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Burning at the stake in public was used in England & Wales to punish heresy for both sexes and for women convicted of High Treason or Petty Treason. Men who were convicted of high treason were hanged, drawn and quartered but this was not deemed acceptable for women as it would have involved nudity. High Treason included such offences as counterfeiting money and "coining" (the clipping of coins for pieces of silver and gold which were melted down to produce counterfeit coins), possession of coining equipment and colouring base metal coins (to pass them off as of higher value). Oddly, men who committed these same crimes suffered just ordinary hanging having been first drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle.

Petty Treason was the murder by a woman of her husband or her mistress, as they were considered her superiors in law. In Scotland burning was the punishment for witchcraft (see later).

It is not known when burning was first used in Britain, but there is a recorded burning for heresy in 1222, when a deacon of the church was burnt at Oxford for embracing the Jewish faith so he could marry a Jew.

In 1401, the king authorised a Statute of Heresy which gave the clergy power to arrest and try those suspected of heresy. The first to suffer under the new act was one William Sautre, a priest, who was executed at (Kings) Lynn in 1402. This statute was repealed in 1553, but burning was re-introduced by Henry VIII. His daughter, Mary Tudor ("Bloody Mary"), was also very keen on this method and 274 burnings of both sexes for heresy were recorded during her five year reign (reign of terror) in the mid 16th century. In most cases their only "crime" was following the Protestant faith.

The normal place of execution in London being at West Smith Field (now called just Smithfield). An engraving of the period shows that these unfortunates were stood in empty tar barrels at the stake and then had faggots heaped round them. It was not the practice to strangle heretics before they were burnt so they died slow and horrible deaths - being literally burned alive.
Burning was in use throughout Europe at this time and was particularly favoured by the Spanish Inquisition as it did not involve shedding of the victim's blood, which was disallowed under the prevailing Roman Catholic doctrine, and because it ensured that the condemned had no body to take into the next life (which was believed to be a very severe punishment in itself). It was also thought at that time that burning cleansed the soul which was considered important for those convicted of witchcraft and heresy.
Although many people might associate burning at the stake with witchcraft, it was much less used for that offence in Britain than in other parts of Europe - particularly France, Switzerland and the Nordic countries. In England witchcraft was a felony and thus punishable by hanging. Alice Molland is thought to have been the last person to suffer for witchcraft, at Exeter in 1684. However, Scotland did burn witches and there are many recorded instances of both sexes suffering this fate. On the 18th of May 1671 Janet McMuldroche and Elspeth Thompson were strangled and burned at Dumfries. The following are the words of the warrant for their execution, dated two days earlier : “Forsamuch as in ane court of Justiciarie holden be us within the Tolbuithe of drumfreis vpon the fyftein day of May instant Jonet McMuldroche and Elspeth Thomsone were found guiltie be ane ascyse of the se[ver]all articles of witchcraft spe[cif]it in the verdict given againest them theiranent Were decerned and adjudged be us the Lords Commissioners of Justiciarie to be tane vpon thursday next the eighteen day of May instant Betuixt tuo and foure houres in the afernoone to the ordinare place of executione the toune of drumfreis And their to be wirried at ane stake till they be dead And theirafter their bodies to be brunt to ashes And all their moveable goods and geir to be escheat.

Note : (wirried means strangled and escheat means confiscated)

The last person to be burned as a witch in Scotland was Janet Horne at Dornoch in Ross shire in 1727. Janet had been accused of witching her daughter to make her hands and feet grow into horses hooves, so that she could ride her. The daughter had a deformed hand, due to being “shod by the Devil”! She was also tried but acquitted. She later had a child who exhibited the same kind of congenital hand deformity. A stone at the place of execution commemorates her death. The witchcraft Acts were repealed there in 1736.
It is claimed that as many as 200,000 people were burned for witchcraft in Europe in 16th and 17th centuries.

Three slightly different methods of burning were used. The first, consisted of using a heap of faggots piled around a wooden stake above which the prisoner was attached with chains or iron hoops. The British and Spanish Inquisition preferred this method as it had the greatest visual impact. This form of burning typically subjects the prisoner to a far more agonising death as it some time before the flames reach head level. In most cases of treason and witchcraft the prisoner was strangled first before the fire was lit.

In Scotland the strangling formed part of the sentence for convicted witches.
The second method was to tie the condemned to the stake and heap faggots all round them, effectively hiding their sufferings, so that they died inside a wall of flames . It is said that Joan of Arc died like this. It is thought that this method led to a much quicker death because the victim was forced to breathe the flame and hot gasses surrounding their face. The heat of the air causes the lining of the trachea to swell up thus blocking the airway and leading to suffocation within a few minutes.

The third method, used in Germany and the Nordic countries, involved tying the prisoner to a near vertical ladder, the top of which was tied to a frame, and then swinging them down onto the fire.

Until 1790, every woman convicted of counterfeiting gold or silver coin of the realm, was sentenced to be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution and there " to be burned with fire till she was dead." (Blackstone's Commentaries, 204. Ibid, 377) In England women who were sentenced to be burnt were allowed by law to be strangled with a rope before the fire got to them and thus died in much the same way as they would have by hanging. On the Continent, strangling before burning was also allowed, the rope being called a "retentum." In some Nordic countries, a small barrel of gunpowder was tied to the prisoner which was meant to explode on contact with the flames, thus giving them a fairly instant death. If they were neither strangled or blown up, they died from a combination of shock, burning of the lungs and air passages and smoke inhalation, all of which took a considerable amount of time to kill and caused extreme pain.

Elizabeth Gaunt was the last woman to be burnt for high treason in the normal sense of the word. She was executed in 1685, having been convicted of involvement in the Rye House plot. She was denied strangulation and was thus burned alive. The burning of a woman for treason at Tyburn is depicted here.

18th century burnings.

Between 1702 and 1734, 10 women were burned at London’s Tyburn. Two of these were for the Petty Treason murder of their husbands, and eight for High Treason, comprising two for possession of coining equipment, four for counterfeiting and two for coining itself. Barbara Spencer was burned for counterfeiting on Wednesday, the 5th of July 1721 at Tyburn. Barbara was a rebellious young woman who wanted easy money and coining seemed to offer this. She was drawn to Tyburn tied to a hurdle (similar to a piece of wattle fencing) behind a horse. (Male traitors were also drawn to the gallows in this way before being hanged and quartered and strangled at the stake prior to the fagots being lit.

Catherine Hayes was burned at Tyburn on Monday, the 9th of May 1726 for Petty Treason (the murder of her husband). She had persuaded her two lovers to kill her husband with an axe, a crime for which the two men were sentenced to hang. She too was dragged on a hurdle to Tyburn and when she had finished praying, was fastened to the stake by an iron chain round her body. A rope halter was put round her neck (running through a hole in the stake) and the faggots (bundles of dry brushwood) piled round her. When Richard Arnet, the executioner, lit the fire he found the flames too fierce to allow him to pull the strangling rope so the poor women was burned alive - a horrible death that took a considerable time. Her execution is vividly described in the Newgate Calendar. She was reduced to ashes within an hour, so we are told. (Click here to see a drawing of her execution and here for a detailed account of her crime and execution).

Elizabeth Wright was burned for coining on the 19th of December 1733, although her 26 year old daughter and accomplice were reprieved. Wednesday, the 2nd of October 1734 saw a triple burning, at Tyburn, of Mary Haycock, Elizabeth Tracey and Catherine Bougle for counterfeiting and possession of coining equipment. This is London’s only recorded multiple burning in the 18th century.