<P> To be hanged, drawn and quartered was from 1352 a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216--1272). A convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped into four pieces). The traitor's remains were often displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge . For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake . </P> <P> The severity of the sentence was measured against the seriousness of the crime . As an attack on the monarch's authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment . Although some convicts had their sentences modified and suffered a less ignominious end, over a period of several hundred years many men found guilty of high treason were subjected to the law's ultimate sanction . They included many English Catholic priests executed during the Elizabethan era, and several of the regicides involved in the 1649 execution of Charles I . </P> <P> Although the Act of Parliament defining high treason remains on the United Kingdom's statute books, during a long period of 19th - century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being abolished in England in 1870 . The death penalty for treason was abolished in 1998 . </P> <P> During the High Middle Ages those in England guilty of treason were punished in a variety of ways, including drawing and hanging . In the 13th century other, more brutal penalties were introduced, such as disembowelling, burning, beheading and quartering . The 13th - century English chronicler Matthew Paris described how in 1238 "a certain man at arms, a man of some education (armiger literatus)" attempted to kill King Henry III . His account records in gruesome detail how the would - be assassin was executed: "dragged asunder, then beheaded, and his body divided into three parts; each part was then dragged through one of the principal cities of England, and was afterwards hung on a gibbet used for robbers ." He was apparently sent by William de Marisco, an outlaw who some years earlier had killed a man under royal protection before fleeing to Lundy Island . De Marisco was captured in 1242 and on Henry's order dragged from Westminster to the Tower of London to be executed . There he was hanged from a gibbet until dead . His corpse was disembowelled, his entrails burned, his body quartered and the parts distributed to cities across the country . The punishment is more frequently recorded during Edward I's reign . Welshman Dafydd ap Gruffydd became the first nobleman in England to be hanged, drawn, and quartered after he turned against the king and proclaimed himself Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdon . Dafydd's rebellion infuriated Edward so much that he demanded a novel punishment . Therefore, following his capture and trial in 1283, for his betrayal he was drawn by horse to his place of execution . For killing English nobles he was hanged alive . For killing those nobles at Easter he was eviscerated and his entrails burned . For conspiring to kill the king in various parts of the realm, his body was quartered and the parts sent across the country; his head was placed on top of the Tower of London . A similar fate was suffered by the Scottish leader Sir William Wallace . Captured and tried in 1305, he was forced to wear a crown of laurel leaves and was drawn to Smithfield, where he was hanged and beheaded . His entrails were then burned and his corpse quartered . His head was set on London Bridge and the quarters sent to Newcastle, Berwick, Stirling, and Perth . </P>

When did they stop hanging drawing and quartering
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