On this day in 1485, King Richard III is killed during the Battle of Bosworth Field. His death effectively ends the Wars of the Roses, and the Plantagenet Dynasty of England. Henry Tudor, the Earl of Richmond, would subsequently become first king of the Tudor Dynasty. On this day in 1902, the Cadillac Automobile Company is founded in Detroit. On this day in 1975, Sara Jane Moore fired two shots with a .38 pistol at President Gerald R. Ford as he left a downtown San Francisco hotel. Both shots missed, though the 2nd bullet ricocheted and wounded a nearby cab driver. Its the second attempt on President Ford's life in 17 days. Moore was sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled in 2007.
On this day in 1305, Scottish revolutionary William Wallace was executed for treason. According to Ranker.com Wallace was...1. dragged naked by horses for 6 miles through London streets while onlookers threwgarbage and, well, shit, at him. 2., hanged, but not until dead, 3. "emasculated", 4. "disemboweled", and his entrails burned before his eyes, 5. his heart torn from his chest (it is said a truly skilled executioner could remove the heart without killing the sentenced, but it is not known how skilled Wallace's execution was), 6. beheaded. On this day in 1942, the Germans' 5-month long siege of Stalingrad begins. The campaign would claim an estimated 2 million lives. On this day in 1991, British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee, working from the CERN Laboratories in Switzerland, introduces his method for a global information sharing system via networked computer, which he calls the World Wide Web.
That Wallace was a tough sonofabitch! Pretty sure I wouldn't have made it to #3 definitely not to #5. Damn Brits are visceral
Was reading somewhere, a comparison of the execution as shown in "Braveheart" compared to reality. 1. Dragged naked through the streets while the people through garbage and crap at him. Movie left him clothed, and left out the crap. 2. Hanging....the movie showed him racked, but not hung. 3-5. emasculated (let's be clear; they cut off his junk), disemboweled (intestines cut out), heart cut out. The movie shows a table with various knives on it, and several moments of Wallace in obvious pain, but doesn't show what's happening from the neck down. Its left to our imagination. *all the while, an officer is offering Wallace the chance for a quick, merciful death, if will swear his loyalty to the king out loud. According to what I read, this was simply not done for those convicted of treason. Also, its highly unlikely after all this, that would have had the strength to yell "FREEDOM!!!!" 6. beheaded Movie voiceover says after his death, Wallace was torn limb from limb and the pieces sent to the far corners of the nation. This was true, but left out that he head was put on a spike and displayed at the London Bridge.
This was reserved for traitors and regicides. My ancestor was one of 53 condemned for Charles I’s murder. He was a colonel in the Roundheads, a jailor of the King, helped write the charges, sat on the jury and was a signatory of the king’s death warrant.
They also burned the intestines in front of their face. Yes they were quartered with a part sent to different areas while the head was put on a spike on the castle wall.
