Biography of Thomas Blount 1352-1400

Accounts and Extracts. [12th January 1400] Sir Thomas Blount (age 48), and one Bennet Selly, his companion, were drawn from Oxford (above three miles) to the place of execution, where they were hanged; but the ropes were soon cut, and these gentlemen were made to talk, and sit on a bench before a great fire, and the executioner came with a razor in his hand, and knelt down before Sir Thomas Blount, whose hands were tied, begging him to pardon him his death, as he must do his office, Then Sir Thomas asked him, "Are you the person appointed to deliver me from this world?" The executioner answered, " Yes," saying, "Sir, I pray you pardon me;" and Sir Thomas kissed him, and forgave him his death, The executioner knelt down, and Sir Thomas Blount (Le Blonc) made himself ready; and then the executioner opened his belly, and cut out his bowels strait from below the stomach, and tied them with a string, that the wind of the heart should not escape, and threw the bowels into the fire. Then Sir Thomas le Blonc was sitting before the fire, his belly open, and saw his bowels burning before him. Sir Thomas D'Arpeghen (age 45), king Henry's chamberlain, insulting Blount, said to him with derision, "Go seek a master that can cure you," Blount only answered by putting his hands together, saying, Te Deum laudamus, and blessed be the hour that I was born, and blessed be this day, for I shall die in the service of my sovereign lord, the noble king Richard."

Arpeghen wished to compel him to reveal the accomplices of his treason. "The words traitor and treason," said he, "belong to thee and the infamous Rutland, by whom the flower of English chivalry is this day destroyed. I summon you both before the face of Jesus Christ, for your great treason against our sovereign lord the noble king Richard." The executioner then asked him, if he would drink? "No," said he, "you have taken from me the place into which I should put it. God be praised, my bowels are in the fire." He afterwards entreated the executioner to deliver him from this world, saying, "It hurts me much to see the traitors who are present." The executioner then knelt down before him, and kissed him in a very humble manner, and soon after his head was cut off, and he was quartered.