Killing the Principal Conspirators

"Several conspirators, including the ringleader, Catesby, had fled to the Midlands and been shot there [some say while trying to surrender]. Those who remained alive were taken to the Tower of London from 6th November onwards. All of them were then probably subjected to extensive and cruel torture…

"The trial of the conspirators for high treason took place in Westminster Hall on 27 January 1606 . All but one pleaded not guilty, but the verdict was a foregone conclusion, all were duly convicted and sentenced to death.

"The executions were attended with all the bloody barbarity (including castration, disembowelling alive etc) that the mediaeval punishment for treason, hanging drawing and quartering, demanded. .. The heads and other portions of the conspirators' bodies were set up at various points in Westminster and London."

Cecil also saw to it that the bodies of the ringleaders who had been chased down and killed in the Midlands were dug out of their graves and dismembered. Their heads (and other select parts) were dipped in tar to preserve them and also displayed in Westminster.