Execution in Early-Modern England

Katie Lynn Reed

Dr. Thomas L. Long

September 20, 2001

Upon visiting Charlie Mitchell’s website entitled "Public Execution in Early Modern England," I found it to be very informative and useful. Last updated on February 27, 1999, this site is listed in the BBC Education Web Guide. The author, Charlie Mitchell, is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina. He enables students to get in contact with him by providing his personal email address, which lets students ask questions and even give suggestions. These reasons helped to convince me that it is a credible site.

It is the Tyburn Tree Homepage that gives in-depth coverage on different circumstances of executions during early-modern England, more specifically London, England. The permanent gallows at Tyburn were located on Tyburn Road in Holborn. The Tyburn Tree was actually a manmade type of alter that has three beams, each displaying up to eight hanging men at one time. These executions were a very popular tourist attraction, which helped to create a type of celebrity of the condemned people. The site has a thorough list of contents that provide students with more than enough useful information. There are six main topics that students can view. These featured topics are: About, Background, Dying Speeches, Pictures, Bibliography, and Other Sites. I am going to briefly summarize each individual topic to further prove the usefulness of this site for a student studying about early-modern England.

The first topic of discussion is titled About, which describes the Tyburn Tree site. It also shows that the site was originally created at Columbia University in October 1995. It gives the background of the author, Charlie Mitchell, and enables readers to give suggestions. It also enables you to research on the BBC Education Web Guide to make sure that the information you are receiving is real data and real resources.

The second link is titled Background, which is very interesting and informative. It gives a lot of different examples on sites of executions and even books that would help students to better understand the life and times of early-modern England. This branch gives you added links to various poetry references, theatre references, and even different sites of the executions.

Dying Speeches is the next link. It gives detailed descriptions of well-known people actually being led to the cutting block. Among others included in this list of people are Anne Boleyn in 1536 and Mary, Queen of Scotts in 1587. Located in each individual link to the name is their death speech they gave to the people who watched and waited for the execution to take place. Anne Boleyn’s speech was very emotionally moving. She basically told the people that she had nothing against being put to death because it was God’s will. She even praised the king by saying that he was a kind and gentle lord to her. Execution was a very emotional experience for all, and how you died was just as important as how you lived. In fact, most audiences who viewed the executions were either declared successful if they died well and with some dignity or declared disgraceful if they died badly without any courage or dignity.

The next link is titled Pictures, which displays a large quantity of various pictures showing different executions. One of the many listed is the beheading of Charles I at Whitehall, which shows gory details of the execution day. It also displays pictures and drawings of the Tower of London and even a woodcut of a hanging that is taking place.

There is also a link called Bibliography which contains dozens of different books that the author used to create this website. Charlie Mitchell listed everything of significance that enables students to research further. Included in the list are newspaper articles, books, and even journal entries.

The last listed link is Other Sites, which gives you a broad view of the history of early-modern England. It gives you other web pages to visit on the executions that took place in other English cities such as Lancaster and Stamford. It also enables you to read about the different torture instruments that were used during that time. It is also possible to do some research on the different documents and journal entries that are listed to gather other thoughts and ideas.

The Tyburn Tree Homepage is definitely a useful and informative source for students to use. It allows you to learn about different aspects of the executions that took place during early-modern England. It guides you towards other useful links as well. Not only can you research on the history of the many executions that were occurring, you can also view pictures, read dying speeches, and even visit other sites to further your knowledge on the public executions that happened in early-modern England.

Works Cited

Mitchell, Charlie. "Public Execution in Early Modern England."