executioner medieval
From then on, this official position spread through many capitals and large towns of Western Europe. During much of the early medieval period, as well as the centuries that followed, crime and lawlessness were rampant throughout the world.
Oxford University Press.
For beheadings and hangings, he received five schillings. In Memories of Silk and Straw, by Junichi Saga, one of the families surveyed in the Japanese village of Tsuchiura is that of an executioner family ("The Last Executioner", p. 54). Curiously, the medieval executioner, particularly in France and Western Europe, was tasked with managing the town’s stray dogs (in what way, you can guess), as well as farm animals kept illegally in town premises. They were exclusively from the burakumin class – the lowest social caste of Japan.
History often brings the migrations of faraway peoples, which is how the Indo-Europeans merged with the proto-populations of Old Europe. This saw the rise of many prominent, hereditary executioner dynasties, which were often well-off, (in)famous, tasked with relieving some highly important individuals. Everybody knew who he was". Why We Find Solar Observatories and Astronomical Features in Churches, An Unbreakable Story: The Lost Roman Invention of Flexible Glass, Ten amazing inventions from ancient times, The Giants of Doddridge County: Burials of a Vanished Race – Part I, Volterra: Home to Three Civilizations and the World’s First Witch. The executioner was usually presented with a warrant authorizing or ordering him to execute the sentence. The truth is not very far – a medieval executioner had a hard time in the society around him. He appealed to Bavaria's authorities to release the Schmidt sons from their father's tormented legacy, and his bold bid was a success. Rapes, thievery, murder, heresy, and leprosy – all manner of sin and decadence ran rampant in the unruly medieval world, under the auspices of death itself. The Ottoman Roma executioners were widely feared for their cruel methods such as impalement on a stake. Contrary to popular opinion, executioners weren't uneducated. There were leech collectors, cesspool cleaners, serfs, and gong farmers, to name a few. It was difficult for an executioner to remain anonymous, his post and his vocation was known by all, and thus a hood and a mask would have been pointless. When done by a mass of people, as in lynching, murder was no longer a taboo act – the group erased the perpetrator. Pre-1903 postcard of group of Roma gypsies in front of their tent in Smyrne. Executioners almost exclusively married women who came from executioner families themselves, and in that way they almost created small separate executioner-communities. Executioners received other names that related to the physical punishments they carried out, such as hangman (hanging) and headsman (beheading). They were considered both necessary and impure at the same time," said Hannele Klemettilä-McHale, an adjunct professor of cultural history at the University of Turku in Finland who has studied representations of executioners. Skyhorse Publishing. More monster than man, he's practically Ramsay Bolton with a black hood. The warrant protects the executioner from the charge of murder. To freely deliver death, torture, and all manner of foulness on another person was seen as reason enough for the people to look down on an executioner and shun him. Popularly painted as gleeful dispensers of death and torture, the truth seems to be that many executioners throughout this period usually treated the occupation with a certain reverence … Common terms for executioners derived from forms of capital punishment—though they often also performed other physical punishments—include hangman (hanging) and headsman (beheading). Harrington, J. Jean Froissart, Chronicles, fol. Theirs was the role of taking lives, tightening the noose or decapitating those who were destined for an early grave. In fact, an executioner never had a singular vocation in the early medieval period. Death, and moreover, murder, always had a difficult position in society. The Nephilim: Giant Offspring of the Sons of God and the Daughters of Man? There were no inscriptions on executioner tombstones, and usually uncarved and unpolished simple rough stones were used. ( Public Domain ). Taking lives, no matter how lowly or sinful they are, has never been an easy task – and it plunged the medieval executioners into the realm of social outcasts, forcing them to earn their money by doing all the gruesome and degrading jobs that were on offer – from collecting carcasses and burying bodies, to managing stray dogs and overseeing the clearance of cesspools. A special case is the tradition of the Roman fustuarium, continued in forms of running the gauntlet, where the culprit receives their punishment from the hands of the comrades gravely harmed by their crime, e.g. You will receive a verification email shortly. Forget the image of the hooded executioner swinging an ax; much of what we think we know about these medieval figures isn't true. The Director of the Theatre of Horror. Many executioners were professional specialists who traveled a circuit or region performing their duty, because executions were rarely very numerous. If Not the Fairies, Then Who Built the Ancient Poulnabrone Dolmen? 150,000-Year-Old Pipes Baffle Scientists in China: Out of Place in Time? In Western Europe, there was the prominent Dalembourg dynasty of executioners, who performed their role across Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands. "People wouldn't have invited executioners into their homes. In fact, those in the profession had uncommonly high literacy rates for members of their social class, along with fundamental knowledge of human anatomy, Harrington said. (Gy Js./ CC BY SA 4.0 ). ( Public Domain ). Flandres, Bruges 15th Century. [1] In Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers and in the film La veuve de Saint-Pierre (The Widow of Saint-Peter), minor character executioners are ostracized by the villagers.
He'd recently graduated from "decapitating" inanimate pumpkins to practicing on live animals. The profession of executioner sometimes ran through a family, especially in France, where the Sanson family provided six executioners between 1688 and 1847 and the Deibler dynasty provided five between 1879 and its 1981 abolition. His children were ultimately freed from a life at the executioner's block and given the right to pursue their own careers, as Schmidt had always wished to do — a happy ending to the executioner's tale.
In Britain, the most notable dynasty was the Pierrepoints, who provided three executioners between 1902 and 1956 – Henry, his brother Thomas, and Henry's son Albert. In some regions, executioners were limited to three strokes for a beheading — and if a grisly scene resulted from one too many swings of the ax or sword, there could be serious consequences. He reeks of evil, masquerading as a hound of justice when he's truly a Cujo who hungers to sink his fang-like blade into the necks of condemned criminals. Execution of Monmouth on Tower Hill, 15 July, 1685. Many executioners were not allowed to go into churches.
The executioners had to be recognizable even when off duty – much like Jews, lepers, and prostitutes during the Middle Ages, they too had to wear a special marking on their person, at all times. Pop culture paints a grim image of the medieval executioner. By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. And if their lives of solitude and despair drove them to crime and murder, they could end up on the other side of the axe. He was executed by the infamous Jack Ketch, the executioner employed in the court of King Charles II. Warpedgalerie / Adobe Stock. Medieval Punishments: An Illustrated History of Torture. Executioners benefited from something called "havage," a kind of tax that gave them the right to take a portion of food and drink from market vendors for free, said Klemettilä-McHale. We know, for instance, that Schmidt "had many, many more patients he healed than people he executed," Harrington added.
"So when they did catch them, they really liked to make a good example and have a public spectacle" — hence the need for public executioners to carry out that work. There's a final twist in the story of Schmidt. ( Public Domain ). Related: Medieval Torture's 10 Biggest Myths. His father had unwillingly received the job when randomly ordained by a prince as a royal executioner. Prominent cities throughout France, Germany, and England required skilled executioners to act as the divine hand of justice appointed by the state and the royal court. In addition, he was given everything the convict wore below the belt. In France, there was the Guillaume dynasty of Paris executioners, which was prominent in the business for more than a century. Leech collecting is actually quite a pleasant job if you enjoy walking through damp rainforest.
Another shunned job was related to gong farming, cesspits, latrines, and similar foul fecal aspects of the medieval society. Top Image: Portrait of an executioner. As a result, it has been assumed that Africans fail to carry Neanderthal ancestry… even though Neanderthal skeletons have been found in North Africa at Jebel Ighoud and Haua Fteah. Common terms for executioners derived from forms of capital punishment—though they often also performed other physical punishments—include hangman (hanging) and headsman (beheading). Nine Parts of the Human Soul According to the Ancient Egyptians, Floki and the Viking Discovery of Iceland, 3 Problems to Remember When Trying to Find Atlantis. Yet, there were some professional perks to this morbid work. ( Public Domain ). A person in this position, who was known to be the headsman, was seen as a troubled person, a sinner beyond redemption, and simply put – a killer. His words provided a rare glimpse of the humanity behind the violence, revealing a man who took his work seriously and often felt empathy for his victims. It was the job of the executioner to kill any pig that was found in town. The Colosseum – From Gladiator Fights to Gory Executions and Sea Battles, Tower of London: A Palace, a Prison and a Place of Execution, Germany’s Brutal Werewolf Belt and The Gut-Wrenching Execution of Peter Stumpp, Anne Greene, The Accused Baby Killer Who Refused to Die, https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2013/05/executioners-in-medieval-europe-history-of-capital-punishment.html, Medieval Graffiti to Repel Witches and Evil Spirits Found In Britain, Long-lost Medieval Friary Found Beneath English Car Park. All necks were the same to the sharp iron of the executioner’s blade. Medieval Executioners: Masters of Dirty Jobs. Who lies in the tomb of the 'Six-Headed Chief'? Executioners, therefore, were a conundrum: crucial for maintaining law and order, yet shunned because of their unsavory work. Franz Schmidt (1555 – 1634), also known as Meister Franz or Frantz Schmidt, was an executioner in Hof from 1573 to April 1578, and from 1 May 1578 till the end of 1617. In medieval Europe, to the end of the early modern period, executioners were often knackers,[1] since pay from the rare executions was not enough to live off. But one vocation that was, perhaps, one of the toughest, was the job of the medieval executioner.
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