One famous case of hideous medieval death was suffered by Edward Longshanks' son and heir, Edward II. You might remember him from Braveheart too, he was the wimpy and inept king that wasn't anything like his kick-ass dad. What's more, there's considerable evidence that he preferred the romantic company of men, and in particular his favored courtier Piers Gaveston, whom he favored so greatly that it humiliated Edward's wife and pissed off his nobles. They'd probably have forgiven it if he had been a great monarch like his dad, but he proved to be pretty inept, losing all the gains his father had made in the conquest of Scotland. Gaveston didn't help things by acting very rudely over the nobles, who were supposedly his superiors. In the end, the Queen (Isabella) and her lover Roger Mortimer teamed up with the disgruntled noblemen, and after defeating Edward's forces they took him prisoner. They forced him to abdicate in favor of his 14 year old son (with Isabella and Mortimer running the country) and Edward II was to be kept prisoner in a castle. Not long after, he died, and we're pretty sure he was murdered. We can't say it isn't just a legend, but the story of how he was murdered is that he was held down and had a red hot poker shoved up his ass. If so, if he was lucky, he may have died quickly from the shock. If he was unlucky, it would have been a hideous and agonizing death. In the end, his son Edward III got revenge. Just before his 18th birthday, him and a group of his teenage buddies staged a coup, capturing Roger Mortimer by surprise and executing him, and imprisoning Queen Isabella. Edward III did show mercy to Mortimer, he had him hung like a commoner but didn't have him drawn & quartered like grandpa Longshanks surely would have done.