Anne Boleyn’s head. As Anne made her way to the scaffold, a few hundred witnesses watched her as she was accompanied by her ladies-in-waiting. The swordsman was waiting, but the sword was nowhere to be seen.

When Anne greeted the executioner on the scaffold, she gave him a bag of coins as payment for hopefully completing the job quickly. But as Anne knelt down, a blindfold was placed over her eyes, and the swordsman took off his shoes so he could not be heard on the scaffold. The executioner’s assistant made a noise to distract Anne, and she looked one way, and from the other the executioner emerged with his huge sword, and swung it quickly, and in one swift strike, Anne Boleyn, the Queen of England, was dead.

Execution by sword was considered much more reliable than the axe, but as mentioned, it never really took off across England. The King Charles I would face the axe, as would prominent people such as Thomas Cromwell, Sir Thomas More, and Catherine Howard, Henry VIII’s fifth wife. It was an execution method which was speedy and rapid, and when performed correctly, would be a brutal administering of a king or queen’s justice.

The exact identification of the swordsman of Calais who took Anne Boleyn’s head is unknown, and the sword has been lost to time, and it’s possible that the executioner’s family kept this as an heirloom, as it was a weapon that took the Queen of England’s head, or that an executioner sold it on later. Burning at the stake has been around for thousands of years.

It was recorded in the 18th century BC by Babylonian king that there were specific crimes which people could be executed by burning for. This included people who looted the houses of others, or priestesses who abandoned their churches and began to spend time in certain pubs and taverns. In ancient Egypt, there were examples of people who were being used as human torches, and certain pharaohs and rulers showed no mercy.

Some women who committed adultery could be burned to death, and the pharaoh had to personally sign off the verdicts of these who were to be burned to death. Some people who were involved in the assassination of Ramesses III were burned alive, and this was done as the Egyptians believed someone could not get into the afterlife without their body.

There are accounts in the ancient books and holy books of people who were burned alive. In Genesis, Judah ordered the widow of his son to be burned when she believed she had an adulterous affair. She did save herself, but in Hebrew law, death by burning was administered for a number of crimes. The manner of burning in the Mishnah states that the obligatory procedure for execution by burning, they immersed him in the dung up to his knees, rolled a rough cloth into a soft one, and wound it about his neck.

One pulled it one way, one the other until he opened his mouth. Thereupon, one ignites the lead wick and throws it in his mouth, and it descends to his bowels and sears his bowels. Romans also executed many Christian martyrs by burning, including that of a Christian bishop named Polycarp. He was forced to wear a flammable tunic, and it was said the Christian, stripped naked, was forced to put on a garment called the tunica molesta, made of papyrus, smeared on both sides with wax, and was then fastened to a fire pole,

from the top of which they continued to pour down burning pitch and lard. A spike fastened under the chin preventing the excruciated victim from turning the head to either side so as to escape the liquid fire until the whole body and every part of it was literally clad and encased in flame. Constantine increased the crimes that someone could be burned for, and they were allowed an appeal before their sentence was carried out.

Some also had molten lead poured down their throats. The Celts also had a practice of burning humans alive in a number of ways. Julius Caesar wrote of the sacrifice of criminals in huge wicker frames known as wicker men. It was said others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed of osiers, they fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in flames.

They consider that the oblation of such as have been taken in theft or in robbery or any other offense is more acceptable to the immortal gods. When a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse of the oblation of even the innocent. The Celts performed this on the occasion of the death of important men.

There was funeral sacrifice of burning in this ritual. But during the medieval period, the punishment of burning alive or burning at the stake was strongly linked to the crime of heresy or religious offenses. Anyone who dared to question the teachings of the Catholic Church could be burned alive. There were large-scale executions of heretics, and anyone who was deemed a threat to religion could be executed in this way.

Prominent reformers such as Jan Hus was burned at the stake. The remains of John Wycliffe were exhumed 30 years after his death and were then burned. There are also many accounts throughout Europe during the medieval period of Jews who were often burned alive. This was the case in England, too. For example, in York, many Jews were barricaded in the castle there, which then caught fire, causing a huge scene of devastation.

But this scene was played out in many European cities. For example, in Basel and Strasbourg, hundreds of Jews were burned alive. In France in 1321, there were also leper hunts who was believed had poisoned the wells. And the lepers were rounded up and were burned alive with around 5,000 people being burned in this hysteria.

One of the most brutal regimes of medieval period that instigated a reign of terror and burned thousands of people at the stake was a Spanish Inquisition, which was established in 1478. It’s believed that during the 300 years of Inquisition activity, that up to 50,000 people were burned at the stake in horrifying scenes across Spain and its occupied territories.

Many of these burnings occurred simultaneously with more than one person being burned at the same time. But as well as being the punishment for heresy, it was also linked to witchcraft punishments. It’s believed that dozens of thousands, if not millions of women were executed by being burned alive by being considered to have been witches.

For example, Joan of Arc was even considered to have been a witch. But in England, as mentioned, Mary I was one of the most notorious queens and she became known for her Marian persecutions or burnings of Protestants at the stake. Despite Mary being famous for this, burnings had occurred in England for centuries before, but also they continued centuries after her reign.

One English burning was captured in writing by an eyewitness and it was said of the last woman burned alive that, “The fuel being placed around her and lighted with a torch, she begged for the sake of Jesus to be strangled first. Whereupon the executioner drew tight the halter, but the flame coming to his hand in the space of a second, he let it go.

When she gave three dreadful shrieks, but the flames taking her on all sides, she was heard no more and the executioner, throwing a piece of timber into the fire, it broke her skull. When her brains came plentifully out and in about an hour, more she was reduced to ashes.” In Scotland, the King James VI’s interest in witchcraft also led to many women being burned at the stake.

In North America, the indigenous population often used burning as an execution method against white settlers or other tribes and they slowly roasted people over a fire. Some slaves were also burned at the stake and this often happened with victims being killed first. There have been other methods of applying fire to execute someone, including the brazen bull, where someone was thrown into a metal structure shaped like a bull and they were then roasted alive as the metal bull heated up.

Even during the Second World War, there are examples of people being burned alive. For example, there were atrocities in which the Germans locked people inside barns and set them on fire. There were even reprisals against Germans in which some were burned alive. There was an account at the Ebensee concentration camp in which an SS guard who tried to flee was roasted to death in an oven.

But this is only the start with regards to the execution method of burning. There were many different variations of the execution method and throughout the centuries millions must have been executed in this way. It was a terrible way to go and was a horrifically painful and savage death for someone to experience.

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