The man who suffered the 'worst execution' in history was given a 'beyond evil' punishment
A man once suffered what is known as the 'worst execution' in history as a truly evil punishment in the 16th century.
Let's face it - there's no 'good' way to be executed, but there's one method that stands head and shoulders above the rest as the 'worst ever'.
You probably won't be shocked to hear that it's from the Tudor times, and though humans throughout history have found cruel, sadistic ways to torture each other, this one might take home the gold medal. See for yourself:
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It's all about one man, and his name was Richard Roose.
What he underwent in 1531 might be the peak of Tudor England's habit of capital punishment, which was often made public.
When he was a cook for John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester, Roose was accused of poisoning his guests while working at his boss' home in Lambeth - a serious crime.
It was said that the cook had added some suspicious powder to the guests' porridge, and to two beggars' bowls too.
When everyone was suddenly taken ill, Roose was believed to have ran away. And though the Bishop's guests survived the bout of sickness, the beggars died from the illness.
According to YouTube channel The Fortress, Roose was swiftly arrested and taken to the Tower of London, where he was put on the rack and tortured for information.
Roose claimed that he was told to add the powder to the food as a joke and was unaware that it was going to kill anyone.
But the reigning monarch of the time, King Henry VIII, led an act of parliament that made murder by poison a treasonous offence.
"On 28 February 1531, Henry VIII told Parliament of the poisoning plot, and Roose was then condemned to die based on what the King said had happened, rather than concrete evidence," The Fortress explains.
"The King's word was final, and he also expanded the definition of treason, saying that murder by poisoning was classed as treason."
But Henry wasn't done there with his legal fiddling, oh no.
The vengeful monarch also decided to change the punishment for such a crime, because, well, he could.
The standard practice for treason involved the criminal being dragged through the streets by a cart, then hanged, before finally having their genitals removed and their insides cut out.
However, Henry got a little more creative for Roose, instead opting to boil him alive.
Told you it was bad.
Yep, crowds gathered at Smithfield in London, where Roose was brought and dunked three times into a huge cauldron of boiling water until he was dead.
Upon learning of the barbaric sentence, some have, unsurprisingly, been utterly horrified by it all.
Commenting online, one person branded it the 'worst execution'.
Another wrote: "It's hard to fathom the brutality these people inflicted on one another. We are the cruelest of all living species."
"Even if guilty this punishment is beyond evil," put a third.
Joshua Nair