As if what we've covered so far wasn't awful enough, another truly gruesome way to die in the middle ages was by being flayed alive. That's where a highly-trained expert cuts open your skin and slowly cuts it off your body, trying to keep it all in one piece (at least, if he's a true artist; if not you might just end up having your skin cut off in strips). Death by flaying is absolutely excruciating, and if it is done "properly" a victim might take days to die. Days and days of unspeakable agony. In some parts of medieval Europe, it was used as a punishment for treason. In England it was particularly a punishment for those who robbed from or desecrated a church (which was still a type of treason, since churches were under the King's protection). The most famous case in England of flaying alive was done during the reign of -you guessed it- Edward Longshanks. Seriously, why did anyone dare to mess with this guy?? In this case, the perpetrators were three monks who got it into their heads to mug the treasurer of Westminster Abbey. Since they thus stole from both the Crown and the Church, Longshanks ordered that they be flayed alive, and their stripped skins were nailed to the abbey doors as a warning to any other monks who might get any clever ideas.