One of the vilest acts towards any person is undoubtedly treason and, in medieval England, the penal code provided an exemplary punishment for this crime

 One of the vilest acts towards any person is undoubtedly treason and, in medieval England, the penal code provided an exemplary punishment for this crime

One of the vilest acts towards any person is undoubtedly treason and, in medieval England, the penal code provided an exemplary punishment for this crime

We are talking about a crime because the betrayal in question is that towards the State or the King, carried out mainly by aspiring regicides or rebels such as the participants in the Gunpowder Plot.

The punishment inflicted on the condemned man was atrocious and was known as "hanged, drawn and quartered": he was first stripped and hanged with a short knot noose so that he would not die (hanged), then the real torture began.

The culprit was placed on a wooden table and the executioner began a very painful and humiliating disembowelment (drawn) which started from the genitals, so that the person's virility was immediately denied, and ended with the non-vital organs such as the intestine.

Once the condemned man's cavities had been emptied, he, still alive, could see his organs being burned before his eyes.

The third part of the torture consisted of decapitation, which finally killed the condemned man, and quartered, the products of which were hung in strategic and very busy areas of the city.

All this was carried out in the square, under the eyes of the people, so that no one would try to emulate the deeds of the condemned man.