YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
GODLY BUTCHERY
In medieval England, the crime of treason was so heinous that it required a punishment that would horrify as much as it would deter. Dr Rebecca Simon discusses a method of execution reserved only for the worst of the worst
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n 1241, a man named William Marise, the son of an English nobleman, was convicted of piracy. His punishment was to be publicly ripped apart into four pieces. It was known then as ‘godly butchery’ or ‘three deaths’. Today, we recognise this gruesome method of execution – one that was unique to England and is synonymous with the medieval period – as being hanged, drawn and quartered. But why was Marise forced to meet such a gruesome end? Committing piracy was considered an attack on the sovereign and therefore classed as treason. Treason was worse than murder, since it was said to challenge the God-given order of kingdom and society, and as such, had to be punished in the most severe way possible. When Marise suffered the fate in 1242 – the first person in recorded history to do so – he was considered the worst of all criminals: a traitor. But more than a punishment, the purpose of hanging, drawing and quartering was to establish the boundaries of normal behaviour. The people who deserved such an end were not meant to be seen as human, and the pain, humiliation and brutality was intended to create a separation between the audience and the condemned. The message was that ‘normal’ men would not suffer the ‘three deaths’. The fact that the method inflicted pain for so long meant it practically became an art form. This served to justify the state’s decision to carry out such an act and present a warning to anyone who might consider violating the social order between country and king.
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A GRUESOME SPECTACLE Being hanged, drawn and quartered was a multifaceted process of torture and humiliation, performed in front of large, eager crowds. In fact, so barbaric was the method that it could only be carried out on men, as it was deemed indecent to expose a woman’s body to the quartering treatment; the more likely punishment for a woman convicted of treason would be burning at the stake.
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HISTORYEXTRA.COM
First, the condemned man was sites for the head included London Bridge dragged to their place of execution on and Westminster Hall – to serve both as a horse-drawn hurdle (a type of sled), a warning to would-be traitors and an perhaps while being lashed, leaving advertisement of the consequences of them covered with painful lacerations betraying your sovereign. before the real agony had even begun. By the late 18th century, it was rare for This is one possible meaning of the hanging, drawing and quartering to be ‘drawn’ (as in ‘drawn’ by the horse). carried out, even when sentenced. That The next step was hanging, was later exemplified in 1839, when with the condemned having a some 10,000 Chartists – calling for rope tied around their neck political reform – led a massive FRENC before being yanked off the armed rebellion in Newport, The last H CONNECT drawn a person to be h ION ground, sometimes with south Wales. The leaders a n n d g q e u d, art was Dav the assistance of a pulley. were caught and sentenced, id Tyrie, ered in England aP servant who wa ortsmouth civil There, he would dangle and but the executions were s convic passing ted o nava thrash around helplessly commuted to transportation to in 1782. l secrets to Fra f account, According to o nce until just before he fell into Australia instead. ne he 23 minu was hanged fo unconsciousness, at which Hanging, drawing and tes befo r butchere re being point he would be lowered to quartering was finally abolished d. the ground and disembowelled in altogether thanks to the passage of front of the horrified, yet morbidly the Forfeiture Act of 1870, thus ending fascinated, audience. one of the longest traditions of public The disembowelling of the unlucky executions in history. Given our individual is the second possible ongoing fascination with the notorious meaning of ‘drawn’, although it could medieval method, however, its legacy is perhaps refer to both actions. According far from dead. d to the Chronicle of Lanercost – a history of northern English and Scottish life DR REBECCA SIMON is a historian covering parts of the 13th century and specialising in early modern piracy and 14th century – the Scottish rebel William the history of executions. Her latest book Wallace, who was executed in this way, is Why We Love Pirates: The Hunt for suffered the further indignity of having Captain Kidd and How He Changed Piracy his entrails burned in front of him. Forever (Mango Media, 2020) Finally, the unfortunate victim was quartered. Sometimes, this was achieved by tying each of his limbs to a different horse, which were then startled into running in different directions so as to rip the body apart. The sundered corpse was then displayed on city gates across the country – popular A drawing shows pirate William Marise, convicted of treason against Henry III in 1241, being dragged to his grisly execution at the Tower of London
