 While men guilty of heresy were also burned at the stake , those who committed high treason were instead hanged , drawn and quartered . The English jurist William Blackstone supposed that the difference in sentencing , although " full as terrible to the sensation as the other " , could be explained by the desire not to publicly expose a woman 's body . Public executions were well @-@ attended affairs , and contemporary reports detail the cries of women on the pyre as they were burned alive . It later became commonplace for the executioner to strangle the convict , and for the body to be burned post @-@ mortem . 
 While men guilty of heresy <a href='uninflect' title='1'><mark>were</mark></a> also burned at the stake , those <a href='null_relcl' title='2'><mark>who</mark></a>committed high treason <a href='uninflect' title='3'><mark>were</mark></a> instead hanged , drawn and quartered . The English jurist William Blackstone supposed that the difference in sentencing , although " full as terrible to the sensation as the other " , could be explained by the desire not to publicly expose a woman <a href='null_genetive' title='4'><mark>'s</mark></a>body . Public executions <a href='uninflect' title='5'><mark>were</mark></a> well @-@ attended affairs , and contemporary reports detail the cries of women on the pyre as they <a href='uninflect' title='6'><mark>were</mark></a> burned alive . It later became commonplace for the executioner to strangle the convict , and for the body to be burned post @-@ mortem . 
While men guilty of heresy was also burned at da stake , those committed high treason was instead hanged , drawn and quartered . The English jurist William Blackstone supposed dat the difference in sentencing , although " full as terrible to the sensation as tdaother " , could b explained by the desire not to publicly expose a woman  body . Public executions was well @-@ attended affairs , and contemporary reports detail thdaries of women on the pyre as they was burned alive . It later became commonplace for thedaecutioner to strangle the convict , and fir the body to bbburned post @-@ mortem .