I can’t imagine the agony of dying in such a way. But I also imagine the carbon monoxide fumes will kill you in pretty short order, as in, ~5 minutes.
Anyone got the scoop?
Well, gosh, so many variables - what is fueling the fire? Obviously, items that generate toxic fumes are likely to kill you quicker. Is there a breeze/wind that might push toxic fumes and smoke away from you, leaving you to die of burns, or is it blowing it toward you, so you suffocate? How intense is the fire? I could see a situation where it smolders awhile, causing severe but not immediately fatal burns to the feet and legs before flaring up to roast the rest of you. Are the perpetrators of this deed wanting to get it done quickly or do they want to torture awhile?
I’ve read (No cite) that if the victim paid a bribe to the person who built the fire, the fire builder would use lots of green wood (Or something) so that the fumes and smoke would kill (Or at least render unconscious) the victim first, thus avoiding pain from the fire.
Depends, I suppose. If the wood was damp or green, the smoke and fumes might kill you before the flames licked at your feet. The wind direction might keep the flames from you but not the heat. Some people were tarred to make them go up nicely.
In practice, most people burned at the stake were strangled by the executioner before the flames got to them, or paid to have sachets of gunpowder put about their person to speed their death. Bloody Mary decreed that the Protestant martyrs she had burned were no to be strangled and no green wood to be used so they suffered as long as possible, but no-one knows how long it took them to die.
Bishop John Hooper was burned to death in 1555 and “suffered agonies for nearly an hour” before he died.
I vaguely recall reading about a burning-at-the-stake in which the wood was deliberately selected green - or the condemned was placed relatively high above the fire - or both - so that he was slowly (and painfully) roasted rather than being quickly burned. I don’t recall mention of early unconsciousness due to CO poisoning.
I’ll try to find a cite tonight.
(Bold added.)
It’s one of those things that you have to experience in order to imagine it. One of those things that everyone needs to try at least once in your life.
I wonder if, even for the experienced, it’s too awful to imagine.
I seem to remember in the book Out of the Flames the author talking about how after the reformation they started using more green wood so the process would be longer and more painful.
Moe: “How would you rather die-burnt at the stake or have your head chopped off?
Larry: :burnt at the stake”
Moe: “why”
Larry: “a hot steak is better than a cold chop!”
There are also stories about how spectators friendly to the prisoner would throw extra wood on the fire, to speed up the process.
Would you really want to advertise yourself as friendly to someone who’s getting burned at the stake?
Adding wood - Okay
Adding water - that would get you noticed by the authorities;)
The story is probably apocryphal, but tradition holds that St. Lawrence of Rome was burned to death not on a stake but on an iron grill. After lying in agony on the hot irons over the fire, he reportedly told his executioners, “Turn me over; I’m done on this side.”
To better cook the condemned and maximize the sensory experience for the guest of honor, the Brazen Bull was a handy utensil. It was a large, hollow metal sculpture of a bull with a hatch in the side. Put the prisoner inside, build a fire underneath, cook thoroughly until well done.
It is said that the inventor, just like Dr. Guillotine, ended up being a guest of honor.
Hey, getting scorched happens in many other non-intentional ways too, not just deliberately when they burn someone at the stake. I’m thinking, it’s still gotta hurt, even so.
Here’s a seething description by James Oberg, of the death of cosmonaut Valentin Bondarenko, incinerated in a training accident in 1961, well before American astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee went out about the same way (in 1967 or so). Bondarenko was engulfed in flame in a 50% oxygen atmosphere for about 30 minutes before they could get him out, and he lived for another 16 hours before he died. The doctors might have managed to get him fully doped up on morphine for some portion of that time, once they finally got him to a hospital. Oberg tells of the account given by Golyakhovsky, the ER doctor:
I don’t have a cite, but I remember reading a horrible story where two men were being burnt at the same time. One died peacefully and almost immediately. The other lingered for hours as his lower extremities burnt.
I guess if you are “lucky” enough for there to be a steady plume of smoke in your face, you “get away” with suffocating instead of burning.
[QUOTE=Senegoid;15342095<snip>It is said that the inventor, just like Dr. Guillotine, ended up being a guest of honor.[/QUOTE]
[pedantic correction] the name of the doctor was Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (notice note no e at the end), and he didn’t invent the guillotine and wasn’t executed with it. The inventor of the machine was Antoine Louis [/pc]
Okay, it says that he was, in fact, an opponent of the death penalty, but given that it existed and was commonly done in gruesome ways, he promoted the adoption of the Louis device to be used for all classes of people and all crimes. It came to be associated with him and came to be called by his name (with the e somehow added). The Guillotin family eventually changed their family name to disassociate themselves from it.
A different Dr. Guillotin got himself abbreviated that way, adding to the confusion. Who knew?
ISTM that they could have found a quicker way to put him out of his misery.
Need answer fast?
Was it the Protestant priests Latimer and Ridley, burned in Oxford in 1554? Latimer died quickly, but Ridley suffered “great agony” until the flames were high enough for him to force his head into them, igniting a bag of gunpowder round his neck.
John Foxe’s “Book of Martyrs” (or really “Actes and Monuments”) published 1563 is the one to read.