High Middle Ages · Europe · Politics

1283

Dafydd ap Gruffudd executed at Shrewsbury

1283

The last independent Welsh prince was hanged, drawn, and quartered on Edward I's orders, the first person of high rank to suffer this new punishment for treason. His body parts were displayed in towns across England as warning against rebellion. The gruesome execution established a legal precedent for the punishment of treason that would be invoked against William Wallace and countless others in the centuries that followed.