Gruesome details of ‘fire seat’ death said to be ‘the most horrific known in human history’

By JOHN ELY DEPUTY HEALTH EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE

Published: 08:08 BST, 20 April 2025 | Updated: 08:15 BST, 20 April 2025

Being beheaded or hung drawn or quartered are two of the most famous examples of torture in history.

But historians have identified one specific execution that they say stands out from the crowd for its sheer barbarity. 

The death of György Dózsa has been cited as a top contender for the worst or ‘cruellest’ death in history.

Dózsa was a professional solider from Transylvania who led a peasants’ revolt in Hungary against the ruling nobility in 1514 earning him the title the ‘peasant king’.

The rebellion failed and a captured Dózsa, 44 at the time, was subjected to a particularly gruesome end. 

The nobles Dózsa had planned to overthrow held a mock coronation for the so-called ‘peasant king’, only instead of a normal seat they placed him on an iron throne.

They then heated the metal seat until it was red hot and placed a similarly heated iron crown and sceptre on his head and in his hand.

After an hour of his torture the still alive and partially roasted Dózsa was removed from the throne for the next horrific chapter of his ordeal. 

The death of György Dózsa has been cited as as a top contender for the worst or ‘cruellest’ death in history

The execution of Dózsa has inspired numerous pieces of art including the 1970 film ‘Judgement’

Another is the ‘Throne of Fire’ a sculpture at the Hungarian National Gallery

First his brother Gergely was brutally executed in front of him.

Then Dózsa was led to a group of his captured followers who had been starved for 10 days – and they were forced to eat parts of his flesh.

Any who refused to take part in the cannibalism were immediately executed. 

Finally, Dózsa was killed with his remains cut into four pieces and sent to different cities to serve as an example. 

Professor Paul Freedman, a historian at Yale University in the US, has said Dózsa’s death was ‘so stunningly barbarous that across Europe, contemporaries took notice.’

Various commentators have declared Dózsa’s demise to be the worst or cruellest death in history. 

YouTube page Dark History described it as ‘probably the cruellest death in the history of mankind’. 

One viewer said: ‘That’s horrible. Bunch of animals in the olden days’.

The execution of Dózsa has inspired numerous pieces of art including the 1970 film ‘Judgement’ and the sculpture ‘Throne of Fire’ at the Hungarian National Gallery.

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Gruesome details of ‘fire seat’ death said to be ‘the most horrific known in human history’

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