<![CDATA[Execution Ballads]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/browse?tags=quartering&sort_field=added&sort_dir=a&output=rss2 Fri, 29 Mar 2024 07:06:02 +1100 una.mcilvenna@unimelb.edu.au (Execution Ballads) Zend_Feed http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss <![CDATA[A letter to Rome, to declare to ye Pope, Iohn Felton his freend is hangd in a rope:]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/848

Title

A letter to Rome, to declare to ye Pope, Iohn Felton his freend is hangd in a rope:

Subtitle

And farther, a right his grace to enforme, He dyed a Papist, and seemd not to turne.

Synopsis

The singer gleefully transmits the news of John Felton's execution to the Pope, sarcastically asking him to gather up the parts of his body now strewn around London, and to rescue his soul from Purgatory. For more on Felton's life, see notes below the ballad.

Digital Object


Image / Audio Credit

Huntington Library - Britwell, Shelfmark: HEH18325; EBBA 32412. Audio recording by Jenni Hyde.

Set to tune of...

Transcription

A letter to Rome, to declare to ye Pope,
Iohn Felton his freend is hangd in a rope:
And farther, a right his grace to enforme,
He dyed a Papist, and seemd not to turne.

To the tune of Row well ye Mariners.

WHo keepes Saint Angell gates?
Where lieth our holy father say?
I muze that no man waytes,
Nor comes to meete me on the way.
Sir Pope I say? yf you be nere,
Bow downe to me your listning eare:
Come forth, besturre you then a pace,
Fo I haue newes to show your grace.
Stay not, come on,
That I from hence were shortly gon:
Harke well, heare mee,
What tidings I haue brought to thee

The Bull so lately sent
To England by your holy grace,
Iohn Felton may repent
For settyng vp the same in place:
For he vpon a goodly zeale
He bare vnto your common weale
Hath ventured lyfe to pleasure you,
And now is hangd, I tell you true.
Wherfore, sir Pope,
In England haue you lost your hope.
Curse on, spare not,
Your knights are lyke to go to pot.

But further to declare,
He dyed your obedient chylde:
And neuer seemd to spare,
For to exalt your doctrine wylde:
And tolde the people euery one
He dyed your obedient sonne
And as he might, he did set forth,
Your dignitie thats nothyng worth.
Your trash, your toyes,
He toke to be his onely ioyes:
Therfore, hath wonne,
Of you the crowne of martirdome.

Let him be shryned then
Accordyng to his merits due,
As you haue others doen
That proue vnto their Prince vntrue:
For these (sir Pope) you loue of lyfe,
That wt their Princes fall at stryfe:
Defendyng of your supreame powre,
Yet som haue paid ful deare therfore.
As now, lately,
Your freend Iohn Felton seemd to try
Therfore, I pray,
That you a masse for him wyll say.

Ryng all the belles in Rome
To doe his sinful soule some good,
Let that be doen right soone
Because that he hath shed his blood,
His quarters stand not all together
But ye mai hap to ring them thether
In place where you wold haue them be
Then might you doe as pleaseth ye.
For whye? they hang,
Vnshryned each one vpon a stang:
Thus standes, the case,
On London gates they haue a place.

His head vpon a pole
Stands waueri~g in ye wherli~g wynd,
But where shoulde be his soule
To you belongeth for to fynd:
I wysh you Purgatorie looke
And search each corner wt your hooke,
Lest it might chance or you be ware
The Deuyls to catce him in a snare.
Yf ye, him see,
From Purgatorie set him free:
Let not, trudge than,
Fetch Felton out and yf ye can.

I wysh you now sir Pope
To loke vnto your faithful freendes,
That in your Bulles haue hope
To haue your pardon for their sinnes,
For here I tell you, euery Lad
Doth scoff & scorne your bulles to bad,
And thinke they shall the better fare
For hatyng of your cursed ware.
Now doe, I end,
I came to show you as a frend:
Whether blesse, or curse,
You send to me, I am not the worse.

Steuen Peele.

FINIS.

Composer of Ballad

Steuen Peele

Method of Punishment

hanging, quartering

Crime(s)

high treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

St Paul's Churchyard, London

Printing Location

London, by Alexander Lacie for Henrie Kyrkham, dwellyng at the signe of the blacke Boy: at the middle North dore of Paules church.

Tune Data

Composer of tune: C. B. Hardman

Notes

Wikipedia: Blessed John Felton (died 8 August 1570) was an English Catholic martyr, who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Almost all of what is known about Felton's background comes from the narrative of his daughter, Frances Salisbury. The manuscript that holds her story has a blank where his age should be, but it does say that he was a wealthy man of Norfolk ancestry, who lived at Bermondsey Abbey near Southwark. He "was a man of stature little and of complexion black". His wife had been a playmate of Elizabeth I, a maid-of-honour to Queen Mary and the widow of one of Mary's auditors (a legal official of the papal court). He was the father of Blessed Thomas Felton.

Felton was arrested for fixing a copy of Pope Pius V's Bull Regnans in Excelsis ("reigning on high"), excommunicating Queen Elizabeth, to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace near St. Paul's. This was a significant act of treason as the document, which released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, needed to be promulgated in England before it could take legal effect. The deed brought about the end of the previous policy of tolerance towards those Catholics who were content occasionally to attend their parish church while keeping their true beliefs to themselves. The reaction seemed soon to be justified: it was the publication in England of Pius's exhortation that gave the impetus to the Ridolfi plot, in which the Duke of Norfolk was to kidnap or murder Queen Elizabeth, install Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne and then become de facto king by marrying her.

The law records say that the act was committed around eleven at night on 24 May 1570, but Salisbury claims it happened between two and three in the morning of the following day, the Feast of Corpus Christi. Felton had received the bulls in Calais and given one to a friend, William Mellowes of Lincoln's Inn. This copy was discovered on 25 May and after being racked, Mellowes implicated Felton, who was arrested on 26 May. Felton immediately confessed and glorified in his deed, "treasonably declar[ing] that the queen... ought not to be the queen of England", but he was still racked as the authorities were seeking, through his testimony, to implicate Guerau de Spes, the Ambassador of Spain, in the action. He was condemned on 4 August and executed by hanging four days later in St. Paul's Churchyard, London. He was cut down alive for quartering, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.
hunt_1_18325_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:20 +1000
<![CDATA[The end and Confession of Iohn Felton]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/905

Title

The end and Confession of Iohn Felton

Subtitle

who suffred in Paules Churcheyeard in London, the . viii. of August, for high Treason. I570.

Digital Object

Image / Audio Credit

Huntington Library - Britwell, no. 43/ HEH18304; EBBA 32268

Transcription

The end and Confession of John Felton who suffred in Paules Churcheyeard in London, the .viii. of August, for high Treason. 1570.

EChe man desiers to haue reporte,
of newes both strange and rare:
And couits for to know those thinges,
whereby they may be ware.
For to avoyde those doynges greate,
that might on them befall:
For by example are they taught to do,
and what they shall
Receiue for their malicious mindes,
and wicked Treasons greate:
As now of late it hath been seen
through Iustice iudgements seate.
That holdes the sworde to do the right,
and strike where blowes should fall:
And punish for their wicked liues,
eche one whom she doth call.
The poore, the ritche, the learnd, ye wise
the begger and the snudge:
The Kynge somtime too hath it felt,
aswell as hath the drudge.
Wherefore be lawes decreed and made
but for to punish those,
That will not by theyr Prince be rewld
but seemes to be theyr foes.
As now is seene by Felton lo,
that lately here did die,
In Paules Churchyarde he left his life,
on Galows taule and hie.
Who from the prison where he lay,
was drawne on Hardell there:
For good example of all such,
that they might take the feare.
For to beware of suche like facte,
as well in worde as deede:
Least they for theyr like hier at last
no better like to speede.
* Now marke his ende and what I shall
reporte here of his death:
For why these eares of mine did here,
and iyes while that his breath
Remained in his wicked corps,
which stubbornly did die:
As one me thought somthing best raught
through Treasons crueltie.
His Gowne of Grograin he put of,
which on his backe he had:
And eke his Doublet which was made
of Sattin somwhat sad.
Into his Shirte he then was stript,
and vp the Ladder he
Did mount, for to receaue that death,
that eche man there might se.
These wordes he spake, and said alowde
my Maisters all and some:
One thinge I haue to say to you,
now that I here am come.
That is, I pray you all with me
beare recorde what I say:
I here protest before you all
, this present dieyng day,
That I was neuer Traytour sure,
nor Treason to my Queene
Did neuer do, nor neuer thought,
that euer hath been seene.
And for the facte wherefore I die,
I can it not denie:
But at the Gate where as the Bull
was hanged, there was I,
In company, on more with me,
did hange it vp together:
And though in place, I had not bin,
it had not scaped euer.
From hanging vp, for suredly,
for that same present day:
It had bin hanged, in that place,
though I had been away.
Then sayde the Shreue, vnto him,
Oh Felton do remember:
That thou hast bin, a Traytour great
and to the Queene offender.
And surely thou moste Trayterously,
and stubbornly hast thou sought,
The best thou couldst to go aboute,
thy Prince to bringe to nought.
And eke the Realme and all the rest,
as mutche as in thee lay,
Thou soughst by thy Traiterous harte,
to bringe vnto decay.
Therfore call vnto God the Lord,
and pray him from thy hart:
That he receaue thy soule to rest,
when thou from hence shalt part.
Well so I do, and here I craue,
you all good people pray
For me, that ready is to dye,
and then began to say,
Into thy hands, Oh Lord my God,
I yeeld my Soule and Breath:
For thou hast me redeemd, I say,
with thy most precious death.
In manus tuas Domine,
and so the rest he sayde,
The Hangman then did throwe him of,
and so his breath was staide.
He hanged theare vpon the Tree,
and in a litle space:
They cut him downe incontinent,
that Iustice might take place.
Wher as he quartred shoulde be,
according to the Lawe:
And to the Iudgement that he had,
to make those stande in awe.
That be of his affinitie:
and surely there be some,
That thinkes that he deserude not death
in all that he hath don.
He then dismembred was straight way,
when he had ended that:
His Belly ripped open wide,
his Bowels all he gat.
And to the fire he straight them threwe,
which ready there was made:
And there consumed all to dust,
as is the fiers trade.
His Head cut of, the Hangman then,
did take it vp in hand:
And vp alofte he did it showe,
to all that there did stand.
And then his body in Fowre partes,
was quartred in that place:
More pitty that his Traytorous Hart,
could take no better grace.
And thus he had his iust desarte,
as well he had deserued:
I would the rest that not repents,
were likewise also serued.
Beware you Papists all beware,
be true vnto your Queene:
Let not your Traiterous hartes be bent
as here tofore hath been.
Stand not against the liuing God,
spurne not against his Law:
Kicke not against the Pricke I say,
but haue him still in awe.
Be not ashamde to torne in time,
set shamefastnesse aside:
No shame it is to turne to God,
though you haue gon far wide,
The farther you haue gon astray,
and wicked wayes hath led,
The ernester you should returne,
from that most wicked Bed,
Wherin you lay a sleape long while,
forgetting of his grace:
Now call the refore vnto the Lord,
to set you in that place,
Where you may haue eternall rest,
and liue in heauen hie:
And rest in Abrahams bosome too,
when that you needes must dye.
And for that grace that God may geue,
as I haue sayde before:
I humbly pray continually,
both now and euermore.
Our Prince, our Queene Elizabeth,
a happy state to haue:
Let vs all pray with one accord,
her noble grace to saue.
And hir to keepe from all hir foes,
and sheild eternally:
From wicked wights that go about,
to s_eke continually:
Hir whole decay: the Lord defend,
hir noble royall hart:
From yeelding to those Foes of hirs,
that daily plaies their parte.
For to be reeue her of her right,
and of hir stately Crowne:
All those (I say) that so doth seke,
God shortly throw them downe.
Thus here I end, and once againe,
the liuing God I pray:
Our noble Qu_ene Elizabeth,
preserue both night and day.
({quod}) F. G.

FINIS.



Œ_ Imprinted at London, in Fleetstreete, by VVilliam Hovv: for William Pickering: and are to be solde at his shop at S. Magnus corner.

Composer of Ballad

F.G.

Method of Punishment

hanging, quartering

Crime(s)

high treason

Gender

Date

Execution Location

St Paul's Churchyard, London

Printing Location

London, in Fleetstreete, by VVilliam Hovv: for William Pickering: and are to be solde at his shop at S. Magnus corner.

Notes

Wikipedia:  Blessed John Felton (died 8 August 1570) was an English Catholic martyr, who was executed during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Almost all of what is known about Felton's background comes from the narrative of his daughter, Frances Salisbury. The manuscript that holds her story has a blank where his age should be, but it does say that he was a wealthy man of Norfolk ancestry, who lived at Bermondsey Abbey near Southwark. He "was a man of stature little and of complexion black". His wife had been a playmate of Elizabeth I, a maid-of-honour to Queen Mary and the widow of one of Mary's auditors (a legal official of the papal court). He was the father of Blessed Thomas Felton. Felton was arrested for fixing a copy of Pope Pius V's Bull Regnans in Excelsis ("reigning on high"), excommunicating Queen Elizabeth, to the gates of the Bishop of London's palace near St. Paul's. This was a significant act of treason as the document, which released Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance, needed to be promulgated in England before it could take legal effect. The deed brought about the end of the previous policy of tolerance towards those Catholics who were content occasionally to attend their parish church while keeping their true beliefs to themselves.

The reaction seemed soon to be justified: it was the publication in England of Pius's exhortation that gave the impetus to the Ridolfi plot, in which the Duke of Norfolk was to kidnap or murder Queen Elizabeth, install Mary, Queen of Scots, on the throne and then become de facto king by marrying her. The law records say that the act was committed around eleven at night on 24 May 1570, but Salisbury claims it happened between two and three in the morning of the following day, the Feast of Corpus Christi. Felton had received the bulls in Calais and given one to a friend, William Mellowes of Lincoln's Inn. This copy was discovered on 25 May and after being racked, Mellowes implicated Felton, who was arrested on 26 May. Felton immediately confessed and glorified in his deed, "treasonably declar[ing] that the queen... ought not to be the queen of England", but he was still racked as the authorities were seeking, through his testimony, to implicate Guerau de Spes, the Ambassador of Spain, in the action. He was condemned on 4 August and executed by hanging four days later in St. Paul's Churchyard, London. He was cut down alive for quartering, and his daughter says that he uttered the holy name of Jesus once or twice when the hangman had his heart in his hand. He was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.
hunt_1_18304_2448x2448.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:43:29 +1000
<![CDATA[Chanson de la justice exécutée dedans Paris de celui qui tua monsieur de Guyse, sur le chant de l'enfant prodigue.]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/970

Title

Chanson de la justice exécutée dedans Paris de celui qui tua monsieur de Guyse, sur le chant de l'enfant prodigue.

Synopsis

Wikipedia: Jean de Poltrot (c. 1537 - 1563), sieur de Méré or Mérey, was a nobleman of Angoumois, who murdered Francis, Duke of Guise.

He had lived some time in Spain, and his knowledge of Spanish, together with his swarthy complexion, which earned him the nickname of the Espagnolet, procured him employment as a spy in the wars against Spain. Having been converted to the Huguenot cause, he determined to kill Francis, Duke of Guise. Pretending to be a deserter, he gained admission to the camp of the Catholic army that was besieging Orléans. In the evening of 18 February 1563, he hid by the side of a road along which he knew the Duke would pass, fired a pistol at him, and fled. He was captured the next day, and following torture and a trial, he was sentenced to be drawn and quartered. The punishment, carried out on 18 March 1563, was botched; the horses having failed to rend his limbs, swords were used to finish the job.

During his torture, he had made several contradictory statements, some of which implicated Admiral Coligny. Coligny protested emphatically against the accusation, but nevertheless the assassination led to a vendetta between Coligny and Francis's sons, Henry I, Duke of Guise and Louis II, Cardinal of Guise. This vendetta not only prolonged the Wars of Religion but contributed to the attempted assassination of Coligny during the celebrations of the marriage of Henri of Navarre with Margaret of Valois, and therefore to the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre.

Set to tune of...

L'enfant prodigue

Transcription

Maudict soit le faux miserable
Qui a tué vilainement
Ce bon prince tant amiable
Qui nous gardoit soigneusement.
La justice en a esté faicte
Dedans la ville de paris,
Treséquitablement parfaicte
En despit de tous ses amis.
Car quand il fut a la justice
Devant messieurs de parlement,
Fut ordonné que pour son vice
Devoit mourir cruellement.
Quand la sentence fut donnee,
L'executeur on feit venir,
Pour justement ceste journee
Le mener vistement mourir.
Comme il passoit dedans la ville
Chacun crioit de tout son coeur,
Dessus, dessus ce meschant traistre
Qui a tué ce bon seigneur.
Devant la maison de la ville
Fut le lieu d'execution
Pour de ce meschant inutile
Faire bonne punition.
En quatre parties de ces membres
Il fut tenaillé de fers chauds.
En jugement sans long attendre
Bien lié dessus l'eschafaux.
Il ne luy failloit point de phifre.
Pareillement de tabourin:
Pour faire bien danser ce traistre
Meschant & malheureux villain.
Puis fut guindé sans descendre,
Tout estendu sur l'eschaffaux,
Aux quatre parties de ses membres,
Pour tirer à quatre chevaux.
Viena, dit un bon capitaine,
N'as tu point grand mal en ton coeur:
De te mettre en devoir & peine
Pour tuer ce noble seigneur.
Nenny dist ce faux miserable,
S'il nestoit faict je le ferois:
N'estoit-il pas conduit du diable
D'ainsi parler a ceste fois.
Quand respondit en ceste sorte,
Soudainnement fut depesché:
Ces quatres quartiers hors les portes,
Sa teste en un poteau fisché,
Jeunes enfans prenez exemple,
Et mettez en Dieu vostre appuy:
Et que chascun de vous contemple,
De ne faire pas comme luy.

Method of Punishment

drawing, hanging and quartering

Crime(s)

murder

Gender

Date

Printing Location

Le Recueil des chansons des batailles & guerres advenues au Royaume de France, durant les troubles. Par Christofle de Bordeaux, & autres. Augmentées de plusieurs chansons nouvelles. (Paris: Nicolas Bonfons, rue neuve nostre Dame, à l'enseigne sainct Nicolas, 1575)
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:32 +1000
<![CDATA[COMPLAINTE REMARQUABLE]]> https://omeka.cloud.unimelb.edu.au/execution-ballads/items/show/983

Title

COMPLAINTE REMARQUABLE

Subtitle

Des Tourmens que l'on a fait souffrir à Robert-François Damiens, de la Ville d'Arras en Artois, pour l'attentat qu'il a fait envers la Sacrée Personne du Roy le 5. Janvier 1757. & jugé par Arrêt du Parlement de Paris le 26. Mars de ladite année: Sur l'Air de madame la Dauphine.

Image / Audio Credit

Bibliothque Nationale et Universitaire de Strasbourg

Set to tune of...

Madame la Dauphine

Transcription

APPROCHEZ, je vous prie,
Pour contempler le récit,
L'horrible action,
Et la noire trahison
Commise depuis peu
Par un malheureux,
Qui vouloit sans effroi
Poignarder notre bon Roy;
On ne pourroit sans horreur
Raconter ce malheur.

Le Roy sans penser
Qu'il couroit un tel danger,
Résolut d'aller
A Trianon pour souper;
Mais François Damien,
Comme un inhumain,
S'aprocha de lui
A la faveur de la nuit;
Il lui donna pour certain
D'un couteau dans le sein.

Indigne pécheur,
Hélas! n'as-tu pas horreur,
Voyant ton forfait,
Le plus grand qui fut jamais?
Crains d'un Dieu jaloux
Les terribles coups
Qu'il va faire sentir
A ton corps pour le punir;
AvoÙe donc la vérité,
Afin d'être sauvé.

Le Roy humble & doux
Sentant lui porter le coup,
S'écrie à l'instant:
Ah! je suis blessé à sang;
Les Princes & Seigneurs
Saisis de frayeur,
Voyant l'attentat
Commis par ce scélerat;
D'abord il fut arrêté
Pour être éxaminé.

Dedans la prison,
Pour punir son action,
Il fut enchaîné,
Et bien surement gardé;
Pour sçavoir son nom
Et sa Profession,
Des Juges éclairés
D'abord lui ont demandé,
S'il avoit quelques consorts
Dans ce malheureux sort.

La Reine attristée
Etoit enfin désolée;
Le Dauphin aussi
Avoit le coeur tout saisi;
Enfin à la Cour
Chacun en ce jour
Etoit consterné,
Considérant ce danger,
Aussi bien qu'en tout Pays
Où l'on sçait le récit.

Il vient tous les jours
Des Juges bien humbles & doux,
Pour être assuré
De sçavoir la vérité;
Son coeur endurci,
Sans être contrit,
N'a de son esprit
Aucune parole sottie;
Voyant son endurcissement,
On fait son Jugement.

Si-tôt le Parlement,
Etant éclairé vrayment
De son noir forfait,
L'a condamné sur le fait,
En punition de son action
Et de sa trahison,
Sur un Echafaut,
Afin de punir son corps;
Il sera tenaillé,
Et ensuite écartelé.

Quel rude tourment,
Pour punir son châtiment,
Sçauroit-on inventer,
Pour sa noire témérité?
Pour punir son action,
On lui a mis du plomb,
Du souffre fondu,
Sçauroit-on faire de plus?
Et mis dans un feu ardent,
Et jetté ses cendres au vent. FIN.








Method of Punishment

drawing, hanging and quartering

Crime(s)

regicide

Gender

Date

Execution Location

Paris

Printing Location

By Berrier, Paris, 29 march 1757.
Complainte remarquable des tourmens … Robert-Francois Damiens.jpg
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Thu, 24 May 2018 13:58:34 +1000