Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900

Charts the history of execution laws and practices in the 'Bloody Code' era and its extraordinary transformation by 1900.

Simon Devereaux (Author)

9781009392150, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 October 2023

410 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3 cm, 0.76 kg

'… an indispensable work on execution culture that redefines the scholarship in this area. It is a hugely impressive and satisfying book that will remain essential for years to come.' Lizzie Seal, American Historical Review

This book provides the first comprehensive account of execution practices in England and their extraordinary transformation from 1660 to 1900. Agonizing execution rituals were once common. Male traitors were hanged, disembowelled while still alive, then decapitated and quartered. Female traitors were burned alive. And common criminals slowly choked to death beneath wooden crossbeams erected at the margins of towns. Some of their bodies were either left to rot on roadside gibbets or dissected by anatomy instructors. Two centuries later, only murderers and traitors were executed – both by hanging – and they died alone, usually quickly, and behind prison walls. In this major contribution to the history of crime and punishment in England, Simon Devereaux reveals how urban growth, and the unique public culture it produced, challenged and largely displaced those traditional elites who valued the old 'Bloody Code' as an instrument of their rule.

1. Introduction
2. Executions for Treason, 1660-1820
3. Changing Cultures of Execution: Religion and Feeling, 1660-1770
4. Changing Cultures of Execution: Reason and Reforms, 1770-1808
5. The Murder Act: Anatomization, 1752-1832
6. The Murder Act: Hanging in Chains, 1660-1834
7. The 'Bloody Code' Debated, 1808-1821
8. The 'Bloody Code' Diminished, 1822-1830
9. The Vicissitudes of Public Execution, 1830-1900
10. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]