How were the surviving Gunpowder Plot conspirators sentenced to death after their 1606 trial?

The surviving Gunpowder Plot conspirators were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered after their 1606 trial.

This was the customary punishment for treason in England at the time. The sentence involved hanging, removal from the gallows while alive, disembowelment and dismemberment, followed by the division of the body. In practice, the condemned men were often cut down before the hanging was complete.

Guy Fawkes was sentenced with the other surviving conspirators. He avoided the full procedure by jumping or falling from the scaffold at his execution on 31 January 1606, breaking his neck. His body was nevertheless quartered, and his remains were sent to different parts of the kingdom as a warning.

The phrase is sometimes shortened to “hanged, drawn, and quartered,” but it describes a legal punishment rather than a separate Bonfire Night ritual. Modern celebrations use bonfires and fireworks and do not reenact the sentence.