Everything about Burned At The Stake totally explained
Execution by burning has a long history as a method of
punishment for
crimes such as
treason,
heresy and
witchcraft (burning, however, was actually less common than
hanging,
pressing, or
drowning as a punishment for
witchcraft). For a number of reasons, this method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late
18th century; today, it's considered
cruel and unusual punishment. The particular form of execution by
burning in which the condemned is bound to a large
stake is more commonly called
burning at the stake.
Cause of death
If the fire was large (for instance, when a large number of
prisoners were
executed at the same time), death often came from the
carbon monoxide poisoning before flames actually caused harm to the body. However, if the fire was small, the convict would burn for some time until death from
heatstroke, loss of
blood plasma, and
shock would occur. The typical depictions of burnings show that the executioner would arrange a pile of wood around the condemned's feet and calves, with supplementary small bundles of sticks and straw called
faggots at strategic intervals up his/her body. Unless the authorities were particularly vindictive against a prisoner, family and friends could bring additional faggots and firecrackers to make the death less painful. It seems, however, that these depictions may not be entirely representative of how such executions were normally carried out; some sources state that it was more normal for the stake to be at the centre of a large ring or pile of wood with a gap left for the condemned to be led to the stake. Once he or she was tied to the stake and the gap filled with wood, the condemned would be hidden from sight. The famous depiction of the execution of
Joan of Arc is factually incorrect in that it shows her atop a pile of wood and straw, whereas in fact she was burnt in the manner described.
When applied with skill, the condemned's body would burn progressively in the following sequence:
calves,
thighs and
hands,
torso and
forearms,
breasts, upper
chest,
face; and then finally death. On other occasions, people died from
suffocation with only their calves on fire. In many burnings, a rope was attached to the convict's
neck passing through a ring on the stake and he or she was simultaneously
strangled and burnt. In later years in England, some burnings only took place after the convict had already
hanged for a half-hour. In some Nordic, English and
German burnings, convicts had containers of
gunpowder tied to them or were tied to ladders and then swung into fully burning bonfires. A container of gunpowder tied at the neck might be used to bring about a quicker (and thus more merciful) death, since the condemned would suffer only until the gunpowder was heated enough to explode. Some prisoners refused it for personal reasons.
Historical usage
The story of
Tamar and
Judah in the Biblical book of
Genesis suggests that before the Torah was given to the Israelites at Mount Sinai, the patriarch heading a tribe or clan could order a tribe member executed for sexual misconduct. (It should be noted that Tamar wasn't a member of Judah's tribe but rather his daughter-in-law.)
Perillos of
Athens invented the
Brazen bull, a hollow brass container where the condemned would be locked as a fire was set underneath. This would cause the metal to become red hot while the condemned slowly roasted to death. The bull was first used on Perillos, the bull's inventor; though he was released by the Tyrant Phalaris, the device continued to be used through ancient
Greece and
Rome.
Burning was used as a means of execution in many ancient societies. According to ancient reports,
Roman authorities executed many of the early
Christian martyrs by burning, sometimes by means of the
tunica molesta, a flammable tunic. Civil authorities burned persons judged to be
heretics under the
medieval Inquisition, including
Giordano Bruno. Burning was also used by
Protestants during the
witch-hunts of Europe.
North American Indians often used burning as a form of execution, either against members of other tribes or against white settlers during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Roasting over a slow fire was a customary method.
Under the
Byzantine Empire, burning was introduced as a punishment for disobedient
Zoroastrians, because of the belief that they worshipped fire.
The Byzantine Emperor
Justinian (r. 527-565) ordered death by fire,
intestacy, and confiscation of all possessions by the State to be the punishment for heresy against the Christian faith in his
Codex Iustiniani (CJ 1.5.), ratifying the decrees of his predecessors the Emperors
Arcadius and
Flavius Augustus Honorius.
In
1184, the
Roman Catholic Synod of Verona legislated that burning was to be the official punishment for
heresy. This decree was later reaffirmed by the
Fourth Council of the Lateran in
1215, the
Synod of Toulouse in
1229, and numerous spiritual and secular leaders through the
17th century.
Among the best-known individuals to be executed by burning were
Jacques de Molay (
1314),
Jan Hus (
1415),
St Joan of Arc (
May 30,
1431),
Savonarola (1498)
Patrick Hamilton (
1528),
William Tyndale (
1536),
Michael Servetus (
1553),
Giordano Bruno (
1600), and
Avvakum (
1682). Anglican martyrs
Hugh Latimer and
Nicholas Ridley (both in
1555), and
Thomas Cranmer (
1556) were also burned at the stake.
In the United Kingdom, the traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be burnt at the stake, while men were
hanged, drawn and quartered. There were two types of treason,
high treason for crimes against the Sovereign, and
petty treason for the murder of one's lawful superior, including that of a husband by his wife.
In England, only a few witches were burnt, the majority were hanged, possibly as a cost saving exercise and possibly because of the risk that the general public wouldn't tolerate frequent use of such a barbaric punishment.
Sir
Thomas Malory, in "
Le Morte d'Arthur", depicts
King Arthur as being reluctantly constrained to order the burning of Queen
Guinevere, once her adultery with
Lancelot was revealed - suggesting that this was an inflexible and unalterable law. This might be related to the above, as a Queen's adultery might be construed as treason against her royal husband.
In
1790, Sir
Benjamin Hammett introduced a bill into
Parliament to end what is now widely considered a barbaric practice. He explained that the year before, as
Sheriff of
London, he'd been responsible for the burning of
Catherine Murphy, found guilty of
counterfeiting, but that he'd allowed her to be hanged first.
He pointed out that as the law stood, he himself could have been found guilty of a crime in not carrying out the lawful punishment and, as no woman had been burnt alive in the kingdom for over fifty years, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings. The act was duly passed by Parliament and given
royal assent by King
George III (30 George III. C. 48).
Modern burnings
Modern day burnings still occur. During periods of unrest in
South Africa and
Haiti for example, execution by burning was done via a method called
necklacing where kerosene or petrol filled rubber tires were placed around the neck of a live individual. The fuel was then ignited, the rubber melted and the condemned burned to death. Necklacing is typically
extrajudicial and performed by locals rather than authorities . In Rio de Janeiro, burning people standing inside a pile of tires is a common form of execution used by drug dealers to punish those who have supposedly collaborated with the police. This form of execution is called
microondas, "the microwave". The movie
Tropa de Elite (Elite squad) has a scene depicting this practice
According to a former Soviet
Main Intelligence Directorate officer writing under the alias
Victor Suvorov, at least one Soviet traitor was burned alive in a
crematorium. During the 1980
New Mexico State Penitentiary riot, a number of inmates were burned to death by fellow inmates, who used blow torches.
At the end of the 1990s, a number of North Korean army generals were executed by being burned alive inside the
Rungrado May Day Stadium in
Pyongyang,
North Korea.
Portrayal in film
The Last of the Mohicans features a British Redcoat being burned at the stake by a
Huron tribe, while the more recent
Silent Hill has a female police officer consumed by flames while tied to a ladder. The latter makes use of
computer graphics, while the former does not.
Elizabeth also used computer graphics to enhance the opening scene where three Protestants are burnt at the stake. In the film adaptation of
Umberto Eco's
The Name of the Rose, the innocent simpleton Salvatore (
Ron Perlman) is seen to die horribly, burnt at the stake. The fate is also suffered by
Oliver Reed's less innocent character in
Ken Russell's
The Devils. The film
The Seventh Seal shows a woman about to be burnt at the stake.
Carl Theodor Dreyer's
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (
The Passion of Joan of Arc), though made in the late 1920s (and therefore without the assistance of computer graphics), includes a relatively graphic and realistic treatment of
Jeanne's execution; his
Day of Wrath also featured a woman burned at the stake. Of course, nearly all other film versions of the story of Joan show her death at the stake — some more graphically than others. Execution by burning also features in the 1973 film
The Wicker Man, and its 2006 remake.
Tropa de Elite depicts an execution by burning in Rio de Janeiro.
Fritz Lang's
Metropolis involves a robot being burned at the stake.
Further Information
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