György Dózsa is executed in a perverted twist of a royal coronation as punishment for a failed rebellion.

Dózsa had led a peasants’ revolt against the Hungarian nobility, which failed. The day before his execution, he called to onlookers, shouting, “Come back tomorrow, you miserable slaves, and see if I shrink in the midst of my sufferings! If a single groan escapes my lips, may my name be covered with eternal infamy!”

Dózsa’s punishment was a mockery of his desire to become king. He was stripped nearly naked and seated on a blazing iron throne, a fiery iron crown placed atop his head and a red-hot scepter put in his hand. As he was cooking to death, strips of his flesh were torn from him and given to several of his followers, who were also taken prisoner.

The followers, starved for several days, were killed if they refused to eat the flesh of their former leader. To those who did eat, Dózsa spoke his Last Words: “To it hounds! Ye are of my own rearing!”