Where in Westminster was state execution done during the middle age?

Question

I read about execution of Wallace at Smooth field of London during the middle age. But where in Westminster, the royal capital city, was execution done.

Answer 1

Actually Westminster was an administrative hub and executions would have been rude - - - The Tower of London served as a Prison and Tower Hill was the site for many executions - - - -

see Wikipedia for their coherent ramblings------

Tower of London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress The Tower of London, more commonly known as the Tower of London (and historically simply as The Tower), is a historic monument in central London, England on the north bank of the River Thames. It is located within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill.

The Tower of London is often identified with the White Tower, the original stark square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. However, the Tower as a whole is a complex of several buildings set within two parallel rings of defensive walls and a moat.

The Tower's primary function was a fortress, a royal palace, and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners, such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower" (meaning "imprisoned"). It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, a mint, a public records office, an observatory, and since 1303, the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom.

Executions

The Tower in 1597.Lower-class criminals were usually executed by hanging at one of the public execution sites outside the Tower. Several high-profile convicts, such as Thomas More, were publicly executed on Tower Hill. Seven nobles (five of them ladies) were beheaded privately on Tower Green, inside the complex, and then buried in the "Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula" (Latin for "in chains," making him an appropriate patron saint for prisoners) next to the Green. Some of the nobles who were executed outside the Tower are also buried in that chapel. (External link to Chapel webpage) The names of the seven beheaded on Tower Green for treason are:

William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (1483)
Anne Boleyn (1536)
Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541)
Catherine Howard (1542)
Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (1542)
Lady Jane Grey (1554)
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1601)
The Queen Anne Boleyn, beheaded in 1536 for treason against King Henry VIII, is said to be seen walking around the tower carrying her head under her arm.


The Traitors' GateGeorge, Duke of Clarence, the brother of Edward IV of England, was executed for treason in the Tower in February 1478, but not by beheading (and probably not by being drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine, despite what Shakespeare wrote). When Edward IV died, he left two young sons behind: the Princes in the Tower. His brother Richard, the Duke of Gloucester, was made regent until the older of his two sons, Edward V, should come of age. According to Thomas More's History of Richard III Richard hired men to kill them, and, one night, the two princes were smothered with their pillows. Many years later bones were found buried at the foot of a stairway in the Tower, which are thought to be those of the Princes. Richard was crowned King Richard III of England. The last execution at the Tower was that of German spy Josef Jakobs on the 14 August 1941 by firing squad formed from the Scots Guards.




PEACE

Answer 2

No executions were carried out in Westminster. State executions were carried out either on Tower Green inside the Tower of London, or on Tower Hill, just outside. William Wallace was executed at Smithfield, not Smoothfield, which is now the site of London's major meat market. Also, the monarchs didn't live at Westminster - or rather the Palace of Whitehall, very much until the time of Charles I. Elizabeth preferred Richmond Palace, her father Henry VIII, stole Hampton Court from Thomas Cromwell and used that and the now lost Nonsuch Palace, and one he had built called Bridewell Palace, on the north bank of the Thmaes, near to the present site of Blackfriars Bridge,

Answer 3

The Crusades began in 1095 and resulted in 1099. Up till the 1500's, there have been no Protestants. Martin Luther published his ninety 5 Theses (against Pope Leo X and the sale of indulgences, among different issues) on 31 October 1517. John Knox, the Scottish reformer, became energetic around the mid 1500's. Jean Calvin, the French reformer, revealed the 'Institutes of the Christian faith' around the mid to late 1500's. In 1536, William Tyndale, who translated the recent testomony from Greek into English, became martyred, and in that comparable 12 months, King Henry 8 of britain broke with the Church of Rome and presented the Protestant Church of britain - even if it nevertheless has some similarities with Catholicism. Then, in 1545, the Council of Trent refuted the accusations of heresy made by potential of the Protestants, which became the beginning up of in the present day's Roman Catholic Church. And confident, the Church of Rome considered each and every man or woman in touch with the reformation to be a heretic. Reformers alongside with Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley have been burned on the stake in 1555.