TORTURING TUDORS

TUDOR TIMES WERE A GOLDEN ERA FOR GORE AS HENRY VIII'S GHASTLY GUARDS KILLED A RECORD 72,000 PEOPLE.

AWFUL AMPUTATION
Fighting in a royal palace had long been punishable by death. Henry wasn't so harsh. Instead, he ruled that people would get fined, imprisoned for life and to cut their right hand off! BLOODY AND NASTY eh?

JOLLY JAIL FEVER
It was almost better to have a finger cut off in Tudor times than to go to jail, as they were filthy places. You could go to jail for a short sentence and come out in a box dead from fever.

In, Oxford in 1577, almost everyone in court was wiped out with a terrible sickness. Judges died, the jury died, the witnesses died everyone except the prisoners. They lived in so much filth that their bodies were used to it. When they came to court they passed on the disease to everyone else. This nasty jail fever is called 'Typhus' by doctors.

BURNING AT THE STAKE
Henry's daughter, Mary , was a Catholic. When she came to the throne in 1553 she began to burn Protestants at the stake. Mary believed that fire burned away evil, so the purified souls could go straight to heaven. They looked to the Bible which said:'The angles shall gather all things that offend and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.' To make death quicker and kinder the victims had gunpowder strapped to their legs and arms. Instead of a slow sizzle, there was just a quick bang and their bits were splattered. COOL!