The rate was exceeded, but not very greatly, during the Commonwealth. We will take the average of 90 for the period covered by the reign of Charles I. and the Commonwealth.
Under the years 1535-7, I have written at some length on the results of the social convulsion produced by the dissolution of the monasteries and the enclosures. In estimating the number of executions for the reign of Henry VIII., we may take the Jacobean rate of 140 per annum for the earlier years of the reign, from 1509-35—twenty-seven years. We shall probably be well under the mark in quadrupling the Jacobean rate for the remaining eleven years of this reign, and for the six years of the reign of Edward VI. For the troubled reign of Mary we will double the Jacobean rate. We may now tabulate the results of a calculation on the basis of the foregoing assumptions:—
| Reign. | Duration, Years. | Assumed Yearly Average of Executions at Tyburn. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henry VIII. | 27 | 140 | 3,780 | } 9,940 |
| Ditto | 11 | 560 | 6,160 | |
| Edward VI. | 6 | 560 | 3,360 | |
| Mary | 5 | 280 | 1,400 | |
| Elizabeth | 44 | 140 | 6,160 | |
| James I. | 22 | 140 | 3,080 | |
| Charles I. | 24 | 90 | 2,160 | |
| Commonwealth | 11 | 90 | 990 | |
| 150 | 27,090 |
It is, of course, not claimed that this table presents more than the results of reasonable conjecture—with the data available we cannot get beyond conjecture. The table shows 27,090 executions at Tyburn in 150 years, leaving fewer than 23,000 to be made up in the remaining 450 years to the conjectured number 50,000. This gives a yearly average of less than 52, which is certainly very low.
During the last hundred years of the existence of Tyburn, political executions become more and more rare; the interest of Tyburn becomes more and more a social interest. The salient feature of this period is furnished by the exploits of highwaymen: it might almost be called the era of the knights of the road. Apart from this, the striking feature of the later history of Tyburn, say from the accession of William III., is the constantly increasing ferocity of the laws. The reign of William saw passed the infamous Act inflicting the punishment of death for stealing in a shop to the value of five shillings. Through succeeding reigns Acts were heaped on Acts, making this and that crime a capital offence. No opportunity was lost of loading the Statute Book with these odious Acts, till, as has been estimated, the law of England reckoned two hundred capital offences. Children were hanged or burnt, according to sex; nor did even this satisfy the ferocity of the governing classes. Theorists advocated a return to the barbarous punishments of rude times: the State, by diminishing the time accorded for repentance, sought to pursue its victims beyond the grave. The heaping up of death-punishments continued beyond the time when Tyburn ceased to uphold the majesty of the law. In the year 1786 an Act was passed imposing duties, denoted by stamps, on perfumery and the like—the duties ranged from one penny upwards. To counterfeit such a stamp was DEATH, so that to defraud the State of one penny put an offender in jeopardy of his life.
All honour to those who, like Fielding, Mandeville, Meredith, Basil Montague, Bentham, Romilly, laboured to bring home to their fellow-citizens a sense of the iniquity of these murderous laws. Nor should we forget their predecessors. Sir Thomas More stated once for all the true view of the case: “This punyshment of theues passeth the limites of Iustice, and is also very hurtefull to the weale publique. For it is too extreame and cruel a punishment for thefte, and yet not sufficient to refrayne and withold men from thefte. For simple thefte is not so great an offense, that it owght to be punished with death.” We owe also grateful mention to Samuel Chidley, who, in the time of the Commonwealth, wearied not in protesting against “this over-much justice in hanging men for stealing.”
1177. The first recorded execution which can be referred to Tyburn occurred in this year. It is probable that Tyburn was the place of execution, but, leaving this case aside for the time, we come to the execution of William Fitz Osbert, or “Longbeard,” expressly stated to have been carried out at Tyburn.
1196. William Fitz Osbert, or Osborn, popularly known as “Longbeard,” was a citizen of London, described as skilled in the law. He is first made known to us by the story of a vision seen by him and a companion on board a ship, one of the fleet of Richard Cœur de Lion, on its way to the Holy Land.
In a great storm at sea there appeared to them three times St. Thomas of Canterbury, who said to them, “Fear not, for I and the Blessed Martyr Edmund, and the Blessed Confessor Nicholas have taken charge of this ship of the King of England. And if the men of this ship will eschew evil and seek pardon for past offences, God will give them a prosperous voyage.” Having thrice said this, he vanished and the storm ceased. This was in 1190. Richard, on his return, was captured and held to ransom by the emperor. The raising of the ransom proved very grievous to the people. There was trouble in the City of London as to the way of assessing the burden. The poorer sort claimed that the citizens should not be called on to pay so much per head, whether rich or poor, but that the assessment should be according to means. William Longbeard took the part of the poor citizens: it came to be a matter to be fought to the death between the magnates and Longbeard. Moreover, Longbeard had accused of extortion Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury and Justiciar. An armed band was told off to arrest Longbeard. He resisted, slew two chiefs of the band, but was compelled to fly for protection to the church of St. Mary-le-Bow. Then the archbishop did a thing unheard of. He, a churchman, bound by every consideration to guard the privileges of the church, set at nought the right of sanctuary, kindled a fire, and drove Longbeard out of the church. In his attempt to escape Longbeard was wounded by the son of one of those whom he had killed in trying to escape arrest. He was hurried to trial: the great men of the city and the king’s officers joined in urging the justiciar to inflict the severest punishment on the offender. This was the punishment: His upper garments were taken off, then his hands were bound behind his back, and, attached by ropes to a horse, he was dragged from the Tower through the City to Tyburn, and there hanged alive by a chain.
What was he, unscrupulous demagogue or martyr in the cause of the poor? Each view was held by his contemporaries. He seems to have behaved very badly to his elder brother, whose care for him during his youth he repaid by bringing against him a charge of treason. On the other hand, it is clear that Longbeard’s enemies had against him a case which it was necessary to strengthen by baseless accusations. He was charged with blaspheming the Virgin Mary, and with taking his concubine into Bow Church. The last charge seems disproved by the circumstances in which Longbeard fled to the church for refuge. It was also set about that he was put to death for “heresy and cursed doctrine,” whereas it is obvious that his offence was political. Be this as it may, his enemies triumphed; Longbeard was drawn and hanged with nine of his fellows. But “the simple people honoured him as a Martyre, insomuch that they steale away the gibbet whereon he was hanged, & pared away the earth, that was be-bled with his blood, and kept the same as holy reliques to heale sicke men.” Hubert, the archbishop, drove them away. But two years later the monks of Canterbury presented to the Pope charges against Hubert. The first is that he had violated the peace of the Church of Bow by forcing out Longbeard and his fellows. The Pope advised Richard to remove Hubert from the office of justiciar, and not to employ churchmen in secular offices. Hubert resisted for a while, but in the end accepted his dismissal.