There were many executions throughout history which were incredibly shocking a brutal.
For example, Joan of Arc the young peasant girl who helped to lead the French to regain
territory was burned at the stake by the English who would regret their actions that day as
they claimed they burned a saint.
There were many other medieval executions where people were hanged, drawn and quartered
or were beheaded by axe in front of crowds of thousands who would witness the demise
of a high profile person.
William Wallace Braveheart was subjected to being hanged, drawn and quartered.
But there was a brother of a King, who would inside of the Tower of London be sentenced
to death and his execution was one which went down in history as one of the strangest, yet
most ruthless.
Join us today as we look at the brutal execution of the duke drowned in a barrel of wine, and
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George Plantagenet was born in October 1449 in Dublin, and his father was Richard Plantagenet
the 3rd Duke of York, and his mother was Cecily Neville.
He was the second of three sons of Richard and Cecily, and the boys would become claimants
for the crown and two of them would become Kings.
George became the Duke of Clarence after his brother Edward became King Edward IV during
the Wars of the Roses.
As a young boy of just 12, he was appointed the Lord Leftenant of Ireland and then the
question came as to who George would marry.
The daughter of the Duke of Burgundy Mary was suggested, but the influence of his first
cousin Richard Neville, who was known as Warwick Kingmaker led to George marrying his daughter
Isabel Neville.
George was a supporter of his elder brother’s claim to the throne, but his father in law
would desert Edward IV and would ally himself with Margaret of Anjou, the consort and Queen
of the deposed King Henry VI.
George then went to support Warwick, rather than his own brother and he went to France
with his pregnant wife to talk about rebellion and usurping Edward VI.
But Henry VI would reward George and his treason against his own brother by making George the
next in line to the throne after his own son, but George the Duke of Clarence soon realised
that he had placed his trust in the wrong man, his father in law.
His father in law Warwick Kingmaker was serving his own interests and wanted his own power,
but George Plantagenet would then in secret go back to his brother Edward IV.
Warwick tried to keep Henry VI on the throne, but Warwick was killed in the Battle of Barnet
in April 1471.
King Edward VI was reinstated and restored as the King, and he would then also make his
brother George the Great Chamberlain of England.
It was clear that now the brothers had a good relationship, but Clarence also became then
the Earl of Warwick through his marriage to Richard Neville’s daughter, but he would
never inherit the estates.
George’s other brother would later become the king in Richard III who would steal the
throne for himself.
But George was rewarded by becoming the Earl of Warwick, but also the Earl of Salisbury
by the King.
His wife would give birth to a son named Edward, however two months after giving birth to a
son that sadly passed away named Richard, Isabel neville died from complications following
giving birth.
It’s believed that the death of his wife had a huge negative effect on George and that
her death from consumption of childbed fever turned George slightly mad.
He was convinced his wife had been poisoned by a lady in waiting, and he would even have
this women hanged and murdered in April 1477.
George bullied the jury to find her guilty, and George’s mental state never recovered
and he took part in rebellion yet again against his brother King Edward IV.
George then became a suitor again for the Duchess of Burgundy, and his brother the English
King rejected the match and because of this George was furious and he left the royal court.
But then at some point one one George’s attendants, an astronomer named John Stacey
was taken to the Tower of London.
He was tortured and he confessed that he had imagined the death of the King and used dark
arts and witchcraft to try and bring this about.
He implicated others who were hanged and drawn at tyburn, but the arrest and execution of
these men close to George Plantagenet was meant to act as a warning to him.
George would ignore this though and he continued to speak out against his brother Edward IV,
and he continued to speak with the enemies of the King.
He was a constant thorn in the side of his brother, and because of this George Plantagenet
the Duke of Clarence was then arrested and he was taken to the Tower of London.
George was placed on trial, and he was accused of treason against his brother Edward IV.
It was clear that he was a traitor as many times he had gone against and defected against
Edward, and George was not present at his trial.
But his brother the King prosecuted him and ordered Parliament to pass a bill of attainder
against The Duke of Clarence for his ‘unnatural and loathly treasons.’
George had been kept inside of the Tower of London for months before the trial, and Edward
got what he wanted and George was found guilty and was sentenced to death for treason.
But the method of execution for the Duke of Clarence would be a shocking and brutal one
that showed people not to mess with King Edward IV.
George was holed up inside the most secure royal fortress of the Tower of London, and
his execution was performed there in private.
Official records from the 15th century state how George was subjected to a private execution
inside of the Bowyer Tower, a specific tower within the complex.
Only the most high profile people across Medieval society would be allowed an execution in private,
and this was granted to George as he was a Duke
but he was also the brother of the King, the very man who had condemned him to die.
Edward IV ordered George to be drowned in a barrel of Malmsey Wine, and with this George
would have been lowered and then held in the barrel filled with wine.
Some believed this happened due to the fact he knew about Edward’s pre-contract of marriage
to another woman, meaning he and his children and heirs would be illegitimate.
The drowning would take place over some time, and it was a horrific way to go, and George
would have definitely suffered in his final moments.
George Plantagenet was a traitor and a turncoat who would go down in History as a spoilt brother
of the King who met his end inside a Royal fortress which would become notorious for
torture and execution.
He showed his real personality, and he would not fall in line within his brother’s Kingdom.
However his own daughter Margaret, later Margaret Pole the Counter of Salisbury would also die
within the same walls as her father as she would be executed horrifically by a botching
executioner on the cobbled floor of the Tower of London.
A well known and famous portrait of Margaret shows her wearing a bracelet that has a barrel
on it, which could signify the link she had to her father who was drowned in a barrel
of wine.
But George Plantagent’s death is a unique one in English History, and it shows how the
King wanted him to suffer greatly, despite the fact he was his brother.
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