Forget being beheaded, burnt at the stake or even hung, drawn and quartered.
A lavish dinner party may have paved the way for one of the most brutal executions ever recorded — being boiled to death.
The event, thrown in Lambeth, south London, in 1531, proved fatal after guests became violently sick, reports suggest.
Suspicion fell on the cook, Richard Roose, who was accused of poisoning attendees by adding a unknown powder to their meals.
He was sentenced to death by King Henry VIII for the crime of poisoning — becoming the first man in Britain to be publicly boiled to death.
While details of the death itself are scarce, documents from the time show he was chained to a gibbet before being repeatedly dipped into a boiling cauldron where he ‘roared mighty loud’, dying after two hours.
Death by boiling was intended to be a slow, excruciating process to maximise suffering from the burns sustained.
Heat burns occur when some — or all of the cells in the skin tissue — are destroyed.
But studies suggest it is not the burns themselves that trigger death but the shock to the body after serious injury.
Suspicion fell on the cook, Richard Roose, who was accused of poisoning attendees by adding a suspicious powder to their meals
Thermal burns occur when some or all the cells in the skin or other tissues are destroyed.
Shock is a life-threatening condition that occurs when there’s an insufficient supply of oxygen to the body.
According to the NHS, signs of shock include a pale face, cold or clammy skin, a rapid pulse, fast, shallow breathing and unconsciousness.
Significant burns can also trigger soft tissues to contract causing the skin to tear and fat and muscles to shrink.
Muscle contractions due to burning may also cause the joints to flex.
Studies have also shown heat damage can lead to respiratory failure, directly damaging the airways proving fatal.
Respiratory failure is a leading cause of death in burn patients, especially those with inhalation injuries.
Reports from the time suggest Richard Roose’s skin underwent significant blisters from the burns.
Roose was sentenced to death by King Henry VIII for the crime of poisoning — becoming the first man in Britain to be publicly boiled to death
Thermal burns occur when some or all the cells in the skin or other tissues are destroyed
It is unclear however if the liquid used in the cauldron was water, oil or wax.
Documents from the time detailing other similarly gruesome deaths suggest placing victims in a cool liquid, that was then heated to a boil was another method used.
This would prolong the time taken for the body to go into shock, maximising pain.
In a video shared on YouTube recounting the tale, viewers told of their horror at the barbaric sentence, with one branding it the ‘worst execution’.
Another wrote: ‘It’s hard to fathom the brutality these people inflicted on one another. We are the cruellest of all living species.’
‘Even if guilty this punishment is beyond evil,’ a third said.
So brutal was this method of execution that it was later banned by Edward VI in 1547.
But death by boiling can still accidentally happen today.
In 2016, a 23-year-old died and was dissolved after falling into a hot spring at Yellowstone National Park in the US.
At the time his remains were recovered, the water was said to be 100°C (212°F) — the temperature at which water boils.
An estimated 180,000 deaths every year are also caused by burns, according to the World Health Organization.
