Posthumous execution is theritual orceremonialmutilation of an already dead body as apunishment.

SomeChristians believed that theresurrection of the dead onJudgment Day requires that the body be buried whole facing east so that the body could rise facingGod.^[1][2] If dismemberment stopped the possibility of the resurrection of an intact body, then a posthumous execution was an effective way of punishing a criminal.^[3][4]

In England Henry VIII granted the annual right to the bodies of four hanged felons. Charles II later increased this to six ... Dissection was now a recognised punishment, a fate worse than death to be added to hanging for the worst offenders.The dissections performed on hanged felons were public: indeed part of the punishment was the delivery from hangman to surgeons at the gallows following public execution, and later public exhibition of the open body itself ...In 1752 an act was passed allowing dissection of all murderers as an alternative tohanging in chains. This was a grisly fate, the tarred body being suspended in a cage until it fell to pieces. The object of this and dissection was to deny a grave ... Dissection was described as "a further terror and peculiar Mark of Infamy" and "in no case whatsoever shall the body of any murderer be suffered to be buried". The rescue, or attempted rescue of the corpse was punishable bytransportation for seven years.

— Dr D. R. Johnson,Introductory Anatomy.^[5]

• When the Persian kingCambysesconquered Egypt in 525 BC and ended the 26th (Saite) Dynasty,Herodotus recorded the desecration of the mummy ofAmasis II (who died the year before) by Cambyses:

No sooner did [Cambyses] enter the palace of Amasis that he gave orders for his [Amasis's] body to be taken from the tomb where it lay. This done, he proceeded to have it treated with every possible indignity, such as beating it with whips, sticking it with goads, and plucking its hairs... As the body had been embalmed and would not fall to pieces under the blows, Cambyses had it burned.^[6]

• In 897,Pope Stephen VI had the corpse ofPope Formosus disinterred and put on trial during theCadaver Synod. Found guilty, the corpse had three of its fingers cut off and was later thrown into theTiber.
• Harold I Harefoot, king of theAnglo-Saxons (1035–1040), illegitimate son ofCnut, died in 1040 and his half-brother,Harthacanute, on succeeding him, had his body taken from its tomb and cast in a pen with animals.^[7]
• Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, died of wounds suffered at theBattle of Evesham in 1265; his corpse wasbeheaded,castrated andquartered by theknights ofHenry III of England.^[8]
• Roger d'Amory (c. 1290 – before 14 March 1321/1322) died following theBattle of Burton Bridge and was then posthumously executed for treason byEdward II.
• John Wycliffe (1328–1384) wasburned as aheretic forty-five years after his death.
• SirHenry Percy (d. 1404) after he waskilled in action while leading his troops at theBattle of Shrewsbury, KingHenry IV of England ordered Percy's body posthumously beheaded, quartered, andattainted forhigh treason
• Vlad the Impaler (1431–1476) was beheaded following hisassassination.
• Jacopo Bonfadio (1508–1550) was beheaded forsodomy and then his corpse was burned at the stake forheresy.
• Nils Dacke, leader of a 16th-century peasant revolt in southernSweden, was decapitated and dismembered after his death in combat.
• In 1538, during theDissolution of the Monasteries on orders from KingHenry VIII.^[9][10] He had the bones ofThomas Becket (1119–1170) destroyed, his shrine destroyed, and ordered all mention of his name obliterated.^[10][11]
• By order ofMary I, the body ofMartin Bucer (1491–1551) was exhumed and burned at the Market Square in Cambridge, England.
• In 1600, after the failure of theGowrie conspiracy, the corpses ofJohn, Earl of Gowrie and his brotherAlexander Ruthven were hanged and quartered at theMercat Cross, Edinburgh.^[12] Their heads were put on spikes atEdinburgh's Old Tolbooth and their limbs upon spikes at various locations aroundPerth, Scotland.^[13]

• Gilles van Ledenberg, whoseembalmed corpse was hanged from agibbet in 1619, after his conviction of treason in the trial ofJohan van Oldenbarnevelt.
• A number of the59 regicides ofCharles I of England, including the most prominent of the regicides, the formerLord ProtectorOliver Cromwell, died before theRestoration of his sonCharles II in 1660.Parliament passed anorder of attainder forHigh Treason on the four most prominent deceased regicides:John Bradshaw the court president; Oliver Cromwell;Henry Ireton; andThomas Pride.^[14] The bodies were exhumed and three were hanged for a day atTyburn and then beheaded. The three bodies were then thrown into a pit close to the gallows, while the heads were placed, with Bradshaw's in the middle, at the end ofWestminster Hall (the symbolism was lost on no one as that was the building where thetrial of Charles I had taken place).^{[citation needed]}Oliver Cromwell's head was finally buried in 1960. The body of Pride was not "punished", perhaps because it had decayed too much.
• Edward Teach (1680–1718), better known as "Blackbeard", was killed by the sailors ofHMS Pearl who boarded on his ship, theAdventure. British First LieutenantRobert Maynard examined Edward Teach's body,decapitated and tied his head to the bowsprit of his ship for the trip back toVirginia. Upon returning to his home port ofHampton, the head was placed on a stake near the mouth of theHampton River as a warning to other pirates.^[15]
• Joseph Warren (1741–1775), aphysician andmajor general of Americancolonial militias, was stripped of his clothing, bayoneted until unrecognizable, and then he was shoved into a shallow ditch, after he was killed at theBattle of Bunker and Breed's Hill. Days later, British Lieutenant James Drew had Joseph Warren's body exhumed again; his body was stomped on, beaten, decapitated and humiliated on the area, according to eyewitness testimonies.^[16][17]
• In 1793, following thedeath sentence of 22 Girondin leaders,Charles Éléonor Dufriche de Valazé committed suicide, but his corpse was stillguillotined along with his 21 fellows.^[18]
• In 1917, the body ofRasputin, theRussian mystic, was exhumed from the ground by a mob and burned.^[19]
• In 1918, the secret grave ofLavr Kornilov, theWhite Russian general, was found by theBolsheviks by accident. The body was then exhumed and disfigured before being burned.^[20]
• In 1966, during theCultural Revolution,Red Guards stormed theDingling Mausoleum, destroyed thousands of artifacts, and dragged the remains of theWanli Emperor and his two empresses to the front of the tomb where they were posthumously denounced and burned after photographs were taken of their skulls.^[21][22]
• The body of General Gracia Jacques, a supporter ofFrançois Duvalier ("Papa Doc") (1907–1971), theHaitian dictator, was exhumed and ritually beaten to "death" in 1986.^[23]

• Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1897)."Ruthven, John" . InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 15–20.