That his head wasn't really 'round'??!! lol. Just kidding. Good one, and Annette may know better that I - what else is new!

Nancy.

I'm fairly sure that I have heard this one. Now to try to pry it loose from some dusty corner of my brain.

TM

Wait a minute, wasn't Oliver Cromwell executed, then his body exhumed years later and hanged or something like that? I should know this, as this period of history has always been interesting to me.

School, I might not have this in the right order but didn't he die from? buried, dug up, hung, head chopped off and impaled on a pole.

Mornin' all :).

Annette

lol. Yep, that sounds more like it Annette. Poor Oliver. I don't remember the reasoning behind it either.

Seems to me that it was a few years after he died before he was dug up and executed and head put on a pole. Can't remember what he died from though think it was an illness not assassination. Didn't King Charles? have several people's bodies exhumed and executed? Couldn't quite figure out the reasoning behind that activity, after all how dead is dead!
(I'm an Anglophile, read lots of English history. I blame high school sophomore English class as all our stories were by British authors and we were required to know their personal histories.)

Oliver is probably still doing penance for his misdeeds - he was Henry VIII's henchman against the Catholics. I almost wept seeing all of the ruined monasteries and cathedrals in Ireland. He was even worse when he usurped the King - not Henry VIII - can't remember what the next one was called. He was called a Roundhead because of his hair-cut, I think, and his followers were called the Roundheads.
I think he was hung, buried, dug up, drawn and quartered, which requires the removal of the head, and then the head was put on a pike.....How's that sound, Annette?

Nancy.

I looked up hanged, drawn, and quartered. Gruesome. Apparently they often did not wait until the hanging victim was dead to begin the quartering process. Especially if they were really ticked off at him.

No stars for me today. I'll be happy just to keep down my supper after reading that stuff. :)

TM

Did you guys watch "The Tudors" on the ShowTime channel? They portrayed quite a bit of "drawing and quartering" of victims. Ugh. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment. I guess if they were going to put fear into the populace that was one way to do it.

Meant to but never did get to watch 'The Tudors'. Drawn and quartered, did they do that to him too? I don't know what the problem was but didn't he die from some sort of illness?

Annette

***** for Annette, School, and m'gal!
*** for Nancy and TM who had part of it!

Cromwell was born a century after Henry VIII's death and although he was a Puritan and a Roundhead, the portraits of him don't show that he cut his hair in the manner which led to the term. I did find out that the term 'Cavalier' used to refer to supporters of the king was intended to be a derisive term, although they embraced it unlike the the Roundheads.

Cromwell died in 1658 most likely of a bad attack of malaria combined with a kidney infection. After the monarchy was restored (Charles II), his body and those of two others also buried in Westminster Abbey were exhumed on the 12th anniversary of the execution of Charles I (January 30, 1661). He was posthumously 'executed' by hanging his body in chains. After throwing his body in a pit, his head was displayed on a pole (until 1685 according to one source-eewww). His head was finally interred at his college in Cambridge in 1960.

Apparently, his vault in the abbey was then used for Charles II's illegitimate children, although his favorite daughter was permitted to stay there when they disinterred him-she had died shortly before he did.

I found reading about him very interesting. Seems to be a diversity of opinion on him, although there certainly isn't any good that can be said of the campaign in Ireland.

Happy Sunday all. I hope the gruesomeness (is that a word?)did not ruin your breakfast. Now, I think I will fix myself a cup of tea and look up drawn and quartered...heheheh.

Thanks for playing. I didn't come back with any more clues (did you notice my "woken from a dead sleep" one?) because it was so much fun reading all your thoughts and you didn't seem to need any more help!

Cynthia