To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of cruel punishment,In Wilkerson v. Utah (1878, pertaining to methods of capital punishment), the United States Supreme Court commented that drawing and quartering, public dissecting, burning alive and disemboweling would constitute cruel and unusual punishment while determining that death by firing squad was as legitimate as the common method of that time, hanging and was reserved for treason as this crime was deemed more heinous than murder and other capital offences. It was only applied to male criminals. Women found guilty of treason in England were burnt at the stake, a punishment abolished in 1790..]]
Details of the punishment
Until 1814, the full punishment for the crime of treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in that the condemned prisoner would be:
Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (This is one possible m
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawn