Editing Posthumous execution

{{Short description|Ceremonial mutilation of a corpse as punishment}}
{{Globalize|1=article|2=Europe|date=February 2023}}
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'''Posthumous execution''' is the [[ritual]] or [[ceremonial]] [[mutilation]] of an already dead body as a [[punishment]].

==Dissection as a punishment in England==
Some [[Christians]] believed that the [[resurrection of the dead]] on [[Judgment Day]] requires that the body be buried whole facing east so that the body could rise facing [[God]].<ref>Barbara Yorke (2006), ''The Conversion of Britain''  Pearson Education, {{ISBN|978-0-582-77292-2}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=2NDxqZZCOh0C&pg=PA215&dq=resurrection++body+facing+east&lr= p. 215]</ref><ref>Fiona Haslam (1996), ''From Hogarth to Rowlandson: Medicine in Art in Eighteenth-century Britain'', Liverpool University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-85323-640-5}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ab_pQOdi2fUC&pg=PA280&dq=resurrection+quartered p. 280] ([[Thomas Rowlandson]], "[http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/LargeImage.fwx?collection=hunter&catno=40609&mdaCode=GLAHA&filename=40609.jpg&browseMode=on  The Resurrection or an Internal View of the Museum in W-D M-LL street on the last day]) {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090426070953/http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/foxweb/huntsearch/LargeImage.fwx?collection=hunter&catno=40609&mdaCode=GLAHA&filename=40609.jpg&browseMode=on |date=26 April 2009}}", 1782)</ref> If dismemberment stopped the possibility of the resurrection of an intact body, then a posthumous execution was an effective way of punishing a criminal.<ref>{{cite web |author=Staff |url=http://www.catholic.com/library/Resurrection_of_the_Body.asp |title=Resurrection of the Body |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081023202216/http://www.catholic.com/library/Resurrection_of_the_Body.asp |archive-date=23 October 2008 |access-date=2008-11-17}}</ref><ref>Mary Abbott (1996). ''Life Cycles in England, 1560–1720: Cradle to Grave'', Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0415108423}}. [https://books.google.com/books?id=sCI1nnR1_zAC&pg=PA33&dq=resurrection p. 33]</ref>

{{Blockquote|In England Henry VIII granted the annual right to the bodies of four hanged felons. Charles II later increased this to six&nbsp;... Dissection was now a recognised punishment, a fate worse than death to be added to hanging for the worst offenders.

The dissections performed on hanged felons were public: indeed part of the punishment was the delivery from hangman to surgeons at the gallows following public execution, and later public exhibition of the open body itself&nbsp;... [[Murder Act 1751|In 1752 an act]] was passed allowing dissection of all murderers as an alternative to [[Gibbeting|hanging in chains]]. This was a grisly fate, the tarred body being suspended in a cage until it fell to pieces. The object of this and dissection was to deny a grave&nbsp;... Dissection was described as "a further terror and peculiar Mark of Infamy" and "in no case whatsoever shall the body of any murderer be suffered to be buried". The rescue, or attempted rescue of the corpse was punishable by [[Penal transportation|transportation]] for seven years.|Dr D. R. Johnson, ''Introductory Anatomy''.<ref>Dr D.R.Johnson, [http://www.leeds.ac.uk/chb/lectures/anatomy1.html Introductory Anatomy ] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081104162600/http://www.leeds.ac.uk/chb/lectures/anatomy1.html |date=4 November 2008 }}, Centre for Human Biology, (now renamed [http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/ Faculty of Biological Sciences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081202023754/http://www.fbs.leeds.ac.uk/ |date=2 December 2008 }}, [[Leeds University]]), Retrieved 2008-11-17</ref>
}}

==Examples==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2011}}
* When the Persian king [[Cambyses II|Cambyses]] [[First Achaemenid conquest of Egypt|conquered Egypt]] in 525 BC and ended the 26th (Saite) Dynasty, [[Herodotus]] recorded the desecration of the mummy of [[Amasis II]] (who died the year before) by Cambyses:
{{Blockquote|No sooner did [Cambyses] enter the palace of Amasis that he gave orders for his [Amasis's] body to be taken from the tomb where it lay. This done, he proceeded to have it treated with every possible indignity, such as beating it with whips, sticking it with goads, and plucking its hairs... As the body had been embalmed and would not fall to pieces under the blows, Cambyses had it burned.<ref>Herodotus, The Histories, Book III, Chapter 16</ref>}}
* In 897, [[Pope Stephen VI]] had the corpse of [[Pope Formosus]] disinterred and put on trial during the [[Cadaver Synod]]. Found guilty, the corpse had three of its fingers cut off and was later thrown into the [[Tiber]].
* [[Harold Harefoot|Harold I Harefoot]], king of the [[Anglo-Saxons]] (1035–1040), illegitimate son of [[Cnut]], died in 1040 and his half-brother, [[Harthacanute]], on succeeding him, had his body taken from its tomb and cast in a pen with animals.<ref>[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]</ref>
* [[Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester]], died of wounds suffered at the [[Battle of Evesham]] in 1265; his corpse was [[Decapitation|beheaded]], [[Castration|castrated]] and [[Hanged, drawn and quartered|quartered]] by the [[knights]] of [[Henry III of England]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.hughdespenser.com/everydaylife/hanging_drawing_quartering.html |title= Hanging, Drawing and Quartering: the Anatomy of an Execution |year= 2010 |first= J. |last= Frusher |access-date= 2010-06-30 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110712230617/http://www.hughdespenser.com/everydaylife/hanging_drawing_quartering.html |archive-date= 12 July 2011 |url-status= dead }}</ref>
* [[Roger d'Amory]] (c. 1290 – before 14 March 1321/1322) died following the [[Battle of Burton Bridge (1322)|Battle of Burton Bridge]] and was then posthumously executed for treason by [[Edward II of England|Edward II]].
* [[John Wycliffe]] (1328–1384) was [[Death by burning|burned]] as a [[Christian heresy|heretic]] forty-five years after his death.
* Sir [[Henry Percy (Hotspur)|Henry Percy]] (d. 1404) after he was [[killed in action]] while leading his troops at the [[Battle of Shrewsbury]], King [[Henry IV of England]] ordered Percy's body posthumously beheaded, quartered, and [[attainder|attainted]] for [[High treason in the United Kingdom|high treason]]
* [[Vlad the Impaler]] (1431–1476) was beheaded following his [[assassination]].
* [[Jacopo Bonfadio]] (1508–1550) was beheaded for [[sodomy]] and then his corpse was burned at the stake for [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]].
* [[Nils Dacke]], leader of a 16th-century peasant revolt in southern [[Sweden]], was decapitated and dismembered after his death in combat.
* In 1538, during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]] on orders from King [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]].<ref name=ODNB>{{Cite ODNB|last=Juhala |first=Amy L. |year=2004 |title=Ruthven, John, third earl of Gowrie (1577/8–1600) |id=24371 }}</ref><ref name=cch>{{Cite web |url=http://www.canterbury-cathedral.org/conservation/history/ |title=The Origins of Canterbury Cathedral |publisher=Dean and Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral |access-date=10 November 2011}}</ref> He had the bones of [[Thomas Becket]] (1119–1170) destroyed, his shrine destroyed, and ordered all mention of his name obliterated.<ref name=cch/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=3927 |title=The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas Becket (Getty Museum) |publisher=The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070709071459/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=3927 |archive-date=9 July 2007}}</ref>
* By order of [[Mary I of England|Mary I]], the body of [[Martin Bucer]] (1491–1551) was exhumed and burned at the Market Square in Cambridge, England.
* In 1600, after the failure of the [[Gowrie conspiracy]], the corpses of [[John Ruthven, 3rd Earl of Gowrie|John, Earl of Gowrie]] and his brother [[Alexander Ruthven]] were hanged and quartered at the [[Mercat Cross, Edinburgh]].{{sfn|Henderson|1897|p=19}} Their heads were put on spikes at [[Old Tolbooth, Edinburgh|Edinburgh's Old Tolbooth]] and their limbs upon spikes at various locations around [[Perth, Scotland]].{{sfn|Juhala|2004}}
[[File:Sententie-uyt-ghesproocken-over-Gielis-van-Ledenberch MG 1363.tif|thumb|The posthumous hanging of Gilles van Ledenberg in 1619]]
* [[Gilles van Ledenberg]], whose [[Embalming|embalmed]] corpse was hanged from a [[Gibbeting|gibbet]] in 1619, after his conviction of treason in the trial of [[Johan van Oldenbarnevelt]].
* A number of the [[List of regicides of Charles I|59 regicides]] of [[Charles I of England]], including the most prominent of the regicides, the former [[Lord Protector]] [[Oliver Cromwell]], died before the [[English Restoration|Restoration]] of his son [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1660. [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] passed an [[Bill of attainder|order of attainder]] for [[High treason in the United Kingdom|High Treason]] on the four most prominent deceased regicides: [[John Bradshaw (Judge)|John Bradshaw]] the court president; Oliver Cromwell; [[Henry Ireton]]; and [[Thomas Pride]].<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=26189#s10 Journal of the House of Commons: volume 8: 1660–1667 (1802), pp. 26–7] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927221834/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=26189#s10 |date=27 September 2007 }} [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] The attainder was predated to 1 January 1649 (1648 [[Old Style and New Style dates|old style year]]).</ref> The bodies were exhumed and three were hanged for a day at [[Tyburn, London|Tyburn]] and then beheaded. The three bodies were then thrown into a pit close to the gallows, while the heads were placed, with Bradshaw's in the middle, at the end of [[Westminster Hall]] (the symbolism was lost on no one as that was the building where the [[trial of Charles I]] had taken place).{{citation needed|date=June 2020}} [[Oliver Cromwell's head]] was finally buried in 1960. The body of Pride was not "punished", perhaps because it had decayed too much.
* [[Blackbeard|Edward Teach]] (1680–1718), better known as "Blackbeard", was killed by the sailors of ''[[HMS Pearl (1708)|HMS Pearl]]'' who boarded on his ship, the ''Adventure''. British First Lieutenant [[Robert Maynard]] examined Edward Teach's body, [[Decapitation|decapitated]] and tied his head to the bowsprit of his ship for the trip back to [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]]. Upon returning to his home port of [[Hampton, Virginia|Hampton]], the head was placed on a stake near the mouth of the [[Hampton River]] as a warning to other pirates.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Blackbeard the Pirate|last =Lee|first=Robert E.|publisher=John F. Blair|location=North Carolina|edition=2002|year=1974|isbn = 0-89587-032-0}}</ref>
* [[Joseph Warren]] (1741–1775), a [[physician]] and [[major general]] of American [[Minutemen|colonial militias]], was stripped of his clothing, bayoneted until unrecognizable, and then he was shoved into a shallow ditch, after he was killed at the [[Battle of Bunker Hill|Battle of Bunker and Breed's Hill]].  Days later,  British Lieutenant James Drew had Joseph Warren's body exhumed again; his body was stomped on, beaten, decapitated and humiliated on the area, according to eyewitness testimonies.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0172|title=To John Adams from Benjamin Hichborn, 25 November 1775|publisher=National Archives|access-date=1 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140808064332/http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/06-03-02-0172|archive-date=8 August 2014|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1= Tourtellot |first1=Arthur Bernon |author-link1=Arthur Tourtellot|year= 1959|title= Lexington and Concord: The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution|publisher= Doubleday|isbn= 978-0-393-32056-5}}</ref>
* In 1793, following the [[Girondins#1793 trial of Girondins|death sentence of 22 Girondin leaders]], [[Charles Éléonor Dufriche de Valazé]] committed suicide, but his corpse was still [[guillotine]]d along with his 21 fellows.<ref>{{cite book|last=Schama|first=Simon|author-link=Simon Schama|title=Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/citizenschronic00scha|date=1989|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|isbn=0-394-55948-7|pages=803–805}}</ref>
* In 1917, the body of [[Rasputin]], the [[Russian Empire|Russian]] mystic, was exhumed from the ground by a mob and burned.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rollins|first=Patrick J.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/2114860|title=Rasputin, Grigorii Efimovich|date=1976|work=The Modern encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet history|publisher=Academic International Press|isbn=0-87569-064-5|editor-last=Wieczynski|editor-first=Joseph L.|location=|pages=|oclc=2114860}}</ref>
* In 1918, the secret grave of [[Lavr Kornilov]], the  [[White movement|White]] Russian general, was found by the [[Bolsheviks]] by accident. The body was then exhumed and disfigured before being burned.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Levchenko |first1=I.E. |last2=Merenkov |first2=A.V. |title=Exhumation: Past and Present |journal=KnE Social Sciences |date=21 January 2021 |page=267 |doi=10.18502/kss.v5i2.8361|doi-access=free }}</ref>
* In 1966, during the [[Cultural Revolution]], [[Red Guards (China)|Red Guard]]s stormed the [[Dingling (Ming)|Dingling Mausoleum]], destroyed thousands of artifacts, and dragged the remains of the [[Wanli Emperor]] and his two empresses to the front of the tomb where they were posthumously denounced and burned after photographs were taken of their skulls.<ref>Becker, Jasper (2008). ''City of Heavenly Tranquility: Beijing in the History of China''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-19-530997-3}}, pp 77–79.</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/arts/08iht-wanli08.html?_r=0 |title="China's reluctant Emperor" |work=The New York Times |first=Sheila |last=Melvin |date=7 September 2011 |access-date=28 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006175341/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/arts/08iht-wanli08.html?_r=0 |archive-date=6 October 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* The body of General Gracia Jacques, a supporter of [[François Duvalier]] ("Papa Doc") (1907–1971), the [[Haiti]]an dictator, was exhumed and ritually beaten to "death" in 1986.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/09/world/haitians-take-out-28-years-of-anger-on-crypt.html|title=Haitisns Take Out 28 Years of Anger on Crypt  |last1=Brooke |first1=James |date=1986-02-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-10-17|last2=Times|first2=Special to the New York|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171018013953/http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/09/world/haitians-take-out-28-years-of-anger-on-crypt.html|archive-date=18 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite DNB|last=Henderson  |first=Thomas Finlayson|wstitle=Ruthven, John |volume=50 |pages=15–20}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Posthumous Execution}}
[[Category:Capital punishment]]
[[Category:Death customs]]
[[Category:Posthumous executions| ]]
[[Category:Last Judgment]]