Hung, Drawn and Quartered -- Treason in Tudor England

An explanation of the famous form of execution. Clip from a documentary on Elizabeth I by David Starkey. Treason which regarded as an extremely serious offence, particularly acts against the monarch as this was seen to affect society as a whole. The punishment for such treachery had to fully represent the seriousness of the act hence the ghastly nature of the procedure of being hung, drawn and quartered. Tudor monarchs were not alone in employing this form of execution and a prime example of this is the death of William Wallace who was hung drawn and quartered at Smithfield in 1305 under the reign of Edward I. Notable Tudor figures who meet this bloody fate include Francis Dereham, Katherine Howard's lover prior to her marriage to Henry VIII and Anthony Babington and the other conspirators of the Babington plot in 1586. Many noblemen were first sentenced to this death but were granted the more noble and swift death of beheading instead of this agonising procedure. Many people also associate this form of execution with Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 who attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening.