By anatomically dissecting each stage of this medieval punishment, we can understand the profound agony the gunpowder plot co-conspirators endured.

On 5 November every year, the effigy of Guy Fawkes is still burned on bonfires across England in recognition of his part in the failed 'Gunpowder Plot' of 1605. Fawkes didn't devise or lead the ...

The plot is commemorated every autumn with the burning of an effigy of Guy Fawkes, its mastermind, an oddly pagan act of gloating sanitised by the addition of fireworks, sparklers and toffee apples.

One of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was tasked with igniting this huge bomb. It is Fawkes' effigy that is still burned on 5 November bonfires to this day.