Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessentially British execution. However, many other methods of capital punishment have been used in this country; ranging from burning, beheading and shooting to crushing and boiling to death. Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain explores these types of execution in detail. Readers may be surprised to learn that a means of mechanical decapitation, the Halifax Gibbet, was being used in England five hundred years before the guillotine was invented. Boiling to death was a prescribed means of execution in this country during the Tudor period. From the public death by starvation of those gibbeted alive, to the burning of women for petit treason, this book examines some of the most gruesome passages of British history. This carefully researched, well-illustrated and enthralling text will appeal to those interested in the history of British executions.
- ISBN10 0752464078
- ISBN13 9780752464077
- Publish Date 1 December 2011 (first published 1 January 2011)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 28 May 2024
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint The History Press Ltd
- Format Paperback
- Pages 160
- Language English
- URL http://thehistorypress.co.uk/products/Execution.aspx