Editing Tarring and feathering (section)

==Early history==
The earliest mention of the punishment appears in orders that [[Richard I of England]] issued to his navy on starting for the [[Holy Land]] in 1189. "Concerning the lawes and ordinances appointed by King Richard for his navie the forme thereof was this ... item, a thiefe or felon that hath stolen, being lawfully convicted, shal have his head shorne, and boyling pitch poured upon his head, and feathers or downe strawed upon the same whereby he may be knowen, and so at the first landing-place they shall come to, there to be cast up" (transcript of original statute in ''[[Richard Hakluyt|Hakluyt]]'s Voyages'', ii. 21).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/medieval/richard.asp Tha Avalon Project documents] Accessed on 23rd June 2015</ref>

A later instance of this penalty appears in ''[[Notes and Queries]]'' (series 4, vol. v), which quotes [[James Howell]] writing in Madrid in 1623 of the "boisterous [[Christian the Younger of Brunswick|Bishop of Halberstadt]], a German Protestant military leader&nbsp;... having taken a place where there were two monasteries of nuns and friars, he caused divers feather beds to be ripped, and all the feathers thrown into a great hall, whither the nuns and friars were thrust naked with their bodies oiled and pitched and to tumble among these feathers, which makes them here (Madrid) presage him an ill-death."{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} (The Bishop was apparently [[Christian the Younger of Brunswick]].)

In 1696, a London [[bailiff]] attempted to serve process on a [[debtor]] who had taken refuge within the precincts of the [[Liberties of the Savoy|Savoy]]. The bailiff was tarred and feathered and taken in a wheelbarrow to [[Strand, London|the Strand]], where he was tied to a [[maypole]] that stood by what is now [[Somerset House]] as an improvised [[pillory]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

[[File:The alternative of Williamsburg, 1775 - NARA - 532891.tif|thumb|"The Alternative of Williamsburg" – a 1775 British print by Phillip Dawe showing Loyalists being forced to sign either the associations or Resolutions drawn up in Williamsburg in August 1774. The note on gibbet at upper right reads: "A Cure for the Refractory"—a bagful of feathers and a cask of tar.]]