to think this country used to be bloody barbaric?

[MycatsaPirate]

We have Gunpowder on tv at the moment and it's brutal!

Thank goodness we have evolved over the last several hundred years and no longer think public torture and murder is a good way of dealing with things.

I actually feel quite sick. The horrific ways they dreamt up to kill people are unbelievable.

I was just thinking that. Grim.

It was a terrifyingly time. I enjoy reading the CJ Sansom books set in Henry the Eighth's reign and everybody was paranoid!

I've just watched that poor woman get crushed to death. OMG, horrendous! Amazes me how people actually used to stand and watch that. Shocking!

Reminds me of ISIS type killings.

I have just said that to DP, people go on about ISIS but looking back we weren't any better. Ok, we have evolved and thankfully don't go in for torturing people to death in front of a baying mob or jailing people for not going to church but really, we are not covered in glory are we?

Imagine that young lad going home to his mum, saying I got a part in a TV programme mum! Oh great son, what will you be doing? I'll be getting hung, drawn and quartered! Oh fab, wait til I tell the neighbours!

Watching it too, it is totally barbaric, found it difficult to watch!

It's a very good show in terms of drawing you in almost immediately but never seen the crushing death before. Hung, drawn and quartered is a grizzly end!!

I didn't know the crushing was a thing either. Never heard of it. Really hard to watch both deaths but I think the woman's was harder to watch.

'Pressing' was done when a person refused to enter a plea. Without a plea, there could not be a trial. So not even convicted of a crime, the refusal to plea would result in the 'pressing', as a means of forcing the person to enter a plea. It could take days before the victim died.
But, as they were not convicted of any crime, their lands and wealth could not be seized by the Crown,and their family could inherit..
There was a case where someone suffered this because they were deaf and unable to speak!
Truly awful part of British history.

What channel is this on? Is it too much for a teen to watch - he loves history, though it sounds it may unsuitable?

What was the object put under the poor pressed woman's body?

Margaret Clitherow of York was executed by crushing.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Clitherow

I had to run out of the room! I really wanted to watch this series but not at the cost of fainting.

that tv show has been very slated to almost being laughable. i think they're trying to be like game of thrones

I have just said that to DP, people go on about ISIS but looking back we weren't any better

That's enough internet for today. Fuck me.

One of the accused was crushed to death in the Salem witch trials which wasn't as long ago. I know that's not the uk but at the time it was under English rule. By then we were really civilised and just burning at the stake.

question as an act of 'mercy' they would sometimes put a sharp stone under the victim's back to break it - and thereby they'd die quicker... nice

i wouldn't judge historic facts on this bbc programme

YNBU.

Just been watching that too.

To think aswell, people used to take picnics out to public hangings, there was some sort of warped logic to it being entertainment for them.

@southernnortherngirl it was on BBCOne. All the episodes are already on iplayer too.

Thanks JonSnowsWife

A picnic! God that's unreal.

And yes, I doubt this programme is 100% factually correct of the Guy Fawkes story, but it was a very long time ago. However, there is no getting away from the fact that we did hang, draw and quarter people, we did chop off heads, tar them and stick them on spikes, we did hang people, we did use racks and other horrific methods of torture. None of that is in dispute and that's what this thread is about, not the factual basis of a TV drama.

Even DP found it hard to watch and he normally doesn't mind watching stuff like this.

Interesting to hear the reason for the pressing. So basically they kept dropping weights on her in an effort to get her to confess at which point they may have taken it all off and just killed her another way?

We were talking about the Pendle witches the other day, dp hadn't heard of them and again it was death regardless of innocence.

A lot of the state ordered murders were for religious reasons.

Yes, it’s barbaric but public CRUCIFICTION is happening in Syria as we discuss torture in the 1600s.

MyCatsAPirate there's lots of things they like to tuck neatly away in history. I'm fascinated and love visiting places like this as I'm interested in the stories. The contraptions they used to place people in too to get and get a confession is unreal.

We were talking about the Pendle witches the other day, dp hadn't heard of them and again it was death regardless of innocence.

Yes. There was a medium on most haunted many years ago who think described the Pendle Witches perfectly.

"they were a product of their time".

I love listening to DFs pearls of wisdom, (turns out parents actually know a thing or two as you get older! ). That man always fears what it does not understand.