Gibbeting


Public exhibition of the bodies of executed criminals by hanging them from a gallows-like structure, where they were left to rot, held together with iron hoops.

Albert Pierrepoint

English hangman who executed between 435 and 600 people in a 25-year career that ended in 1956.

Bloody Code

The Bloody Code is a name given to the system of crimes and punishments in force in England during the 18th and early 19th centuries that resulted in the death penalty for offences that would today be considered minor.

Burning of women in England

Burning was a legal punishment imposed on women found guilty of high treason, petty treason or heresy. Over a period of several centuries, female convicts were publicly burnt at the stake, sometimes alive, for a range of activities including coining and mariticide.

De heretico comburendo

Law passed in 1401 during the reign of King Henry IV, allowing heretics to be burned alive.

Catherine Hayes

Catherine Hayes née Hall (1690–1726), was the last woman in England to be executed by being burned alive.

William Calcraft

19th-century English hangman, one of the most prolific British executioners.

Halifax Gibbet

Early guillotine, or decapitating machine, used in the town of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It was probably installed during the 16th century as an alternative to beheading by axe or sword.