To send a clear message to the public and people in their kingdoms, King’s and Queens
would sentence many people to death. Many traitors in England had their heads placed
above London Bridge, so that thousands of people each day would get the idea not to
cross their ruler. Henry VIII for example even had some of his closest friends and two
of his wives executed, and these people brought great shame upon their families once killed.
They lost their titles and wealth, and because of this the crown inherited all of it. But
there was one form of public shame and humiliation which was used to send a clear message to
the people of lands, and it was known as posthumous execution. This is where to hammer home the
shame that these people brought, they were dug up after death and were then symbolically
beheaded or subjected to an execution ordeal despite being dead already. It sounds bizarre,
but this was something that had been used for centuries. Join us today as we look at
the shocking posthumous executions of History, and remember to support our channel, please
make sure to subscribe.
Posthumous execution is the ceremonial mutilation of a dead body as a form of punishment. Many
christians were worried at the time about the resurrection of the dead, and that there
was a belief that the whole body must be buried towards the east so that the body could rise
facing God. However dismembering it prevented the possibility of resurrection of an intact
body, so posthumously executing a criminal was seen as a way of stopping them facing
God. It was said that, ‘In England Henry VIII granted the annual right to the bodies
of four hanged felons. Charles II later increased this to six ... Dissection was now a recognised
punishment, a fate worse than death to be added to hanging for the worst offenders.
The dissections performed on hanged felons were public: indeed part of the punishment
was the delivery from hangman to surgeons at the gallows following public execution,
and later public exhibition of the open body itself ... In 1752 an act was passed allowing
dissection of all murderers as an alternative to hanging in chains. This was a grisly fate,
the tarred body being suspended in a cage until it fell to pieces. The object of this
and dissection was to deny a grave ... Dissection was described as "a further terror and peculiar
Mark of Infamy" and "in no case whatsoever shall the body of any murderer be suffered
to be buried". The rescue, or attempted rescue of the corpse was punishable by transportation for
seven years. But many people over the centuries were subjected to this.
One of the first to undergo this ordeal was Pope Fomosus who was the Bishop of Rome for
5 years from 891 to his death. After becoming the Pope, he was involved in disputes between
the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Emperors. He grew distrustful of the Roman Emperor and
he persuaded Arnulf Of Carinthia to invade the Italian lands, and liberate Italy from
the Emperor. The campaign was successful, and the roman emperor died which allowed Arnulf
to take the Roman Empire. However Formosus crowned him the new emperor, whilst Guy III’s
son was in exile. Further military campaigns took place, but Formosus died, and then after
his death it was declared he needed to be punished for acting against Rome. He was placed
on trial despite being dead for 9 months, and the new Pope ordered his body to be dug
up. It was decomposing, and it was clothed and then his remains were propped up on a
throne in front of the court. He was stripped of his palm vestments, and then after being
found guilty of betraying Rome, he had 3 fingers of his right hand cut off, and his body was
then thrown into the River Tiber. This posthumous trial would have been shocking with the Pope’s
remains actually being brought to the courtroom before then being thrown in the river.
John Wycliffe is considered one of the founding father’s of the Reformation and as a man
who criticised the church. Acting against the Catholic Church decades before Martin
Luther’s reformation, he defied the Papacy and believes that all christians should rely
on the Bible rather than the teachings of the Popes and the clerics. He spoke out boldly
against the clergy and the wealth and luxury that the Pope and Cardinals were living in
and he disapproved of pilgrimage and of many other things. He was a man who believed the
word of god was the only important thing, but his views gathered momentum and followers,
but he also gathered a number of enemies. He died in 1384, but after this he was declared
a heretic and heretic trials came his way. He was found guilty of being a religion criminal,
and the council of Constance declared that his remains should be dug up from the Churchyard
where he was interred, and then burned. This is what happened, his bones were taken from
the consecrated ground, and his corpse was then burned in a large fire nearby, and the
ashes were then thrown into the River Swift, near to the town of Lutterworth.
One of the most infamous figures in European History was Vlad the Impaler, the ruler of
Wallachia who brutally executed many of his people by using his chosen method of impalement.
After his assassination, the Ottoman’s cut his body into pieces, and his head was sent
to Mehmed II. It was eventually then placed on a high stake in Constantinople on display,
but local traditions state his corpse was discovered in marshland by monks. Gilles van
Ledenberg was also subject to this in the 17th century. He was the secretary of the
states of Utrecht, and whilst in office he was arrested for causing unrest during the
12 year truce between the Dutch and the Spanish. He was worried what would happen to him and
he feared execution and because of this he took his own life. He hoped that this would
stop the court proceedings against him and that the state would not take his land and
wealth. However he was still convicted and was sentenced to death. Hie embalmed corpse
was taken from it’s coffin and it was strung up from a gibbet and was left hanging for
21 days. When it was cut down a mob disinterred the corpse again and threw it in a ditch.
The most famous series of posthumous executions came in England following the restoration
of the monarchy. Charles I had been executed by Parliament, but after his son Charles II
was invited to take the throne, he went on a crusade to bring justice against those men
who signed his father’s death warrant. Because of this he launched the regicides, and many
men who signed the King’s execution notice were hunted and many successfully managed
to flee. But some including the most high profile Parliamentarians had died in the years
before. Oliver Cromwell was the spearhead behind the Civil War against the King and
he was a strong supporter of executing Charles I. But in the years following he had died,
and he had been the Lord Protector and had even been invited to take the crown. Charles
II ordered the disinterring of Cromwell’s body and remains along with John Bradshaw
the judge of the court and Henry Ireton a military General and Cromwell’s son in law.
All 3 were dug from the ground, Cromwell who had been buried in Westminster Abbey did encounter
a struggle when digging out his remains. The three’s corpses were gathered together and
were taken to Tyburn where they were then hanged in chains. In the afternoon after being
dragged through the streets too, their decaying corpses were beheaded by an executioner, and
Cromwell’s head was placed on a 20 foot tall wooden spike above Westminster Hall,
and it stayed there for 25 years. His head passed through many hands in the following
centuries.
Blackbeard, the English Pirate also known as Edward Thatch was also posthumously executed.
He was a fearsome pirate, and a scorn in the side of many vessels. He was killed by sailors
of HMS Pearl who boarded his ship known as the Adventurer. Once his remains were identitified,
British First Leftenant Robert Maynard had Blackbeard’s remains then beheaded, and
his head was tied to the bowsprit of his ship for the trip back. When they got to the home
port of Hampton, his head was placed on a stake as a warning to other pirates. Even
Rasputin’s remained were posthumously executed after he was assassinated. His body was exhumed
and then burned by a detachment of soldiers following the abdication of the Russian Tsar,
and this was done to make sure his grave did not became a place of pilgrimage for supporters
of the monarchy.
So throughout the years there were many people who were posthumously executed. Many who had
this inflicted upon them were made a spectacle of, and their remains were put on display
to send a clear reminder to people to fall into line. It was a very serious form of execution.
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