However, Fisher himself never ate the porridge. Instead, he wasn’t harmed at all — Roose claimed the whole act was just a joke where he intended to put laxatives into the food of the people present in the household.
Somehow, the matter garnered the interest of Henry VIII. Henry VIII had no personal animus against Roose — instead, he had a strong fear of poisoning. As the king of England, Henry VIII regularly employed food tasters to guard himself against poison. When the bill passed, anyone who was convicted of fatal poisoning would be declared treason.
The reason Henry VII took particular interest in the Roose case was because of the person Roose intended to poison: John Fisher. Fisher was a political opponent of Henry VIII. He spoke out against Henry VIII’s divorce, and some suspected Henry VIII hired Roose to poison Fisher. But Henry VIII addressed Parliament to heighten the punishment for anyone accused of poisoning.
Fisher was a particularly vocal defender of Katherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. He invoked the ire of Henry VIII after opposing his divorce and desire to marry Anne Boleyn. According to Kesselring, Henry VIII wanted to divorce Katherine of Aragon for failing to produce a male heir.
This is the story of Richard Roose, the first man boiled to death. Little is known of his life beyond his execution, but the details of his case present a miscarriage of justice and power struggle between church and state.
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