Execution: A History of Capital Punishment in Britain (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780752464077)

Judicial hanging is regarded by many as being the quintessential 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 explores these types of executions 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.

Author: Simon Webb
ISBN-10: 0752464078
ISBN-13: 9780752464077
Publisher: History Press
Language: English
Published: 01/13/2012
Pages: 160
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.06w x 0.55d