hangings
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This enthralling programme has returned, but made a dubious claim in the third epsode. Apparently, Jack Ketch was so hopeless at swinging an axe in a straight line, you would be better off as a commoner if facing execution, because almost anyone could be reasonably competent at short drop hanging, where breaking the subject’s neck…
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HENRY VIII: THE EVEN HANDED PERSECUTOR
Anne Askew, Anne Boleyn, beheadings, burnings, Catherine Howard, chopping and changing, clergymen, Courtenays, Edmund de la Pole, Edward of Buckingham, George Boleyn, hangings, Henry Lord Montagu, Henry Pole the Younger, Henry VIII, Howards, Jane Parker Viscountess Rochford, Margaret of Salisbury, Mark Smeaton, monks, Nun of Kent, religious persecution, Thomas Cromwell, Thomas MoreSome folks out there have recently been trying to justify the long list of people executed by Henry VIII because ‘at least they had a trial’ or ‘because it was over religion, and there were always beheadings, pressings, burnings over religion.’ Well, surprisingly, I must agree with them on one thing. Henry sure could be…
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According to Holinshed, the cuddly Henry VIII ordered the executions of some 72,000 people. Adding in the effects of his father’s reign and those of his children might well take the total to about 100,000 although that may exaggerate their rate somewhat. What a good thing this wasn’t a recognised separate dynasty until Hume’s time,…