Foul Facts Gallery: Terrible Tudors, Vile Victorians
By Simon Cooper and Terry Deary
Last updated 2011-02-17
Boiled
Talking of painful executions, Mary was lucky compared with the Bishop of Rochester's cook. In the reign of Henry VIII, the Bishop of Rochester upset his cook one day. So the cook got his revenge by putting a special herb in the bishop's feast that night.
The herb was supposed to give the guests diarrhoea. Unfortunately, two of the guests got diarrhoea till they died. The cook was sent to be hanged for murder. But King Henry VIII said, 'No! hanging is too kind for that villain! I want him boiled alive in his own pot!' And that's what they did. For five years, the punishment for poisoners was to be boiled alive. What a Horribly Hot Happening!
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