This page is only about historic events afterall but focuses more on Henry the tyrant and natural born killer and not Henry the Regent.  King Henry Tudor VIII  was born on June 28th 1491 and died January 28th 1547 at the age of 56.  He was the King of England from April 21 1509 exactly 500 years ago (at time of writing) until his death 38 years later.

Henry who succeeded his father, Henry VII was the 2nd monarch of the House of Tudor and also the King of Ireland, he made claims to the Kingdom of France too, his full title nearing the end of his reign was:

 'Henry VIII, by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland,
Defender of the Faith and of the Church of England and also of Ireland in Earth Supreme Head' '

Henry was a dictator, when he said something and it was done, without question.  There was no democracy and putting it to the vote, if he ordered the death of a few people who annoyed him then they died...simple as.

Dictators like Henry, with massive ego and super inflated self esteem often liked to award themselves long titles of explicit grandeur.  By comparison, from 1977 to 1979, the Ugandan African dictator Idi Amin, titled himself rather eloquently as " His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada,VC, DSO, MC, Conqueror of the British Empire " 

There is an abundance of information about King Henry VIII on the internet, in books, DVDS, films and Television so I will not reiterate his well known past here.  What I present here is a unique page about King Henry the murderer, tyrant and paranoid psychopath.

King Henry VIII held unquestionable and  absolute power of life and death over every man woman and child in England.  He merely had to mention a word, raise a finger or nod and that would signify the arrest, torture and execution of anyone of whom he thought offered the slightest bit of trouble.

Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Chairman Mao all followed the same decree as this, basically...if they bug you...kill em !

  According to Raphael Holinshed the famous English chronicler, who lived around 1580 the number of recorded executions attributed to King Henry VIII  during his reign of terror, either directly or indirectly amounted to 72,000 people or about 1,895 people every year or 36  to 37 a week.  This would calculate as about 4 or 5 people a day, of course these people did not die every single day, all lined up as it were,  we have to consider that  Henry held mass executions of 10, 20, 30 or more dissidents at a time, as a mass murderer he was indeed on par with Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler.

Take a look at his portrait, he looks quite placid and complacent, but what ruthlessness lay behind those still, calculating, cold and poignant eyes? 

In 1509 up to his death, that face was a face that was eventually greatly feared by a terrified populace, a face that was openly responsible for the horrendous and pitiless deaths of thousands of people.  Henry would exact death to anyone who dared to complain or attest his will or who had incurred his displeasure, be it his close family, friends, acquaintances, employees and associates or even the normal every day commoner.

When Henry heard that a cook by the name of Richard Roose had possibly poisoned some people at a dinner so that 2 died of chronic diarrhoea and many were made severely ill including the dinners host, the Bishop of Rochester. Henry retorted  " Hanging is too good for that scoundrel,  boil him alive in his own cauldron " So on April 15th 1532 at Smithfield in London, the cook was boiled alive a cauldron of boiling water.  Imagine the agony of being boiled alive, scolded to death, Henry sure knew how to get an audiences attention !

Smithfield in London, England had always been used for the gruesome executions of criminals and religious martyrs.  All throughout the medieval period Smithfield was the execution capital, where methods of death often defy comprehension.

Henry later joked with much hilarity that he "cooked the cook ! " 

Henry made an Act of Parliament that stipulated that for 5 consecutive years from 1531 until 1536 that anyone sentenced for the crime of poisoning was to be boiled alive in the same manner and without pity or the slightest mercy shown. This act was passed by Henry because he loved his food, he once even knighted a loin dinner, now forever know as Sirloin.

Even before Henry was King he was a cruel man, if he did things wrong while he was a growing Prince then a "whipping boy" who was kept locked up, received the flogging every time...yes...thrashed for Henry's mistakes !

When Henry became King of England, the country was Catholic and religiously governed by the Pope in the Vatican of Rome.  The Pope would not allow King Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon, so the solution was that Henry made himself head of the church and he then proceeded to give himself the divorce.  Basically, all those that didn't like the idea were put to death.

King Henry  then had all the monasteries ransacked and looted, many were burned to the ground.  All the money and wealth from these monasteries went straight to Henry's personal treasury.  Many of the monks, nuns and all those who worked and lived in the monasteries were left  destitute, although some of the more notables who did not fuss, complain or put up any resistance were given a pension, so it was always a good idea to agree with the King.

During this time of reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries, many of their former inhabitants did indeed put up resistance and complained.  Henry was having none of it, he had five  monks hung, drawn and quartered to make a point.  Being hung, draw and quartered was the ultimate punishment.

They were dragged to the gallows, hoisted up and hung for a few minutes, revived with vinegar being splashed on their faces and in their mouths then they had their private parts cut off, were then disembowelled with their entrails being burned in front of them and beheaded and finally dismembered, the pieces of which were put on public display.  Henry hated those who complained.

Just to note here that women were never executed in this way as it was deemed indecent, instead they were either hung or burned at the stake, sometimes being strangled first.   Aristocracy and royals were usually beheaded as it was seen as the fastest way to dispatch someone.  when a person had their head cut of, the severed head was held up by the executioner and pointed towards the body and then the crowd, as it was believed that a decapitated head was still alive for several seconds and could see its own body.

The actual block that was used to execute people can be seen in the Tower Of London's museum, as seen below.

Henry also favored the use of torture to help dissuade those who opposed him and many were tortured by having their flesh tweaked with red hot pincers or had boiling oil poured over them.  Pouring molten lead into the ears was also another favorite, along with breaking the victims limbs.  Stretching them on the rack was also common, and to drown them at the same time as depicted in the early engraving below.

You may have had "a pressing engagement" as it were, in that you would be strapped down and have heavy weights, multiples in excess 400lb or more placed slowly on your chest until your rib cage caved in or you suffocated as the diaphragm could not expand when trying to breath.  You would also be severely beaten at the same time.

A group of  monks were still unhappy at having their monasteries burned to the ground they stated it was unholy and ungodly for the King to do this.  That was enough for King Henry, he had them all arrested and tied upright to stakes in a prison courtyard, and left there with no food, water or shelter.  He ordered his guards "...let them rot  " and so they did ! and over many days, they died a slow death of starvation. They were apparently left there for months, just to be sure all life had departed.

A popular uprising occurred in the north of England known as the Pilgrimage of Grace and lead by Robert Aske  a London barrister. It contested the break with Rome and the dissolution of the monasteries and 40,000 joined in the march to York.  Henry authorized the Duke of Norfolk to go and see them and to promise a general pardon and that parliament would hold concessions  in York within a year.  Robert Aske believed the Kings word and dispelled the followers.

Henry had not so much lied but used guile and cunning to break up the uprising as he would not have been able to muster up enough soldiers to fight an army of 40,000 right then and there, and wanted to avoid a civil war.

When it had all quelled down a few months later, Henry sent out soldiers to arrest individual members and leaders of the uprising including Aske, and Lord Darcy who were convicted of treason and executed. Aske was chained up alive and hung in a cage from the walls of York Castle and remained there until he rotted, as a warning to others.

It didn't end there as Henry had six abbots, thirty-eight monks and sixteen priests burned at the stake, nine Knights were beheaded and two hundred individuals who were connected with the uprising were selected, then hung or burned alive at the stake.   Henry also ordered that one person from every town, city, village and hamlet across the north of England was to be executed.

Slow hanging or hoist hanging was also favored where the victim was hoisted up by the neck rather than dropped from a height to break the neck, thus slow strangulation occurred.  Often they were lowered, revived only to be hoisted up again, medieval cruelty knew no bounds.  To bring about a quicker death the executioner may sometimes swing himself from the dangling mans ankles...if he the condemned had paid him beforehand.

Being burned alive would be initially agonizing, but the blaze would also burn up all the immediate oxygen so a person may even suffocate before the heat actually killed them.  Breathing in fire and heat would also sear the lungs, being burned at the stake was not a very nice or quick death, but it was a crowd puller.  Crowd pulling executions served to teach and spread the word...Do not to upset Henry!

Father John Forrest of the Order of Observant Friars was another who annoyed King Henry VIII.  He opposed Henry's marriage to Jane Seymour, so Henry had him arrested and sentenced to be burned at the stake for heresy. Henry changed his mind and decided he would like him to rot in prison for the rest of his life.  Father John Forrest still didn't get the picture and continued to oppose Henry from within his prison cell.  Henry finally got tired of him and an unusual execution was devised, he had him chained and suspended over an open fire until he roasted to death.

Several friars heard of this and complained at the severity of the execution, Henry had them arrested and burned at the stake for criticizing a Royal decision.

The great Doctor William Tynsdale who translated holy bibles into English also opposed Henry's divorce with Catherine, saying it was unscriptural.  He became Henry's most wanted man and was finally arrested in Belgium in 1536, where he was tied to the stake, strangled and then burned. Tynsdales last word were "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England!"

Image of Tynsdale's death from the film 'Gods Outlaw'

Notables like Thomas Moore were beheaded for not recognizing Henry as the head of the church, it didn't take too much to lose your life under Henry's reign, specially if you were an unwanted wife...

In April 1536 Anne Boleyn was now past her 'sell by date' and Henry had his trusty henchman 'Cromwell' devise a  cunning plan to get rid of her.  Five men were accused of treason in having an affair with her, it was a weak plan considering that the fifth man was George Boleyn ...Anne's brother !  Thomas Cromwell, Henrys chief minister had them all tortured until one of them confessed. All were then found guilty  and were beheaded on May 17th and on May 19th Anne was also lost her head to the executioner.

An expert executioner was drafted in over from France and killed Anne Boleyn with a broad sword rather than an axe.  Her head was not on the block instead she bravely knelt down with her head held up and the executioner lopped it off with a single swipe as depicted in the image below.

 One day later with all of Henry's problems presumably solved, Henry and Jane Seymour were engaged and they married 10 days later.  Its hard to imagine, a marriage on the foundations of an execution.  Henry's ideals though, have your wife murdered then marry another..what's the problem ?

Thomas Cromwell, Henry's 'aide d'camp' as it were always thought that he was 'sitting pretty' and untouchable, he was however quite wrong...his downfall came about due to the haste in which he later persuaded Henry to marry Anne of Cleaves.  It was an utter disaster, after his first meeting with her Henry shouted out " I like her not ! "  Cromwell took all the blame and was finally arrested for treason.  He pleaded for mercy, begging for a quick death and not some ghastly torture beforehand. Cromwell got his wish and was beheaded  at the Tower of London, his head was boiled ( Henrys delightful side shining through again !) and then impaled on a spike, facing away from the City.  On the same day July 28th 1540 a very happy and contented Henry married Catherine Howard...

...later of course Catherine Howard also lost her head, when she was violently decapitated on the block at Henry's behest.

Executions of those who continued to displease Henry continued until 1547 when Henry died from infection caused by a broken leg he received some time earlier whilst out jousting.  I'm sure that there was a sigh of relief across the land when news was out of his demise.

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