Cruel And Unusual Punishment In Merry Old England.

Just one historical question I have had for some time now. Why wasn't the punishment "hanged, drawn and quartered" considered "cruel and unusual" punishment in England, even after the 1689 English Bill of Rights?

Here is the Wikipedia article on the English Bill of Rights (1689): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689

Here is the Wikipedia article on drawing and quartering: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanged,_drawn_and_quartered

(Just so you know, the article on D & Q comes with a heavy TMI alert. It is VERY graphic [if you're sensitive to that type of thing].)

So you can see my confusion.

BTW, this of course is a historical question, in the history section of these boards. But this question has modern implications too. U.S. judges who believe in the judicial philosophy of "original intent" believe interpretation of the U.S. Constitution should go no further than what the founders originally meant the words to have. Yet, the founders supported drawing and quartering too. I'm not kidding. In fact, the 5th amendment even says, no one shall be twice put in jeopardy of "life or limb". That's what "life or limb" means, in case you didn't know.

I patiently await your replies :daisy: :bobby:

 

They finally abolished the practice in 1870, after changing it slightly at an earlier date.

So I suppose they either didn't think it 'cruel and unusual' or they were reserving the right to inflict it on anyone guilty of treason, cruel and unusual or not.

But actually, other forms of cruel and unusual punishment survived right up to the post WW II period. Birching was only abolished as a criminal punishment in 1948, and continued as a way of keeping order in prisons until the 60's.

So when British law makers said 'cruel and unusual' they had a different idea of what that meant than most people today, or they were simply trying to paint themselves as less cruel than was the case.

 

This was a fairly Cruel form of Execution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crushing_(execution)

 

cor, Luxury, in my day:


"The Persians outvie all other barbarians in the horrid cruelty of their punishments, employing tortures that are peculiarly terrible and long-drawn, namely the ‘boats’ and sewing men up in raw hides. But what is meant by the ‘boats,’ I must now explain for the benefit of less well informed readers. Two boats are joined together one on top of the other, with holes cut in them in such a way that the victim’s head, hands, and feet only are left outside. Within these boats the man to be punished is placed lying on his back, and the boats then nailed together with bolts. Next they pour a mixture of milk and honey into the wretched man's mouth, till he is filled to the point of nausea, smearing his face, feet, and arms with the same mixture, and so leave him exposed to the sun. This is repeated every day, the effect being that flies, wasps, and bees, attracted by the sweetness, settle on his face and all such parts of him as project outside the boats, and miserably torment and sting the wretched man. Moreover his belly, distended as it is with milk and honey, throws off liquid excrements, and these putrefying breed swarms of worms, intestinal and of all sorts. Thus the victim lying in the boats, his flesh rotting away in his own filth and devoured by worms, dies a lingering and horrible death."
— Zonaras, Annals[2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism