Executions are often horrific, but one man in the 1600s received the “worst execution” ever recorded.
Past generations relished their torture devices, whether it was a brazen bull meant to slowly cook its victim to death, the “Spanish Donkey” method of slowly slicing the victim in half, or simply being “forgotten about” and left to rot in an underground cell. Anyone with a passing interest in history can attest to this.
All three are terrifying in their own ways, but what happened to Richard Roose could be the worst.
Roose was accused of poisoning guests at the Lambeth mansion of John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, in 1531 while Roose was working as Fisher’s cook.
The visitors’ oatmeal and the bowls of two beggars were allegedly contaminated with a mysterious powder that Roose had added.
When the beggars become very ill, the cook supposedly fled the scene. Sadly, several of them died.
Officials did, in fact, catch Roose and apprehend him, according to the YouTube channel The Fortress.
After that, he was brought to the Tower of London, where he was subjected to torture in order to extract information.
Roose supposedly told questioners that he was forced to add the powder to the food as a joke, completely unaware it was harmful and could kill someone.
King Henry VIII, the reigning monarch at the time, then led an act of parliament that made murder by poison a treasonous offence.
Henry VIII informed Parliament of the poisoning on 28 February 1531, and Roose was condemned to death on the King’s word alone, rather of any evidence whatsoever, according to the Fortress.
“The King’s word was final, and he also expanded the definition of treason, saying that murder by poisoning was classed as treason.”
The typical execution for such a crime in those days would include dragging the victim through the streets on a cart, hanging them, and then removing their genitalia and cutting out their insides.
Quite horrific, isn’t it? However, Roose’s punishment was more severe than that.
Crowds in London were able to watch the cook being dunked three times into a huge cauldron of boiling water until he died.
One commentator referred to it as “the worst execution,” while another went so far as to say it was “beyond evil.” It’s no surprise that readers were shocked.
Someone else said: “It’s hard to fathom the brutality these people inflicted on one another.
“We are the cruelest of all living species.”