Throughout history and the centuries, there have been many different execution methods
used to end the life of a condemned person or a criminal.
Some of the most barbaric methods used saw humans forced to fight against vicious animals
such as Lions and Tigers, or even were stamped to death by elephants.
But some rulers and King’s and Queens really tried their best to inspire fear and brutality
in their reputations and Kingdom, for example Vlad the Impaler used impalement to execute
thousands of his enemies.
But there was one execution method used throughout different lands which was considered rather
rare in some cases, but was considered absolutely horrific, savage and terrifying.
In England there were very few recorded cases of someone being boiled alive, but this has
to be one of the most evil execution methods used throughout History.
Join us today as we look at ‘boiling alive,’ and remember to support our channel please
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Death by boiling was an execution method in which a person was killed being being immersed
in boiling liquids or water.
It was not as common as methods such as beheading, hanging drawing and quartering and burning.
But it was used in many different countries and continents, and was known for being particularly
horrific due to the fact the executioner often dragged out the killing process over a longer
amount of time.
Some people were pulled out of the boiling liquid when they were alive and were made
to suffer being lowered into the pot a number of times which would make their suffering
significantly worse.
Often it wasn’t just water which could be placed inside of the large pot, the cauldron
or kettle.
Executioners often filled it up with oil, tar and used a hook and pulley system to dunk
the person in and out, which would have been terrifying for the condemned as they faced
the boiling pot.
There were a number of people who were executed and boiled to death in Scotland.
Jon Haraldsson who was known as ‘The Blood Earl of Orkney,’ ordered the boiling of
the Bishop of Caithness Adam of Melrose, and also a monk called Surlo.
The Bishop had been attempting to collect taxes that he had increased, and he raised
the price and with this it was said that, ‘The Devil take the bishop and his butter,
you may roast him if you please.’
On the 11th September 1222, a group of husbandmen gathered to protest screaming Roast him Alive,
and then the Bishop’s monk Serlo went to deal with it and he was killed.
Then the Bishop was dragged into his kitchen, and the kitchen was then burned down and it
was said that he was boiled alive after the earl had given the permission.
Some sources claim that he was burned rather than boiled, but Alexander III killed 400
people for the crime against his Bishop.
William de Soules a nobleman who conspired against Robert the Bruce, and whom it’s
considered was a sorcerer who worked with evil spirits was boiled alive in 1321.
More boilings continued, as Melville the Sheriff of the Mearns and the Laird of Glenbervie
who were both hated for their strictness and rules were thrown into a pot and boiled alive.
It was then said after they had died, the nobles each enjoyed a spoon of the broth made
by them.
But boiling was used across Europe as a way of punishing counterfeiters and coin forgets,
and these executions were carried out in public to put the other people off greatly committing
these crimes.
These were seen as stealing from the crown, and by punishing the public in the most savage
ways was seen as effective deterrance.
In 1392 a man was boiled alive in Nuremberg for murdering his own mother, and in 1452
in Danzig coin forgers were boiled, and this continued in the following decades.
A man in 1687 in Bremen was boiled to death in oil and was accused of helping coin forgers
escape justice, and some towns today still display their boiling execution cauldrons.
The Holy Roman Empire used boiling to death in oil for coin forgers and those murderers
who’s crimes were particularly heinous and shocking.
It was also used in Asia, as in the 1500s the semi legendary Japanese Bandit Ishikawa
Goemon and his son were boiled alive, and then in the 17th century it was carried out
in India.
A Sikh martyr in 1675 was boiled to death in Delhi after refusing to convert to Island
and he was first put in a cauldron of cold water which was then heated up to boiling
point where he was cooked alive.
It was said how he was tied with an iron chain and was prevented from escaping and only his
head and shoulders could be seen to the crowd, before he roasted into a block of charcoal.
But the most famous account of a boiling alive took place during the reign of King Henry
VIII, the infamous Tudor monarch who sentenced over 70,000 people to death during his time
on the throne.
This included two of his own wives who were beheaded inside the walls of the Tower of
London.
But there was a scandal in February 1531 which emerged from the household of the Bishop of
Rochester, John Fisher.
Fisher was a staunch Catholic, but inside of his household a cook had allegedly poisoned
porridge.
It’s believed that Fisher was the target of this assassination attempt, but he did
not eat as he was fasting at the time.
But the incident led to the deaths of two people, one man and a woman who had sought
shelter and charity from John Fisher.
This incident threatened to discredit and cause chaos with Fisher’s reputation, and
some even believe that Henry VIII could have been behind the plot to poison and kill Fisher,
as he was a staunch supporter of his former wife Catherine of Aragon, and he despised
the changes that Henry was making to the church and also Fisher did not respect Henry’s
position as the Supreme Head of the Church.
The man behind the poisoning plot allegedly was Richard Roose, Fisher’s cook and Henry
VIII then changed the rules on treason.
Roose was captured and imprisoned at the Tower of London, and was then tortured and he believed
he was putting a laxative into the porridge, but claimed he didn’t mean to kill anyone.
Henry VIII made changes then to the treason laws, and made boiling a method of capital
punishment and execution for those who were found guilty of poisoning.
This was made because of Roose’s actions, and it’s believed that the punishment was
brought in to send a message to the cook.
Roose was brought to Smithfield a common place of burning at the stake on the 15th April
1532.
Over a period of two hours he was executed being boiled alive.
One contemporary account stated that Roose was tied up in chains and gibbeted before
he was then lowered in and out of the boiling water three times until he was dead.’
Another account described the execution saying, ‘He roared mighty loud, and divers women
who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away
half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but
would prefer to see the headsman at his work.’
It was said the execution made many people sick and ill as it was so brutal.
Boiling alive in England was used again for a woman named Margaret Davy who used poison
to murder, but then it was repealed as an execution method by Edward VI’s council.
In modern times, it was claimed that in Peru between 1980 and 2000 that a number of militants
were executed by boiling, and that the government of Uzbekistan had alleged to have boiled alive
some men accused of being terrorists.
But boiling alive has to be one of the most brutal execution methods used throughout history.
The people who would witness these public killings would be haunted by what they saw
as someone was either submerged and slowly boiled, or were lowered in and out of a boiling
pot by a pulley system.
It has to be one of the worst methods used along with burning at the stake, and would
have been completely sadistic.
Those monarchs and rulers who issued it had to be some of the most brutal rulers in history
also.
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