Traitors once faced a gruesome death for their crimes

Today’s question:

Recently the “Today in History” feature referred to Guy Fawkes being sentenced to “hanged, drawn and quartered” for treason. Does that mean what it sounds like? Fawkes avoided the punishment by falling off the scaffolding and breaking his neck.

Are you sure this is what you want to read about over breakfast? It gets kind of gross. Maybe you should just skip to the funnies.

Guy Fawkes was, in case you’ve forgotten, one of the conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. The plan was to blow up Parliament, kill King James I and return a Roman Catholic monarchy to England.

It didn’t work out so well for the conspirators and Fawkes was sentenced to the most gruesome sort of death you can imagine — to be drawn and quartered.

That was the punishment for treason in England starting in the 13th century. It was a public affair meant to impress upon the citizenry the idea that treason was just about the worst crime you could imagine.

First, the convict was dragged by horse to the execution grounds with the public encouraged to abuse him along the way.

Then he was hanged, but just enough to bring him near the point of death. If he passed out he was splashed with water to bring him around for the rest of the show.

Next, he was “drawn,’’ which meant convict was sliced open and saw his guts pulled out before he was castrated. If he wasn’t already dead, the genitals were burned before his eyes.

Finally, the traitor was beheaded and his body cut into four pieces. The head was preserved in brine and posted on the city walls.

The four pieces of the torso were daubed with tar and sent to four corners of the realm, just to get the point across to everyone.