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Start · Smithfield, London · 1305
The Slow Public Death Of Scotland's GuardianDragged naked through London on purpose, a rebel knight faced the full horror of hanging, drawing and quartering.
same spot · Smithfield, London · 1538
The Prophecy A Burning Friar FulfilledLegend says a Welsh prophecy foretold a wooden saint would set a forest ablaze. In 1538 a friar named Forest was burned at Smithfield with the saint's statue as fuel.
56 m on · Smithfield, London · 1381
The Boy King Who Faced Down A RebellionA fourteen-year-old king rode out to negotiate with the rebel leader who had beheaded his archbishop — the meeting turned to blood.
same spot · Smithfield, London · 1537
The Rebel Woman Burned for TreasonWomen were spared the hanging and quartering handed to male rebels, so Henry's court burned her alive instead.
135 m on · Smithfield, London · 1556
The Queen Who Burned Nearly Three Hundred SubjectsDetermined to restore Catholic rule, she revived the heresy laws and let her bishops send hundreds to the fire.
90 m on · London · 1546
The Only Woman Tortured In The TowerA young gentlewoman out-debated bishops in open court, then became the only woman ever recorded tortured in the Tower of London.
200 m on · Smithfield, London · 1532
Boiled Alive for Poisoning a Bishop's PorridgeA prank with purgatives killed two people and earned the cook a punishment so brutal England abolished it soon after.
same spot · Smithfield, London · 1535
Starved Into Martyrdom at CharterhouseHenry VIII chose slow starvation over swift execution to break England's most devout holdouts.
Coordinates mark the place of each story, and some are approximate. Check opening times and access before you go.