Every imaginable execution method took place at The Tower of London in its 1000-year-old past. The most grisly of all was live disembowelment. The method was so gross and barbaric that Queen Elizabeth I finally banned the practice. The last time it was used was in 1586 on the conspirators of the Babington Plot. The plot was the work of Francis Walsingham, the father of modern espionage. He was known as The Spymaster.