time to get medieval

they knew how to handle traitors in the old days......

Hugh Despencer tried to starve himself before his trial, but face trial he did on 24 November 1326, in Hereford, before Mortimer and the Queen. He was judged a traitor and a thief, and sentenced to public execution by hanging, drawing and quartering. Additionally, he was sentenced to be disembowelled for having procured discord between the King and Queen(Isabella). The belief was that this man had misled the King rather than the King himself being guilty of folly. Immediately after the trial, he was dragged behind four horses to his place of execution, where a great fire was lit. He was stripped naked, and biblical verses denouncing arrogance and evil were written on his skin. He was then hanged from a gallows 50 ft (15 m) high, but cut down before he could choke to death, and was tied to a ladder, in full view of the crowd. The executioner climbed up beside him, and sliced off his penis and testicles which were then burnt before him, while he was still alive and conscious. Subsequently, the executioner plunged his knife into his abdomen, and slowly pulled out, and cut out, his entrails and heart, which were likewise burnt before the ecstatic crowd. Just before he died, it is recorded that he let out a "ghastly inhuman howl," much to the delight and merriment of the spectators. Finally, his corpse was beheaded, and his body cut into four pieces, and his head was mounted on the gates of London. Mortimer and Isabella feasted with their chief supporters, as they watched the execution.

After his death, his widow asked to be given the body so she could bury it at the family's estate, but only the head, a thigh bone and a few vertebrae were returned to her.

I particuarly liked this bit 'Mortimer and Isabella feasted with their chief supporters, as they watched the execution.'