Editing Death by burning (section)

====England====
[[Mary I]] ordered hundreds of [[Protestants]] burnt at the stake during her reign (1553–58) in what would be known as the "[[List of Protestant martyrs of the English Reformation#List of Marian Martyrs|Marian Persecutions]]" earning her the epithet of "Bloody" Mary.<ref>[[John Foxe]] is particularly mentioned in being assiduous at documenting such cases of persecutions. See, ''Miller'' (1972), [https://books.google.com/books?id=3S89AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA72 p. 72]</ref> Many of those executed by Mary are listed in ''[[Foxe's Book of Martyrs|Actes and Monuments]]'', written by [[John Foxe|Foxe]] in 1563 and 1570.

[[Edward Wightman]], a radical Anabaptist from [[Burton on Trent]], who publicly denied the Trinity and the divinity of [[Christ]] was the last person burned at the stake for [[heresy]] in England in [[Lichfield|Lichfield, Staffordshire]] on 11 April 1612.<ref>For a claim of the last heretic burned at the stake, see ''Durso'' (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=68jfRYQo3zsC&pg=PA29 p. 29]</ref> Although cases can be found of burning heretics in the 16th and 17th centuries in England, that penalty for heretics was historically relatively new. It did not exist in 14th-century England, and when the bishops in England petitioned King [[Richard II]] to institute death by burning for heretics in 1397, he flatly refused, and no one was burnt for heresy during his reign.<ref>''Sayles'' (1971) [https://books.google.com/books?id=HVQLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA31 p. 31]</ref> Just one year after his death, however, in 1401, [[William Sawtrey]] was burnt alive for heresy.<ref>''Richards'' (1812), [https://books.google.com/books?id=JRkwAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1190 p. 1190]</ref> Death by burning for heresy was formally abolished by Parliament during the reign of King [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] in 1676.<ref>''Willis-Bund'' (1982), [https://books.google.com/books?id=2gA9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA95 p. 95]</ref>

The traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to be [[Burning of women in England|burned at the stake]], where they did not need to be publicly displayed naked, whereas men were [[hanged, drawn and quartered]]. The jurist [[William Blackstone]] argued as follows for the different punishments for females and males:
{{blockquote|For as the decency due to sex forbids the exposing and public mangling of their bodies, their sentence (which is to the full as terrible to sensation as the other) is to be drawn to the gallows and there be burned alive<ref>Direct citation in ''McLynn'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylf8t7uSGJEC&pg=PA122 p. 122]</ref>}}

However, as described in Camille Naish's "Death Comes to the Maiden", in practice, the woman's clothing would burn away at the beginning, and she would be left naked anyway.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} There were two types of treason: [[high treason]], for crimes against the sovereign; and [[petty treason]], for the murder of one's lawful superior, including that of a husband by his wife. Commenting on the 18th-century execution practice, Frank McLynn says that most convicts condemned to burning were not burnt alive, and that the executioners made sure the women were dead before consigning them to the flames.<ref>''McLynn'' (2013), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylf8t7uSGJEC&pg=PA122 p. 122]</ref>

The last person condemned to death for "petty treason" was Mary Bailey, whose body was burned in 1784. The last woman to be convicted for "high treason", and have her body burnt, in this case for the crime of coin forgery, was [[Catherine Murphy (counterfeiter)|Catherine Murphy]] in 1789.<ref>Comprehensive list at capitalpunishmentuk.org, [http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/burning.html Burning at the stake].</ref> The last case where a woman was actually burnt alive in England is that of [[Catherine Hayes (murderer)|Catherine Hayes]] in 1726, for the murder of her husband. In this case, one account says this happened because the executioner accidentally set fire to the pyre before he had hanged Hayes properly.<ref>''O'Shea'' (1999), [https://books.google.com/books?id=YvdKyEJo0osC&pg=PA3 p. 3]</ref> The historian [[Rictor Norton]] has assembled a number of contemporary newspaper reports on the actual death of Mrs. Hayes, internally somewhat divergent. The following excerpt is one example: {{blockquote|The fuel being placed round her, and lighted with a torch, she begg'd for the sake of Jesus, to be strangled first: whereupon the Executioner drew tight the halter, but the flame coming to his hand in the space of a second, he let it go, when she gave three dreadful shrieks; but the flames taking her on all sides, she was heard no more; and the Executioner throwing a piece of timber into the Fire, it broke her skull, when her brains came plentifully out; and in about an hour more she was entirely reduced to ashes.<ref>See website article, [http://rictornorton.co.uk/grubstreet/hayes.htm The Case of Catherine Hayes] at [http://rictornorton.co.uk/ rictornorton.co.uk] See also the detailed synthesis at capitalpunishmentuk.org, [http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/hayes.html Catherine Hayes burnt for Petty Treason]</ref>}}