Hyde Park, Its History and RomanceAlec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel)
History
Hyde Park, Its History and Romance
Alec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel)
Hyde Park (London, England); London (England) -- Social life and customs
Eight years later, Andrew Bucquinte, a thief, who had carried out
numerous robberies in the City of London, was sentenced to be hanged,
“which was done, and the Citie became more quiet”; while the later
chroniclers give full details, which had been passed on to them, of the
death in 1196 of William FitzOsbert, or “Longbeard.” Matthew Paris,
Stow, and Hollinshed all name “the Elms” as the place of hanging. Roger
de Wendover records that Longbeard was drawn to the gallows “near
Tyburn,” and there hanged with nine of his followers.
This would seem to be the first authentic account of an execution
by hanging at Tyburn, though, in fact, it is very doubtful—Roger de
Wendover notwithstanding—if Longbeard met his fate at Tyburn. “The
Elms” was the name given to the hanging-place at Smithfield long before
the law’s last penalty was demanded at Tyburn, and at the “Elms, at
Smithfield,” a century after Longbeard’s death, William Wallace was
hanged and quartered in 1305.
The name seems to have been carried to Tyburn when hangings were
transferred there, and for a time the two execution-grounds flourished
simultaneously.
Longbeard was the first of a line of romantic impostors who attracted
admirers by hundreds, and ended their days under the gallows. He
represented to Richard I. that the wealthy citizens of London were
oppressing the poor; he preached to the masses, proclaiming that he
was their saviour, and that to him they must look for deliverance.
Richard listened to his story. This so encouraged him that he “had
gotten two and fiftie thousand persons readie to have taken his
part,” and all rich people went in fear of their lives. Summoned to
appear before the Archbishop of Canterbury for inciting to rebellion,
Longbeard was accompanied by so many followers that the Prelate dared
not deliver sentence. He then retired, with his paramour, to the Tower
of St. Mary-le-Bow, which he had previously provisioned and fortified.
Ignoring all the Archbishop’s commands to appear, it was only when the
church had been assaulted and set on fire that, driven out by smoke and
flames, he surrendered. He was dragged to the Tower, and thence to the
final scene.
Longbeard was a man of evil life, but the poor looked upon him as
a martyr, and, Stow says, “pared away the earth that was be-bled
(sprinkled) with his blood, and kept the same as holy reliques to heale
sicknesse.” It would therefore appear that he was not only hanged, but
drawn and quartered as well.
This custom of carrying away trophies from the gibbet was a
superstition, and Brand, in his edition of Bourne’s _Antiquitates
Vulgares_, writes:
“Chips of gallows and Places of Execution are used for Amulets against
Agues. I saw lately some Saw-dust, on which Blood was absorbed, taken
for some such purpose from off the Scaffold on the beheading of one of
the rebel lords, 1746.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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