The use of public capital punishment up to the 19th century
Serious crimes were punished with Punishment resulting in death. throughout the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
The most common method of execution was by hanging. Almost all towns and cities had a place of execution, with a scaffold. In London, Tyburn, near where Marble Arch stands today, was where most criminals were hanged. Prisoners were often dragged there from Newgate prison to the spot. In 1537, Henry VIII used Tyburn to execute the ringleaders of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Also during Henry VIII's reign, Bishop Rowland Lee was tasked with bringing law and order to Wales and had over 5,000 publicly hanged.
Criminals were usually taken to the A wooden structure used to execute people by hanging. on the back of a cart. On the way, people could throw things at the criminal and often shouted or jeered. A vicar would often encourage the condemned criminal to apologise for his or her crimes. The criminal would then be hanged and would die from strangulation. Often the criminal’s relatives would pull on his/her feet to speed up the death.
Other methods of execution included burning at the stake, which was the punishment for To disagree with, or refuse to follow the religious views of the monarch or the state. . Offenders would be tied to a stake and a fire would be set around them. Often gunpowder would be put between the condemned person’s legs to speed up the death.
Catherine Murphy, a counterfeiter, was the last woman in England to be officially burned at the stake on 18 March 1789. She was actually strangled first as the act of burning to death was now distasteful. The punishment of burning at the stake, which at the time applied to women and not to men, was abolished a year later.
The method of execution for the crime of To betray or plot against the government or monarchy. was beheading or hanging drawing and quartering. Royalty were beheaded, usually with an axe. Mary Queen of Scots was executed in this way in 1587.
Commoners found guilty of treason were hanged but cut down whilst still alive. They would then have their entrails (intestines) pulled out. They would then be beheaded and their body would be chopped into four parts (hence the term 'quartered'). The traitor’s lands and money would be confiscated by the monarch. Guy Fawkes was sentenced to be executed in this way, but avoided it by breaking his neck after throwing himself from the platform in January 1606.
Public capital punishment in Wales
Most towns in Wales had gallows for public executions. Some were permanent fixtures, and others would have been removed and rebuilt when needed. In Cardiff, convicts would walk from the Castle gaol to the gallows in an area in Roath still known locally as Death Junction.
By the late 18th century, executions were more commonly held just outside the town prison or gaol, probably for convenience.
In Swansea, the last public execution was 18-year-old Robert Coe, who was hanged in April 1866 on sand dunes just outside the town gaol. Executions after this took place in private inside the prison. In Caernarfon, the hanging tower in the town wall was used for executions.