Sir Thomas Armstrong’s execution for treason in 1684.

Sir Thomas Armstrong’s execution for treason in 1684.

This began with castrating the prisoner, throwing his genitals — and sometimes his intestines — into a fire. The prisoner was then decapitated

Finally, as the word “quartering” implied, the body would be chopped into at least four pieces and chucked into a boiling concoction of spices. This prevented birds from picking at the remains and allowed for the body parts to be publicly displayed across the country as a grisly warning. The victim of this method of execution was Sir Thomas Armstrong

Sir Thomas Armstrong’s execution for treason in 1684

Sir Thomas Armstrong (c. 1633, Nijmegen – 20 June 1684, London) was an English army officer and Member of Parliament executed for treason

His father, Colonel Sir Thomas Armstrong (died November 1662) fought in the 30 Years War in the Netherlands, was a royalist soldier during the English Civil War, and was twice imprisoned in the Tower of London by Oliver Cromwell during the Commonwealth

During the Interregnum Armstrong was a supporter of Charles II, participating in the plot to seize Chester Castle in 1655, and carrying funds from Aubrey de Vere, 20th Earl of Oxford to Charles in exile. He was possibly imprisoned for a year on his return. In 1657, he married Catherine, daughter of James Pollexfen and niece of Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

Armstrong served with James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth in France from 1672, fighting at the Siege of Maastricht (1673) and alongside the Dutch, in 1678. He was wounded at St Denis. In 1679, he helped suppress the covenanter rising and fought at the battle of Bothwell Bridge, at the same time that the Popish Plot in England was scaring the Anglican establishment

Sir Thomas Armstrong was executed in 1684 for his involvement in the Rye House Plot which planned to assassinate Charles II and his brother and heir James II. Armstrong was not executed in the usual place for nobility, Tower Hill, but instead he was drawn on a hurdle to Tyburn, where he was hanged and quartered. This was the most shameful way to be executed, and is why Armstrong sings that 'the thoughts of a Rope are most dreadful to me,/That must hang for my Crimes at the 3 cornerd tree'.

Following the Rye House Plot, in 1683, he was indicted in the Court of King's Bench for high treason. A wanted man, Armstrong fled to Cleves and then Rotterdam but was captured in Leiden and sentenced to death by Judge George Jeffreys

He made a dignified end on the gallows at Tyburn on 20 June 1684, protesting that he died "a true and sincere Protestant ... and in the communion of the Church of England; and I heartily wish I had more strictly lived up to the religion which I believed". His lands and bonds totalling £12,700 were saved from forfeiture under his marriage settlement. Nevertheless, his trial was widely regarded as a flagrant miscarriage of justice. He was dragged by hurdle to Tyburn, where he was hanged, drawn and quartered, on 20 June 1684. His head was affixed to Westminster Hall, three of his quarters were displayed in London, and the fourth at Stafford

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