Braveheart question

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Last night I happened to catch the last hour or so of Braveheart on HBO. I have seen the movie several times, but one question has always plagued me… Spoiler alert for those who have never seen this movie …

In the final scene where Wallace is being tortured, they lay him down on this cross looking thing and the guy rips his shirt open with some twisted tool of torture. My question is… exactly what the hell does he do with that tool of his? They never show what he is doing. I can only assume that it is something completely disgusting that they could not show, but my morbid mind needs to know what was going on. I know that some of you have to be up on your medieval torture methods, so please enlighten me. Thanks!

2

I believe that they disemboweled him. This is foreshadowed to in the previous scene where the midget clowns ‘play’ for the crowd

Not a great way to die, but then, what is?

3

Wallace was disemboweled. It’s been a few years since I saw the movie, but I think they hanged him to the point of semi-consciousness, nearly pulled him apart from the legs and arms, disemboweled him, and then beheaded him, which was the “hanging, drawing, and quartering” punishment that was given to traitors and enemies of the state in ancient Britain.

4

Thanks guys. That was my original thought, but I wanted to get another opinion to make sure I’m not crazy. Mmmmm… disembowelment… I think I’ll pass. :wink:

5

http://www.wwlia.org/uk-wall.htm

Or, if you just want the jucy details…

That’s what happened in real life. They compressed it in the movie. Mel did a fine job, but you couldn’t pack the whole deal into even the 3hrs it runs.

6

That was the “drawing” part of “drawn and quartered”. As Agent LeManof Verona said, this involves disemboweling the victim and drawing* the intestines out to show to the victim before they die. The idea being to provoke a confession and to instill terror in the enemies of the state.

Those kookie Medieval Europeans were always inventing new social engineering techniques…

7

Now I know where my company got their ideas for their version of the ‘Annual Performance Review’

8

Yeah, yelling “Freedom!” instead of begging for mercy was pretty good. But Wallace could have really dissed them if, after they showed him his intestines, he’d have said, “I wish I’d eaten more fiber.”

9

Considering the huge volume of oats in the average Scots diet at that point in history…I don’t think that is something that he could say…

10

Is this what inspired haggis?

11

For the actual definition of “drawing and quartering,” see Cecil answer What do “drawn and quartered” and “keelhauling” mean? (complete with letter from the editor of the Encyclopædia Britannica thanking Cecil for providing corrective information for the error the EB had printed).

Disembowelment is part of the procedure, but the “drawing,” as Cecil notes, indicated dragging the prisoner to the place of execution.

12

Well, shiver me timbers! Thanks for the link, tomndebb; you’ve contributed to fighting my ignorance on this subject.