Description

"Tyburn" is synonymous with the idea of execution--over 50,000 people died there between the 12th century and 1783. Among those who met their end at Tyburn were William Wallace, the Scottish patriot; Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be one of the Princes in the Tower; and the hated Jonathan Wild, perhaps London's first master criminal. Alan Brooke and David Brandon tell the story of how Tyburn came to be the place of execution and of the rituals and spectacle associated with the deaths of so many people, both famous and obscure. They provide a vivid picture of crime and punishment in London, mixing martyrs, pickpockets, traitors, and errant aristocrats all playing their final scene on London's "nevergreen tree."