Why B*rning Alive Ex*cution Vict*ms Had Gunpowder Tied Around Neck

Burning at the stake was one of the most feared forms of execution in European history. It is particularly associated with people convicted of heresy, although burning was used for certain other crimes at different times and places. The image was very familiar: the condemned person tied to the wooden stake surrounded by bundles of wood and other fuel before the fire was then lit.

However, some historical accounts sometimes mention another strange detail. Before the execution began, a small bag or quantity of gunpowder could be placed around the victim’s neck or on their body. Surprisingly, this was often intended to make the execution less prolonged rather than more painful. Death by burning was not necessarily quick.

Much depended upon how the fire had been constructed, the type and quantity of fuel being used, the weather, and the position of the condemned person. Someone surrounded by thick smoke might lose consciousness relatively quickly from inhaling toxic gases. Under different circumstances, though, the person could remain conscious while the fire gradually spread around their body.

This created the possibility of a horribly prolonged death. Executioners could pile burners of wood, brushwood, and other combustible material around the stake, but there was no guarantee that everything would burn evenly. Damp wood, wind, or poor construction could cause parts of the fire to burn slowly. The flames might even move away from the condemned person’s upper body while continuing to burn around their legs.

Now, gunpowder offered a very crude way of attempting to shorten the process. By the Tudor period in England, gunpowder was already very familiar. It had long been used in warfare, particularly in artillery and early firearms. People understood that when exposed to a flame, the black powder burned extremely rapidly.

A quantity of it could therefore be placed close to the condemned person’s body so it would ignite when the fire reached it. The powder might be placed in a small bag or container and fastened around the neck or elsewhere on the upper body. The choice of the neck and chest area was very significant because this is close to the vital parts of the body.

Once the flames reach the powder, it would produce an extremely rapid flash of heat and burning gases. If sufficiently confined or present in a substantial quantity, the effect would cause devastating injuries and bring about death much closer. Basically, it could do serious damage. However, it is slightly misleading to imagine this as a modern bomb strapped around a victim’s neck.

Historical gunpowder was black powder and its behavior depended heavily upon how it was contained. Loose black powder normally burns extremely rapidly rather than producing the powerful high explosive detonation associated with modern explosives. Nevertheless, having a quantity of burning gunpowder directly against the neck, chest or head could have catastrophic consequences.

One of the best known examples comes from the religious persecutions of Tudor England. When Mary the First became queen in 1553, she attempted to restore Roman Catholicism following the religious changes made under her father Henry VIII and her half-brother Edward VI. Protestants who refused to abandon their beliefs could and would be prosecuted for heresy.

During Mary’s reign, nearly 300 Protestant men and women were all burned for heresy, earning her the later nickname Bloody Mary. Amongst the most famous victims were the bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. They were burned together on the same fire at Oxford on the 16th of October 1555. According to John Foxe’s later accounts in his famous Acts and Monuments or the Book of Martyrs, bags of gunpowder were hung around the men’s neck. This was apparently intended to hasten their deaths once the flames grew and reached them.

Latimer is traditionally remembered for encouraging Ridley immediately before the fire was lit, telling him to:

“Play the man,”

and declaring that:

“They would light a candle in England that he trusted would never be extinguished,”

as in the Reformation.

Their deaths, however, demonstrated just how unpredictable burning at the stake could be. Latimer’s experience appears to have been relatively brief and somewhat successful. Once the fire took hold and reached the gunpowder, well, he died very quickly. Ridley’s execution, though, went much, much worse. The arrangement of the fuel prevented the flames from reaching him effectively.

His lower body was badly burned while he remained alive, and witnesses reportedly attempted to rearrange the fire so it would burn quicker. Eventually, the flames rose and the gunpowder then ignited. This illustrates why gunpowder could be regarded as, well, an act of mercy. In some executions, friends or supporters of the condemned could provide measures intended to shorten their suffering and bring about death quicker.

The official punishment might require death by burning, but that did not necessarily mean that everyone present wanted the condemned person to suffer for as long as possible. Even people living in societies that were accustomed to public executions could be horrified by an unnecessarily prolonged death. There were other methods of reducing suffering as well.

In some European burnings, the condemned person might be strangled before the flames consumed the body. In other cases, however, particularly when authorities wanted the full sentence carried out, the victim remained alive when the fire was started. The gunpowder was therefore a very grim compromise. The condemned person was still publicly burned as required by the sentence, but there was at least a possibility that death would come more rapidly.

The practice also reminds us that burning at the stake did not always happen in the simple way depicted in paintings and films. Fire behaved unpredictably. Executioners had to consider fuel, wind, smoke, and the positioning of the prisoner. Some victims probably became unconscious relatively quickly from smoke and toxic gases, while others suffered prolonged deaths because, well, the fire failed to burn properly.

The bag of gunpowder that was placed around the neck had a purpose that can initially seem surprising. It was not necessarily placed there to make the execution more spectacular or cruel. Instead, it could represent an attempt to bring a terrible punishment to a faster conclusion. It remains an exceptionally disturbing detail of historical executions.

Yet, it reveals something important about the attitudes towards punishment. Even in the past, even within an execution deliberately designed to destroy a person by fire, people sometimes looked for ways of limiting the condemned person’s suffering. Many of the people, many of the men during the Tudor period, let’s face it, they were priests, vicars, and religious men.