ripped apart. This appalling device served the purposes of the interrogator, the torturer and the executioner.
6
The Pillory
The pillory was another form of torture, although on rare occasions those subjected to such punishment were ‘rewarded’ by the crowd who laid flowers at their feet or even collected money for them. Stocks and pillories were used in parts of Europe for more than 1,000 years. They became common in England by the mid-fourteenth century. In 1351 a law (Statute of Labourers) was introduced requiring every town to provide and maintain a set of stocks. The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands in which the convicted person would face the wrath of the public.
A stock is simply a wooden board with one or more semicircles cut into one edge. Initially used for quacks and mountebanks, stocks were later used to control the unemployed. In 1287 Robert Basset, Mayor of London, punished bakers for making underweight bread. A number of them were put in the pillory, as was Agnes Daintie, for selling ‘mingled butter’. A statute passed in 1495 required that vagabonds should be set in the stocks for three days on bread and water and then sent away. A further statute of 1605 required that anyone convicted of drunkenness should receive six hours in the stocks. After 1637, it became the recognised punishment for those who published books without a licence or criticised the government. The pillory was abolished in England in 1837.
The status of the pillory was elevated from a punishment reserved for cheats, thieves and perjurers to one which also punished those involved in political disputes. This was due to the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud (1573-1645) and the Star Chamber in 1637.
In the same year a high profile case saw the brutal punishment of three Puritan preachers: William Prynne, Henry Burton and John Bastwick. In the growing discontent prior to the Civil Wars they were prosecuted by Star Chamber for publishing pamphlets attacking the rule of the bishops and criticising the doctrines of Archbishop Laud. All three were sentenced to stand in Palace Yard in the pillory and have their cheeks branded and ears cropped before being imprisoned for life. The following account gives a graphic description of what happened:
William Prynne, who had his ears lopped off in 1637.
Dr Bastwick spake first, and (among other things) said, had he a thousand lives he would give them all up for this cause. Mr Prynne... showed the disparity between the times of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and the times then [of King Charles], and how far more dangerous it was now to write against a bishop or two than against a King or Queen: there at the most there was but six months imprisonment in ordinary prisons, and the delinquent might redeem his ears for £200, and had two months’ time for payment, but no fine; here they are fined £5,000 a piece, to be perpetually imprisoned in the remotest castles, where no friends must be permitted to see them, and to lose their ears without redemption. There no stigmatizing, here he must be branded on both cheeks... The Archbishop of Canterbury, being informed by his spies what Mr Prynne said, moved the Lords then sitting in the Star Chamber that he might be gagged and have some further censure to be presently executed on him; but that motion did not succeed. Mr Burton spake much while in the pillory to the people. The executioner cut off his ears deep and close, in a cruel manner, with much effusion of blood, an artery being cut, as there was likewise of Dr Bastwick. Then Mr Prynne’s cheeks were seared with an iron made exceeding hot which done, the executioner cut off one of his ears and a piece of his cheek with it; then hacking the other ear almost off, he left it hanging and went down; but being called up again he cut it quite off. [Source: John Rushworth (1706, abridged edition) Historical
6
The Pillory
The pillory was another form of torture, although on rare occasions those subjected to such punishment were ‘rewarded’ by the crowd who laid flowers at their feet or even collected money for them. Stocks and pillories were used in parts of Europe for more than 1,000 years. They became common in England by the mid-fourteenth century. In 1351 a law (Statute of Labourers) was introduced requiring every town to provide and maintain a set of stocks. The pillory was a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands in which the convicted person would face the wrath of the public.
A stock is simply a wooden board with one or more semicircles cut into one edge. Initially used for quacks and mountebanks, stocks were later used to control the unemployed. In 1287 Robert Basset, Mayor of London, punished bakers for making underweight bread. A number of them were put in the pillory, as was Agnes Daintie, for selling ‘mingled butter’. A statute passed in 1495 required that vagabonds should be set in the stocks for three days on bread and water and then sent away. A further statute of 1605 required that anyone convicted of drunkenness should receive six hours in the stocks. After 1637, it became the recognised punishment for those who published books without a licence or criticised the government. The pillory was abolished in England in 1837.
The status of the pillory was elevated from a punishment reserved for cheats, thieves and perjurers to one which also punished those involved in political disputes. This was due to the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud (1573-1645) and the Star Chamber in 1637.
In the same year a high profile case saw the brutal punishment of three Puritan preachers: William Prynne, Henry Burton and John Bastwick. In the growing discontent prior to the Civil Wars they were prosecuted by Star Chamber for publishing pamphlets attacking the rule of the bishops and criticising the doctrines of Archbishop Laud. All three were sentenced to stand in Palace Yard in the pillory and have their cheeks branded and ears cropped before being imprisoned for life. The following account gives a graphic description of what happened:
William Prynne, who had his ears lopped off in 1637.
Dr Bastwick spake first, and (among other things) said, had he a thousand lives he would give them all up for this cause. Mr Prynne... showed the disparity between the times of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and the times then [of King Charles], and how far more dangerous it was now to write against a bishop or two than against a King or Queen: there at the most there was but six months imprisonment in ordinary prisons, and the delinquent might redeem his ears for £200, and had two months’ time for payment, but no fine; here they are fined £5,000 a piece, to be perpetually imprisoned in the remotest castles, where no friends must be permitted to see them, and to lose their ears without redemption. There no stigmatizing, here he must be branded on both cheeks... The Archbishop of Canterbury, being informed by his spies what Mr Prynne said, moved the Lords then sitting in the Star Chamber that he might be gagged and have some further censure to be presently executed on him; but that motion did not succeed. Mr Burton spake much while in the pillory to the people. The executioner cut off his ears deep and close, in a cruel manner, with much effusion of blood, an artery being cut, as there was likewise of Dr Bastwick. Then Mr Prynne’s cheeks were seared with an iron made exceeding hot which done, the executioner cut off one of his ears and a piece of his cheek with it; then hacking the other ear almost off, he left it hanging and went down; but being called up again he cut it quite off. [Source: John Rushworth (1706, abridged edition) Historical
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