BOILING

This method  was used by King Henry VII

In execution by boiling, the condemned is stripped naked and either placed in a vat of boiling liquid, or in a vat of cold liquid which was then heated to boiling. The liquid could be oil, acid, tar, water, or molten lead. During the reign of King Henry VIII it was a punishment especially reserved for poisoners.

In England, boiling prisoners to death was a legal form of punishment during the years under the rule of Henry VIII. Boiling to death was legal punishment in the olden time, though instances of its exercise were not so frequent in the annals of crime as some of the other modes of execution. In the year 1531, when Henry VIII was King, an Act was passed for boiling prisoners to death. 

It is hard to even imagine the fear of a prisoner, drawn to the scaffold, only to see a seething, boiling pot of water awaiting him or her. The terror of such a situation must have been unbearable and the cruelty of a death in the pot immeasurable. It is precisely this primitive reaction to this horrible fate that makes the study of the subject fascinating.